Talking about Skateboards here. The first skateboard I ever saw in action, was at WinsanSea, in 1955. A length of 2 x 4, about 24 inches long, with half a metal wheel skate attached at each end. More than crude, they were primitive, by almost any standard. BUT… you could ‘‘surf’’ on the sidewalk. You haven’t lived, until you’ve towed behind a car at 30 mph, and had the metal wheels begin to disintegrate and pepper you with shrapnel. Yep, I lived. We hunted for hills. Size mattered. We lived for big surf, and big hills. Steep hills, at night, barefoot on a metal wheeled skateboard, was thought to be ‘‘normal.’’ At least in my crew. The dream, was to some day get to Hawaii, and ride 20 foot waves. Everything we did, was in preparation for that eventuality. If that was not your goal, you were just posturing. Pretending. Thank you’s to Bud Brown, John Severson, Bruce Brown, and many others, for fueling those early youthful dreams. Did any of you go down a similar path?
Well, I did make my first skateboard from my sister’s urethane wheeled roller skates, and a piece of plywood, but I had no dreams of 20 foot surf in Hawaii.
When the surf got ‘big’ in NJ, when trunkable in summer when I was a kid, the problem was making it ouside through the short period relelntless windswell, and the everpresent threat of the jetties, and the longshore current which could wash the denied, into them.
I remember questioning one older guy from Hawaii, relentlessly, about how to duckdive. It got to the point when he’d see me he’d run away. Our local skate shop played surf videos all day, and I remember watching Derek Ho paddling out at Pipeline and wondering how the F anyone could possibly duckdive those pipe monsters and make it outside.
Getting denied, and the walk of shame back up the beach to try again, was one of my great fears when the waves got good on the East coast. Skating on flat barrier islands, well there were a few beachfront homes with steep driveways with owner’s surprisingly tolerant of us. Skating was always secondary to surfing. We had a plethora of 60’s style longboards underneath almost every home to break out when it was sub marginal, which it was often, in the summer.
But being 85Lbs succesfully riding a 35Lb longboard, is pretty good training.
A neighbor who relocated from Hermosa Beach circa '59-'60 introduced us to the 2x4 with metal skate sections nailed to the bottom. We replaced the 2x4s with homemade plywood decks which were an improvement. Our favorite course was through the downhill hallways of a nearby grammar school that was built on a side-hill. We got so we could drift the metal wheels thru turns at speed, but you were always on the edge of spinning out.
Supermarket cart wheels were also un-bolted and attached to ply decks. One fixed and one swivel. The rubber wheels did smooth out an asphalt downhill at speed. The problem was that you were 6” off the ground, plus at about 25 mph they would sometimes start to shimmy uncontrollably and pitch the rider. We never solved that problem and experiments were discontinued after two of my friends bit the dust pretty badly.
Right, bare-foot at speed. Perfectly normal.
Points given, for a kindred soul.
damn. y’all’s kindred soles (pun) made me set out downhill skating barefoot, to see what it’s all about. felt great, but
blood totally ensued,
and push foot has indeed seen better days.
I remember taking my sisters skates with metal wheels and nailing them to a 2x4 bending the nails around the plates to hold them on around 1960. I also remember my dad kicking my ass for stealing my sisters skates and ruining them. Lol. From there, I remember the old clay wheels, which would stop and catch on any little pebble, throwing you forward to kiss the pavement.
My first “real” skateboard was a Roller Derby with urethane wheels. So smooth compared to clay wheels. And before that we did nail metal skate wheels to the bottom of a piece of wood. And what to do with the other skate? Added it in parallel to the other skates and now you could only go straight. Smart.
No shoes, still that way, BIG hills in Point Loma, and a few waves, no need to go to north. That whole LJ vs PL/OB thing. I headed to South America. Stranger land with plenty of surf…
First steel wheeled skateboard I ever rode was in 63 or 64. Not my board, but right after giving it a go my brother and I told our dad we wanted one. He did us even better and bought some old roller skates from a roller ring, tore the boots off, made a wooden board, sawed the wheel base in half and attached the wheels to the board. We had the best skateboards in the neighborhood. I was about six, my brother around 8. Hit a pebble with those clay wheels and you were sent flying. Surfing wasn’t on the map for either of us for another 6 years. Mike
There sure were some good places to skate back in the day. I remember taking road trips just to skate different ramps, drainage ditches, and the like.
