Brad Bowman Interview
by Sam Slash, Skateboarder, January 1980
You just got back from a tour?
Brad Bowman: Yeah, I went to Detroit, Michigan. Stayed there for a few days, did demos and judged a midwest amateur contest. Then I went on to Apple Skatepark in Columbus, Ohio, and that was pretty fun—it's real hot. It's indoors...like a miniature Cherry Hill.
How did it compare to Cherry Hill?
Brad: Actually, Cherry Hill's better becasue it's deeper and the bowls there (Apple) are real shallow. They've got a lot of vertical on them, so it's a really quick transition. But it's still rippable. You just gotta skate there for a few days. It's still hot, you know, and since it's indoors it will be great when it's snowing back there.
Did you notice any talent at Apple?
Brad: There's some around. Probably they'll have alot now that they got the park and the guys are into skating everyday and going there to practice.
Where are the most progressive areas outside of California right now?
Brad: Probably the East coast—Florida and Cherry Hill are the main spots. Florida, you know, those guys are blazing. They want to be pros and all. Alan's (Gelfand) ripping now. He's a pro—he's just doing good. Mike McGill—they have alot of guys that are hot. Cherry Hill's got a couple of guys coming out of there like Mike Jesiolowski, who rides for Powell—he rips. Wherever the good parks are, there'll be good skaters coming out. They skate every day, like Apple—they should have a couple of riders in the next few months that will be starting to rip. I want to go back there and maybe give 'em a few boards.
Duane Bigelow & Wally Hollyday Interview
by Don Hoffman, Skateboarder, March 1980
In what capacity were you involved in (skatepark) design at that time (Lakewood)?
Wally Hollyday: The design was pretty much his [Joel Vest]...I should say the layout was his. The things I changed were the transitions. He was pretty much into full-on arcs in the swimming pool—like cone bowls—whereas I came in and flattened out the bottom of the bowls to make them more like pools.
The story is that you had a few run-ins with certain concrete contractors at that time—like with Ed Olson for one. Tell me what you thought of Superior Company at that time.
Wally: At that time, I thought they were the best. As a matter of fact, going into Cherry Hill, I thought they should have done it—which I was soon proven wrong about. The major trouble I had with them was I always thought the pools at Lakewood should have been steeper and have sharper transitions to make them easier to ride— to make them faster. Whereas Ed Olson and Joel Vest and everyone else I was working against thought that the more transition, the easier it would be to ride. So, actually, the big bowl at Lakewood—the one forty feet across and fourteen feet deep—was a compromise between the two of us. A compromise between having a half sphere on the bottom and a pool shape.
Tell Us About Apple Skatepark.
Duane Bigelow: Apple Skatepark in Colombus, Ohio—which Wally worked on and did a very good job in the dirt work and his part of the design—is as good or better as far as runs and / or designs. It's as good as any park I've worked on. As far as the quality of our work, it's one of the best that we've ever done.
Wally: I worked with Larry MacDonald on it. He had got the job and set me up designing what he wanted—which was basically a design like Cherry Hill. Peter Drotlef and I elaborated on that , changed the design around and went there and dug this thing out with the help of a couple of local skaters. But it was pretty much just the two of us digging the whole thing out. He did the form work and I put the steel in.
What components does Ohio have as far as skate runs?
Wally: Well, it's a pretty well-rounded design. It has an egg bowl with a straight drop-in—similar to Cherry Hill's but it doesn't have a side drop-in. It's got a large kidney, a very large halfpipe and a two-thirds pipe. It's got a smaller keyhole, a large L-bowl, a reservoir-type run, a couple of small banked runs and a large freestyle area.
Off The Wall Skateboarder, March 1980
NEWS FLASHING: The goal is to bring skateboarding back alive. The perpetrators are the team from Ohio's Pachinko Factory and the park team at Apple. The M.O. is to blitz the middle of America with high-voltage demos.
A Tale Of Two Parks
by Ted Terrebonne, Skateboarder, June 1980
Apple Skatepark lies near the edge of Columbus, Ohio, which—in turn—is in the middle of the state. This central location is important. Surrounded by Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan, these areas actually provide about forty percent of the park's membership. Ten percent of the skaters travel upstate up to two hours to reach the park, while the remaining fifty percent are drawn from Columbus' four million population.
Three years from conception to completion, Apple's manager, Mike Musgrave, and it's part-owner, Geno Goldberg, knew that their plan for a year-round park would have to be well-executed from the start or they would risk losing a big investment. With this in mind, Wally Hollyday was contacted to design the structure, with Wally also helping Peter Drotlef and locals skaters Dave Bush, Ronn Dudley, Pete Kunz and Jeff Kasson dig out and form the walls. Bigelow construction company poured the concrete—creating one of the best-surfaced parks on the scene.
Apple exists within an industrial park building measuring 160 feet wide by 230 feet long. At the front entrance is a small but adequate pro-shop. Next comes a good-sized arcade with a snack bar and admission entrance.
The design of the park accomodates all levels of ability. The novice can start in the peanut bowl, a small egg bowl or reservoir with easy transition, and work up to a large banked L-bowl. The intermediate skater has a mellow keyhole pool about seven feet deep with twenty-two foot diameter, and a halfpipe with rounded edges for good grinds and slides. The more advanced skaters, on the other hand, are provided an egg bowl with a thirty-two foot diameter and twelve feet of depth. The three-quarter over-vertical pipe feeds into the halfpipe—making the best such combos I have yet seen.
