I couldn't wait until it was dry and I could cruise the cracked pavements, outside my parents house there was a small bank about 3 pavement slabs wide at about 30 degrees which became my training ramp and where I perfected turns, 360's etc. I progressed and nagged my parents to buy me a real skateboard which they didn't! In this case it was board from a local sports shop with an aluminium deck which could slice your shins on the slightest contact. It had ridges moulded on the top and a 2 inch wide piece of grip tape running down the middle. The soft red urethane wheels rolled for about 3ft on a good day! I stuck at it though living and breathing skating and the following Christmas hit the big time: a Santa Cruz deck, full trak Tracker Trucks and those ohhh so lovely 70mm red Kryps, Norcon helmet and pads. I can remember the first time I rode it, it was like being on a cloud! Skate City in London was the first real skatepark that I rode and we used to catch the train to London and ride there all day, spending most of our time queuing for a run! I managed to progress to the hallowed status of the Black bowl and enjoyed trying to emulate my skating hero Si Napper by attempting lip slides! I then got into making my own boards and did one as a woodwork project from marine ply. Then it all ended around 80 as the craze died and I moved away from my skate friends and our MK spots.

Around 85 I bumped into some old school / skate friends and we chatted about skating and it's apparent rise in popularity again. We pooled some cash and bought a Variflex complete (bright purple with crap wheels). In MK we are blessed with some fairly good natural skate terrain, one of the best examples being Caldecotte ditch (see the Milton Keynes section). We skated Caldecotte and hooked up with some local skaters who showed us how to do this 'no handed arial' thing called an ollie! I can remember watching the first Bones video of Tommy G ollieing down a San Francisco street, we rewound it over and over to see what he was doing!

I continued to skate and hooked up with some other local 'old timers' (Mupp, Dave Chilman, Potter, Phill) and we traveled around the UK skating and even went on a skate holiday to Spain in search of empty pools (although I broke my arm skating about two weeks before we went). Around 89 I got into Snowboarding and my skating dropped off and stopped around 92 due to relocation with work. I continued to board though and I guess that satisfied my need to slide sideways! Back in MK in 2002 the husband of my wife's work colleague decided to learn to skate at 43 (Go Bryan!) and that was all the encouragement I needed! I dusted off my old board, bought a new lollypop deck (the widest one I could find) and started skating again at a local mini ramp. Since then I've hooked up with some old skate friends Steve, Mupp and Potter whom I skated with in the 70's. I have also had some great skate days visiting some of the parks featured on this site (Bolton, Stockport, Leicester, Dewsbury etc) with a great bunch of skaters (Carl, Kev, Tim, Jon, Ste) and I'm enjoying it more than ever!! I can't wait for summer this year (2003) so that we can tour some of the old crete again (Harrow, Rom and Caldecotte!).

I hope that reading this has tempted you................. do it, get on it before it's too late!!