Skateboarding...the good ol' days!

anyone remember this guy?

[ Edited by: johntiki on 2004-09-09 17:01 ]

[ Edited by: johntiki on 2004-09-09 19:18 ]

Hells yeah, I had a Bonez ripper board

those were good times,powell peralta ruled.

I was a big time skater during that time frame. I lived it every day.

Cool Logo

Man that brings back memories. My mom got me that exact board for Xmas, but she got it decked out all geek style. It had the plastic nose and tail guards. It even had the plastic rails on the bottom to protect the graphics from rail slides. Remember those?

Damn near broke my neck on that thing.

I skated every day for about 10 years until I took a ride to Shock Trauma in a helicopter after being knocked unconscious. Afterwards I made the decision to hang-up it up but God do I miss the good ol' days! Powell Peralta had the coolest graphics without a doubt - who can forget the lovely Skull and Sword...

or this little cutie...

or this one...

JohnTiki

Aloha from the enchanted Pi Yi Grotto in exotic Bel Air Maryland!

[ Edited by: johntiki on 2004-09-09 19:19 ]

On 2004-09-09 19:16, johntiki wrote:
...I took a ride to Shock Trauma in a helicopter after being knocked unconscious.

Similar story. Broke my wrist and cut my neck pretty bad @ the old Edgewood Bowl. Thanks to the disgusting conditions I caught an infection which gave me a nasty skin rash all down one side of my body. BTW, this was 2 weeks before my Senior Prom. Had to take massive horse pill antibiotics. Still was pretty cool skating to the tux rental place, getting measured and having one leg slightly bigger than the other. Oh...fairly good times. It was cool when the Powell/Peralta tours would grace our town.

Tacky Techie Tiki Bar
It just may be that the only purpose to your life is to serve as a warning to others.

[ Edited by: Turbogod on 2004-09-09 19:39 ]

Im starting to get all misty at the memories

The last ad is the best !!!
goto http://www.powellclassic.com to see more ads for 70's to present

Of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most.

[ Edited by: rodeotiki on 2004-09-09 20:13 ]

Turbogod - the Edgewood bowl was one of my favorite spots! I also had a friend break a wrist there, and another broke his ankle - the conditions at the place were scary! The snake run was covered in cracks large enough to catch a wheel, the one frontside snake run was so steep and fractured I avoided it at all costs. Remember how the main bowl was 1/2 full with stagnant nasty rain water - I saw many a rider take a spill into the slime! I was even there when someone had the bright idea to dredge the bottom out and recovered a nearly new Sims Kevin Staab that someone must have lost and decided not to go in after! It was a sad day when those bastards that owned the adjoining junkyard decided they'd had enough of the kids having fun at the abandoned skatepark and bulldozed the place. I have a friend who still keeps a giant chunk of the bowl in the corner of his garage...

The Bones Brigade tours were the coolest - I was working for a skateboard shop (Reach for the Beach) that sponsored the event at Security Square Mall in 87(?)! I even got a chance to ride their portable mini-ramp - alongside Tony Hawk, Tommy Guerrero and Lance Mountain...well actually they were done skating and were packing up to leave but it was my brush with greatness!

Who could forget this timeless ad?

JohnTiki

Aloha from the enchanted Pi Yi Grotto in exotic Bel Air Maryland!

[ Edited by: johntiki on 2004-09-09 20:53 ]

I rode Alva Skates only. We hated those Sims kids in town. It was a bitter rivalry...

I too was an Alva rider - I had a Danforth, a Fred Smith and a Dave Duncan - when they didn't hold up to the abuse I put them through I switched to Skull Skates... Alva did have that bad ass hardcore image though and I still consider all the guys that rode for T.A. back in the 80's as some of the gnarliest/burliest skaters of the era!

anyone ever watch dogtown and the z boys, love that movie

On 2004-09-09 20:48, johntiki wrote:
Who could forget this timeless ad?

HAVE YOU SEEN HIM?

--cindy, skate sister

Zorlac had the absolute best skull graphics of any company at that time but Powell Peralta was good too.

Pus Head anyone?

Pushead did some great stuff - not only for Zorlac but for the Misfits, Metallica, etc. -This was always my favorite Pushead illustrated Zorlac deck...

This was always my favorite Misfits cover...

Cindy...I also had a proud skate sister! :)

JohnTiki

Aloha from the enchanted Pi Yi Grotto in exotic Bel Air Maryland!