As you might guess, I heartily recommend you visit Apple no matter where you live. The people there are very friendly and enjoy skaters visiting from other states. See you in Columbus, Ohio soon!
David Andrecht Interview
by Craig Fineman, Skateboarder, July 1980
I understand that you are about to go on tour.
David Andrecht: Yeah, I'm just gettin' ready to go back to Ohio and Wisconsin. Gonna spend some time at Apple Skatepark and a couple others.
Who is involved in the trip besides yourself?
David : Me and Steve Olson, Burt LaMar and Ted Terrebonne.
What's in the works for your trip?
David : Well, it's basically a promotional trip, but we will be judging a contest back there and skating in a twenty-four hour skate-a-thon. Mainly just skating.
Stationary Front Action Now, November 1980
APPLE: In case you don't already know, Apple Skatepark is unreal! El Gato is unreal! He was doing fakie ollies in the three-quarter and drifting horizontally into the halfpipe! When Andrecht was there, his boardslides were also bionic—in the kidney they were from the hip all the way around into the shallow. Andrecht is pretty mellow, but El Gato and a few other punkers went pogoing into a honky-tonk and those cowboys were yelling obscenities until El gato got them kicked out of there. P.S. I hope your mom doesn't hear about this, Eddie.—The Woodys, Cincinnati, Ohio
First Annual Apple Skatepark
Amateur Series
January 1—First Contest & January 10—Second Contest.
Skat'n News, February 24 1981, Issue 4, Volume 3 (65 cents!)
Apple Skatepark was the perfect place and setting for a Wintertime series. For those of you who may not know, Apple is the hottest indoor skatepark anywhere, and this series will hopefully receive some of the recognition it deserves.
On to the contest. So far in the series, we've had skaters from Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and all parts of Ohio. The energy is unreal! These guys want people to know that they are here ripping as well as anyone in the country.
Starting with the fourteen and under class, Chris Phillips (now sponsored by Santa Cruz) proved to be the man to beat. This kid has got to be one of the hottest vert skaters around. Someone who knows this is Sean Patrick, and lately he's been pushing himself beyond belief. The competition was tough, but Sean went on to beat Chris by just one point. In the seoncd contest, Chris suffered a bad fall, but still went ahead with the competition.
In the fifteen and over class, we had sixteen entrants who were really intense. From Springfield, Ohio, Brett Martin has come a long way in just a couple of months to show these guys what ripping is all about. Brett remains the only local to rock 'n' roll the two-thirds pipe at Apple, not to mention the countless amount of other tricks this guy can do. The man rips! Brett ripped his way into first place in both contests—but not easily.
A young man by the name of Ken Mollica (a crowd favorite) has been keeping the pressure on Brett with unreal moves and lots of speed. Kenny, I'm proud to say, is now riding as an amateur for Sims. He's a fine skater and has continued to rip Apple for over a year now.
Results of both contests appear below. Ronn Dudley and I would like to thank all of the participants up to this point and we would like to see more of you coming back. Until next time, good luck.—Kevin Tate
14 & Under
Janary 1, 1981 Contest
1. Sean Patrick 84.125/100 pts
2. Chris Phillips 83.750/99 pts
14 & Under
January 10, 1981 Contest
1. Sean Patrick 82.375/100 pts
2. Jex Harrison 76.000/99 pts
3. Whitney Calpin 76.000/99 pts
4. Chris Phillips 73.75/98 pts
15 & Over
January 1, 1981 Contest
1. Brett Martin 83.125/100 pts
2. Ken Mollica 81.375/99 pts
3. Robbie Bergendall 80.25/98 pts
4. Bill Fergusson 80.25/98 pts
4. Bill Fergusson 78.875/97 pts
5. Wayne Lyons 77.375/96 pts
6. Greg Mack 77.25/95 pts
7. Rob Dolby 76.75/94 pts
8. Casey Marzetti 76.5/93 pts
9. Todd Cadieux 76.125/92 pts
10. Blaise Nesser 75.75/91pts
11. Mike Ohm 75.125/90 pts
12. Dave Bush 73.75/89 pts
13. Mike Toth 72.375/88 pts
14. Mark Peters 71.875/87 pts
14. Mark Carpenter 71.875/87 pts
16. John Hoshstrasser 70.375/86 pts
17. Alan Wallace 65.25/85 pts
15 & Over
January 10, 1981 Contest
1. Brett Martin 82.5/100 pts
2. Ken Mollica 81.875/99 pts
3. Rob Roskopp 78.875/98 pts
4. Wayne Lyons 78.125/97 pts
4. Robbie Bergendall 78.125/97 pts
6. Blaise Nesser 77.875/96 pts
7. Shawn Scott 77.75/95 pts
8. Kevin Chinchar 77.625/94 pts
9. Bill Fergusson 77.0/93.0 pts
10. Dave Bush 76.125/92 pts
11. Greg Mack 76.0/91 pts
12. Casey Marzetti 75.125/90 pts
13. Joe Omelchuck 73.875/89 pts
14. Rob Dolby 72.75/88 pts
15. Harold Ansorge 72.125/87 pts
16. Mike Toth 70.125/86 pts
17. Marty Jimenez 69.75/85 pts
18. Mike Blauvelt 65.0/84 pts
Total Overall Points
1. Sean Patrick 166.50 pts
2. Brett Martin 165.625 pts
3. Ken Mollica 163.250 pts
4. Robbie Bergendall 158.375 pts
5. Wayne Lyons 155.50 pts
Off The Wall Action Now, March 1981
PARK IT: Skateparks continue to shake as Apple and Cherry hang on with weekend traffic while others like Escondido, Vista and Olympic call it quits. Oasis is closed, but it may revamped by go-cart biz. Upland is open on weekends and is reportedly getting price quotes on catfish. For the midwest, it appears Endless Summer in Michigan and Apple in Ohio are supporting their pro-shops by moving Burton Boards. Skaters buy these affordable snowboards with no bindings and mount water ski bindings in place. Bill Fergusson, Todd Cadieux and Mark Carpenter are slated for Ohio to compete with and against Kevin Tate, Pete Kunz and Jeff Hazelton. Cadieux claims he does inverts on his snowboard on this one run. Others are gyrating on them in halfpipe-like hills. Believe what you want, or not at all.
