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Email me your comments and I'll put them in the Guestbook.
Hey Garry—Thanks for the awesome web site. Brings back lots of memories. Here's a few scans for you. I suspect that Bob Pribble took the pics of me and I took the others. I'm starting to skate again, kinda. We'll see how long it lasts before I break something. I hope all is well.—Chip Jones, 11-01-06
GSD—I have many memories of those ads from the early to mid 1980s. To a 14-year-old kid in West Virginia, the pic of you doing the f/s boneless in the ditch was—and still is—sheer inspiration. I went to Oregon this Summer to skate, and my friend Slappe was wearing an Apple t-shirt the day we skated Newberg. It was rad to read entries on your site from people I looked up to while I was growing up, like Ben Barkey, the Tabors, and countless other vets who are still ripping it up. Thanks for everything, man. Still skating 20 years strong.—Jeff Haynes, Charleston, West Virginia, 10-06-06
I am trying to track down The Doctor. We were at Copper Mountain back in the '80s when he thought he could hang with the skiers on his snowboard. As good as he was, he could hang with the two plankers. We are planning a get-together next season with some of the characters from those days and we need help locating Kenny so we can photograph him going off the onion roll one more time. Any help is greatly appreciated.—Kevin M. Starkey, 5-25-06
GSD—Michael Early here. I talked to you a couple of times over the last couple of years about the Apple web site and finally got sucked into reading and browsing it. It was cool to see everyone elses view of the park. The crew we skated with was pretty much the GLSA contest skaters—Chris Yandall, Todd Cadiuex, Kit Shigur, Herod Ansorge, Jon Bishop, Tommy Cox and so many others I can't even list them.
Apple was one of the best parks ever put down in concrete, and for many of us, one of the reasons we took the roads in life we have. There were a lot of skateparks that were part of the midwest scene, like the Turf, Cosmic Wave, Astro Speedway, Skateboard USA , Endless Summer and a few others that weren't around too long. Anyway, the connection was the GLSA contests at the time, which brought a lot of us together, gained the attention of the skate companies, pros photographers, and ultimitley shaped our directions.
Thanks for putting the site togather.Also, my opinion of Apple: the L-bowl was a blast, and I liked the pools even though they had quick trannies and a lot of vert. But, apparently, that is what I liked. All the guys we skated with there were totally cool: the Shivley Bros, Dave Bush, Mike Ohm, Rob Roskopp and many others. In a word, the place ripped! What cool memories! There are so many new parks now that I can't believe it, but I measure every new park I ride to Apple, Cherry Hill and Marina, which were my all-time fave parks and scenes. Peace.—Michael Early, Pool King Skateboards, 5-06-06
This is to say hello from Harold "Herod" Ansorge. I used to come down from Grand Rapids, Michigan with Mike Early to skate GLSA competitions. So glad some people (yourselves) have opted to keep the memory of one of the best skateparks in the world alive. I live in New Hampshire now with a skatepark right down the road. Mike Early still lives in San Diego. He also still skates and owns a skateboard company. Bill Ferguson also owns a kick-ass shop in Kalamazoo, Michigan called Piranha Alley. I'll try to dig up some pics to send if i can find some. Mine are mostly from Astro Speedway, Cosmic Waves, Endless Summer, Skateboard USA and the Wisconsin skatepark, which changed names about 14 times. Later.—Herod, 4-18-06
Dear Garry—Thanks so much for posting my "Looking for Mike 'Ziggy' Siegfried" query on 1-11-05. Mike was a ranking (as in "Uptown Top Ranking!") member of the Variflex skate team, and went to Riverside Poly (Polytechnic High). Also, he dearly loved "Dreadlock Holiday" by 10CC, and had a Dad that reminded us of Errol Flynn. I'm just including these clues in the hope I'll find him. I had a lead that he might be working for the Sheriff's Office in Riverside or San Berdoo counties. Your karma must be getting better all the time.—Nicki Thomas, 3-22-06
GSD—You HAVE to post those pictures of Trosko's ramp. That was our only salvation until Apple opened. I look back and I can't believe how nice his parents were. I would mo-ped up to it on any day and any time and they never ran me off. Do you think that would happen today?
I have spoken to Wayne Lyons a few times, but I wish we could do a reunion! I can remember walking in Apple in the Winter and feeling so cold. You had to skate for about 20 minutes before you could take your sweatshirt off! The reservoir was the single greatest thing I have ever ridden that was intended for skating. It was so smooth and you could pop out of it with speed and keep on going.
At one time, I had over 100 of those iron-ons and even more keychains. One day, Kevin came to my school (Olentangy) and asked me to hand a box of stuff out to other kids. Of course, I kept all of it. I had stickers galore. Now where is all that stuff?
Kenny Mollica was my hero. It's so cool to see he still skates. By the way, Bert Lamar was the biggest jerk of all time. He spit more than a camel and he was such a dork. He could skate a bit, though. I don't care what anyone says, rollerskating is bad. Duke Rennie and Fred Blood would flip around and grab their skates. What was the point? Were the skates going to fall off? That was lame.
I actually went to that flippin' UPS place when they filled in the pools. Talk about depressing. The thing was, Apple was in the middle of an industrial parkway. I think it was fate. Not Skate Fate...just fate. I never got hurt there, but plenty of others did. BMXers who locked up on the half pipe were not too thrilled as they plummeted about 18 feet to the flatbottom. I saw a bit of blood and many more tears. So many first time skaters tried Apple and quit on the spot.
You could buy new decks with Gyros right inside the concession area. Apple was not for the meek. Green Kryptonics in Apple made you feel like you were floating. Can I ramble anymore? I still have about 14,000 more things to say, but maybe another day.—Eric Harrison, 3-12-06
I remember the first time I almost did a frontside grind to revert by accident. I was skating the Egg Bowl at Apple doing back-to-back frontsides when all of a sudden, I felt my body wanting to turn around. Of course, I jumped off because it just didn't feel right. I went back home to skate my home park and I felt it again, but this time I stayed on and did my first frontside grind to revert on vertical. I owe it all to Apple skatepark. I'm still skating to this day, but I haven't done that trick in a long time. I can still do layback grinds like Jay Smith did back in the day, though. If anyone comes to Orlando, Florida, let me know at vgrooveproductions@hotmail.com. I'll take you to some fun skate spots. Skater forever.—Victor Perez, Cherry Hill / Philly / Orlando, 2-26-06
P.S. I have my own business, Tsunami Custom Screen Printing. If you ever need something printed, let me know. You will get the bro deal. Don't forget to go skateboarding today.
Hi—Glad I found this site! Back in the day, my friends and I used to skate at Apple. We live about 80-plus miles north of there in Ashland, Ohio. It was truly one of the greatest parks ever built! I loved to ride the pools myself, but the whole park just fricking ripped! I'm sorry for all who never got the chance to skate there—you missed a great time. I've told my son, who skates now, about the place, but now I can show him because of this site. So, thank you for the photos you have here and for keeping the park alive for those of us who knew it well.—Gene "Snowdog" Stackhouse, Ashland, Ohio, 1-05-06