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The Old School Skate Jam, held February 10th, 2001 at the Skate Lab in Simi Valley, California, was a evening intended to honor the legends of our sport, the guys who paved the way for the skateboarding lifestyle and strong industry we all enjoy today. The SkateLab is an indoor park with about 7000 square feet of modern skateboard obstacles: a smaller street area with ledges, boxes, banks, hips, and bars; a larger street area with ledges, bank to walls, bowl corners, and more transition; a perfect six-foot mini ramp with spine; a small mini ramp, and a near-vert bowl. It’s also got the most accessible and complete collection of skateboards and skateboard memorabilia anywhere. Entering into the park requires a walk through at least part of the museum, and anyone over drinking age usually spends at least part of their visit checking out our sports’ history. Todd Huber, co-owner of the SkateLab, was inspired by a failed idea held by Michael Brooke, author of the 1999 skateboarding history book “Concrete Wave.” Brooke’s idea for a reunion of all the skateboarding legends didn’t reach fruition, but the seed was planted in Huber’s head. He realized that SkateLab was a logical location—it’s 15 miles from the world’s first skate shop, Val Surf—with a perfect 9 foot wooden kidney bowl and the skateboard museum, and things began to roll. “It was our way of giving back for what those guys created for us,” says Huber. Partnering the efforts for the event with Eric “Arab” Groff, Ed Economy, and Brad “Barleye” Ellman, who’d been working with Stacy Peralta on the Z-Boyz website, Huber and his conspirators began to spread the word, one skateboarder at a time. Economy dug out his address book, going way back to track down some of his old friends. Arab did a lot of the leg work, too, and had a pretty deep list of names of guys to contact. The website that Barleye produced almost immediately helped serve notice to those in doubt that this thing was for real, and that it was going to be deep. And deep it was. The list of names once borne on skateboards topped out at about 75—seventy-five of the pioneers who never got two bucks a board, six-figure salaries, or even free pairs of shoes for riding their skateboards. But they planted the roots, establishing the radical, go-for-it attitude of progression that has been one of the universally recognized attributes of skateboarding, and every skateboarder who has followed is rolling in the path they’ve paved. The bowl was the center of the skateboarding activity for most of the night, as Tom “Wally” Inouye, Tony Alva, Duane Peters, and many others skated, and everyone from Alan “Ollie” Gelfand, Howard Hood, Jimmy Plummer, Bob Biniak, Ray Flores, Jerry Valdez, and Jay Smith cheered, greeted, and did lots of catching up. The museum became a common ground, as people checked out all the old boards. Most, if not all, of the pros at the Jam could find at least one of their original pro models on the wall. Huber, who is one of a handful of guys in the country with a truly impressive collection of boards, began collecting skateboards in the late eighties, when he only knew about Brewce Martin and Dale Smith as collectors. At an early skateboard swap meet, he hooked up with Ed Economy and Arab, and soon after met up with other collectors through his little skatezine “Skate Trader,” which was basically a list of boards that a bunch of collectors had available. Although some of his favorites have come at two or three bucks a pop, there have been some expensive boards, and the Henry Hester custom skate car came to the museum at an undisclosed price. Apparently several rare skateboards have sold for $5000 or more on eBay recently, and when asked if the recent prices are getting out of hand, Huber told a story about Paul Ng, who was a pro for G&S in the seventies, and is now a successful contractor in San Diego. Ng recently offered Huber $1000 for a board on the wall of the museum. When Huber declined, and said it wasn’t worth that price, Ng replied “Some people have more money than time.” Huber attributes the inflated prices to that general attitude, but also believes that for the first time, the oldest skateboarders are now at an