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Old Skateboarders...

For the skaters and wannabes.

All the Powell-Peralta videos are now available on youtube.

The first video from 1984 was mind blowing, I didn't think anyone else was skateboarding! (no internet)

I got a free pass to the premier of Ban This (1989) in London. Ray Barbee and Steve Siaz were there, and I got to interview them for the mag. and have a skate with them (Southbank and Rom)

Ray Barbee has a cool style.

Ban This from 1989










edit: hahhahhahaa I am a class fart. :rolleyes:
 
Knees are not too bad, all things considered!
I was good mates with Tim Altec, he did some crazy stuff on roller skates.
I used to go up to London and hang with people like John Sablosky , Seth Cutts etc, often at The Mad Dog Bowl in the east end.
I was tied in with The Bristol Skateboard Center as well. People like the Fack brothers and Pete Chistopherson..?
 
bob atherton said:
Knees are not too bad, all things considered!
I was good mates with Tim Altec, he did some crazy stuff on roller skates.
I used to go up to London and hang with people like John Sablosky , Seth Cutts etc, often at The Mad Dog Bowl in the east end.
I was tied in with The Bristol Skateboard Center as well. People like the Fack brothers and Pete Chistopherson..?
Click to expand...

I recognise some of the names, esp. John Sablosky, but didn't know/meet them.

I did meet Ally Barr once, (rollerskater at the time) you must be just a bit older than me. Also I am up in Nottm so the southern skate scene was a different planet!
 
i started around 1974 in Canada which i guess would have been nearly the skateboarding backwater that was the UK at the time. Moved to California when i was 33 and then picked it up again (à la 'pool skating' only) and actually got quite a bit more adept than i was when i was a teen riding half-pipes. However shortly after forty hit my eyes started losing their adaptability to dynamic conditions and just riding a pool during daylight hours from sunny to shady side -or vice versa - was enough to start resulting in concussions ... i still did it for another year but the punishment of the concrete was getting to be a bit much - esp. being in a situation where i wasn't able to afford health insurance.
 
Jonathan said:
i started around 1974 in Canada which i guess would have been nearly the skateboarding backwater that was the UK at the time. Moved to California when i was 33 and then picked it up again (à la 'pool skating' only) and actually got quite a bit more adept than i was when i was a teen riding half-pipes. However shortly after forty hit my eyes started losing their adaptability to dynamic conditions and just riding a pool during daylight hours from sunny to shady side -or vice versa - was enough to start resulting in concussions ... i still did it for another year but the punishment of the concrete was getting to be a bit much - esp. being in a situation where i wasn't able to afford health insurance.
Click to expand...

Gosh, backyard pool skating would have been my skating nirvana.

I have never ridden one, but have accessed backyard halfpipes since the 1970's.

I personally would love to see a photo of you pool skating, even 2 wheels out !!!

The idea of health insurance when skating has never occurred to me.
I certainly had use of the NHS a few times. many sprained ankles and wrists. I also smashed my ankle in 1986 at the Cafe Ramp nr. Nottm. Resultant 7 screws and a metal plate to hold it together... Never mind the endless road rash.

1974 is early in terms. of skate history, ahead of the pack, and poor wheels?

my dad actually made a version of a skateboard in the 1950's, but we used to sit on it and roll down hills, never occurred to me to stand on it!

It was seeing the skateboard championship competition in Cali. with Tony Alva (ITV world of Sport I think??). hitting the vert wall and barrel jumping that nailed it for me. Who knew you could ride up a wall!
 
Here is a photo of me (professional shot, appeared in Sk8 Action magazine) at the famous Broadmarsh Banks Nottm.

360 varial f/side footplant. The photograph does no justice to the height and speed I was travelling. (direction of travel = towards the camera)

8-F7-FFF68-7539-403-D-AF3-C-C4-C080637251.jpg
 
Crikey, I never knew there were actual skaters here. Big respect to Tabs and Bob.

I was a skating wannabe in the UK boom and never got beyond my faltering attempts on the ubiquitous lime green Truglide. I was mad jealous of my mate who had this thin, flexible board with a Hawaiian surfing pattern, California slalom trucks and these really expensive super soft blue wheels (Super Mags?).

BIkes were more my thing and I was much better on a BMX than a skateboard.
 
matthewr said:
I was a skating wannabe in the UK boom and never got beyond my faltering attempts on the ubiquitous lime green Truglide.
Click to expand...

