Thrasher has been scanning entire yearly runs of their magazine and making them available on their website. I was looking through them last night, and found some interesting stuff. (Click the images to get through to the issue, then click the pages to enlarge them).
Downhill Article from Thrasher 1982
Capitol Classic Thrasher article
the Skater's Edge: Get set up for Downhill by Bob Denike -- Thrasher September 1983
[...] This is stuff from the early 1980s. Really cool to read. I have linked to them from my blog. Texas Longboarder Blog Archive Downhill in the early 1980s Props to Thrasher for scanning all this old stuff. It is really awesome to see. [...]