Skateboarding’s popularity was suffering in the early 80’s and fashion was changing, surf culture was in, while the snurfer and snowboarding were on the rise. Bright colours and Californian culture were being imported in Canada and the California dream was alive and kicking.

Yes, the ad below does say, “DIG THIS BUYERS”. I think I still do.

-Jon Cartwright

This framed advertisement comes from Chip’s personal archive of Westbeach memories. It was probably the first ad that Westbeach did and from what I can tell it ran in a trade magazine in the early 80’s. It is also one of the few pieces of advertising that Chip kept. His archive also contained some amazing examples of the early snow clothing and lots of internal comunications.

Some of the things that I find interesting about this ad is the cut and paste that is a holdover of the recent punk movement, the lack of name identification, The shorts are called “chips shorts”, as well as “2 HIP” just within this ad. Chip has also called them “bbq shorts” and of course they ended up being Westbeach shorts. The name “Westbeach” is relegated to the tiny yellow strip on the bottom right (mostly hidden beneath the frame). The brand was definitely tying to find its name still at this point.

Also, the “surfer” in the top photo, on the left, is Shane Bunting who later went on to fame as “Madchild” from  the Canadian hiphop crew “Swollen Members”

- Dano