 |
| Photo: Jim Mahoney |
In the mid-’70s skateboarding finally got a foothold, and didn't let go. The urethane wheel, sealed bearings, and the kicktail were the answer, and skateboards haven't changed much since. In 1975, I published Skateboard magazine and promoted the magic rolling board in every way possible. We ran the United States Skateboard Association and held every type of competition you could imagine. The events were freestyle, slalom, speed run, bowl-riding, vertical, past-vertical, pipe, bank-slalom, high-jump, barrel-jump, and wall-ride. We featured each of them in the magazine. Then the question was: what else can we do on a skateboard?
We went through a tunnel of fire, rode them to launch on a hang-glider, put on ice blades, attached a sail, put a skyrocket on the bottom, drilled holes in the axels and glue lighter flints in the holes to grind and spark, and so on.
I skateboarded before I surfed. The body positions are similar—the bottom turn, the cutback. So next we made this combo kit to unite the two sports—mounting a 28-inch Kanoa skateboard on a ’70s single-fin pintail. We tested it for the first time at Royal Palms in San Pedro. The first rider up was the reigning world skateboard champion at the time, Russ Howell, but he was unable to make the transition. Then a talented local goofyfoot, Dwane Forester (pictured), finally did the deed consummating the marriage of the sports.
No comments:
Post a Comment