-
Intro: Mark Findlay
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…
-
Lance Mountain and Steve Caballero: Livingston, Birmingham Wheels and Wolverhampton
The thought of the security guards at the Edinburgh Virgin Megastore only letting skaters in 10 at a time makes me smile. They must have wondered what was going on. Back in 1988 skateboarding was only just emerging from the underground. This demo took place just after Livingston had been resurfaced and coping had been…
-
Tommy Guerrero at Southsea and Lance Mountain at Meanwhile 1988
At the time of writing, Southsea Skatepark is under threat and there is a petition to save it here: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/save-southsea/ The pictures come from a happier time, with the park under the supervision of John Thurston and and visited by all manner of legends, as we see here. This was the opening page of an…
-
Paul Cheyne Coffin Drop-in Livingston 1988
Livingston skatepark has always placed the emphasis on pure fun, rather than serious competition. There was a competition on this day, complete with judges, but at the end they announced that everyone had placed first. My type of competition. Events like this were also a great chance to print pictures of people doing strange and…
-
Livingston, Banks, Hips, Bowl and Doubles
Blue sky picture feast from the finest bit of British concrete at the time. I don’t know which makes me smile more at this distance: Davie Philip’s style or the pure-fun aspects of the other two pictures. It also suddenly strikes me that it’s been a very long time since I’ve been to Livingston and…
-
Jamie Blair, Livingston Skatepark, 1988
Very rare to see a whole page devoted to pictures of one skater. But in the case of Jamie Blair at Livingston, it makes perfect sense. Along with Davie Philip, Jamie Blair was a huge influence at this time, both through his skating and through the pioneering “Skater Owned Shop”, Clan Skates in Glasgow. They…
-
Livingston Fun Day September 1988
I was talking about Livingston at the “goodbye to Harrow Day” last week. With Harrow and Southsea under threat we’re heading towards a situation where Livingston will be one of the oldest skateparks in Britain (I hope Rom’s still OK). At the time this story was written, though, I still thought of it as “new”…