IN THE BEGINNING 1977-1980………..

It all began in Redcar, Cleveland in 1977, not quite turned on the Punk explosion as yet, due mainly to the fact that my parents would only tolerate Country & Western in the house (they still do). I recall watching a feature on BBC's Nationwide on the latest craze sweeping the nation SKATEBOARDING, this lead to the immediate demise of all know roller-skates in the whole street as the heel and toe sections were separated, flattened and attached (usually with over sized nails) to the nearest piece of wood / fence you could find.

My first "proper" skateboard like most of the street arrived Christmas 1977, was it a fiberflex, Hobie or some other boss brand which graced pages of the newly founded skatemags? No it was a polypropylene jobby from Stockton Market, still it was better than the home-made plank, and as my Dad said, "I'm not paying out for something you'll get tired of by the end of the month" Oh he of little faith.

As no skateparks were available it was all about street tricks, a wheelie, 360 a spot of moon walking or a kickflip set you a class above the rest, even if you were still riding your home-made board. After the "first wave" died down, a hard core remained, we mainly hung out at either the newly opened Skate shop "Slick Slider", the public library (which had a few ramped walls), the sea wall, (bit messy at high tide), Saltburn (for down hill thrills) and the holly grail of skating "the pipes" at British Steel.

The Pipes were about 8mtrs in diameter and had a weld at approx 4 O' clock and 10 O' clock, getting your front wheels to hit the 10 O'clock weld was the biz as anything past 9 O'clock was VERT+. The added excitement of skating "The Pipes" was that they were in a compound within British Steel and at any time the Security, complete with dogs could show up. It's amazing how fast you can run when a dog is charging towards you. On the few occasions that we were caught they usually took you to the farthest security gate and let you off, however this meant an 8 mile skate back home, and a new right trainer to boot.

Me on the Snake run at the Mere skatepark at Scarborough, in the tightest shorts and saddest hairstyle / helmet known to man. Pro-Am board (also from Stockton Market) I later bought the streetstick on the left complete with tracker trucks and Alva wheels. (my brother sold it at a car boot sale some years ago, the little B#$%rd, does he realise what this set-up would go for on Ebay!!!!!!!)

Next to Skating, my other passion at this time was music and it seemed to go hand in hand with skating, my personal favourite, and still to this day was DEVO, (check out The Wipeouters CD, Devo doing surf!) but any Punk / New wave was the order of the day. I got into music because of skating so it's ironic that Music was the main reason I gave up skating, namely the MOD / SKA revival. Scooters, Modettes and beer suddenly had a lot more appeal.

THE WORKING YEARS,

Although I did not re-start my skating career until 1998, I kept my balancing skills honed during the 80 / 90's by Windsurfing, Snowboarding and Mountain biking, however this all changed when I went to California, the greatest and most expensive holiday I've ever had (two of us went, three of us came back). It was whilst in Santa Cruz I had no option but to buy a new set-up, a genuine Santa Cruz Steve Caballero, complete with Spitfire wheels. Cruising down Venice and Huntington beach is a lasting memory of the holiday and the realisation that I had to re-start skating.

Fast-forward to today, I'm not skating as much as I would like to, but thankfully due to the interest my four year old has in Skating I now have a perfect excuse for father / son bonding sessions and a new found love of all things OLD SKOOL.

Callum "Cali" Draffan and Paul "Draff" Draffan