SkateHoarders: John Arbuckle Part 1

Originally posted on TransWorld SKATEboarding
By Blair Alley | Last updated Oct 31, 2024 11:38 AM ET

John Arbuckle isn't in this collecting world for the money. Driven by a desire to preserve skateboarding history and the decks themselves, John has one of the most eclectic collections we've ever seen.

Why does Steve Fletch call John Arbuckle the Darth Vader of skateboard hoarding? No idea, all we know is John's big in the collecting community, and who else do you know who has a jail letter from Lennie Kirk? Get into Part 1 of John's SkateHoarders episode below, his collection will pull you over to the Dark Side. Part 2 coming next month. The 90s will never happen again.

SkateHoarders: John Arbuckle Part 1 (23:37)

"This is the result of my disease called skate hoarding."—John Arbuckle

Though he didn't start skating until 1999, John's got an incredible deck collection of mid 90s gems. It was the original Chad Muska Shorty's silhouette board that awakened the collector within. Gifted to John from his wife, next it was the 10-year anniversary Yeah Right! deck autographed by the whole team that fed the fire. John then discovered Tim "Bobshirt" Anderson and his Deckaid shows and he was off to the collecting races.

Peep John's main deck wall color pallette: A lot of yellows, reds, and pea greens. "I don't like bright colors, I like more Earthy, dark colors." A Chad Vogt Evol slick—does it get any more random than that? An Eric Ricks Think board juxtaposed next to a signed Lance Mountain The Firm—the mind reels. Ricky Higgins for Clean? Very rare. A Mike Frazier Stereo with the original art by Christian Cooper. Shout out to Steve and Lorenzo's editing here finding all the original logos and brands that were ripped off for these classic graphics. Gabriel Rodriguez (RIP)'s first board on Chocolate! Now that's a heavy one. The James Kelch board with the Real ad.

One of Josh Kalis' first boards on Alien Workshop with the art done by Neil Blender. "Early 90s stuff, mid 90s stuff, the graphics were so nice." Well said.

When John mentions Raiders of the Lost Archives that Skateboarder used to do, fun fact: When Jaime Owens came over to work for TWS, SkateHoarders became the rebranded, new name for that series.

Stay tuned until the end to see the letter Lennie Kirk wrote from jail.

Speaking of a guy who loves saying "very rare," spend a solid chunk of time with Dave Skoot's collection, plus John quoted Skoot saying when he wakes up in the morning and looks at his boards, it just makes him feel good.

Video by Steve Fletch and Lorenzo Gattorna