When We Was Rad: Skateboard History from UK Vintage Magazine

Just seen a video mashup by Graham Taylor which combines Norman McClaren, Georges Balanchine and skate video from the eighties and ninenties. Part of me feels a bit uncomfortable with the ballet parallel. But I’ve always felt extremely uncomfortable with the ’skateboarding as stadium sport’ let alone ’skateboarding in the Olympics’ line. So give me this any time. It really brought a smile to the day… Continue Reading »

If the world is fleeing into Facebook then I guess I had better try to take this inside those closed walls…

Interesting to notice that Fids nominated Stevenage as his favourite ramp even though he came from Ramsgate. That’s a sign of the times: he had to travel into London and out the other side to skate it.

His answer to the question “What would make skating better?” — “Better weather or more indoor ramps” touches on the same subject. We got the “more indoor ramps”, though never enough of them. The weather did not get better. Quite the reverse. This has been one of the wettest winters in a while.

And the thought I like best? “Carter doing McTwists” it makes me smile even now.

More about Bowes Lyon Skatepark in Stevenage.

I always was a fan of the Simon Evans currently known as an artist.

In this selection of letters we have

• Mad Snoz and his cohorts writing about Dirty Ditches, but where?
• Livi Skates thanking everyone who came for Pure Fun
• Partying on the Isle of Wight
• Vallely on vert (lots of it) at Latimer
• A Picture of Don B
• and our email address from 1988 = Telecom Gold 72:MAG90459

I’d forgotten that we kept that old address going. I thought it had died out with BMX Action Bike.

Off Beat Sportz take the prize this time for their “We Like Cats and Dogs Price List” tag line. What was that all about, then?
Action Ramps deserve some other kind of prize for breaking down the humble jump-ramp into a whole series of components.
Meanwhile Youngs favoured the “long copy” approach, Split went for the big claim (but it was certainly true the time I went there) and Weston BMX and Leisure turned sideways to fit it all in.
Each of the shops had a distinctive style and a crew of locals to match in the days before chain stores sold skateboards!

God bless Google alerts for bringing a smile to my face today: good to see so many people remember Simon Evans on Chrome Ball Incindent.

At some point I knew I would run out of interesting things to say about “The Wall”. That moment has come.
It was intended as the Craigslist for UK skateboarding of its time and delighted me when it turned into Myspace. But I’m stretching things too far again. Time to shut up!

Interesting bits in here…

• The overview of what we described as ‘the streetstyle device‘: state of the art at the time was: ‘Bank, quarter-pipe and mini-handrail all in one unit.” Now you see things like that all over the place. They’ve become a standard item in public and commercial parks. In 1988 this seemed like a first to us: “You could do three moves in one hit.”
• Quote of the street-style event: “Oh well, I guess I’ll make up for that in my second run…” Mike Vallely after his ‘first’ qualifier. They had one run each.
• Stuart Dryden, from Southsea, who came over from Southsea and entered in the days when travelling to competitions like this was beyond the reach of most people.

These were the killer things which lodged in Shane [O'Brien's] memory. Gonzales’ Ollie Stalefish Method 180 and Railslide regular footed [we were amazed by switch-stance then]. Cab’s Backside 180 Ollies off the jump ramp. Vallely’s 360 Frontside Hand-plant on the double-sided jump ramp. And Hosoi’s Frontside Wall-ride when his back foot slipped leaving him hanging off the top of the wall with his front foot keeping hold of the board. After a few sweaty moments, he shuffled the board back up and rode out. Delirium

Somebody sent me a link to a picture showing Tony Hawk at a 2008 Retro-contest, complete with a R.a.D sticker on the ramp and Mike Manzoori filming in the background. But I can’t find it now. Most strange.