[ Edited by: johntiki on 2004-09-09 23:09 ]

I hate to show my age, but we used to make our own boards in high school in the 70s and put on Chicago trucks and Cadillac urethane wheels (remember those transparent yellow ones?). As soon as we heard about them we upgraded to Tracker trucks and OJ and Yo Yo wheels. Eventually I got tired of our long springy homemade boards and I bought a Fibreflex and a Gordon Smith wood kicktail. I bought all the Skateboarder magazines from issue #1 (and sold the lot for practically nothing in the 80s - doh!).

I remember my first visit to the new Carlsbad skate park, which might have been the first in California. I also skated the parks in El Cajon, Spring Valley, and Mission Valley. We tried an empty pool at Time Motel in La Mesa but I never got the hang of it's steep walls. My friend also had a half tube built in his back yard which was a blast.

I guess I'm a skategeezer.

http://www.interlog.com/~mbrooke/skategeezer.html

One day I just stopped riding - I think when I bought my Lambretta.

Don't get me started on BMX.

Check this site out http://www.middle-age-shred.com

I skated the Oasis Skatepark in Mission Valley (San Diego). Two snake runs, Two Deep bowls, a Huge Concrete Half pipe. The freeway overpasses were perfect because the cars were so noisy that we didn't bother a soul plus we actually had shade.

In '86-'88 lived up the street from the Del Mar skate ranch and my brother and I would arrive at the park when it opened (10am), skate until lunch, go home and eat, skate until dinner, go home and eat, skate until the park closed (10pm) and go home and watch the "young ones" on mtv while drinking a gallon of mountain dew. Ahhh the rich life.

I remember jumping a 9 foot brick wall with my skate friends to ride the empty pool at the El Cortez hotel in Downtown San Diego (super taboo). Interestingly enough, they show Gator sessioning that same pool in the documentary done about him last year.

Tony Hawk was in my speech class in High School (Torrey Pines High) and I would get used gear from him all the time. He would leave everyday from school at Lunch and skated at the SkateRanch for Professional Athletic, School Credit (PE credits).

At the time, he was already making 100k per year and had purchased his own home when he was 16-17 yrs old.

My favorite skate memory does not involve skating at all.... I was attending my companies Annual Christmas party in 1994 and after finishing dinner, I look a few tables over and see Mike McGill (aka- the 540 Mctwist inventor) sitting by himself. I went to go introduce myself to find out that he was there with a co worker of mine. I talked with McGill for a couple of hours about his skate career, and all the people he knew. The best part was that amongst all these corporate folk, not a single soul knew who he was. Only me.

Super Cool Memory

[ Edited by: Monkeyman on 2004-09-12 16:03 ]

Yup, Them were the days. I rode all those boards; 12" Dogtown by Wes Humpton model, skinny Alvas, The first Sims 10.0 models by 8-skate master Lonnie Toft and Brad Bowman, Powell double Beamers & Powell-Peralta Ray Rodriqez's models, and Gren-tecs from Zody's :).
I never took any serious injuries but some will say its cause I wasn't goin' big. I knew a couple of the pros from the Valley and skated in a few contests. Also worked a few of the Powell Peralta skate demos in Santa Barbara. Our home park was Sktecross in Reseda. There was another in Thousand Oaks called Aloha but it was one of the first to close. Knapp park was our local ditch complete with local skate bum. Good times for sure! The Z-boy movie by Stacy gets me all nostalgic everytime I see it.

thejab- I guess I am a skate geezer too. I got my first knee scrapes and Mr. Wilsons on a Black Knight board with no kicktail or grip tape and clay wheels that would make one hell of racket. sob...I miss that board too.

Chongolio

I grew up in Orlando skating Rodney Mead's ramp (mid 80's) off S.Cownway Rd, he is still on the circuit but I don't know who he's with, a few years ago my brother took his son to watch Tony Hawk and Rodney was part of the demo, I think it was for the Surf Expo.

We use to skate Tim Payne's ramp off South O.B.T. (behind Gary's Duck Inn)It was a monster for that time, 14 ft high with about 2 ft of vert, droppin in was scary as hell the first few times. I hear he builds all the ramps for X-Games and other big events.