Talking Ed
by Kevin Thatcher, Thrasher, July 1981
A telephone call from Columbus, Ohio the other day brought the news that Apple Skatepark was to be filled in to make way for a warehouse (probably by the time you read this). Apple was one of the finest vertical skating facilities in the world, and along with the closure of Cherry Hill in New Jersey last month, the situation on the East coast concerning skateparks is getting pretty dry. What was once a dream has has now gone full cycle and is fast becoming just a dream once again. It's too bad, yet the state of the skateparks does not reflect where skateboarding is at in the '80s. The parks will continue to close, but not because of a lack of interest in skating. So much emphasis has been put on vertical skating these past few years that many skaters don't check other possibilities.Once a skater realizes how much fun he or she can have just riding in the streets or in the parking lots, then it doesn't matter that they don't have a park in which to skate. Ramps have had a big effect on skateparks: not only are ramps a lot of fun to build, the type of skating that can be done on ramps is just as intense as any park. You can session anytime you want and a ramp can be made-to-order to your own specifications. Anyway, you won't find us crying about the loss of skateparks because we realize that there is a lot more to skating than being told when to skate and where. In future issues, we will be stepping up our coverage of non-park skating environs such as banks, ditches, pools, streets and sidewalks. So quit blubbering about the past and skate with us into the future of skateboarding.
Competition Apple
by Kevin Tate, Thrasher, July 1981
This year's first GLSA contest was held at Apple Skatepark in Columbus, Ohio. Manager Kevin Tate made sure that everyone felt welcome and that all systems were go for the contest. Skaters had traveled up to eight hours one way to make this event. It proved to be—without a doubt— the finest display of radical skateboarding seen in this area to date.
The 16 & Over group was so close in ability that only one point separated the top three skaters. After the tie for first was settled, the final standings showed Mark Carpenter in the first spot. Shawn Scott (Tracker Trucks) landed in second and Bob Reeves (Powell Peralta) settled for a close third.
Donnie Nelson edged out Bill Danforth of Endless Summer. Surf 'n' Turf's Nelson and Danforth really had their acts together and definitely should be looked out for in future contests. A brother act—Zill and Marty Beaudoin of Surf 'n' Turf—skated well, as did O.P. Moore of Endless Summer.
It looked like Jex Harrison (Sims) had finally met his Waterloo from the likes of Apple local Chris Phillips (Santa Cruz). Jex had not lost a contest in two years and felt that Chris was his strongest competition. Philips had a hot routine but falls cost him the number one spot. Harrison's energy-packed routine was flawless and he remains undefeated. Dave Dooley also skated strongly in his first tour with the Endless Summer Team
1981 GLSA Standing (After One Contest) 12 & Under: 1. Jex Harrison 100; 2. Chris Phillips 99; 3. Dave Dooley 98. 13 Thru 15: 1. Donnie Nelson 100; 2. Bill Danforth 99; 3. Zill Beaudoin 98; 4. Marty Beaudoin 97; 5. Chris Moore 96; 6. Bill Soar 95; 7. Pat Fredrick 94; 8. Kenny Wilkowski 93; 9. Joe Weissman 92; 10 Don Sieracki 91. 16 & Over: 1, Mark Carpenter 100; 2. Shawn Scott 99; 3. Bob Reeves 98; 4. Paul Hugasian 97; 5. Steve Ottison 96; 6. David Brim 95; 7. Bill Fergusson 94; 8. Wayne Lyons 93; 9. Keith Clade 92; 10. Mike Blauvelt 91; 11; Doug Anne 90; 12. Herod Ansorge 89; 13. Doug Bashow 88; 14. Mike Early 87; 15. Mike Dooley 86; 16. Rob Petoskey 85
[D.O.] Ramp Reality
by Garry Davis, Skate Fate Issue Number 2, August 1981
Included in the design are lap-over arms which grab onto the wall at the top of the bank, and a full horizontal deck to simulate Apple bank conditions.
Robert "Spampy" Hamrick
& Mark "Sparky" Mounts Interview
by Garry Davis, Skate Fate Issue Number 3, September 1981
What are your favorite skate spots?
Robert Hamrick: The D.O. reigns over all—of course—because that's where I learned how to skate, that's where I still do most of my skating. The only thing about it is there's just one or two hits with a push-off between. The Ditch (Hitch Bitch)—I guess—for back and forth actions. Then there's Quebec, Thrift. I guess Apple was...
Twin Fair Pool.
Robert: Yeah, Twin Fair Pool was fun. Apple was number one when it was happenin', when we were there. Now that it's dead, I guess it's just the memories. Uh...Rocco Bump.
Uh, the only thing is you had to have quad-rubbers to get to Apple.
