SK8 History by Chris Wise

It all started for me in late 76 my mate Jay came round with a rubber wheeled Flyer skateboard we went out and rode it and after that i had to have one,after much moaning to my mum she finally caved in we went to the
shop but they had a differnt Flyer in red,i got it all the same but it turned out to be not as good as the green one!We went to the local park where there was some good smooth hills.this carried on for a few weeks then
a kid turned up on a blue Skuda!It was fast and smooth,we were envious! soon the crowd grew and kids started to talk about a place by the thames called the Southbank.Newpoters and Superskudas started to turn up and we were getting left behind!Soon Jay turned up with a new skateboard called a Skooter,it was good too!I carried on out classed,overtaken until one day i came home from school and my mum had a surprise!The best skateboard i had ever seen!BIG red wheels BIG continetal trucks and a fiberglass deck with a motorcrosser on it (i didn`t know the connection and i didn`t care)Now i had some muscle!

We carried on riding the hills,doing slalom and we had a good little gang until a mate of ours who didn`t skate told us a mate at school(we had met him before) skateboarded,we met up with him and his brother, Their skateboards were something else!Wheels like mine but Acs 651 trucks and a fantastic Wooden deck,i loved em!It turned out his dad made their decks! Anyway he was a cool dad cos he used to take them down the Southbank in his
VW camper next time they went we went too,Wow this is it!we thought, we rode the banks... badly, but soon got better and soon G&s Peraltas and fiberflexes,Logan earth skis with Ojs were arriving on the scene. My birthday was coming up so i asked my mates dad if he could make me a board,he agreed and after a few weeks it was ready!It was an arrow head shaped deck(without a point)strips of griptape,Acs 651s not sure what the
wheels were(Seth Cutts said they were Redriders)you can see it in the duffy pic,left foot,you can see Seth too behind me in trippledecker pic,he wasn`t a big mate of mine,i used to chat with him now and again, Better skater than i was.

 

After that everyone asked me where i got my board,I`d send them over to my mates dad and after a while i suppose he thought hmmm... bit of cash on the side? Then Kriptonics arrived. tried out some blue ones at the
southbank,smooooth.next Alpine sports sold off some really cheap Kriptonic seconds(without the name on the wheel)queued up for ages and was knocked out when i finally got them! After that we hit Meanwhile gardens for a while which was great watching Marc Sinclair do his stuff,then Skate city which was too crowded,the
southbank got a bit dodgey (kids getting mugged for their skateboards),then Harrow opened which we all liked very much but open air was a gamble so when Rolling Thunder opened we hit it religeously and became experts at the London Underground map,singing Rutles tunes all the way there!plus being chased by the LT staff riding through the stations(great laugh)so we went through Hobie parkriders,Benjiboards,Hobie Mike Weed and i ended up with a Ben Liddell Fresh Air, beautiful deck! Bigass Lazer trucks with rock hard Jelly-rubbers(remember them) and bb boots wheels.Rolling Thunder and Harrow started out all very organized,tickets and all that,Then they must of gone bust or something cos all of a sudden it seemed it was...free,which was great! loud music! i remember Joe Walsh`s Life been good for me(so far)and Third Worlds Now that we found love at thunder and The Great Rock and Roll swindle soundtrack album at harrow,it was great we used to stay late at harrow and have a great laugh,i liked the slalom course and used to take my slalom board,Hobie slalom with mid-tracks and little green monsters(mark1 green krips),when i was bowlriding on my other board no one touched it,Great
days!then it all seemed to drift apart, few of us where in to motorbikes and then females,gigs and other stuff, boarding just got left behind,sad really it was a great part of my life.

I still saw the guys untill about 81 and then we all worked,collage new friends we all lost touch,i wonder if they fancy going boarding again?

Have to track them all down.anyway i got back on a board a few weeks ago for a laugh and it felt great! i thought about it for while and then saw you guys, bought a new board and went down the southbank for a bit,i havn`t gone to any parks yet cos the weathers been shite but i can`t wait to get going again! this has turned into my fucking life story! sorry, once i start! hope i havn`t rattled on for too long.