It would probably appear to the groms that when I fart there would a plume of dust, due to my age but I got started in skateboarding in 1968 when I was about 7. My first board was a Warwick Bullet which was made in the UK. I asked for a skatey for Critmas because my neighbour had a board made from an old expandable roller skate which had been split in two and nailed to the deck; I wanted one. The old Bullet had black rubber wheels and odd rubber trucks, well they seem odd now but it did turn really well for those days. Following that was the Surfer Sam experience - plenty of board but really skinny trucks, black rubber wheels and no turn...tic tac'ing was the way we turned those big angry bad boys. With the advent of urethane wheels and the Ultimate Flex Machine movie our hero was a yank called Russ Howell. He was big on handstands and 360's and came out for the 1975 Coca Cola Skateboard contest at French's Forest. I was there and it was a fantastic event...the footage from Forever Young is from that era. This was also the Bahne era - but who had parents who could afford them. My dad knew a guy who knew a guy who was selling wheels and truck sets so my brother and I ended up with Apolloflex Stoker wheels on Chicago trucks...loose bearings were fun (not) and there were no decks that we could get our hands on so we made our own out of three ply and a bit of fibreglass matting and resin. Most of the time we spent riding through the streets of Forestville and the playground at the Forest High School. In the fullness of time I transferred my wheels to a 'spastic plastic'. It was a formed plastic deck with a little kick tail at the back. My neighbour, a fitter and turner, made me a stall pad from cast iron and it got bolted to the rear of the board...it was how we slowed down.If you were belting down a hill you just brought the front wheels up and dragged the back. I could always be guaranteed for a light show throwing sparks up. As we went from early teens to mid and late teens we had more cash from returning bottles to the milk bars for refund and from paper runs. We also had more of an idea about what was what. So it came to pass that I got my hands on a Saurus deck with the Edwards, the first of the wide trucks and transferred the Stoker wheels to that bad boy. My brother had a DHD (David Hill Designs) board and we would ride the sandstone flagging banked walls outside the school hall doing radical re-entries from the top. The skatey was our primary means of transport. I'd skate from home to Warringah Rd, Frenchs Forest and then hitch to Narraweena where my surfboard was kept at a mates place and then go to Dee Why point for waves. When I got my P's we were driving but the skatey was always in the car because there was never any guarantee of waves at Macaha, Longie or Little Narra, in which case we'd skate Long Reef headland or around Beacon Hill, Collaroy or Cromer. I mucked around with the bushings in the Saurus and eventually worked out that the urethane bushings in the front coupled with my uncle's old thongs cut to size in the back gave me amazing turning .....so now the old Saurus hangs in the HopShop, the power pivot is also too somewhere along with my 70's skateboarding book. You can still see the original thong rubber still in place along with the sealed bearings which have never been changed or cleaned from the 70's and still roll well. I live in Naremburn which is documented in Willoughby Council archives as being called "Dogtown" back in the 1890's....irrelevant but interesting. I bought a Dervish from the HopShop a couple of years ago and then a little later I picked up a Demonseed for racing downhill.
I am actually indebted to a young 19 year old upstart named Jackson Shapeira who told me that I should get a helmet. I told him I was old school and it was unnecessary.I survived the 70's with no helmet no shoes....he simply outlined that there was no excuse for preventable brain injury, so I picked up a Triple 8. A couple of months later I tried to slide on a narrow section of footpath; slide I did not - turn sharply I did...forehead first into a handrail. Dazed yes - hurt NO. Thank you young Mr Shapeira.
I have 2 daughters who skateboard as well and we did our first ever organised downhill event at MOTH 2011. I was never going to trouble Benbro, Leeso, Jacko and the gang but had some fun...my girls got podiums (2nd and 3rd) so we were very pleased with the outing. Brit has a Loaded Vanguard and is currently in Europe on a Rayne Hustler. Belle rides a Norfin Manta, Norfin Pintail, Norfin Manta Foam Core with PanelVan paintjob and a Fibretec Flying Pan.
Why do we skateboard? Because we hate jogging.
We like the way the longboard community rolls - take the Matti Rae incident for example. If there is a man down then the community rallies. Couple this with the immensely dedicated souls that are the backbone of ASRA and why would you not live your life by it....when guys like Gabe, Cam and Jacko along with the rest of the gang are putting on Grom days, Schools of Speed and Slide Schools in Sydney and Merrick doing the same in Queensland then this community is tight. At Mt Annan School of Speed recently, Luca Coleman asked what it felt like to be skateboarding, he was respectful not to finish the question with 'at your age' and I thought for a moment and replied that when I jump on a skateboard the years fall away and I am back in my teens...and so it is...
I have the power to be happy or unhappy. I choose which. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow's not here. I have today, and I'm going skateboarding because that's what I like to do.
I would like to see a Masters category in the ASRA events..something for the Over 50's. Womens, Groms, Open and Masters. Seriously though, there should be more dads skateboarding with their kids because nothing pulls the family together than doing things together. I'd also like to skate with punters my age as well as skating with young people.
I skateboard because I am proud to be a part of such a great pursuit; I am pleased that I am still able to do it; and while I am my age I do not have to act my age....res firma mitescere nescit (L).
Something else that is really cool is that when I'm carrying or riding my skateboard and another guy is doing the same there is a nod or an eyebrow lift...a small, barely noticeable but mutual sign of respect. Any dude on a skateboard is my brother from another mother. Respect.
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