Robert: Yeah, quad-rubbers (laughs) or total hardcore hitch-hiking.
Mark Mounts: Greyhound.
Robert: Greyhound, that's right.
Mark: Greyhound and Becky. Oh yeah, I got to go to Apple and see the bulldozers wreck it down. It was a bummed-out trip. It wasn't happening.
What's the most bizotic thing you've ever seen?
Robert: Well, I'd say my Apple trips, they stoked me because of the state-of-the-art tricks going down. Over vertical rock 'n' rolls in the two-thirds pipe. The consistent acid-drop attempts, even though they weren't made.
Into which pool?
Robert: The egg pool. It's what? Twelve feet deep?
That guy was bizotic.
Robert: Yeah, he was heavy.
Mark: I guess the most far-out trick I saw was this—I guess it wasn't really far out—but I thought it was rad when this ten year-old kid was doing like three-foot ollies over the canyon at the Apple egg pool. I mean, the kid just flipped me out. I was into it heavy.
Robert: He blazed.
What was the highlight of your skating experience?
Mark: I dig on the [D.O.} ramp and my trips to Apple were great except the last one, which really...uh...that's about it.
GSD Interview
by Ray Coombs, Skate Fate Issue Number 5, November 1981
What about skateparks?
GSD: I've skated about five parks, one down in Florida at Daytona Beach—it was just a banked park with all of these tight banks. The first park I ever rode was the Concrete Wave [Anaheim]—it had really good banks. I rode this one down in Lexington. It had this eighty-degree bowl and I was just doing frontside airs out of it. Up at Apple I never did excel at vertical since I never had anything to practice on. All I did there was kickturns on the coping and frontside and backside tile carves. I did better on the banks up there.
John Wittpenn Profile
by Garry Davis, Skate Fate Issue Number 7, January 1982
The most rad thing John Wittpenn ever saw was David Andrecht's twenty coping block rock 'n' roll slides in Apple's kidney pool. His low point was when Apple closed.
Apple Afterthoughts
by Garry Davis, Skate Fate Issue Number 7, January 1982
Apple was so far advanced over those middle-of-the-road rinks that its demise just doesn't add up to me. During the times that I visited Apple, I didn't encounter one single crack, kink or flaw of any kind.
Brett Martin Interview
by Mike Hill, Skate Fate Issue Number 9, March 1982
Brett, you rode Apple alot. What did you think of the park? What was the best stuff to you?
Brett Martin: Probably the egg pool first, then the halfpipe. It had that little L-bowl—that was rad, too.
Did you see alot of pros there?
Brett: Yeah, I saw David Andrecht. I saw the Variflex tour with [Steve] Hirsch and [Allen] Losi and the rest of the gang. I saw [Duane] Peters [Steve] Caballero, Ray Bones, Mike McGill.
Was Gelfand up there?
Brett: No, he was supposed to go, but he never did show up. Mike Folmer was there, I saw him.
Are you going to try to stay on Sims this spring?
Brett: Yeah, I'm going to call 'em up and try to have 'em send me some equipment. You know, as long as I get some pictures in Thrasher, maybe they'll remember that I was part of Apple's team.
How did you get on it?
Brett: The manager at Apple, he more or less got me on it. I guess [Sims] told him to just pick the top four people at Apple or whoever wanted to be on Sims and I was lucky enough to be chosen.
What are your favorite moves?
Brett: When Apple was open, mine was rock 'n' rolls in the three-quarter pipe [ED NOTE: unbeknownst to many, the so-called three-quarter pipe at Apple was in fact a two-thirds pipe, as noted in Wally Hollyday's Skateboarder Magazine interview, March 1980, page 66]. I like to do backside airs alot, and inverts. I used to do fakie ollies out of the three-quarter, too, and indy airs. I used to do alley oops out of the three-quarter and that blew alot of people away cuz you don't hardly see alley oops anymore.
Who turned you onto punk?
Brett: Kevin Dickman, more or less.
Did they play alot of that up at Apple?
Brett: Well, there used to be this dude named Dave Bush and he had all of the tapes of The Circle Jerks, Sex Pistols and all of that. He had a casette—one of his own—that he stuck in there.
You entered some contests at Apple, didn't you?
Brett: Yeah, I entered alot, really. They had the Apple Series, like two contests each month and it went on for three or four months. I did pretty good. I got first place in three, and a couple of seconds and fourths.
What did they give you for winning?
Brett: Oh, we got ripped off totally cuz the owner was supposed to put up for all the prizes and we were paying like $7.50 per contest. It was going to fly us out to California for first place and I think second place was a board or something. When the contest was over, he kept putting off the banquet and we were wondering why, so we said, "What the hell is going on?" So I went down there and asked them and they said the manager didn't come through with the money. I guess he spent it or something. And so we all got ripped off—we didn't get anything out of it.
Mike Hill Interview
by Brett Martin, Skate Fate Issue Number 10, April 1982
What parks have you been to?
Mike Hill: Apple. We only got up there every three months. We had to take a long time to get used to it.
What was your favorite thing about Apple?
Mike: Best thing was probably...egg bowl was cool, the little L-bowl, I mean. The halfpipe was what I liked best.
Did you see any pros there?
Mike: I saw Ray Bones there.
Is he pretty hot, then?
Mike: Yeah, he was real smooth.
What's the raddest move you've ever seen done by a pro—in your case Ray Bones?
Mike: He was doing real good backside airs, real smooth.
Since most of the parks are closing, do you think it's going to have a real bad effect on skating? Or do you think it's going to promote skating back to the way it used to be?