Likewise. I never got much beyond not falling off going down the best hills I could find and getting banned from all the local parks. There were no skate parks, half-pipes, pools etc even remotely close, so I never got to have a try at that at all. I could do some of the typical ‘70s tricks, flipping up kerbs (not the cool way folk do it today), nose and tail wheelies, 180s etc, but that was my limit. Exponentially more Bart Simpson than Tony Alva. All of the amazing stuff either happened in the USA or a lot later. It wasn’t until the 80s that the really crazy technical stuff arrived, and that’s a whole different and incomprehensible world. I find it totally astounding what folk have achieved in recent years, it has developed into a truly Olympics-worthy sport IMO.
 
Big Tabs said:
There are many skaters who wish it had not.

the olympics, or organised 'sport' is the antithesis of what skateboarding is about.
Click to expand...

Agreed, and I totally get that, though they’ll still be able to do their own thing elsewhere. You can argue skateboarding ‘sold out’ in the late ‘70s when the brand teams etc started to arrive and folk started doing it as a proper job, but that also pushed things to a whole other level of technique and ability. I can see both sides. I’ve never actually understood sport so I’m really the last person to ask on this, I just enjoyed messing around on a skateboard as a kid. I’ve never done anything ‘competitive’ in my life!
 
Big Tabs said:
Gosh, backyard pool skating would have been my skating nirvana.

I have never ridden one, but have accessed backyard halfpipes since the 1970's.

I personally would love to see a photo of you pool skating, even 2 wheels out !!!

The idea of health insurance when skating has never occurred to me.
I certainly had use of the NHS a few times. many sprained ankles and wrists. I also smashed my ankle in 1986 at the Cafe Ramp nr. Nottm. Resultant 7 screws and a metal plate to hold it together... Never mind the endless road rash.

1974 is early in terms. of skate history, ahead of the pack, and poor wheels?

my dad actually made a version of a skateboard in the 1950's, but we used to sit on it and roll down hills, never occurred to me to stand on it!

It was seeing the skateboard championship competition in Cali. with Tony Alva (ITV world of Sport I think??). hitting the vert wall and barrel jumping that nailed it for me. Who knew you could ride up a wall!
Click to expand...


thanks for the input. no photos unfortunately - it was all i could do to keep from giving myself concussions let alone trying a selfie haha. Usually people would ask their friends to take pics but that always struck me as vain so i opted out i guess. pool skating is AMAZING - the only thing we really had access to growing up were some backyard half pipes but that's a completely different skill set - very '2D' somehow. the real magic is in the CARVING. Finding lines you could exploit for extra energy. I started out meekly enough and just set myself the goal of goint through a snake run and coming out with more speed than i went into it with. Kind of like a 'dance' along the boundary that separates potential and kinetic energy. So i had to almost learn all over again.

from time to time you would see kids (i.e. forty somethings like me - at the time) you could tell were from the backyard 'halfpipe culture' - mostly just fakeying - doing things you could do on halfpipes - but in the bowls etc. I decided to try to absorb the full 'surf style' skating - stay low and compress, etc.

Here's a video of Pedro Barros - my favourite 'vert' skater ever ... who (for me) personifies the apex of this kind of skating. just soooo ... smoooooothhhhh

 
Jonathan said:
thanks for the input. no photos unfortunately - it was all i could do to keep from giving myself concussions let alone trying a selfie haha. Usually people would ask their friends to take pics but that always struck me as vain so i opted out i guess. pool skating is AMAZING - the only thing we really had access to growing up were some backyard half pipes but that's a completely different skill set - very '2D' somehow. the real magic is in the CARVING. Finding lines you could exploit for extra energy. I started out meekly enough and just set myself the goal of goint through a snake run and coming out with more speed than i went into it with. Kind of like a 'dance' along the boundary that separates potential and kinetic energy. So i had to almost learn all over again.

from time to time you would see kids (i.e. forty somethings like me - at the time) you could tell were from the backyard 'halfpipe culture' - mostly just fakeying - doing things you could do on halfpipes - but in the bowls etc. I decided to try to absorb the full 'surf style' skating - stay low and compress, etc.

Here's a video of Pedro Barros - my favourite 'vert' skater ever ... who (for me) personifies the apex of this kind of skating. just soooo ... smoooooothhhhh

Click to expand...