I don’t remember exactly how this got started, but alcohol was definitely involved in perfecting the “simulated big-wave drop-in”. Many two-story apartment buildings or houses had an exterior stair with a railing made of a 2x4 or similar. The railing was typically at about 45 degrees and ended abruptly about 3 feet off the ground. In those days, we sometimes still wore loafers with hard, smooth soles. So, basically you would have a beer or three, then while standing, slide down the railing, arms outstretched (and accelerating rapidly) until you had to jump off at the end without breaking your leg or neck. Fun…
Started with Flintstone wheels for about 2 years, must have got Roosters leftovers from the neighborhood…but then Ted Bumpas turned me on to the new Cadillac wheels, Chicago trucks…and Bahne 24 inch solid fiberglass deck. Skateboarding went from mitigating damage to flying over asphalt. 6 months later went to the G&S fiberflex.
We did the steel wheel thing, taking a skate apart and screwing it to a piece of wood. That was probably 1966. Then we bought the real thing when the clay wheels came out. Cadillac wheels made things better, but when the Stoker wheels came out that was the shit man. They were considerably larger and way better. This was all on the narrow trucks too. I never got along with the wider Tracker trucks.
We lived out on the flats, so most of our skateboarding was ramps and the rounded curbs in our neighborhood. I built a quarter pipe outside my bedroom at my dad’s house in 1978.
My first skateboard was something like this: “Roller Derby” brand, steel wheels, ridden to death. The wheels eventually ended up kind of octangular. I’m pretty sure my older brother and I went to a local department store in Los Angeles with my mom who bought them for us. No helmet, no knee pads, no wrist guards… mom really loved us!
Clay wheels were the bomb when they came out. After various spills and thrills, I was not so in to skateboarding when the urethane wheels arrived. I am now the proud owner of a custom Paul Jensen laminated Purple Heart deck with LED wheels that ‘spark’ when spun - kind of cool at night but definitely poser stuff compared to the rest of what you old farts did.
My story is similar. Nailed the two halves of a standard roller skate to a 1x4 sometime in the early 60s. Made a skateboard deck in high school wood shop (laminated walnut and maple with a mahogany stringer). Bought an inexpensive commercial board to use the clay wheels and trucks on my custom woodshop deck – rode on my neighbor’s super smooth cement driveway.
Picked up a Sims from my younger brother-in-law in my mid-30s but only rode it a few times. Like everybody, no protective gear. If you did not ride barefoot, you could not “feel” the board.
Then in 2006 discovered mountainboards when I saw Lindsey Jacobellis riding one in her brief bio clip during the 2006 winter Olympics. Bought one. Discovered mountainboard street riding in the hills. By then, helmet and body armor for palms, wrists, forearms and knees was a must…
Saw a Carveboard. Customized my mountainboards for street riding with channel trucks and street slicks. I discoverd street carve paradise in my mid 50s. A minor wipeout at 62 bruised my forearm, causing the loss of use/strength of my left hand for 4-6 weeks. That and tearing up my shoulders with hand plants ended my street riding days.
Made some hybrid street rides with mountabin board decks too. The 3-wheeler was a bat out of hell…
Some memories:
Dang Stoney. You took this thing to a whole new level. Much respect.
Other than some steel-wheeled roller skates that I got as a five-year-old, all my board riding (for the last 34 years) has been done on urethane wheels. You old dudes got some pretty good stories.
I also remember with the old clay wheels, having the loose ball bearings that you had to keep oiled and adjusted or you’d lose bearings (which sooner or later always happened).
Like others, I did the steel wheel roller skate thing on a 2x8"piece of Pine. My first attempt at shaping. I beveled the rails, rounded the nose and upturned the bottom rail. Painted it and road it until I bought a real Ply board with a surfboard type outline and clay wheels. Similar to Chicago Skate wheels. It was a knock-off, but very similar to a Makaha or Early Hobie skateboards. Wore my Converse Low Tops and Brass Ringers a lot when I rode, but sometimes bare foot. I did drop knee backhand turns and cut backs and drug my heel. I once was attempting a narrow cement drainage ditch up behind Lopez Lake bare foot and did a drag heel cut back. That maneuver resulted in the entire callous on my heel being torn off in a silver dollar size chunk of skin about 1/4" thick. I was alone up there and had to drive about ten miles down to the Pismo doctors office… They put about six shots of Novocain into it. Cleaned it and bandaged it up. Pretty damned painful and took months to grow a new heel. I was skateboarding around an Elementary school once and out onto several side by side cement basketball courts. A school maintenance worker was up on an eight foot stepladder painting the back board on the basketball goal posts/hoops. He was up there with a gallon of paint and a brush. I shot the curl a few times in a “Caveman” crouch/squat. By that I mean I threaded the A-frame of the ladder while he was up there on it painting… I cruised around, picked up some speed and came thru for another pass threading the ladder. But this time I squatted parallel and laid out flat in a coffin, complete with prayerful hands and looking up as I threaded the step ladder. A couple more of those and then off to a couple of ramps to do a little "climb and drop on the nose. That janitor/maintenance man was slack jawed.