Mike: No, it should help it—especially around here cuz the best park we ever had was Apple, and we really didn't get to it too much anyways. It didn't really bother us. But I think the pros may be checking out kids' ramps, so that'll help the kids to keep skating, too.
Rick Summerfield Interview
by Bryan Ridgeway, Skate Fate Issue Number 10, April 1982
Is it true that you got your hair cut to resemble Alan Gelfand in hopes to pull off an ollie air?
Rick Summerfield: Well, I pulled my first ollie at Apple a couple of years back. I got my hair cut about half a year back.
What was the funnest time you ever had while skating?
Rick: Everytime I skate I have a great time. Some of the funnest were when I went to Apple and saw [Jamie] Godfrey and [David] Andrecht.
You've won alot of contests around here, have you thought of competing in any other places?
Rick: Since Apple is gone, afraid not.
What were the high and low points of your skating career?
Rick: I'd have to say my high point was taking all of the trips to Apple. Seeing Jamie Godfrey skate gave me so many ideas about skating. My low point was when I cracked my elbow at Apple last February.
Apple Flashbacks
by Bryan Ridgeway, The Monthly Shredder #2, July 1982
This is a small story about a park that will never die. Apple Skatepark was definitely one of the top parks in the world. The times I spent there with my friends were for sure the best days of my life. Our parents supported us so much back then. Apple was one of only a very few parks in which everything there was rippable. I can recall one of our major trips to the park in May, 1980 when Dave Andrecht was there. Dave Jones and Tim Cline skated a whole week with him. Me and Rick Summerfield arrived there on that weekend (we had decided to go to school all week). Andrecht was one cool skater. He rode at a skate marathon Saturday night and had everyone stoked. He fully challenged anyone to a duel. If anyone dropped into the L-Bowl, he would chase 'em around until he wrecked them. Tim Cline gave him a little battle once, though. Andrecht did the longest rock 'n' roll slides I've ever witnessed. The guy was just 100% insane—that's all there is to it.
It was Wednesday afternoon when a fellow Corps Of Engineers employee asked me if I wanted to go to a few dams outside of Columbus for a few days. Later I said "yes" after I found out we'd be staying one mile away from Apple at a motel I used alot when we made our trips up there. I loaded my camera and we headed. On our way to eat the first night, I talked Tom into stopping at Apple since we were going to pass it anyway. He complied. We arrived in the parking lot to see a massive cargo door open (NOTE: we were in a government vehicle). I grabbed my pic-taker and proceeded quickly through the door. A few people saw me but did not think much. The floor was covered with slick 'crete. I started snapping pics right and left. The UPS trucks were everywhere. I could only imagine the underground paradise below my feet. As I ran further through the warehouse, people were hollering at me. I just kept running and snapping. Finally, a guy put me in hot pursuit. It took him a little while, but he finally nailed me behind truck #25. He wanted to know my reason for being there. I said, "I'm a spy." I then ran out and got into the car. It was a great park. The only locals I remember being there every time I was were Chris Phillips, Wayne Lyons, Dave Bush and a few others. I wish everyone in Columbus was as dedicated as those guys.
The Cherry Lane Ramp
by Wayne Lyons, Thrasher, August 1982
September 10, 1979: Apple Skatepark emerged as what people considered to be another great skatepark placed directly in the midwest. It attracted all first-generation skaters, all ramp riders and a new incoming breed of beginners. The park no doubt had the best halfpipe in the world, and the L-Bowl was also an excellent bank where skaters could learn new tricks and warm up. The pools at Apple were not built to perfection because they were very quick, but they did test a skater's ability. When Apple closed, some skaters quit for good, others went back to the streets and others hoped to skate vertical again someday. Rob Roskopp, an Apple local who lives in Cincinnati, wasted no time in getting a halfpipe started. The Wank designed The Cherry Lane Ramp and then Cincinnati locals went to work on it. It has an eight-foot transition with one foot of vertical that resembles Apple's halfpipe. Four months after Apple closed, the scene was alive again in the midwest.
Rob Roskopp Interview
by Garry Davis, Skate Fate Issue Number 17, November 1982
The first time I ever saw Rob Roskopp was at the Bogart Bowl (a 45-degree banked backyard pool) in October 1978. He was skating on the Pachinko Team, I was unattached. The next time I saw Rob was exactly a year later at Apple Skatepark doing frontside airs from the top of the two-thirds pipe into the halfpipe in front of Ted Terrebonne's lens. The third time was in March of 1982 when I went up to his ramp in Westchester (fifteen miles north of Cincinnati). He was there shredding wheat in his usual precise manner.
Dave Bush Interview
Squid Meat's Wild Thing, 1982
Rob Roskopp: Dave, I saw you skating at Apple around 1979 and there was this guy working in the pro shop with your dutch boy haircut.
Geoff Hazelton: You had a dutch boy haircut? Ha!
Rob: It was about a month-and-a-half after first skating Apple that I started to know you because I bought a pair of Mollys off you and the snap broke a few minutes later. That was the first scam. So, when did you first start skating?
Dave Bush: Back in 1976 with Bob Reevo when he pushed me down his driveway on his skate and I beefed. Then after that, I started skating all the time.
Rob: What did you guys skate back then?
Dave: Streets, the Arcadia ditch and some other banks by my house. That's about it. Oh! This one really tight eight-foot pipeline. Then we skated ramps.
Rob: Who had the first ramp around your house?