age where they’ve got the means to fulfill some of their dreams. Arab Groff is one of the guys with a very solid collection. He’s the curator of the original semi-permanent skateboard installation, at the Surf Museum in Huntington Beach, California, and has been collecting boards since the early eighties. In 2000, Groff’s skateboard collection saved him from serious debt, as he was forced to sell some of the boards on eBay to pay for shoulder surgery. As a veteran who bought his first board in 1964, Groff has seen the trends come and go. He still swears by his old flat-nosed “Pig” deck, but doesn’t begrudge the kids who are doing their own thing these days. Arab attributes a lot of the resurgence of interest in classic skateboarding to the skateboard parks that are popping up everywhere. “It’s opening the doors for a lot of old skaters,” he says. “There’s been nothing for them to skate for the last ten or fifteen years, so now with all the parks opening up, you’re seeing all these old guys come out of the woodwork with their flat-nosed boards that have shape to them.” Arab also foresees a trend emerging, as the skaters who left during that wide-flat board era look for boards, a niche market might be created. Arab, and Huber as well, have a special spot in their collections for Dogtown Skateboards. During the seventies, these boards were the first wide boards, the first with radical graphics, and the Dogtown crew were constantly the cutting edge when it came to radical skateboarding and radical attitudes. Stacy Peralta, one of the most important figures in the history of skateboarding, recently completed a film simply entitled “Dogtown” to an immediate, if not concentrated, audience and level of success, bringing home awards from the Sundance film festival. It’s questionable whether the hype surrounding the film is representative of or responsible for the renewed interest in skateboarding’s history. It seemed to be coming before the film was even undertaken, but certainly the film and this resurgence have scratched each other’s back, helping the current swell snowball. Which brings us back to the assertion that time passing has created a history, a full generation of skateboarders fueled by the passion and growth of ability that the urethane wheel allowed about twenty-five years ago. This sense of nostalgia might be considered a good sign: is it possible that now that we’re into the true second generation of skateboarders, rather than the waves or eras of skateboarders that we’ve previously mis-labeled “generations,” we can overcome the cycles that have plagued us? Only time will tell. Whether or not there is ever another Old School Skate Jam honoring the legends, the first was incredible, a real night to remember. Perhaps perveyor of all that is good in skateboarding Mike Vallely said it best: “I thought it was beautiful.” Hear, hear! Dennis “Polar Bear” Agnew, Jay Alabamy, Micke Alba, Steve Alba, Tony Alva, Dave Andrecht, Waldo Autry, Ricky Barnes, Jonny Ray Bartel, Bob Biniak, Brad Bowman, Brian Brannon, Beau Brown, Steve Caballero, Chris Cook, JamesCassimus, Steve Cathey, Chris Chaput, Paul Constantineau Bill Danforth, Darrel Delgado, Adrian Demain, Freddie DeSoto, Art Dickey, Bill Dohr, Eric Dressen, Dave Duncan, Scott Dunlap, Ed Economy, Eddie Elguera, Ron Emory, Skip Engblom, Don Fisher, Ray Flores, Mike Folmer, Glen E. Friedman, Alan “Ollie” Gelfand, Art Godoy, Steve Godoy, Jim Gray, Marty Grimes, Eric Grisham, Tom Groholski, Jeff Grosso Dave Hackett, Omar Hassan, Tony Hawk, Henry Hester, Lonnie Hiramoto, Mike Hirsch, Steve Hirsch, Jeff Ho, Howard Hood, Wes Humpston, Tom “Wally” Inouye, Jason Jessee, Marty Jiminez, Hunter Joslin, Bryce Kanights, Alan Losi, John Lucero, Tony Magnusson, Dennis Martinez, Mike McGill, Rob Mertz, Lance Mountain, MoFo, James “Red Dog” Muir, Aaron “Fingers” Murray, Monty Nolder, Layne Oakes, Peggy Oki, Steve “Bulky”Olson, George Orton, Brian Patch, Tim Payne, Duane Peters, Doug “Pineapple” Saladino, Eddie Reatigui, Dave Ruel, Everett Rosecrans, Billy Ruff, Paul Schmitt, Ben Schroeder, Bob Skoldberg, Buck Smith, Dale Smith, Jay Smith, Mike Smith, Kevin Staab, Craig Stecyk III, Chris Strople, Tod Swank, Ted Terrebonne, Jerry Valdez, Mike Vallely, Chris Yandall. |