As “riders” clearly lol
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I think it’s rad that people are into it. It’s just one niche within skating which isn’t as niche as a lot of people like to think it is any more.
It’s like musicians still listening to prog rock.
One thing I’ll add. Most of the people I’ve seen with retro boards aren’t really skaters. They’re more re-enacting their youth. But I was at my local last weekend and an older guy turned up on a massive Dogtown with a weird sort of centre groove concave and 219s and blue Kryptonics, and proceeded to rip up the place. I was in awe.
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A retro skater worth their salt would know that the best choice in all-weather wheels for their latest authentic vintage build would be a set of Avon Boosters 
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That is so sick, proper British wheels. We were talking about doing a range of proper British wet weather skateboard gear in the pub a while back. Skateable wellies and stuff.
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Amazing - Avon too 
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It turns out that Wakefield may well have been the birthplace of skate DIY (1978).
Plus ça change , plus c’est la même chose, innit?
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“these figures cannot be ignored” says long forgotten article.
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Just found this group. I was looking for a old Avon Booster Wheels add and came across this. I am a member of the Facebook group skaters over 50. I am close to 60 now and only take easy trips on a long board. Anyway back in 1977 to 79 I was a sponsored skateboarder who was sponsored by The Avon and also a shop un Bath called Erik Snooks. SNooks supplied my boards Simms and others as well as ACS and Gull Wing trucks. The Avon supplied my wheels ie Avon Boosters but also a now very rare wheel to find called Avon Fireballs. These were a faster wheel and as the name says ball shaped. I beat Jock Patterson in a slalom comp on those. The Avon boosters where very soft and lovely to ride on as unlike hard small wheels lovely and quite. Great for powering along on and smooth ramps just not so fast. Had to fit Kryptonics when no Avon reps were about 
Mainly did exhibitions at schools shoping centres and fates in the portable Avon 1/2 pipe or ramps. Great times. Just gave a few sets of Boosters to friends son. Hope he uses them. Not seen any Avon Fireballs for years though. Cheers.
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I have limited experience of Avon Boosters. A friend of mine’s older brother had some and when he quit skating for surfing my friend set up a wet board for getting around on in the rain and had half-inched the Avons off his bro’s setup.
I don’t remember seeing any irl back in the 70’s and it wouldn’t have been until some point in the mid or even late 80’s when I eventually did. I do, however, remember the ads for them from bitd. I also vaguely recall the Fireballs, weren’t they bright yellow? (unless some other company also thought that making globular wheels was a good idea ). Again, no ‘in the wild’ encounters with those.
From memory, I think, at the time, I found the boosters to be heavy and slow but that would be because I would have been riding 97a wheels by then and I hadn’t been on big softies for a while. I do remember the first time I rode green Krypts though - maybe ‘79: ‘80 and an ill thought through headfirst coffin hillbomb that scared me half to death and in retrospect could actually have killed me, 
.
I’m over 50 but am one of those weirdos that never quit skating. I still skate mostly street and ride hard little wheels. I got some of those Powell Dragons a few weeks back - 93a, 52mm, that slide like a hard wheel but are a little more forgiving on rough surfaces. I set them up on an 8’’ Girl board with Ventures and went out to skate flatground and a ledge. It just felt weird on landing tricks . Like you mentioned about soft wheels they were quieter and gave a smooth ride but that just didn’t seem satisfying doing what I was doing. Just sort of dulled everything. The ‘feedback’ was weird and I like the rattle the fillings out of your teeth feeling. Probably better for my old joints though. Still I took them off and stuck the trusty Spitfire Formula Fours back on - horses for courses.
Later I did set up a Blind ‘High Guy’ Fucked Up Blind Kids reissue I had hidden, (definitely not wall hanger graphics on that bad boy 
), in a closet. Indy’s with Bones bushings and the Dragons make for a good curb set up. It’ll be a while before I go full soft/ cruiser set up but I can kind of see the appeal.
I still have a set of blue Kryptonics on an old Benji board with Bennetts tucked away. I guess you’d have to have ridden blue Krypts at the demos if you were short of Avons. From a distance who would have known, eh?
I had forgotten, but your mention of Snooks rang a bell. I remember the magazine ads from way back.
Anyway, good to hear from a fellow old timer and glad to hear you still enjoy rolling about.
Edit: Reading that back put me in mind of this. Proper Grampa Simpson post from me there .
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I bought some red kryp reissues after basically lusting after them for 35 years. Puts a massive smile on my face every time I ride them.
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This so much. Also 50 here. No way would I go back to my Santa Cruz - Rob Roskopp, or BBC - Bill Danforth decks they were INSANELY heavy and difficult boards to learn on. I later bought my first double kicktail deck but can’t remember who it was made by or for - it was a bright red deck with a teddybear with (I think) crosses for eyes (so basically a dead teddybear lol). If any remembers this deck please let me know which company made it and who it made for?
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Welcome to the forum mate.
Strong opener 
Sounds like Insane’s Twisted Teddy board. A friend had that, it was rad.
It had this graphic -
More here, I’ve always liked their stuff - https://www.insaneemporium.com/
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That was my first thought.
As for those BBC decks, didn’t they have fairly large, ( for the time), upturned noses? I seem to remember the Jeff Philips and maybe the Mouse models having big shovel noses. The Brian Pennington had a long, upturned nose too, but it was so pointy that it was useless and potentially lethal. I don’t know anyone who had one though I just remember seeing them as they gathered dust in skate shops across the country.
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was looking for a Jeremy Henderson interview, found this
more and write-up here
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