Dave: Mike Ohm. It was steep as hell. It had about three feet of vert and four or five feet of transition. It was hard to ride.
Rob: How did you guys get Apple?
Dave: I guess they thought Columbus was a good place for a park.
Geoff: Bullshit. When I came out here from San Jose, I thought it would be fully dry. I called up La Sport and they said to call Apple. So I did and I talked to Dave.
Rob: Is that when you two met?
Geoff: Yeah, we fully hated each others asses for about a year. This was in August of 1979 before Apple opened in September. I got to skate it for free and everybody asked me how it compared with Winchester, but there wasn't any comparison. Winchester was an excellent all-around park, but Apple was great for Columbus, Ohio.
Rob: Dave you told me you lived with Spudly at the park before it opened. Did you have it wired before everybody else?
Dave: It was cool, but I was a pussy then—I couldn't skate too good. I was a spoiled brat of the park—I kissed the owner's ass.
Rob: When did you get fully sponsored by Santa Cruz?
Dave: When Duane Peters came to Apple.
Rob: How did that happen? Did he just give you the word?
Dave: Yeah. I guess, from what I understand, that's why he came out.
Rob: Is that when Chris Phillips got sponsored, too?
Dave: Yeah, at the same time.
Rob: What happened on the last weekend Apple was open? Me and Marty Jimenez came that Thursday—because that was the only time we could—and we fully bummed when it was closing.
Dave: I found out two days before. The owner got a substantial offer from UPS to rent it and they got it because Apple wasn't doing so good.
Rob: I heard someone wanted to buy it.
Dave: Yeah, but the contract with UPS had already been signed.
Rob: When we came that week, Kevin Tate was so cool and gave us discounts on stuff. Marty bought so much.
Geoff: Close-out sale! Not our fault.
Rob: After Apple closed, where did you skate?
Dave: Basically, I just quit skating for a while, totally. I went to Endless Summer, but couldn't really skate good there until this year. Then I started skating your ramp and a couple of others that weren't that good.
Rob: Why don't you tell me about what all the old Apple locals do now?
Dave: I'm not totally positive, but I think alot of them take drugs and other stuff.
Rob: That's stupid.
Dave: Thay don't skate anymore. I'm the only one besides Wayne Lyons, Chris Phillips and sometimes Greg Mack.
Rob: Yeah! Why didn't Mack come to the [Cherry Lane Ramp] contest? The Michigan skaters are fully gay for not coming. They're just stupid because there were so many prizes. They fully lost out.
Geoff: They're too into robotics. They have to skate it for a month so they can get it wired fully.
Dave: They've got a park and they think everything is coming to them.
Rob: It's not. It's bigger with ramps right now and the whole underground thing than in the parks. They're just too stupid!
Ohio
by Garry Davis, Skate Fate Issue Number 20, February 1983
The media first took note of Columbus in September 1979 when Apple Skatepark (one of the finest skateboarding facilties in the world) opened its doors to the mid-west. Apple had the mega-deep pools—perfectly troweled with a full two or three feet of vertical surface. The park also boasted the smoothest halfpipe anywhere which fed into a sky-high, monstrous two-thirds pipe. Also well loved was the L-bowl—a sixty degree, seven foot deep, L-shaped reservoir. Apple was the main course for skaters in states like Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Michigan and quite a few others. Despite the heavy memberships, Apple was jackhammered in May 1981— just twenty-one months after its birth. The park was nearly saved when some rich person offered to purchase it a few days before closing, but it was too late. The property was already signed over to be turned into a UPS warehouse. Today, a few Apple locals still survive. Guys like Wayne Lyons and Dave Bush are still ripping it up as much as ever on the banks, flats and wooden ramps.
Zill Beaudoin Interview
Very Sketchy, 1983
How about the G.L.S.A. (Great Lakes Skateboarding Association) contest at Apple?
Zill Beaudoin: It stunk! Really, it was gay! All of us out-of-towners were riding the halfpipe, whereas the locals were riding the egg bowl getting ready for the contest. I'm talking, the egg was eleven feet deep, four feet of vert and no transition.
So what was the deal? How did the contest turn out? Everybody thought that you should have won it.
Zill: Yeah, I didn't fall or nothin'. I had a hard routine. Hey, get this: I was pulling backside ollies off that four feet of vert. I was doing okay inverts and I did some fakie rocks in the deep end. Donnie Nelson pulls up and does his wimpy little routine which consisted of two tricks and some carves. Everyone said that Zill should have won it!
Didn't everyone have to ride down in Jerry's stinky old mobile home?
Zill: Well, he scorched all fifteen of us forty-five bucks apiece for the ride. He bought us beer on the way back—that was cool. It was too funny 'cause on the way back someone dumped a jar of jelly in Donnie's bag. He went home cryin'.
"Jinx" Marty Jimenez Interview
by Garry Davis, Skate Fate Issue Number 36, June 1984
Marty Jinenez was raised in Orange County. He used to surf and skateboard there as a youngster. He then moved to Cincinnati, Ohio along with his parents. Marty lived there for five years and got to know The Big Barn (Rob Roskopp) before he was such a Big ol' Barn like he is now. They were, at times, locals at Apple Skatepark together. They went through many hair phases in this period, including skinheads. Marty's hair color changed often—once it was even purple. Apple closed in May of '81, so Marty and Rob built the Cherry Lane Ramp that fall and skated it for a little over a year. Many banks were found and skated as well. Then Rob moved to Santa Cruz. Jinx skated at the ramp a little while longer until The Barn's dad tore it down."
