When did you start skating?
I started skating around April 1988. My older brother and some of the neighborhood kids already skated. I ended up getting my brother’s board stolen and by the time i was able to buy him a new one, he quit and said I could have it.
What was your first skateboard?
My first skateboard was a Vision Jinx. Pretty sure it had Indy trucks on it, but i can’t remember the wheels. I remember the grip tape was super rough.
When did you start skating?
1993 or 1994. In the late 80’s all the kids in my neighborhood were getting Powell or Vision decks, but my mom wouldn’t let me get one. She was scared I was going to get hurt.
What was your first skateboard?
First legit board was a Dead End 7″ deck with Gullwing trucks and Spitfire classics, 55mm. Prior to that I had this weird, beat, limp stick that had one indy and one thunder on it. The wheels were shredded down to nothing, and were basically bearing covers. I stole that out the back of my buddy’s Jeep.
When did you start skating?
Spring 1989 right after seeing Frankie Hills part in “Ban This” at my cousin Hectors house. He got me in skating.
What was your first skateboard?
My first pro board was the second Gonz. The one with the mermaid smoking a cigarette. You can color in all of the sea creatures. My cousin Hector got me stoked on the Gonz. Gonz looked like he was having so much fun.
Chris and I crossed paths on the streets outside the dorms at art school. We immediately hit it off and we skated the streets and plazas of Philly night and day. He was always having a blast on the board and memories of those sessions still make me smile.
When did you start skating?
I first started skating in 8th grade, so that was 1987.
What was your first skateboard?
My first skateboard was a Nash Tuff-Top that I bought second hand from a friend who introduced me into skateboarding. I remember it because the grip tape was sprayed on, and it had big, fat orange wheels. The first real board I had I think was a generic G&S board with Indys and big old school wheels. Which might have been Sims wheels.
When did you start skating?
I started skating in the mid 80’s. I saw my cousin skating and thought it was super cool so I ended up getting a skateboard for Christmas the next year.
What was your first skateboard?
Nash Nightmare. It was yellow with yellow wheels and it glowed in the dark.
Jim Houser and I go way back to high school days. We pushed wood long before either of us had any idea where our paths might lead or how art making and design would continue to merge our lives. I’m lucky that we lived so close back then. Even luckier that he moved to Providence, Rhode Island when I was starting GoodAndEvil and x3 lucky that he did graphics for me way back when. Jim continues to inspire.
When did you start skating?
In the spring of 1984. I learned on a friend’s Mattel Sizzler. In august of 84 I got my first real board for my 11th birthday.
What was your first skateboard?
A Nash Executioner, yellow with pink hardware.
Scott Minton is a major surge of energy. He might be my age, but he keeps pushing like he’s 16. His attitude is always positive in the session and he’s always having fun on the board.
When did you start skating?
I like to think that the first day I stepped onto a skateboard was the day I was truly born. In all seriousness, the boring truth is that I probably started sometime around 1985 after I saw Back to the Future. I might as well count the first few years since road rash doesn’t care if you’re good or not. It’s still skating even when you’re learning the basics. If you belly board and smash your face on the sidewalk or if you bail a grind in a backyard pool, it hurts either way. According to my sketchy math, I’ve been voluntarily throwing myself to the ground for almost 28 years. Maybe I’m not as smart as I think.
What was your first skateboard?
I found a magical, yellow plastic banana board under the steps in my Nana and Pop Pop’s basement in Woodbury, New Jersey. My cousin Janet and I started knee boarding and bailing into the grass next to the sidewalk out front. I still remember my Uncle John Carter coming out one day and setting us straight. He said something to the effect of, “You guys need to try it like this” as he went out to the middle of the street and standing almost like a skier with both feet together in the middle of this little loose-bearing deathtrap. He proceeded to bomb the hill all the way to the end. What a mind changing experience for a 12 year old before the internet was around. This was before cellphones, even before pagers! I had no idea what was going on. I was like, “Whaaat…? You can play in the middle of the street? I’m in!”
After that it was on. I started buying old Thrasher Magazines from this kid a school for a quarter an issue. I built a quarterpipe out of fake wood paneling and sawhorses and eventually graduated to “building” a series of sketchy backyard halfpipes. My mom took us to Cheapskates a few times and I got to skate with Barker Barrett, the Sigafoos Brothers, Dan Tag, Tom Boyle and mini Bam. Those dudes blew my mind over and over. Thanks Mom! I’ve definitely had a few boards roll through my life. Some of my favorites were: a pink Jim Gray, of course the Gator and Gonz late 80’s models, the Ed Templeton Cat, pretty much every Scum board and these Thriftstore Vampire boards I did in the early 2000’s through PennsWood.
I met Brendan way back in 1992. We spent many days and nights skating the streets of center city Philadelphia. These were much simpler times on the stoops. But they created bonds that can’t be broken. If you played in traffic, you know this well.
When did you start skating?
I started skateboarding in 1986. Reagan was president. It sucked.
What was your first skateboard?
Vision Mark Gonzales in Wood grain, no paint. It had that white face in the upper right hand corner, Indy trucks and Kryptonics wheels.
When did you start skating?
My brain doesn’t work so well for remembering dates and such. So I could totally have this stuff all wrong. I think I started skating when I was in the 6th or 7th grade. I was a hold-out with my white-on-white Redline freestyle BMX bike. All my friends ditched their bikes and were riding skateboards for a year or two before I decided to switch to 4 wheels. They were all figuring out how to ride these nailed together, slap-dash slant-ramp launch ramp things, and it just seemed so incredibly insane to be launching off these plywood contraptions in the driveway. Eventually the bike went bye-bye. Probably once all my friends started to take the train into Philly to street skate and look for empty pools. I couldn’t hang on an expedition like that, riding through those neighborhoods on a silly white BMX bike.
What was your first skateboard?
Busted up hand-me-downs from my buddy Fernando really. But my first new board was a Powell Peralta Ripper. They call it the “Old School Ripper” now. So funny. I bought it at the RC-Car and Hobby shop at the mall back in the day. There were no “skate shops.” It was a plywood rack to hold a dozen boards in the back of the hobby store, with trucks and wheels and stuff under glass, right next to the gas powered engine for that sweet RC airplane. I think I went there with all my buddies and my parents, but made my folks hang back until it was credit card time. Now that I’m an old-fart, I have perspective, and see what a complete brat I was being.
I had the pleasure of working with Mr. Prowell a few years back. He has the ability to execute and understand a multitude of design styles without a problem. He is a no nonsense design professional who can tackle any project without attitude or stress.
When did you start skating?
I started off fooling around on my brother’s 70’s plastic Roller Derby in the early 80’s.
What was your first skateboard?
My first board was a Variflex Splash. My first real board was was a Santa Cruz Rob Roskopp III w/ Independent trucks & Rat Bones wheels.
