My very first experience of skateboarding was in the early part of 1975 at the age of thirteen. During the school holidays, a group of friends and I went to the cinema in Camberley to see the latest Hollywood blockbuster, the title of which I can't recall. Little did we know that the short film before the main feature was the one that we really wanted to see, we just did'nt know it at the time !
I was bitten by the surfing bug at a very young age, but for obvious reasons was unable to go except on family holidays to Cornwall, but, when "Skatadata" started to play up on the silver screen this opened up a whole new world for me. Could'nt tell you the plot, all I could see was that there were guys "surfing" on the road, that was it for me I left the cinema at the end of Skatadata too excited to watch the main feature and raced home, all the time wondering where I could lay my hands on one of those boards.
After some thought, I figured that an old roller skate and plank was the way to go, so, that very same afternoon, I found a pair of metal wheeled roller skates (Jaco ?) and a piece of timber, nailed them all together and I became a skateboarder.
I used the metal wheeled job until my birthday came round the following Easter 1976, when my dad bought me my first real skateboard which was a "Gecko" Anyone remember them ? Cost £15 at the time, bought from a guy who was selling them from his house in Windsor. I was the first to have a "proper" skateboard and was the envy of everyone, well for a week or two anyway until they all got them!
Some of the other guys I skated with way back in the day were, Dave "Arnie" Arniboldi, Craig Stanning, Paul Dauncy, Alec Brown (who I tracked down via this website !) and Simon Bool.
The Gecko was replaced in early 1977 with a G&S Stacy Peralta Warptail deck with Tracker mids and OJ's, then Kryptonics. 1978 moved on to a Hobie Parkrider with Tracker halves, then full tracks, with Yo Yo Pro's, Sims Snakes and Powerflex. Last board that I bought was in 1980 which was a Sims Brad Bowman with Gull Wing Pro's and Variflex.
My dad has assured me that all my old skate stuff is packed away somewhere in his loft, would'nt mind digging it all out someday.
In the early days 1976 / 1977, the only places that we were aware of that you could buy an American made board were Alpine Sports and Slick Willies in Knightsbridge, London. My mates and I used to go there to gaze longingly at the nice new boards just before we went to the South Bank to skate under the National theatre.
Skate parks started to spring up all over the place, the first one that we all went to was Skate City in London docklands I think. Made a few trips up to the Mad dog bowl, then parks opened up a little closer to home, Fleet, Farnborough, Winkfield which was indoors and constructed from wood, the main feature being the "Whiplash", Guildford and then Wokingham which was only one stop on the train from Sandhurst and was where we all skated until it finally closed down.
Went to the opening of Harrow skatepark in July 1978 and saw Alva and Kubo tearing up the performance bowl (wish I had owned a damn camera back then!). Made a few trips up to Harrow after that, last time was around 1982 I think by which time the park had fallen into a sorry state and the performance bowl had been filled in. Have'nt seen it since the re-work, but the website shows it looking pretty good again.
Most memorable skate sessions were with Arnie who died tragically a few years ago. It was with Arnie that I last skated the performance bowl at Harrow all those years ago, and we were fortunate enough to have the place to ourselves on this occasion, no pads, no helmet......must have been mad !!
Continued to skate on and off where I could with Arnie and Craig but by that time all the parks had closed and about the only things left to skate were the odd halfpipes. Dislocated my elbow at Farnborough half pipe in early 1983 which took ages to heal, so that was pretty much the end of my skating.....or so I thought !
The upshot of all this is, that after discovering through this website that there are like minded souls of my own age meeting up and skating again which is just great, so, I've taken the plunge and I went out and bought myself a new board. Sunday 20th of February 2005, saw me set foot on a skateboard, in a half pipe for the first time in almost 22 years and I became a skateboarder all over again.... and did'n't it feel great !!!! I was really quite surprised at how quickly it all came back, there were a few people passing who must have thought that I'd lost my mind as I could'nt help laughing out loud !
Too old to skate ? No, you're never too old to do anything, age is a state of mind. I'm really looking forward to skating some bowls and pools again when the weather improves and perhaps meeting up with some of the other skaters on this website.