As the introduction makes clear, the hope was that people would add to this information, or correct it. But in the days of one-way media very few took up the offer. So the R.a.D Encylopaedia limped along as mostly one person’s view on the skateboard world.
Captions:
Farnborough ramp overview with some ex-local getting in the way
(The ex-local was Danny Webster.)
Don Brown: 89 was the year that he emerged from the shadows and got the coverage he’s deserved for so long
Back after a summer break while the contest season dominated the magazine. Think we’ve got something wrong or missed something out? Write and let us know.
FABRIQUER, John The most powerful mushroom in the world: like an elastic band at full stretch ready to go off at any moment. Rad. San Jose local, skates for Schmitt Stix.
FACTION Definitive early skate band featuring Steve Caballero on bass See =CABALLERO, S
FAKIE To travel backwards. Dead trendy now: want to double your repertoire: do the same moves in reverse? Easier said than done.
FALLBROOK Town in southern California with a phenomenal ramp density. About twenty minutes from Transworld’s office and therefore heavily exposed in print especially Tobin’s ramp. In fact that was just one of many and has now fallen victim to insurance problems.
FARNBOROUGH One of the original British spots: this Surrey town has had a half-pipe of some type in the shopping centre for ten years at least. Farnborough contests were the stuff of British summers. That ramp was the training ground of most of our southern talent. Now eclipsed by bigger designs like Bracknell.FAST PLANT Foot-plant variation with the emphasis on boosting up into an air from your back foot. Grab, Mute, Slob, Indy, whatever as long as you go high.
FELLOWS, Brent Schmitt amateur. Gets in here because he looks like Mr Magoo.
FFEJ Handplants, Dad. See =HEDGES, Jeff
FIBREFLEX Seventies classic decks. Resilient, pumpable thin fibreglass and wood laminates. Great for the cruising, carving, slalom period, they fell from favour as the wide all maple decks swept all before them. See =G & S
FIFTY FIFTY 50/50 Travelling along the coping with both trucks grinding. Also freestyle move. Also Sims two toned wheels from a while back.
FINGERBOARD Rare originals were hand-made skater’s equivalents of worry beads, not at all the same as the mass produced gizmos which became one of the symbols of the late eighties craze.
FINGER-FLIP Grab the nose and spin it right round through 360 along its length. A basic building block trick: eg Finglerflip Lein to Tail, Varial etc
FIREBALLS Rave from the grave. Completely spherical wheels from the time before rounded profiles. Didn’t work.
FIVE FORTY 540 Australian skate magazine, rated here — but we’re biased.
FLASH Dubious British protective equipment from the seventies including glitter effect helmets. Mine cracked when I stood on it.
2 responses to “Encyclopaedia of Skateboarding: F, 1989 Style”
HEY TIM, ITS FUNNY TO SEE THE FINGERBOARD ENTRY WAY BACK IN 1989 LONG BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THE INFAMOUS TECH DECK. I REMEMBER A FULL PAGE PHOTO IN ONE ISSUE UNDER THE ‘RADNESS UNLIMITED’ STRAPLINE OF A RAMP YOU GUYS HAD BUILT IN THE OFFICE WITH SOMEONE PULLING A FRONTSIDE AIR ON A FINGERBOARD. I WENT STRAIGHT DOWN TO MUD MACHINE IN CROYDON THAT WEEKEND AND PICKED ONE UP!!
SOMEONE MADE A LOT OF CASH DISTRIBUTING TECH DECKS IN THEIR HEYDAY, WAS IT ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU GUYS AT NEW DEAL?
INCIDENTALLY YOUR NAME CROPPED UP IN CONVERSATION AGAIN THE OTHER DAY WHILST TALKING TO JOHN DODSWORTH WHO USED TO WORK AT ALPINE SPORTS WITH YOU I BELIEVE. EVERYONE SEEMS TO HAVE HAPPY MEMORIES OF THOSE DAYS, AS I DO OF THE TIMES YOU DOCUMENTED IN RAD – WHAT HAPPENED – DID WE GET OLDER AND MORE CYNICAL OR HAVE THE SUB CULTURES COVERED IN THE MAGAZINE LOST THEIR EDGE & EXCITEMENT DUE TO COMMERCIALISATION AND OVER EXPOSURE IN MAINSTREAN MEDIA?
New Deal certainly imported a lot of the genuine Tech Decks, but whether they made any money out of them once the copies flooded the market is another matter. I’m full of admiration for the way Marc Ball traded his way out of the situation. It reminded me of the days of the Roller Disco craze, when it seemed like the docks at Rotterdam were full of nothing but containers of cheap vinyl rollerskates. The commercially nimble then made even more money trading in these things at clearance prices.
John Dodsworth! Wow… That takes me back. Where is he now?John ran the Alpine in Notting Hill and had the misfortune to have the skateboard crew forced into a section of his shop. He handled it very well. They were fun times.