A "Bun Buster" skateboard by Cooley

Wood board w/ leisure line by Fo-mac wheels, c.1965. With "Susan Robbins" scratched to underside.
Provenance: Santa Barbara Surfing Museum.

The George Cooley Co. of Manhattan Beach was one of the first companies to jump into the skateboard business, starting in March of 1964 with an order of 1200 for the Thrifty Drug Store chain. At $7.88 per board, they sold out quickly, leading to an immediate reorder. This board was called the "Bun Buster" because of the tendency of riders to land on their backsides.
22 x 6/5 in. deck

"The wide-eyed, limber-legged kids in the drawing below are skateboarding, a dryland variation of surfboarding. It is the wackiest new fad to come down the southern California pike in a long time and may well rival the dementia of the Hula Hoop six years ago. Although the skateboard looks like an ironing board with wheels, it is really a pint-sized cousin to the surfboard. The little device, with its speedy roller-skate wheels, rolls on concrete pavement or other hard surfaces with a tilting, tipping motion that imitates that of the surfboard."

—Paul Stewart in Sports Illustrated, May 18, 1964