Darren (Wilbut) & Andrew Williams Skate History
Adelaide, South Australia
by Andrew

1975 - 77
When The skateboard craze hit in the 70s, it impacted our far away town just as it did world wide. Being the sons of a hardcore motorcycle racer, we always had bikes and stuff to fuck around on and we, like the rest of the kids at school, were mad for skating. We had a designated skating area at school, we had skate races around our house (including kids from the neighborhood & our dad) and frequently went to Norwood Velodrome to ride the banks.

A vivid memory is seeing Stacey Peralta do a demo at a department store. The store was packed with kids, i was pretty young and only got to see his blonde hair swirling through the crowd.

At the height of the 70s craze, there was a 2-day competition with a similar format as the Del Mar comp as seen in Dogtown Z-Boys. Darren was entering, i went along to watch, but i also entered when i saw kids my age skating. I
remember slamming hard, on my first slalom run. But I went alright and was leading my age group at the end of the first day. The next day however, my dad was racing at a mile speedway. I had the choice, skate in the comp or go to the speedway. I chose the speedway.

1977 - 82
Sturt Creek was the place to skate. Massive banks, with cheese grater concrete. Plenty of wild shit went down here. We would skate all day. At this stage Darren was fast becoming a total ruler. He was a dead ringer for
his hero - Alva. He had the hair, the same fluid style and the "Fuck You" attitude.

A new skate park was built out the other side of town (Parafield Gardens). It had a concrete halfpipe and bowl. I remember a heap of us kids all camping out and sleeping(??) in the halfpipe. This is where skaters like
Darren, Tommo & Touhey really started to rip. These guys were and still are some of the raddest ive seen.

1983 - 2002
Like alot of Australian kids, i was into many sports. The age differnce between my brother and me made it tough for us to hang out together when we were teenagers. We would basically just fight the whole time. We both had our own shit going on. I dropped out of skating and focused my efforts into playing Aussie Rules footy. Darren continued to skate and also race Sidecar Motocross. I enjoyed my footy, Darren was successfull racing.

2002 - now
Having been retired from footy (because your body takes a caning). I needed something else. Then the planets aligned. Darren now works in a Skate shop specialising in old school shit. (The Blue Tile Lounge). An old, school mate (Jimmy Guy) and i watched Dogtown & Z-boys. It lit a fire. The next day I borrowed some boards and we went to the newly finished West Beach skate park, and that was it.

I now skate regularly with my brother and old crew from Sturt Creek & Parafield as well as the many younger skaters.

The guys i skate with are rad, we have a good skate scene here. We got a some great parks to skate (eg, bowls and vert), good beer and good weed. Adelaide is not a well known town/ city. There are some mind blowing but
relatively unknown skaters here. Its a place not full of posers and ego tripping wankers. Its not Melbourne or Sydney. But we DO have the largest Vert ramp in the Southern hemisphere.

Come on down.

cheers
Andrew

www.awvs.com.au