plastic is back!

As a youngster our family would religiously attend the Bank Holiday markets at Brighton Racecourse. For my brother and me they were a chance to spend our money on something new and the excitement running up to the market was certainly a lesson in patience. My Six Million Dollar Man Steve Austin figure with the skin that pulled away from his arm to reveal his bionic arm came from the racecourse market and that was the coolest thing on the planet, apart from the TV show itself.

We knew we would come away with something; cash burned a hole in our pockets in those days. But we wouldn't know what until we'd had a good look around the various toy stalls. And boy, there were loads of them. My parents enforced a strict policy: we had to shlep around the entire market, in all it's cheek by jowl massiveness, before deciding what we wanted to spend our money on. This would inevitably involve an agonising, lengthy crawl back through the crowd to find the stall that had been selling what we wanted to buy. And there would always be difficulty finding it again as my parents tried to remember where that stall had been.

One trip to the market in the late 70s saw my brother and me coming away with identical red plastic skateboards. They came bundled with bright yellow helmets and a pair of kneepads. We were made to wear these but the helmet was so uncomfortable it was ditched after a day or so and the kneepads followed shortly after.

I've written before about our exploits riding down the local slopes and hills while sitting on the boards. It was incredible fun. We'd be out for hours riding the hill, grab the board at the bottom and walk back to the top before riding down again.

Our red plastic skateboards were the only ones I ever saw. Then earlier this year I began seeing more dayglo varieties in the shops. It turns out that plastic skateboards are back and, what's more, they're coming out of Brighton. Brighton Skateboards are currently selling mini cruisers just like those of the 70s. Perhaps it's a retro thing or maybe a reaction to the longboard movement which has become increasingly popular in recent years. Whatever, check out the gorgeous video below: if this doesn't make you want to move to Brighton and ride one of these cool little boards around the old seaside streets then nothing will...