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Old Skateboarders...

Big Tabs

Big Tabs

looking backwards, going forwards
]are there any old skaters on here? Not 'I owned a skateboard once..' type but actual skateboarders?. I am thinking skated Southbank in the 70's then maintained rolling through the dark days of the early 80's, and the resurgence in the 90's.. I have some good tales to swop... and you never know - I may know you/you may know me... there were not many of us who kept going/keep going'

memory jolters = Alpine sports - Camden banks - Rolling Thunder - ACS 651's - lappers and grab rails - open bearings -Broadmarsh Banks - Powell Peralta - Steve Caballero.... etc

my guess is there must be one other than me!
 
Starring:

Jay Adams
Tony Alva
Bob Biniak
Chris Cahill
Paul Constantineau
Skip Engblom
Jeff Ho
Shogo Kubo
Jim Muir
Michael Ramsey (voice)
Peggy Oki
Stacy Peralta
Nathan Pratt
Wentzle Ruml IV
Allen Sarlo
Craig Stecyk
Glen E. Friedman
 
Bristol was a good skate scene - Skate Muties from the 5th Dimension fanzine / Bear Hackenbush was a collaborator of mine plus Matt who did WimpOut! fanzine (nice bloke who topped himself years ago)
 
I was well into it as a kid in the mid-70s, though lived away from any real scene (Wirral) so it was all about skating the local streets, schoolyards, beach ramps etc. I had a Pacer fibreflex deck, ACS 580s and 70mm green Kryptonics (still got them). I've got a couple of nice decks knocking around as ornaments now: a Taperpro with ACS 650s and the green Kryps and a little RMI with Gullwing Phoenix and red Power Paws. I never got as far as the 80s though. Would be great to turn back time and have another go!
 
my collection of skate fanzines

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funny ol' Rupert...

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Tony L said:
70mm green Kryptonics (still got them)
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lovely - they are worth cash chap. I have a nice set of 70mm red Kryptonics which are lovely and soft durometer - 78 I think off the top of my head - green Kryp's were harder. I have loads of old stuff inc. a nice Lance Mountain powell deck, Gullwings (they are crap and do not turn) prices for vintage stuff are mad on ebay
 
Big Tabs said:
lovely - they are worth cash chap. I have a nice set of 70mm red Kryptonics which are lovely and soft durometer - 78 I think off the top of my head - green Kryp's were harder. I have loads of old stuff inc. a nice Lance Mountain powell deck, Gullwings (they are crap and do not turn) prices for vintage stuff are mad on ebay
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Yes, 70mm greens were the fastest wheel of their day, hard and large diameter so you really flew on them. Lost out a little grip to reds (softest) and blues (middle). Wore better too, mine are actually still in pretty decent shape. Surprisingly so given I must have skated them for a good year (I'd worn out a pair of 65mm blues previously).

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The other board is a little mid-70s RMI that I spotted on eBay several years ago advertised as a "NOS 1970s skateboard" with a Buy It Now of about £30 IIRC. It was around the time prices of 70s kit was starting to rocket so I figured a NOS pair of Phoenix (not specified in the ad, but they couldn't have been anything else) might be a good investment, plus make a cool ornament!

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I don't think I've ever skated any pair of Gullwings, they were crazy expensive back in the day and everyone I knew had either ACS (I had 430s, then 580s), California Slalom or Lazers. I can't recall anyone with Trackers either. Kryps or Sims Pure Juice were the wheel to be seen with at that time. I was the only person I knew with a bendy fibreglass board, everyone else had wood, which at the time felt slow to me, though I was more into downhill nuttery than tricks (though I could do the usual 360s, jump from one board to another etc). Never had a go on a pipe or pool as there just weren't any.
 
That 70s board with the red wheels that Tony has is lovely.

Thats what I wanted in the first mid 70s UK craze. I remember that the school set aside a little flat area for skateboarding. They dont often help out so it must have been quite a craze at the time.

My parents bought me a red plastic board with rock hard red wheels from woolworths or somewhere. It was crap

Oh how I wanted Kryptonics and a decent board like the rich kids.

Im not a skater but I owned a (cough) skateboard shaped object once.
 
Minstrel SE said:
My parents bought me a red plastic board with rock hard red wheels from woolworths or somewhere. It was crap

Oh how I wanted Kryptonics and a decent board like the rich kids.
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I started with a light blue plastic one that arrived for a birthday or Christmas, a Lotus IIRC, with open bearings and rock hard wheels that wouldn't grip anything and a slippery top. I fell off that thing so many times. I just saved up and upgraded it bit by bit (wheels, then deck, finally trucks) until I had a decent deck. Most of my kit at the time was second hand as there were always kids getting tired of it or other kids upgrading - there was always stuff knocking about. I think the green Kryps were the only thing I ever bought new myself, and they took a lot of saving paper round money!
 
We used to use skateboards at the back end of the 60s. Back then, a 360 was a pretty radical move, but the kit was really hard to come by. Anyway, it wasn't exactly hardcore and was just messing about at the beach when the surf was down.
 
Nothing new under the Sun!
We had our own version of 'mountain biking' back in the day. The trees on the abandoned railway which used to mark out our off road time trial course around 1960 are still there.

We just used the bikes we had. We didn't need to lighten them. We only had frames, wheels etc., we scrounged up.

Skateboards IIR first appeared in the early 1960s.


Mull
 
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Mullardman said:
Skateboards IIR first appeared in the early 1960s.
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Agreed, though it wasn't until polyurethane wheels turned up in the 70s that you could really do anything on them - that was the point both speed and grip were available at the same time.
 
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