Totally agree re carving. I was ok at carving a snake run and had a go in the huge rom pool or the 'toilet' bowl at Southsea. It was like a basic skill like being able to 'pump' on the flat.
I was never in the cool school on a half-pipe, but I could get some air (always frontside) and I got close to the coping with basic inverts.
My signature hard trick on a ramp was a 'Gay Twist.' I always thought that was an appropriate name!
I saw Pedro Barros doing a demo with Hawk in Brighton a while ago (I have some photographs somewhere...) he has a better style than Hawk o_O

I am not sure that I have a favourite, it all comes down to style. Hawk is an amazing skater, but his style sucks.
In terms of vert. Bob Burnquist has always blown me away.

Of course (!) Rodney Mullen will always be a god to me. The man is beyond legend.

The speed of Pedro in that pool is sonic, it is beautiful to watch.

I will put up a few vids as I remember them.
 
matthewr said:
Crikey, I never knew there were actual skaters here.
BIkes were more my thing and I was much better on a BMX than a skateboard.
Click to expand...


Back in the day, late eighties when skateboarding was dead to the world there was a comradeship between ramp riding BMXers and skaters. We all wanted to ride vert, and there was very little about.
Jamie Bestwick lived a couple of miles from me, and we would ride a local ramp together.

For those who don't know, Jamie is/was one of the best in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Bestwick
I distinctly remember having to call an ambulance for him after he smacked his head after a proper slam (he would easily get 12 ft. ++ of air)
Very nice bloke, who lives in a weird world now!

I also got to cover Matt Hoffman 'The Condor' when he visited the U.K. there is a video clip of him making his first inverted 540 in Mansfield in the early nineties. I was there at the side of the ramp, screaming my head off. Another very cool dude, and one of the best ever.

I couldn't get on with BMX though, although we made one from a stripped Grifter :)

It just seemed a good way to smack ones balls in the frame, or clout your shin on the pedal. At least I could kick away a skateboard if I was bailing.

saying that, I did give myself a black eye with my skateboard, frontside ollie on a huge ramp (9ft. transition, a foot of vert at least) my front foot came of the deck mid-air and I landed on the tail and flipped the board into my face.
Hahahhhahhaa how we laughed.

I can see me in this vid. We went mental when he landed it.

 
Big Tabs said:
Back in the day, late eighties when skateboarding was dead to the world there was a comradeship between ramp riding BMXers and skaters. We all wanted to ride vert, and there was very little about.
Jamie Bestwick lived a couple of miles from me, and we would ride a local ramp together.
Click to expand...

Skaters and BMX still coming from the same place, if only because they unite against the scooter kids :) Jamie Bestwick is indeed a Great Bunch of Lads.

After some brief BMX back in the day, I then mostly rode mountain bikes (when it was mostly about yomping up a hill in the Peak District or North Wales). Then when I moved to London I got into a hardcore hardtail as I was surrounded by city and miles from any hills. This was way more fun than I ever had on an MTB and I started to ride BMX again in my local spots -- some little skate parks and odd ramps randomly left by the council somewhere and a bunch of secret dirt jump spots in various parts of N. London.

Annoyingly they built a nice bowl in my local park about the time I got too old and ill to ride : https://www.skateparks.co.uk/london/clissold-park-skatepark/

7HrypvT.jpg


44te1Ea.jpg
6f1Tz0t.jpg
 
matthewr said:
Skaters and BMX still coming from the same place, if only because they unite against the scooter kids :) Jamie Bestwick is indeed a Great Bunch of Lads.

After some brief BMX back in the day, I then mostly rode mountain bikes (when it was mostly about yomping up a hill in the Peak District or North Wales). Then when I moved to London I got into a hardcore hardtail as I was surrounded by city and miles from any hills. This was way more fun than I ever had on an MTB and I started to ride BMX again in my local spots -- some little skate parks and odd ramps randomly left by the council somewhere and a bunch of secret dirt jump spots in various parts of N. London.

Annoyingly they built a nice bowl in my local park about the time I got too old and ill to ride : https://www.skateparks.co.uk/london/clissold-park-skatepark/

7HrypvT.jpg


44te1Ea.jpg
6f1Tz0t.jpg
Click to expand...


ah yes, my old skateboard mate has gone the way of the mountain bike. He goes off to Wales / Lake District on bike adventures. I am amazed he hasn't broken bones as he goes for it (55 yr old)

I can't really hold handlebars very well, due to wrist and finger injuries and rubbish knee (motorbike crash) otherwise I would be thrashing with him...
 
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