Although this one didn’t belong to me, I was hit nonetheless with the ‘80s feels recently when I came across a picture of this Variflex Joker that’s nearly identical to the one I rode as a kid, albeit with a slightly different color scheme.

My strict grandmother hated the board. She said it looked like something a “rebellious hellion” would have, which only made me love it more because its appeal wasn’t merely about the skating — it was about the culture.

It wasn’t a Santa Cruz or Vision (the brand I revered the most), and naturally it wasn’t to be confused with the Bones Brigade line by Powell Peralta that sponsored legends like Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain (who also rode Variflex) and of course Tony Hawk — the very first athlete poster on my bedroom wall — but it was more than sufficient for my intermediate skill and I’d give anything to still have it in my possession.