Michal was a member of the Pachinko Factory Team in Cincinnati with Rob Roskopp during Apple days. In Summer 1980, he became the Manager of the park and even lived there. Read on for the details. Interview conducted via email on March 29, 2004.
Please give your name, age and birthplace.
Michal L. Grau, 42, Mariemont (Eastern suburb of Cincinnati), Ohio.
When and where did you start skating?
I started skating street, freestyle and quarterpipe around 1975 in Mariemont, halfpipe and vert at Bill Bullock’s place in Terrace Park, carving Mrs. Helmsdorfer’s pool in Milford and general terrorizing in Batavia, Ohio. We also hit the drainage ditches (Hitch Bitch Ditch) off of I-71 at Ridge Avenue, a school (Quebec Heights Elementary) in Western Hills / Price Hill with great banked runs, and Rob Roskopp's big, blue fiberglass quarterpipe in West Chester. We also made our way down to Inland Surf Skatepark in Lexington, Kentucky, and won the Cincinnati slalom championship event in 1977 or ’78.
How did you first hear of Apple?
Word got to us (The Pachinko Factory Team) through our Team Manager, Joe Kohls.
Were you there on Apple's opening day?
Unfortunately, not…but soon thereafter!
How often did you go to Apple?
Weekly, sometimes twice a week, depending on gas and pass money! Me, Steve Mast, Rob Roskopp, Marty Jimenez, Bill Bullock, Shawn Wilson, Paul Franke, Cheddy Meyer and Jamie Bailey would all pile into my parents’ blue Rambler wagon (covered in skate stickers, and which also served as a mobile hotel on some weekends for me and Rob) and hit the road (1.5 hours each way). On one trip, Bill Bullock and I went up in the Winter in his Colt. We hit black ice around half way there, spun around, went across the median and somehow did not hit anything. We risked our lives to get there. It was that good. (Yes, we drove back across the highway, made it to the park and skated that day.)
Which areas of the park were your favorites?
My personal favorites were the half to two-thirds pipe, and the big egg pool. You could really do high-speed, sweeping, carve turns, and popping out and dropping back in was a such a rush. The smoothness was incredible, and the tile and coping work in the pools was perfect. The kidney had super-quick trannies and was the most difficult to skate. The L-bowl was a great little warm-up area and the mini-keyhole was a blast.
Please comment on any pros that visited Apple.
I remember Steve Cabellero, Eric Grisham, Eddie Elguera and David Andrecht the clearest. Let’s just say that Columbus, Ohio at the turn of the decade (1979-’80) was not culturally ready for the boys from California. Their skating was, of course, outstanding--they were miles ahead of us. But the fun part was taking them out in the evenings to the local night spots to try to keep them entertained. There was not a lot of variety back then in the state's capitol. (Plenty of willing Midwestern girls lured by a tan and some smooth Cal surf talk!)
Eddie Elguerra singlehandedly tried to introduce slam dancing to a local country and western dance bar, and incited a riot in which we all got tossed! It was always fun to go to the airport to shuttle these guys back and forth, too. I remember Ted Terrebonne trying to buy my 1968 VW bug from me at the airport. Fred and Duke were insane on those roller skates! It was fun talking to the legendaery Team Managers like Stacy Peralta getting the logistics together. These were the guys we grew up reading about in the mags!
Please comment on any of the locals that you knew.
Gene Goldberg was one of the owners, and Michael Musgrave was the Manager up until Ronn Dudley and I took over. Ronn and I co-managed the park from the Winter of 1979 through the Summer of 1980. We ran the pro shop and office together, made the Apple Newsletters and also did all of the marketing, contest planning and general scheming together at his parents’ house. Ronn was very technical and was always into the new equipment and trends. He even discovered a manufacturing glitch in Sims wheels and worked with them to correct it.
Dave Bush, Kenny Mollica, Pete Kunz, Charlie Shively and Mike Ohm were the locals I met first. Dave Bush was born in the wrong state at the wrong time. He was well into the skate culture and ahead of everyone with his spiked, frosted hair and metal collars. Dave was a stylin’ skater with great laybacks, slides and lip tricks. It was an awkward scene at first, with me being hired in from out of town and the locals not liking it. But over time, we came to an unspoken agreement. As long as I kept them in the flow when the pros came in for the afterhours sessions, they were cool with me being there (sort of).
Mike Ohm and Charlie Shively were good skaters. Kenny Mollica was a skater I really admired—he had tons of speed and big lines. He was very talented, and still is—I ran into him last fall at the Florence skatepark. I knew it was him right away, just blazing it up! Casey Marzetti and Chris Phillips were little guys then. They shredded for their age.
What is the raddest thing you saw happen at Apple?
Hands down, Eddie Elguerra skating the two-thirds pipe like it was the L-bowl. He would rock ’n’ roll the over-vert, do axle stalls on it, grind up the edge of the extension, do fakie ollies off it into the halfpipe. The magnitude of his moves in a pipe that big were awe-inspiring at the time. The Elguerials in the pool, too! He was a god. Andrecht was the backside ollie king in the egg pool, and his fakie ollies were cool, too. Rob Roskopp was getting super high frontside airs out of the two-thirds pipe—he was destined for California.
Worst slams?
You know, I don’t recall any major injuries or bloodshed. I probably just put them out of my mind. I’m sure they happened. I recall a couple of casts, bandages, cuts and sprains, but no broken necks or anything like that. I fell in the L-bowl and pulled my left clavicle off the shoulder, and split my shin open biking. I clipped a pedal once riding the extension of the two-thirds pipe on my bmx bike and fell from the top to the bottom at full speed. But at 19, you just don’t get hurt all that badly.
