Sk8 or Die!

15peter20

Hands up who use to be a skateboarder?!?

I was heavily into Skating in my early teens and have the scars to prove it. Purely street skating for me, not brave enough for too much vert.

Used to get the train from my backwater up to Bristol with all my mates and go to Dame Emily Skate park - where we would sometimes see the legendary Spex (local pro).

Before girls and alcohol, this was how I got my kicks and booooy did I love it. Days started when the sun came up and ended when it went down. Hours spent perfecting Ollie kick flips, rail slides etc.....I don't think I've ever felt so free since those days. Expression, Camaraderie, Freedom, Bonding, Adrenaline - that was skateboarding.

Saved for months to buy my Santa Cruz board with Independent trucks and bullet wheels from Rollermania in Bristol.

Ah...those were fine days indeed.

15peter20

Spex @ Dame Emily circa late eighties:

daviesee

15peter20 wrote:

Hands up who use to be a skateboarder?!?

I don't think I've ever felt so free since those days. Expression, Camaraderie, Freedom, Bonding, Adrenaline - that was skateboarding.

Ah...those were fine days indeed.

Yup!

And what I've left above from your post was the inprotant part. Not a sport, a lifestyle.

All disciplines from '76 - '82 and a few memorabilia trips since with my speciality being slalom. My preference though was just carving lines through a park. Me and 3 others were the first to ride Livi. Rain started when they laid the concrete went into a deluge. That's why the bowl was so rough. We had to trek through mud up to our knees to get to it. Worth it though! :P Fond memories.

15peter20

daviesee wrote:

15peter20 wrote:

Hands up who use to be a skateboarder?!?

I don't think I've ever felt so free since those days. Expression, Camaraderie, Freedom, Bonding, Adrenaline - that was skateboarding.

Ah...those were fine days indeed.

Yup!

And what I've left above from your post was the inprotant part. Not a sport, a lifestyle.

All disciplines from '76 - '82 and a few memorabilia trips since with my speciality being slalom. My preference though was just carving lines through a park. Me and 3 others were the first to ride Livi. Rain started when they laid the concrete went into a deluge. That's why the bowl was so rough. We had to trek through mud up to our knees to get to it. Worth it though! :P Fond memories.

ah, you were in the era before me then when boards where like minature surf boards. I tell you something, when I look outside and it's raining now, I'm dissapointed I can't ride. But back then, when I couldn't skate, I was virtually suicidal!

daviesee

Last board when I was serious was a Ray "Bones" Rodriguez, Trackers & Bones wheels. When it was too trashed it got cut down for freestyle use.
I do have a Bad Boy Company board with Ptex underside in the loft that I pull out every 5 years or so. :oops:

15peter20

no embarrassment in that!! I'd love to go out and ride again.

My old board:

mcj78

That a Jason Jesse Sungod? Always loved the old skate deck graphics, the pushead zorlac ones were my favourites - Santa Cruz do a reissue line with loads of the old designs, tempted to get one as I still have some mint venture trucks in a cupboard somewhere... however having just had a load of cartilage removed from my knee on Monday prob not a good idea!
J

spen666

Who let the kids out?


Skateboarding? What a waste of a youth.

You should all have been rioting at football matches instead- that's how youths should have behaved

kev77

yep, me too!

Loved the old santa cruz and powell peraltra decks! Anyone remember Vision street wear and the bones brigade?

mingmong

Wish I still had my Alley Cat

Anonymous

Ahh, me too.

I started when I was a bout twelve and didn't give up till I was about 23.

When I was 12 my dad used to drive me to small halfpipes in Marlborough and Blewsbury, when I got to my late teens and some of us got cars we used to drive to Bristol and Oxford.

Can't remember the boards I used to have to be honest, to start with they definitely used to look like the Sata Cruz you posted, I think my first proper deck was a XXX, or something like that. With Gullwing trucks (florescent pink), don't remember the wheels but I did have the Powell Peralta ceramic bearings which were wicked. It was brought by my parents as a birthday present, from a shop in Bath that had it's own ramp out the back.

I occasionally feel like buying another skateboard, but at 33 I think I may have missed the boat on that one.

Skeltron

Moi.
Ages 17 til 26-27. I'm now almost 30
Still go my board. Fizzed off when most of my mates quit / got girlfriends etc / when I got interested in cycling.