Intro Updated Galleries Interviews Items Where Guestbook Links Contact
Garry Davis

My own memories of Apple are pretty fuzzy because it was so long ago. Since it was a two-hour drive from Cincinnati and I had no car (I was sixteen-eighteen years old at the time), I didn't make it up there much at all—two or three times as I recall. I couldn't really expect my mom to take me up there every week, four hours of driving and several hours of skating—that's an entire day.
Robert Hamrick At D.O. Banks, Cincinnati—1979 • Garry Davis Photo
In the summer of 1979, Robert Hamrick, Mark Mounts and I were hanging around the Doctor's Office (or D.O. for short) banks in Cincinnati—skating for hours everyday, as always. At some point, Mark heard on the grapevine that a new skatepark was being built up in Columbus. We were pretty psyched at this bit of news, but didn't expect too much—after all, this was Ohio. We just weren't fully prepared for what lay in store. That September, after talking someone's mom into making the two-hour trek (each direction), we hassled our way through the signing-your-life-away membership rituals (common to most skateparks of the time), and ecstatically made our way through the little door from the pro-shop into the vast concrete warehouse. Total amazement. None of us ever dreamed anything of this caliber could or would be built outside of California—especially in the middle of Ohio.

The only pro I saw at Apple was Steve Olson and all I remember him doing was a fakie ollie in the kidney pool. I got him to sign my board. Other random memories: A little kid named Chris Phillips doing long-ass boardslides around the deep-end of the egg pool and airs over the canyon in the shallow, some guy trying acid-drops into the deep end of the egg pool (that would still be burly to do today) over and over (but his back foot would come off every time and he would slide out), a rollerskater doing a 540 air (McTwist) three feet out of the halfpipe (three years before Mike McGill), Dave Bush looking just like Duane Peters' twin (but I don't remember him skating). That's about it...oh, and a Beatles White Album poster hanging in the pro-shop. As for myself skating, I just pretty much carved around in the pools (as I had only skated vert a handful of times before on quarterpipes, kinked skateparks, etc). I frontside carved tiles in the deep end of the egg pool. I recall being amazed at how smooth the halfpipe was. I probably did all my bank tricks in the L-bowl, but don't really remember. Hauling ass down into the little bowls and flying out of them was fun.

In the spring of 1981, Mark Mounts heard that Apple was closing soon so we high-tailed it up there the very next weekend for one last session. It's kind of amazing that Mark would catch news like that cuz we were so isolated down in Cincinnati—we were pretty much the only guys skating there then. Jiminy Cricket, if I had it to do over again, I would've taken the Greyhound up there on the weekends. At the time it didn't seem urgent at all. Since it was this huge concrete thing, Apple seemed so permanent. We had no idea it would be destroyed so soon.
GSD Now And At D.O. Banks, Cincinnati—1980 • Jim Davis Photo
Back To Interviews