How did Apple rate as a skatepark?
It has to be one of the best ever made. The scale of the terrain was big, so the weightlessness and speed were addictive. The concrete was so smooth that you could run rock hard wheels and get all your energy into the board. I think we all ended up on Sims Gyro wheels with aluminum hubs and super-hard durometer urethane. I even had the opportunity to test the G&S Rollerball wheels, which were specially designed for coping. They were a complete sphere, and worked great rolling over the coping, but they didn't have much traction due to such a small riding surface. They slid a lot if you weren’t careful.
What were its strong points and weak points?
Strengths: It was INDOORS for year-round availability. The surfaces were slate smooth, and there was plenty of variety for all levels of skaters. Weaknesses: It was a little hot in the Summer. The location was a little too far from civilization (suburbs) for us to have a steady stream of youth. That is what killed it ultimately: not enough steady income. The only thing that would have made it better technically would have been bigger transitions in the pools. They were quick, but they didn't slow down the truly good guys, though.
Did you ever skate a park that was better?
Positively NOT! Of course, I never made it to California, Florida or even Cherry Hill, New Jersey, for that matter. We didn't need to go anywhere. We had it going on in Columbus at the time, and not many knew about it! The pros would even comment on how good Apple was. It was like a gem in the Midwest. The only park I have seen recently even close to its quality is the park in Louisville, Kentucky, and its FREE!
Did you ever attend any amateur contests at Apple? Parties? Sleep-over sessions?
We had a lot of good contests when the locals weren’t giving us grief or boycotting the entry fees! We drew in some great skaters from around the Midwest (Victor Perez) and were part of the GLSA regional series at the time. We had some live bands in for the all-night party skate sessions a few times. It was a good time. I hosted all of the sleepover sessions when I lived there, because my bedroom was in the park adjacent to the game room and snack bar! Rob Roskopp and Marty Jimenez regularly stayed the night, as did Jay Brentlinger. Jay, I still owe you a response! Bear with me!
Was there ever a scene of non-skaters, girls or whoever hanging-out at Apple?
Of course, the Beckley Girls: Karen (Gene's daughter), Debbie, Julie and Denise. Then there were the neighborhood locals, Darla, Monica, Kathy and Veronica. I will say no more at risk of insinuating / incriminating certain individuals. You know who you are, all of you!
Please describe any vivid memories you have of Apple.
Falling in front of Steve Olson while being filmed for some video, right after he said, “No matter what you do, don’t fall. I'll be right on your tail," to me just before we started. The “Carving Above Tiles” contest with Kenny Mollica in the egg pool. That was the only contest I ever beat him in. The Red Roof Inn demolition parties, DEVO, QFM-96, The Buzzard radio station, Arby’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the Goldbergs (a great family), Ted Terrebonne’s home-cooked Midwestern meal experience with some special mushrooms, the stench of the rental pads! I wish I could remember more!
Please describe anything else funny or strange (skating or non) that happened there.
Well, we got robbed one night in the pro shop. Someone left one of the big rolling doors up in the back of the park and came in during the night and swiped a bunch of stuff. That sucked. Gene thought it was an inside job, since I was sleeping there and didn’t hear anything. His suspicions probably ultimately led to my demise. For the record, I wasn’t in on it.
Did you hear that Apple was going to close?
I had lost touch with skating at that point, so I had withdrawn from the whole scene. I was headed back to school at the University of Cincinnati, and ran into Rob and Marty near campus just before they left for California. They told me of the closing, and invited me to go with them, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t.
Did you get a last session?
I had switched over to BMX bikes (sorry), and was trying to get sponsored by Team Schwinn for freeestyle. The incoming manager, Kevin Tate, shot pics. I have them if you want to see them, but they are not skate-oriented.
Were you bummed when Apple was destroyed?
Of course! Filling in those beautiful concrete sculptures was a crime! I hope UPS enjoyed parking their trucks on them! It was a great experience to get to skate, live and be there, and there were a lot of fun times.
Please add any other memories, info or comments that you wish.
Rob Roskopp and I would go snowboarding one day, then skating the next! We were some of the first people to get the original Sims snowboard in 1979, and due to Apple being inside, we could do both in the Winter. That was kind of a novelty at the time, especially for a couple of Midwesterners!
Where do you live now? Work? Wife? Kids?
I am in Eastern Cincinnati in Terrace Park. I am a Senior Director of Technical Services in IS at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. I have a lovely wife, Kim, and three great kids (two girls and a boy). I have a quarterpipe in the driveway, and my son rips it up on his board and bike daily. Personally, I skate every now and then, and I still pull the board out for the parks and big halfpipes. The kids don’t know what to think of a dad that can skate the big stuff (especially on a 1985 T&C flat deck pig with Tracker Trucks). I mostly ride mountain bikes in the hills of the Midwest, North Carolina and Utah, and am also a professional snow ski racer (I got 6th in the National Open Pro 40-44 at Park City, Utah in March 2003) / NASTAR pacesetter. I still occasionally play and regularly coach soccer.
If you know where any of the following people are, please let me know how I can contact them: Bobby Reeves or Gene Goldberg.
I would love to hear from Gene myself. I ran into Karen and Denise a couple of times in Cincinnati. I will attempt to hook you up through them. We really need to get an Apple reunion together this Summer!