Have you ever done an acid drop?
Marty: Yes, at Roskopp's, Roxbury, the Atlanta Mega Ramp, Apple halfpipe, Palmdale, I don't recall the other places. There's probably plenty, though.
Bill Danforth Interview
by Garry Davis, Skate Fate Issue Number 52, October 1985
What about good parks?
Bill Danforth: Big-O, Apple, Soaring High, Super Rocket Ramp. Endless Summer sucked.
Why?
Bill: Lame owners, lame people hung out there, few core locals, best pool ever—I'm glad it's gone.
Name some good guys.
Bill: O is cool cuz his name is The Germs logo. Gavin / Corey O'Brien, Misfit Fiends, your lock is in there, OP for friend of the year, Miki Vucko for quiet one.
Mike McGill Interview
by Garry Davis, Skate Fate Issue Number 56, February 1986
One can't accurately estimate the number of experiences that Mike McGill has been through on a skateboard. In a nine-year sequence of events, Mike has propelled himself—several times— into the most unlikely of novel sensations. Who could fail to recall the faint yet living image of McGill trailing Caballero—touching his shoulder—during doubles frontside channel airs in Apple's halfpipe? Or his head-high alley oop over Clau Grabke and Lance Mountain during the famous triples run in Sweden?
The Incomplete Roskopp
Thrasher, December 1986
Call him the BioOhioan because that's where he spent his formative skate years before transplanting to California, or "The Barn" because he's built like one. Rob Roskopp has been a fixture on the skate scene for quite some time now. While some might consider Rob one of the new breed, he has been skating as long as Santa Cruz team mate Micke Alba. While Micke learned his chops in the thick of the urethane revolution in the '70s, skating with the best in the best terrain; Rob was a frequent visitor to the heavenly bowls of Apple and Cherry Hill Skateparks—perfect terrain which he learned to dominate before the untimely demise of skateparks. Skaters in the midwest (or anywhere other than California) in the '70s may as well have been skating on Mars as far as media coverage, sponsorships and all the trappings go. Skaters like Rob changed all that. Somewhere between the first drop in skate sales around '79 and the last sessions at Apple in '81, Roskopp and a landlocked crop of ramp ranchers had begun pounding the plywood with a vengeance and renewed spirit. While coastal surf / skate crews worried about the look, the heartland boys were just starting to cook. The following interview took place in and around Rob's new home on a cliff overlooking Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, California—one of the more picturesque surf spots on the West Coast.
Did you skate the D.O. (Doctor's Office) banks?
Rob: I didn't really skate there until I met Garry. I got to know him when we built my ramp and we used to street skate downtown Cincinnati alot and he showed us where they were. That place was one of the better places to skate back then. It was real smooth asphalt, nice transitions. That was fun.
Was that around the time of your Cherry Lane Ramp?
Rob: Well, before that, Apple Skatepark was built. I skated for Apple until it closed in '81 and that's when I built my ramp. Apple was one of the better parks, indoor like Cherry Hill. Then we built the ramp and skated that until '82 and that's when I moved out here. I left it still skateable. My friends skated it for about six months to a year after I moved. Then my dad tore it down and gave it to some guy and he's got it built in some barn as far as I know.
Did you see many of the known skaters passing through?
Rob: Brad Bowman. Those guys came out to Apple. Bert Lamar and Steve Olson came out twice. Duane Peters. Duane was...master (laughs). I looked up to him alot. No one to this day is doing some of the stuff he did, like rolling into a pool backward. Alot of people just don't want to do it because they don't want to die. He did the thruster.
Rob Roskopp Interview
by Garry Davis, TransWorld Skateboarding, June 1988
What about Apple?
Rob Roskopp: Back then Duane was God because he was the best. There was Dave Bush and Wayne Lyons, then me and Mac and Mike Ohm and Gnarly Charlie—those were the hardcore guys. I lived two-hours away, but I went there every weekend and every time I possibly could. I even got on the team, so that was kind of cool. Bush and Ohm were the best guys—and little Chris Phillips. If he would've kept skating, he'd be pro now. I've never seen an eleven-year-old that was better than him.
What happened at Apple? Anything rad?
Rob: A lot of rad stuff at Apple, but I could go on forever. I'll just say that it was a really good park, and if you didn't skate it, you lost out.
What happened after it closed?
Rob: After it closed, I built a ramp and learned how to skate it really good—that's where I got a lot better. That's where me, you and Marty skated. And now we all live in California and have our own models. Three guys from the same f#$%ing place, so folks top that one, ok? Just f#$% off, all right?
Bill Danforth Interview
by Dave Swift, TransWorld Skateboarding, October 1989
Bill Danforth: Endless Summer had a really tight scene. Out of all the parks in the midwest, we probably had the best scene.
Better Than Apple?
Bill: Apple was cool, but it was a different state: Ohio. We used to make trips down there.
Did you skate a lot of parks back then?
Bill: That's all we skated were parks. Ramps were unheard of. There were seven parks within five or six hours of our houses.
What was the best one you rode? Was it Endless Summer?
Bill: No, it was Apple. Well, it was kind of a split between Apple and The Turf. The Turf used to be Surf 'n' Turf—same park, same owner and everything, but just a different name.
Tom Groholski Interview
by Dave Swift, TransWorld Skateboarding, November 1989
What kind of traveling did you do back then?
Tom Groholski: My dad always used to help us out traveling. He used to drive us everywhere, like to Apple Skatepark in Ohio, all around New Jersey and out to California—that was the big adventure right there. That was cool. From then on we just went road trippin' everywhere.
