Mick Briggs / mike briggs" <gatorsk8er@hotmail.com

1972, south florida, saw a guy doing freestyle and thought "cool, gotta try that". Well, that became boring real quick. I prefered any kind of transition I could find as long as you could carve and turn on it. then about 1976 me and my friend mark whent to a park in hollywood called skateboard USA.Snake runs, bowls, we were stoked! At the time I rode this skinny sims board w/oj wheels i think and thought man, this couldn't get any better. after numerous lumps and contusions from skating we got heavily into surfing and that took up most of our time until high school ended in 1979. In 1980 I ended up in so. california, employed as a nightclub musician, and surfed nearly everyday. I didn,t skate as much I quess because i lived near the beach and the surf was so good. Thats how the 80s went for the most part, a little skating(small park in Huntington Beach).alot of waves!

Enter the wife and what is now 7 kids.(Yes I know whats causing that), and a 1995 move to north Florida. Sold all my surfboards before we left and didn,t skate at all by that time so life was a little boring. After we got here skateparks started popping up everywhere in the country. The city hired Tim Payne to build our park and it is awsome. I heard about it and thought can i still do this? Naturally my kids couldn,t wait to skate it so I spent a small fortune on boards and safety gear and the ripping comenced. Well sorta. The first day I got really stoked and decided to air out of this bowl, my feet flew out from under me and i beefed hard on my back. Broken ribs and all. My wife gave me a verbal lashing and I pondered just letting my kids have the park. NOT! i healed up and went right back at it and have been skating ever since. Skating with your kids is awsome. To share the stoke of skateboarding is a great feeling. Currently I ride a Vision gator w/indy 215s and schmitt saw blades. i,m 42 but kids at the park think im like 30. Ah, why tell em the truth. Besides I would just get the preverbial " You skate pretty good for an old guy".