Pete Rose 1965 vintage

It starts long ago in the 1940's when my dad made a skateboard, a split
skate nailed to a plank... skip to 1973-4 and dad makes me the same thing,
truth is though I used to sit on it and get speed wobble down inappropriate
hills, and then bugger me about '75-76 I became conscious. Plastic deck for
Christmas 1976, soon broke the truck, BUT the school trip to SKATE CITY in
London freaked me out as someone on the coach had a copy of SKATEBOARDER (US
mag), the one with lots of full pipes in it.. cool. Then it became hard to
get stuff, especially bearings, by now I had a fibreflex, and an Earth-Ski.
There was fuck all to skate as well, the Malibu Dog-Bowl at Notts had nearly
closed down, although I did see some guys on wider decks, crazy! Must have
been79-80? Jules and I had a brief fling with roller skates 78-79, homemade
with acs 430 trucks and red kryps. We skated South Bank in 79 and there were
very few souls about. Quiet times... then Jules turned up at mine with a
video that changed everything, 'The Bones Brigade.' As anyone knows who saw
it way back then '84? it stopped time when you first watched it. Ollieing
was the most bizarre thing I had ever seen, but the fuel for my passion was
overflowing. Regular evening sessions at Broad Marsh Banks, Notts in the
Eighties were the best, more frustrating was trying to find a decent ramp,
early 80's Holbeach nr Skegness some rickety 1/2 pipe in a barn, Kettering
Wicksteed park, Warrington the Ardwick centre Manchester, you rode what you
could get to/find. I started a fanzine called Tony Alva's Teeth or T.A.T.
and got to meet some great people due to that including Matt (Wimp Out!)
from Bristol, Rest in Peace Matt, and the Isle of Wight crew Scott Wilson,
Steve Joliffe, Steve Parnell, what a skater, Don Brider was at those IOW
sessions, good hand style, about 1989 I wrote freelance for Sk8 Action
magazine. Sk8 Action was wank, but the stuff I did was cool, honest. It did
mean that I got to meet all my skate hero's. I made a point of having a go
on their boards, and we would often get pissed up during the interview then
skate, ace. There are way too many to list but my fave's are Mark Gonzales,
Tony Hawk and Eric Dressen. I got free stuff and travel paid plus tickets to
The Ban This premiere, so, Sk8 Action was crap but it did me alright.
Sidewalk Surfer even printed some of my dross! Up till now the rest is just
more skating, I've never really stopped skating, although the injuries are
becoming troublesome, a smashed ankle full of plates and pins from a pipe
slam in 1986 and a broken collar bone in 2004, ramp again a month before my
second marriage... bollocks. Add innumerable sprained ankles, a black eye
once (deck hit me in the face, bastard thing, I didn't talk to it for a
week)
I have 3 kids all dragged up on skating ages 22, 20 and 15 and have been an
Cancer specialist nurse for ages, I used to run a Hospice, can you
believe... the patients enjoyed it when I took the deck in and did a few
moves. I have also skated down those beautifully smooth corridors you see in
hospitals, in the night though, it would not be proper with all those
trolleys around in the day. I also skated Union Square in San Francisco in
2000, I won a comp there with CH 4 nice walls, and rate smooth ( I was so
pissed). My set up is a cheap blank about 7 1/2 wide independent trucks and
white wheels, I can't be doing with what they are called. I have an Eric
Dressen Santa Cruz everslick, an ol' Lance Mountain and a Zorlac for special
occasions.
I love to wheelie, two foot nose being a fave, I am the BEST at
spacewalking, duel anyone? No-comply variations, slides frontside airs,
laybacks, impossibles, kickflips, nosepicks, shit I love it all. I skate
regularly and am practising frontside slides on benches.
Skateboarding rules.