Some others that were fun for that time were Richard Palmer's ramp off Lake Margarat (I helped build that one) and Chris Campbells "ditch" ramp, that was a fun learning ramp, only 6 ft high and really mellow no vert, the neighbors complained when it was real big, so they just cut it down a bit.

John Thomas was my neighbor in Lake Conway Woods, he was sponsored by Alva (late 80's) John was also a kick ass artist and designed his own logo, he moved to Venice Beach and grew full on dreads, he was always the first in our hood that skated, listened to Punk, drank beer, smoked cloves, weed etc. Thanks for everything J.T.!!!!

We used to skate in all the local street skate events like Orange Cycle Works, Inland Ocean Surf Shop etc. Man those were the days, we used to skate everyday after school, watch skate videos, Thrasher mag, and I had that Bones shirt in bright green in high school. I should have kept all those broken boards and T-shirts.

Skate Or Die!!

One of my friends was on the cover of Sports Illustrated skating upside down with his hands back in the 70's.
:wink:

I have an old book that shows someone on hand skates in a freestyle contest.

Hand skates were about as short lived as riding two boards (one on top of the other) and catamaran racing (two boards, two people with legs interlocked going sideways downhill).

Another cool dude from that era:

Chongolio

Discussion of ramps got me to thinking of all the 1/2 pipes I rode back in the day. I rode all the backyard wooden ramps at the time but I have special memories of Mount Trashmore in VA Beach, the 1/2 pipe in Ocean City MD and Hell Ramp right next to the Chesapeake Bay in Middle River. It was a giant steel 1/2 pipe that was scary as hell -I even remember Bucky Lasek skating there before he became a superstar and moved to California. They had the coolest logo - Hell Ramp - Steel Workers Union Local 666.

Chongolio - Mellow Cat was in this film I found on video in the mid-80's - "Skateboard Madness" It was a strange movie - Mellow Cat was a skateboard photographer who needed to get some good shots or else he'd be fired - he gets hooked up with Stacy Peralta and a bunch of other guys and they travel all over the place skating some unreal extinct concrete skateparks! There was also some weird ass rollerskating/roller disco video thrown in - a Surf Punks video - narration by Phil Hartman and some pretty cool claymation segments but what always stood out for me was this sequence from the "Turning Point Ramp." A large inverted clear plexiglass tube where skaters could defy gravity and even do what appeared to be complete loops - unreal!

Anyway...who the hell was Mellow Cat?

On 2004-09-09 23:06, johntiki wrote:

---

I've still got what must be one of about 10 PAL (European) versions of that video!

My first skateboard was confiscated by a lecturer at MIT as I got caught skating down their long, smooth halls. It was one of those old plastic pieces of crap that had been thrashed to death so it wasn't a great loss...

Trader Woody

I didn't skate, but someone had to build the ramps & take the pictures...

I worked on 3 ramps with my friends who skated, 2 plywood & one plywood/fiberglass, plus a 2-story half pipe (probably the biggest on Staten Island, NY, back in '79/'80).

I took all the pictures 'til they got the first roll back from the developer & they found I had only taken pictures of them wiping out (I got some great shots of skaters in mid air, inverted, arms & legs akimbo, with the board spiraling off in some random direction...). After that I was only allowed to take the pictures when everyone else was skating.

I still remember my friend Karl's favorite board: a KryptoStick covered with home-made grip tape, Gull Wing trucks & Kryptonics Conicals wheels.

Escape Country. (Now Rancho Santa Margarita)

Asphalt. 1 big, big, big, bowl at the top. A series of S curves leading down the mountain( anyone remember doing the "Catamaran?") to a freestyle area at the bottom ( always filled with thousands of bees).

This had to be one of the frist skate parks in the world. Early 70's? I used to be on a Honda Kick n Go at this place. One time some drunk old dude drove his van into the bowl at the top and rolled it. Our parents would drop us off and we'd spend all day there, all summer. Classic days back then.

My 6 year old just started standing/riding on my old Dog Town. He's goofy foot too. Used that board for years as my only transportation. If that baord could talk!

