Santa Cruz: Fifty Years of Loud

Founded in 1973 by Richard Novak, Doug Haut, and Jay Shuirman, Santa Cruz Skateboards is the oldest continuously operating skateboard company in the world — and arguably the loudest. NHS built its reputation on innovation (Road Rider urethane wheels changed everything in 1975), but its immortality comes from the art department.

The Phillips machine

Jim Phillips ran the Santa Cruz art room like a Renaissance workshop: apprentices, deadlines, and a house style built on thick outlines, impossible colors, and a sense of humor with teeth. The Screaming Hand (1985) became skateboarding's single most recognizable graphic. Rob Roskopp's five-deck 'target' series, ending in the full-face monster, taught collectors to think in sequences.

Jeff Kendall's graffiti snake, Corey O'Brien's reaper, and Claus Grabke's melting clocks each pushed the formula somewhere new. Original stains — especially purples and reds, which faded fastest — are what separate a wall piece from a grail today.

Every Santa Cruz deck that passes through Madera authentication is checked for era-correct screening layers, stain penetration, and NHS factory marks.