Old School Skating

Greetings, “Friends, Romans, Countrymen. Give me your ears!” Since I haven’t had success posting jpg files on this Blog, I am going to describe my vintage skateboard collection. It seems there is a little skate action on the East Coast, but it ain’t much. It is because there are fewer places to ride than in California. The snaking mountain hills of Santa Cruz provide the perfect terrain for many different styles of skateboarding. Downhill, slalom, ditch, and pool riding are popular in California, because they have the terrain upon which to ride. Craig Stecyk put it best when he was quoted in the opening scene of Stacy Peralta's documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. "It took the minds of children to put the ruins of the military industrial complex to an artistic use." We on the East Coast have not had the same opportunities. There are no bowls here. There is no Los Angeles River. There are not many drainage ditches or Mt. Baldy pipelines sitting ensconced in the base of a mountain. Least of all the style of swimming pool building is different and therefore not conducive to skating. For some reason the pools built in Los Angeles were bowl shaped. They had curved bottoms with smooth transitions going up to the coping. The Dogtown Crowd were the first to see the potential of transferring surfing born maneuvers to the inside of a swimming pool. It truly was a miracle. I think God was somehow masterminding the whole process. How else could such an ironic thing have happened? A drought in L.A. Empty swimming pools shaped like bowls. Rowdy dudes looking for tasty waves. The success of Skateboarder Magazine in the late l970’s was because East Coast kids were living that vagabond-like lifestyle through the pictures in the magazine. It may have been snowing. It may have been raining. There may have been no pools or hills or beaches, but we could still live and learn through the medium of Craig Stecyk’s camera lens. Okay, this was not really meant to be a biography of Dogtown, although a plea for good skating terrain is okay. A clerk at a local skateshop remarked to me that none of the longboards hanging on his wall had ever sold. I told him, “You must have a place to be able to use the board in the proper style.” Many New School Era skateboarders don’t know what “carving” is. I was not sure I knew until I assembled my own custom-designed 70’s era vintage skateboard meant to be used for that Old School style of skating. It was easy for me, because I grew up in exactly the same decade as the Z-Boys, reading the magazines, and riding a Gordon and Smith Fibreflex with Bennett Pros and Roadrider 6’s. I was pretty good as far as freestyle goes. We didn’t have anything like the Z-boys on the East Coast, so we were stuck mimicking the same tricks those guys made fun of. Eskimo Rolls. Walk-the-Dog. Nose Wheelies. With no banks upon which to learn Stacy Peralta’s now famous “weight and unweight” style of surf skating, it sufficed for us. It was not until now I got the bug to learn and try that California-based style of surf skating. My board helped considerably, because it was designed closely after the original Zephyr Shop fiberglass board Jeff Ho and Jay Adams designed. There is more to it than meets the eye, and it took me over a year to find something that came close to it. I had to customize. That is appropriate seeing as that is what the more performance oriented shops did. They designed and hand built custom surfboards that were more than a, “Garbagy piece of junk painted powder blue” as quoted by Nathan Pratt. I had to cut down a G&S Teamrider re-issue to the shape of a G&S Warptail re-issue and find trucks and wheels that were similar to the Bennetts and RR 6’s. This was before Mr. Bennett re-issued his Vector Truks. Thinking about, designing, and making this board was what allowed me to skate that style with not much practice. I watched the documentary over and over, slowing down the movement until I understood what was happening. Then I adapted my own skateboarding style to include the Z-Boy approach. It’s all about creating a pivot in the middle of the board, while you control your carve or turn with your back foot, kicking it out in the opposite direction of where the nose of the board is going. It is identical to the carve a slalom water skiing does, but I could never do that “back in the day." I tried my best to water ski like my friend John, but he could always put up a much higher wall of spray drenching the people in his path for fun! Thanks to Dogtown and Z-Boys, now I know how. The design of the board is key to being able to skate a specific style, and the New School of skating is only one style. I haven’t even begun to study it yet, because I know I can’t Ollie. At 44 years old I am not sure I want to! Anyway, here is a list of my on going vintage board collection, astutely assembled from photos from popular skate videos, and pieced together from eBay auctions. It is sweet.

Roller Sports Blue Lexan Proline/Chicago Trucks/Roller Sports Open Ball Bearing Wheels

Kona Fibreglass/X-Caliber Trucks/Roller Sports Open Ball Bearing Wheels

Gordon and Smith Fibreflex Freestyle/Bennett Pro Trucks/World Industry Road Rider 6 Wheels/German Bearing

Z Flex Jay Adams Reissue Painted Yellow/X-Cailber Trucks/Pink X Bones Wheels

G&S Warptail Reissue/Tracker Midtracks/Sims Pure Juice Wheels

Dogtown Orange Wood/Tracker Midtracks/World Industry OJ Wheels

Powell Peralta Lance Mountain Junior/Venture Trucks/Bones DubCons Street Wheels

Powell Peralta Lance Mountain Doughboy/Tracker 6 Track Ultra-Lites/Rat Bones Wheels

Powell Soul Patrol Longboard/Bennett Vector Trucks/Sector 9 Nine Ball Wheels

Sim 3 Inch Solid Oak Wood Board/Independent 169 Trucks/Sims Red Street Wheels

G&S 38” Pintail/Tracker RT-X Trucks/Abec 11 Retro Zig Zag Wheels

Homemade Wood Longboard/Tracker Fulltracks/Turner 3D-M Cambria Wheels

G&S Teamrider Reissue Chop Job/Tracker RT-S Trucks/Abec 11 Retro Zig Zags

-and-

The newest addition to the Quiver: Powell Mike Mcgill Jet Fighter Reissue/Indy 215 Trucks/Abec 11 No Skoolz Wheels.

For any would be thieves, I keep these boards safely locked and guarded all the time. Luckily my grandfather was a dairy farmer who valued guns! Peace out, and I hope this might inspire some young skaters to get interested in the "Old School" of skating.