"Jinx" Marty Jimenez Interview
by Garry Davis, TransWorld Skateboarding, May 1990
Did you ever see Duane Peters back in those days?
Marty Jimenez: Yeah. Around that same time we had Apple. Duane would come. He was there a couple of times.
When Apple opened, were you still in Columbus?
Marty: No. Right when Apple opened, we ended up moving to Cincinnati. All of a sudden, we were about an hour-and-a-half away. That was a total nightmare because it was my last year in high school—going to a new school and not knowing anyone and it being your senior year. I hated school. That school was lame and really far from our house. It was bunk.
How did you get to know The Barn? You lived right by him.
Marty: Right after I moved to Cincinnati, I was going, "Man, I want to skate. I don't know anybody here." I was just laying around, bummed on the whole deal. I just picked up the Yellow Pages and looked for skateboards and at the time there was only one store that sold them. I called and said, "Hey, I just moved here. Do you know anybody who skates and has a ramp?" And the guy told me, "Well, this one guy might live close to you because he has the same first three numbers." He gave me this guy's number and I called. It was Rob Roskopp. He goes, "Yeah, I have this quarterpipe. Come over and skate it." He gave me directions and I drove down there. I couldn't believe it was so close. He was totally into skating. He had this gnarly eight or nine foot tall quarterpipe, but it was totally rad. It had good transitions—it didn't have any kinks—and it had a layer of fiberglass. But it was hell, too.
Did you see him at Apple before that?
Marty: No.
Did you skate Apple together?
Marty: Yeah. We would take turns driving there.
What kind of stuff was going on there at Apple?
Marty: We'd go at least once a week. We'd try to spend as much time as we could there because Rob was going to this funky private school. So that's all he was into—skateboarding—and that's what I was into. We'd go and spend weekeneds there.
Where would you sleep?
Marty: Different people's houses. Right at the beginning, I had a girlfriend and I would stay at her house. But after a while she dumped me because she got sick of me skateboarding all the time. That's all I'd want to do when I'd go there.
I used to get these newsletter-calendars in the mail from Apple every month that would list all of these activities going on. Did that stuff really happen?
Marty: Yeah, they'd always have these little contests. And certain days would be like 10% off Powell stuff; and the next, 10% off Independent stuff, and if you wore a Santa Cruz T-shirt you'd get one dollar off. But I don't think we ever had to pay because we knew the guys who ran it—Kevin Tate and different skaters who worked there. It was killer. We'd always have these late-night, after-hours sessions.
Did Apple totally lose money? Is that why it closed?
Marty: It was such a big building that they didn't use the whole space, so per square footage they were losing money. And it kind of got built during the low point of skateboarding. It ended up as a UPS warehouse. Somehow, the guy who owned it worked out this deal with UPS, and that's what it is now.
What did you think of the pools? Did you think they were really good?
Marty: Yeah, the pools were really great.
Alot of people think the transitions were too quick.
Marty: They had three pools. The kidney was probably the one that was the gnarliest because it had good transitions, alot of vert and it was big. The keyhole was fun. It had vert, but it was small. And the egg bowl—the transitions were good there. It was gnarly. Then the halfpipe was pretty good.
Were you getting rad yet?
Marty: I saw alot of rad things, but back then it was just...
What tricks did you and The Barn do?
Marty: We did boardslides and stuff. Just regular airs. The pools had channels you could jump. Right toward the end of Apple was when all the tricks started coming out because so many pros were visiting. Especially Duane Peters. I think he was the biggest influence Apple ever had. He did all these crazy things—sweepers, airs, layback rollouts. That was all new and it was the first time any of us had seen it. So right at the same time, we would be trying to learn it, too. I remember the last time I skated Apple, I learned backside ollies in the keyhole. There was some rad skating that happened there. The Variflex guys came on one of their tours and Allen Losi was so rad. It's amazing that he's still skating because he was so good back then. Eddie Elguera, too. He did gnarly stuff in the three-quarter pipe like rock fakies and most people would do fakie ollies out the side—he did those out the top of the three-quarter and just straight back in. He would do 50-50s. It wasn't really three-quarter, but like two-thirds. Still, it was over vert. Right when Apple closed, I went back to California and hung out there for a long time. And when I cameback to Ohio—the Lakewood summer—that was when Rob decided to build his ramp. After a while, his neighbor was bummed so we had to move it over to the other side of his yard—which was a pain in the ass.
Didn't you know Mike Hill and Brett Martin from Apple?
Marty: Yeah, we knew him, but we really didn't know him that well. He was just a guy you saw at Apple:
A Sketchy History Of Skate Fate
by Garry Davis, Skate Fate Issue Number 76, 1991
Apple Skatepark: Open from September 1979 to May 1981, Apple was a short-lived indoor concrete park in Columbus, Ohio built by the legendary pool sculptors Duane Bigelow and Wally Hollyday. The main attraction at Apple was the three vertical pools: a left-hand kidney, an egg and a small keyhole (all with tile and coping). An L-shaped reservoir, several other banked runs, plus a two-thirds pipe which fed into smoothest halfpipe ever rounded out this functionally-designed facility. There wasn't a kink in the entire place—the only fault being a little too much vert in the pools for their medium-sized transitions. Apple was visited by numerous pros, but didn't stay open long enough to host a pro contest. After a year and a half, skateboarding slacked off and Apple closed to make way for a UPS warehouse. What a waste.