Photographs by David Walsh show (top to bottom) Andrew Morrison, Lester Kasai, Serge Ventura, Steve Douglas, Jeff Phillips, Reese Simpson, Bryan Pennington, Danny Way, Jeff Kendall and Bod.
-
Melbourne Skateboard Competition (Part 2)
-
Big Comp in Australia Not Many Dead
Photographs (and words?) were by David Walsh. The main one on this page features Chris Miller. The competition was organised by Hardcore, the Australian distributors who were to go on to have a massive impact on the whole skateboard world in the form of Globe. Results were:- Chris Miller
- Jeff Kendall
- Bod Boyle
- Jeff Phillips
- Gary Valentine
- Tony Magnusson
- Ken Park
- Sergie Ventura
- Reese Simpson
- Adam Luxford
- Jason Jessee
- Bryan Pennington
- Jason Ellis
- Brent Fellows
- Allen Losi
- Rob Mertz
-
Worldwide Skateboard Competition Circuit
Three (four actually) skateboard contests all crammed together into one article? That’ll be R.a.D Magazine — my dislike of competitive skateboard events was fairly obvious. In this case the events were in Melbourne, Houston, Dallas and Birmingham.
The opening spread features pictures of Gary Valentine, Tom Boyle, Chris Lonnergan and someone else who I can’t identify yet. Photographers were David Walsh in Australia and ‘Jay Podesta’ in America.
-
Clan, Backyard, Freestyle Ramps and other Adverts
Clan and Backyard interest me most on this page — both original skater/biker owned outfits at the very heart of their scenes. Clan II in Dundee also gets a mention, which is good to see. Dundee has a remarkable place in Scotland’s skate history too, even though much of that was in the future at this point. Freestyle Ramps were pioneers in offering professional wooden ramps to councils at a time when most councils were reluctant to do anything for skating. All in all this is a typical page of adverts from the days before skate mags were juicy and thick with advertising.
-
Mike Manzoori Interview
We seem to have a spelling issue here. I’m going with Manzoori not Manzouri now! How did you start? I did BMX, then my bike got nicked and I though “skating’s cheaper” so I thought I’d try that. After about a year I was thinking of giving up and I put a notice up in Buddies with my board for sale, but they took the sign down and hid it because they thought I should stick with skating.
Plans. Finish school, skate as much as I can, travel. I’d like to go all over the world, skate every ramp.
As far as I know things are still going according to plan.
By the way: the other photographer with the T90, bottom right, is Shane Rouse.
-
Ross Goodman Intro
Steve Keenan took the photograph of Ross Goodman for this Intro. I imagine Steve Douglas would have provided the words. Random acts of God in the production process provided the colour scheme.Favourite skaters Steve Salician, Ben Schroeder, almost everyone.
Raddest thing ever seen Anything Ben does.
Plans Skate lots of different places and things. Try to do good at contests this year, but if I don’t I won’t really care because it’s funner to cause trouble at contests than to do good.
-
Jason Lunn Intro
Favourite trick: Anything fast, dangerous and to fakie.
Last words: There is more to life than you think and the sooner you realise that, the better. I’d like to say thanks to M Zone, Lilian my girlfriend, Karl and Roz.
Fifteen years later I suspect Jason might still say the same about a life which has seen a lot of changes. But he’s still skating fast and still dangerous, as far as I know.
More from Jason Lunn at Chilled Heat.
-
Benz Skateboard Mail Order Advert
If my memory is right, I think Benz was one of those skate shops set up by the parents of a skater. I’m not sure how long they survived. Interesting to note Vision Streetwear in there alongside the likes of H Street. They also seem to be selling brands like Levis and Pepe, making me wonder, in hindsight, whether this might have been an off-shoot of a clothing shop. The shape of things to come… There’s a game you can play tagging what each of the skate craze booms was actually about: seventies = skateboarding, eighties = surf clothing, nineties = shoes and so on.
-
The Wall, Classified Adverts
Other Stuff is the most interesting category here:We sat in our rather nice Ceramik Rabbit Tees sipping, like, on the old Meloko Velocet, which sharpened you up for a bit of the old ‘ultra violence’. Ceramic Rabbit — a lust for life.
And this in the days when Clockwork Orange was not available for viewing in Britain. (Skateboad trivia note: the location for the tramp being beaten up in an underpass is the Wandsworth Bridge roundabout banks. In one of the issues of R.a.D there is a tribute picture of Don Brider doing a wallride over the very spot.)
Or how about:
Serious Hip-hop heads need the debut demo from LTK Posse: “Genius of the Vocab”. It’s the best use for a £1 coin.
-
Boardwalkers, Rollermania and Muddy Fox Adverts
Here’s another one for all the skateboard industry historians and gear freaks. Cyril’s Boardwalkers was the home of the Banbury mini-ramp featured in the “Life Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness” article in this issue. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think they survived very long.
Rollermania, on the other hand, is one of the longest lasting names in British skate history and a Bristol legend. I first met Tony Coffey when Alpine Sports sponsored him with some Rector rollerskates for some charity skate back in the seventies. Tony and Lou always had their own special way of doing things which gave their shop a distinctive personality. They’re still around and remain unique skate maverics rather than establishment figures — strangely placed between the big traditional companies and the newer hard core skater shops. Rollermania also go for new brands whenever they can: note the Shut boards in this advert and Cockroach wheels.
Prices in these adverts will make your eyes water: Hosoi Street boards for £29.99 and CD (cosmetic defect) Santa Cruz wheels for £16.00 a set!
Odd man out is Muddy Fox. I wonder why they were advertising mountain bikes in a skateboard magazine at this point?
