I can't remember how old I was (about 6 I think) , or what inspired me to do it, but I had one of those toy dogs with wheels and a handle to help kids to learn to walk. I'd outgrown its previous use so I decided to borrow my dad's hacksaw and modify it. Off came the dog and I was left with a square metal frame with a fixed wheel at each corner. Plank of wood and away we go. Got bollocked by my dad for using his tools and by my mum for wrecking a perfectly good toy. Couldn't turn it and, due to the size of the wheels, kept stopping when your foot rubbed on the tyres. Hmmmm this won't do.
Then in about 1975 I heard rumours from friends about people riding similar things to mine only with an old roller skate nailed to a plank of wood. Bingo! No more toe rubbing wheel problems. Next came real skateboards at our local sports shop. I pestered my dad to get me one. I can't remember the name but it was basically an old roller skate nailed to a shaped piece of plywood, with a huge rubber thing at the back that was supposed to act as a brake, but whenever you tried to kick turn it hit the floor and you caught yourself a good dose of road rash.
All my friends started skating around this time. All on these glorified roller skates. Then came the magazines, with pictures of Tony Alva and Stacy Peralta riding boards with real trucks and urethane wheels! We need some of them!
The next step was a double kick tailed polypropelene super skuda. Now we're cooking on gas. If only we had a skate park like they do in the states. Well Liptons car pak was the next best thing as they had a massive 45º ramp at the end with a bit of vert at the top. No transitions mind. The local industrial estate proved popular for slalom
due to its smooth inclines too. Then came Watergate Bay near Newquay. A sort of double bowl affair with a wave shaped ramp at one end that you had to ride across a very badly surfaced drive to get at. Great fun though, especially as the local surf shop stocked skateboard stuff. I loved that bowl and soon talked my dad into taking me there every weekend instead of going swimming. I also managed to talk my dad into getting me a Gordon & Smith Fibreflex deck with Gullwings and red 70mm Red Kryptonics. (I'd been through the home made deck with ACS 500's and some rock hard wheels that I forget the name of). This is it I thought, until I actually tried to ride this set up in the bowl. Much splintered fibreglass and a few bruises later I realised that, good as this set up
was for slalom, bowl riding it was not suited to. Time to raid the piggy bank and have two specialist boards!
Well I tried loads of set ups, decks included, Santa Cruz, Benjibord and several names I forget until finally Tony Alva brought out his own stick. That's the puppy for me! Trucks were easier, after trying ACS 651's I soon discovered Tracker Mid tracks. Wheels were also problematic, but after trying green Kryptonics, OJ's and blue Kryps I finally settled on two yellow and two red Yoyos. It looked great and it rode like a dream.
By now there was also a park at Holywell Bay and, most importantly for me as it was local, an indoor park at on old music venue called the Flamingo in Pool, near Redruth. Even better it was run by my mate Darren Frost's dad! At first it consisted of a huge freestyle area with a short but wide 45º ramp, a slalom run and a bigger 45º ramp. It was heaven on earth. I got a job there as a marshall, well it was more a case of you could get in free and maybe get some discount on gear, but I thought it was a job. As I only lived around the corner I was there every night.
The Marshalls began to modify the big ramp. We put a steep extension on the top and added a broom handle for coping. Eventually a massive half pipe was built. It was about 15 feet high with 3 feet of vert and no flat at the bottom but it was amazing fun.
Competitions were held with members of the Benjibord team as judges. I won the u-14's High Jump, came third in both the freestyle and half pipe and generally had a great time with members of our very own Tris Skates team scooping the prizes in most categories.
Unfortunately the flamingo closed in around1980 and somehow, without my home turf, my heart wasn't in it any more. I still had a good collection of boards, the aformentioned 8 1/4" Alva set up, a 10" Alva with full track Trackers and Red Kryptonics and a G&S fibreflex slalom deck with ACS 651's and OJ's. Sadly all gone now! (Although I do still have an old Dog Town set up.) I continued to use the slalom board and the smaller
Alva, but most of my friends stopped altogether. There were a couple of us who attempted to build ramps in our gardens but it just wasn't the same and I left my boards to gather dust as I discovered drink, drugs and women.
I did briefly skate again in London in the 80's on a ramp in King's Cross under a condemned tower block, but the booze had taken its toll.
Then in 1990 I got married. I started telling my wife about my past. A friend of hers turned up at our house one day with one of my old boards! The Dog Town set up. (How he ended up with it I don't know, my mum gave
away all my skateboards when she moved house while I was living in London).
I began to practice in my drive. I could still do it! Then two and a half years ago I quit my job and went back to college, in Falmouth, where there is a free skatepark! I went straight to the local skateshop and purchased a new Dog Town deck with Independent trucks and Bones wheels. Back in business! There are now skateparks croping up all over West Cornwall and I can't wait to try as many of them as I can! 38, off the booze and back on the deck!