So many memories flooding back. Skateboarding was my life, everyday was planned around which ramp, pool, or park we would hit.
My parents were cool enough to let us build a 16 ft half pipe in the backyard with 1.5 ft of vert. Damn they must have lost a lot of sleep over all the broken arms on that one. Luckily no one ever sued.
Weekends we ventured out of the south bay to Upland pipeline or Del mar skatepark.
No one in Palos Verdes could empty there pool without having all us little skatepunks terrorrizing there backyard. Something straight out Dogtown and the Z-boys.
Bones brigade was the bomb, but Alva was hardcore. I remember hanging with tony alva, jonny kop, craig smith at a demo in hermosa.
Graphics were great, I have a coffee table book of skate graphics but it lacks a lot of the classics. Pushead did some crazy stuff, powell peraltas were classic as was the Mark "Gator" Rogowski, and the evolution of Rob Robskoffs bullseye monster.
Trying to teach my little nephew to olli, he learned a boneless pretty quick. Hurts a lot more now when I fall...

Anyone from Southern California remember "Skateboard Odyssey? it was in Mission Viejo.Wasn't open long..Just during the skatepark high point.It took me and my friends about 2 hrs. and many bus transfers to get out there, but it was worth it.What I remember most is that they would blast the 70's rock.........great times.

Like TheJab, I'm a skateboard geezer also. I still remember the day I first say these new wheels everyone was talking about - Road Ryders. I think this was about 1974 or so.

At the time, we were riding on what we called 'clay' wheels, that would flip you off on any small imperfection of the roadway.

Next was pools! We scope out abandoned houses with pools and ride all day smoking our $10 a 'lid' pot.

Here's a picture of me in the day with my little sister.

Note my cool wallabie earthshoes (what a geek!).

On 2004-09-10 17:35, johntiki wrote:

Anyway...who the hell was Mellow Cat?

Probally a friend of the Skateboarder magazine crew. Ted Richards drew the character for Skateboarder Magazine. I totally dug his style.

Tikibong- Classic pics dude.

Chongolio

This was probably the best boot fair find I ever had

Perfect condition Original Gold Gullwing HPG IV trucks of which I saw some for sale on the web for $650 awhile back I got this for £1. I'm kinda scared of riding it though cause the problem with these trucks were that they broke to easy.
Everytime the bills start coming in my girlfriend threatens me with selling it which seems to be keeping me working hard

[ Edited by: cheekytiki on 2004-09-17 09:26 ]

That is a sweet find! I also came across a skateboard a few weeks ago at a yard sale - not as old or even complete but for $5.00 I couldn't pass it up. A Santa Cruz Rick "Spidey" Demontrond deck with a Tracker truck, an Independent truck and a set of OJ II wheels. I consulted with a friend of mine who is a tattoo artist and obsessive collector of vintage skateboards and he flipped his lid - come to find out the deck has a fair market value of about $250! He began making me all kinds of offers for the deck; trades, cash, etc. Then I realized that he was e-mailing me from Spain! I offered him a proposal...three of those wacky Spanish tiki mugs and the deck is yours! He enthusiastically took me up on the offer - so I gathered a few shots of mugs that I'd kill for, e-mailed him the pics and now I'm waiting to see if he can pull it off.

Here's a pic of the ugly ass deck that may hold the key to adding those super smooth tiki mugs to my collection!

A friend found one of the old powell boards on that first page and I got it from him around '98 it still had the whale bone(?)and rails, best of all it had the (coveted) swiss bearings. Many years were spent just zooming up and down the roads on such boards(via ccs mail order). Then the change over of board style and the rest is ancient history. The only time I remember getting to go to a skate shop was in Eau Claire Wisconsin, when we visited mom's side of the family during the summer, neon green gullwing trucks were the most stand out puchase from any of those trips, it was the color. Eau Claire in the 80's was one of the fun things in the summer, and was kind of the same as cherokee, except there were sidewalks. The rez is a wierd place sometimes.

edgewood bowl huh?
hahaha.. i was a local there. rode it almost daily until it's demise at the hands of edgewood auto wreckers.

still skate, although not as much since the baby.. but, i try to hit lansdowne once in a while.

john, i should have those mugs any time now... if you can, send me some pics of them again so i can make sure he's sending the right ones.
word.
seth

Currently skating a Roskopp reissue.... Indy 169 trucks
No better boards than old school for skating the pools...

I'd take that Spidey deck over tiki mugs anyday... Classic Board! I think that's another one of the graphics Jim Phillips did for Santa Cruz... there's a good book out with all of his art...

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer on 2005-01-01 14:02 ]

yeah, that was a phillips... the alleged history behind the design is that it was a total struggle between phillips and dementrond.