80's skateboarding

My brother Jeff sent me this link that showed a "competition" of sorts among skaters who were big in the 80's, but are all now in their late 30's and early 40's. Most of them are still involved in skateboarding one way or another still, but it was funny to see them ride this ramp and do tricks from that era. Tricks nowdays are so much more evolved, but Tony Hawk did comment that back then the boards were so much bigger and heavier that it makes the tricks actually tougher to do.

Watching this brought back some memories for me. From about age 9-13 I was really into skateboarding. I wasn't very good at it at all, but it was my identity for a while. I bought all the videos, magazines, and tried my best to get good at skating. I couldn't drop in on a ramp, I could barely ollie. I could kind of grind my trucks on something, but for the most part I was a poser and just rode my skateboard around trying to look cool or something. Seeing this video made me ponder on my skateoboards I had over these few years and I started to search for them on the internet. Here is a run down on my history of skateboards:

My first skateboard was actually a "Kamakazi" skateboard, which was a generic brand that Costco sold. I thought it was the bomb. After wearing that one out, my parents bought both my brother and I matching "Nash" skateboards. We were happy to have anything, but we wore through those so quickly. When we were both able to save up enough money each (about $50), we went and bought Tony Hawk skateboards. We didn't get matching colors though, because that would have been gay (but my Hot Pink deck was NOT gay)


The thing that kind of sucked the most about having the money to buy a nice deck was not having enough money to buy nice trucks, bearings, or wheels, so we used our old trucks and wheels off our Nash decks. They were heavy and they were hard and not forgiving against cracks and rocks.

Eventually I earned up enough money to buy some Independant trucks and some Bullet wheels.

On a side note, one of my best friends from that time is the person that got me into skating. His name was Raleigh and he is now an airline Pilot for Skywest (I think?) here in Utah (useless info I guess). I was impressed because when I met him, the dude owned TWO skateboards, but only one set of trucks and wheels, so he'd switch them from deck to deck now and again. He was a "Vision" guy and only rode these two Vision skateboards:

Mark Gonzales (on the left) and the Psycho Stick (on the right; most decks back then were associated/designed by the rider. I'm not sure who the rider of this deck was)


My friend Raleigh moved away when I was 11. Raleigh was a good skater and a really good artist. He had plans of going pro and would even draw his ideas for skateboard decks. I thought they were so cool. I don't remember the name of them now though, but one had some clocks on it with some dollar bills too.

My next few decks were a bit blurry. I remember buying this Steve Caballero deck:



Then agreeing to trade it for this crappy Mike McGill deck. Stupidest thing I had ever done. It was in crappy shape and even had stress marks. I remember trading it with this dude that was older and really popular among the skaters I rode with. I think I just wanted him to think I was cool or something.


After that, I bought this Lance Mountain deck. This was one of the best decks I had ever owned. It had a HUGE tail that made it easy to ollie.



I traded the Lance Mountain deck with my friend Jeremy for a month or so. I rode his Natus Kaupus deck, which I could actually ollie the highest on (about 12", which was HUGE for me).



My Lance Mountain deck was stolen and I knew who it was because I saw the dude riding it. I was the only person in friggin' Eldorado County that had this deck (at least I thought I was) and this dude was riding it. He was the son of a group of Hells Angels (and probably in prison now for murder), so I didn't dare mess with him.

I then made my best deck purchase my last. Chriss FREAKING Miller. I had no idea who this dude was, but I saw the deck and it spoke to me. It was made by Schmidt Stixx I think? (by the way, all the decks I have spoken about were made by Powell Peralta, except the Natas Kaupus, which was made by Santa Monica Airlines; I had considered myself a "Powell Peralta" guy up until that point). This deck was perfect for me. I felt so much more free on it, I could ollie well, grind well, even could go higher on ramps than I normally could. Next to the Lance Mountain deck, this was the best deck by far.



I eventually saw the writing on the wall and all my friends started to ditch skateboards for BMX bikes. I followed suit and I think I ended up trading my board for some bike rims or something.

Those were great times though. I remember being so frustrated because we lived in the "country" so there wasn't a lot of hard surfaces to ride on and if they were blacktop or cement, they were usually covered with rocks and gravel. I remember how stoked we were when my parents paved a part of their driveway in front of the house. We had so much skating surface, it was unbelievable. Every once in a while a friend of a friend of a friend built a half pipe, but I was too chicken to ever try dropping in, so I'd just ride up and down from the middle. It was lame, but that was the best I could do. Russ was a stud though. Dude wasn't afraid to try anything and he was always good. I think he might be part of the reason I ditched skating; I couldn't compete. The funnest times was having one of our parents drop us off "downtown" placerville so we could go find a parking lot to ride on, or just ride down the sidewalk along main street.

I now leave you with a nice picture of me in my skater era mullet, cool skate shirt with a bird riding a skateboard. Enjoy: