My first was home made, around 1964. I took an old pair of my uncle’s indoor shoe skates, cut the bottom plate in half on one shoe and screwed the two halves to a piece of wood. The wheels were made of wood and they left a sawdust trail wherever I went. Wore those out kind of quick. Then I cut the other one. When the wheels wore out completely they would fall apart and the ball bearings would scatter all over.
Maybe a year later(?) I got a Hobie Super Surfer fiberglass with the composite “clay” wheels. Just like this one:
After going through two Hobies, I got a Bahne deck. Can’t recall the trucks but the wheels were Road Riders.
Brown University parking lot, around 1977
I used to bomb the hill by the School of Design in Providence. It is the same hill where they had the street luge event in the first X Games.
8mm frames
I got a Flite around 1978. Bought from my old friend Sid Abruzzi. The company was owned by two other friends of mine, Steve and Dave Derrah.
All three guys from Newport, RI
We used to skate at this place called Fernandes Supermarket in Fall River, MA . The parking lot had two banked and tapered walls that formed a corner.
I took this pic of Sid while he was filming another guy at Fernandes. It was used in a collage in TSJ when they did an article about Sid. (I got no money, or a credit)
no pics, none of us had a camera. We’d S turn down the backroads that dropped from the coastal mountains into the canyons south of HMB. Some runs 3 miles long. The thankfully rare cars heading up the road made it particularly interesting on the blind curves.
good times…
sammy ,those are worth some righteous bucks these days !
herb
nice terrain sammy ! is it still like that today ?
herb
icc, no pics needed…just your experience is all that’s needed here…i love old surf and skater stories…ask Kirk Putnam …he knows.
herb
I know. I still have one of the decks, but it’s beat to hell. The threaded inserts for the truck plates eventually pulled out and I had to drill through the deck to put the trucks back on.
Not sure what it’s like, now. Haven’t been there in over 30 years. Sid would know. I’ll ask next time I see him.
I wish I had a wide angle shot of the whole thing. The two banks met in the corner and tapered away like a left and right “wall”. Plus, there was a pretty big parking lot at the bottom, so lots of room to run out the drops. We’d go skate on Sundays when they were closed, if there was no surf.
Herb ,did you ever skate 2nd street in manhatten beach? East off PCH on 2nd street I got the speed wobells and turned into a cannon ball./1978