Sk8 history Mark (Edgie) Edgecombe

Started skatin in summer 1976, my m8 got a Flyer wooden board with rubber wheels, so i did the usual and cut out a board and stuck on two halves of roller skates, trouble was they were fixed and had no turning mechanism. Ping!!! i know i thought! i will put a piece of carpet between the skates and the board then it will turn, WRONG!!!!...

My m8 had dosh and soon got a Skuda, i had the cast off Flyer,,, then with a bit of pleading my family came up trumps and i put together enough to buy a set of yellow Yoyo's and ACS 500's which went on an Oak deck cut out just like a Logan Earth Ski...

That was it I was hooked, every weekend I went up to Plymouth Hoe where there were loads of Skateboarders, freestyle tricks, slalom races, it was magic. Skating became my one and only interest (sad eh) circa 1977- 78 the City Zoo shut down and the owners the Chipperfields of circus fame built what was then the largest concrete skatepark in Europe. The Mogul, The Fruit Bowl, The DZ Run, The Hockey Stick, The Famous Full Pipe, The Beginners Bowl, and the Freestyle area, along with a small sk8 shop and circular cafe with lots of Chips eaten to the sounds of Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc....(As a matter of interest there is a strong possibility that the skatepark is still there buried underground, would be great to see it excavated, job for Time Team methinks)

Had a m8 called Paul back then his Mum owned a corner shop and his Dad lived in the States, the lucky bugger had a Sims Comp deck with Green Kryps and i think Gullwings,, how i wanted that board... Paul later moved over with his Dad, missed him when he went... (If you are out there M8 give us a shout)

Anyway the crew back then at Plymouth Zoo was P.K (Phil House) Wilf (Martyn Wilcox) and me, we had a lot of fun there, the best skater at the time was a chap called Mark Lawer, (later known as Trawler) didn't know Mark that well back then, but was chuffed as monkeys to meet him last summer (2002) at a skatepark, still recognised eachother after 20 + years... he is a bit of a skating legend now,, deserves it in my opinion.

So the years passed by, life got more serious, mariage, kids, mortgage, business etc etc, but I still kept my old board, and still had a play every now and then. Then my nephew Steve got interested in skateboarding,, hey hey heres my excuse I thought, so off we all went to an extreme sports show, and came home with a Longboard hahahahah......

Since then I have gotten right back into it, I help out at the local indoor skatepark, and my son has thankfully been bitten by the bug too.. Life is much richer with a skateboard under your feet!!!!!!!!!!