My Shag Skateboard Deck || The Hunt

  The relationship between me and Josh Agle (aka Shag) began somewhere around the turn of the last century.  I had always be an avid appreciator of the arts and had always loved Tiki Bars.  So when his artwork stared at me one day from a glossy art magazine, I was hooked.  I immediately sent off what little money I had to a gent hanging out and promoting Shag's wares in Australia.  A few weeks later by tube, I received Three Musicians and the "creme dela creme" (of the times) Departure Idlewild, Stopover Borneo, Arrival Ape City.  Still, I was hungry for more.  I devoured any sort of publication I could with an inkling of Shag.  Early on, I realized that his original artwork was way beyond my meager budget.  However I thought I should look for odd & unusual work from this artist I so much admired.

Upon reading those publications there was some mention by one of the interviews that he used to do some contract work for Foundation Skateboards when the company was first starting out.  I thought to myself, more research is needed.  Back then art wasn't done as "art" but more of as a graphic for the skater.  Artist making skate decks for the only intense purpose of Art was not really heard of in the mid-nineties like it is today.  These decks were ridden (with no protection) and completely destroyed.  I thought how great it would be to find a deck that Shag had done the graphics on.

I quickly found the website, Art of Skateboarding and started to review all the hundreds of decks made by the Foundation Company.  Then I stumbled upon some Josh Beagle and Brad Staba boards.  Bingo!  All reminiscent of Shag's early work.  They were marked as "artist unknown"  I thought to myself, "this is a good thing".  Then began the hunt....A hunt that last for more than 4 years.  Then one day there it appeared on eBay.  It simply was entitled "Vintage Foundation Skate Deck" that was still in the shrinkwrap.  I bought it and enjoyed it for many years displayed on my wall.

But with every beginning there is an end.  With a marriage and several children now ruling the roost, the board came off the wall about 6 months ago.  I figured that I would hang it down the road, but then I started to really think about giving it a new beginning to someone else and passing along the board to a new home of a Shag fan.  And now it lays in the hands of eBay waiting for a new home.  To be continued....