Sk8 history-Vince (vinny) Lock-31¼

Once upon a time (back in ye olden days) there lived a young lad 12yrs old from Tiverton who was mad on Bmx riding (me) but one day my best mate (Graeme Larsen -AKA Big G.???) turned up at my door with a plank of wood nailed to 4 trolley wheels (ok it was a Variflex but plank of wood sounded more dramatic) from that day on and for the next 5 yrs skating was the be all and end all of my life.I bought an Excalibur skateboard from our local Bmx shop (Ron's Bmx) I remember thinking it was the mutts nuts at the time with it's chunky tail stopper, nose guard, fat rail savers and even plastic savers on the trucks??.

Unfortunately before long that carpentry masterpiece got snapped mid Mc twist (ok I was jumping off a 2ft wall and landed on the middle of it) needless to say I was boardless. The events that follow prove my dedication to the sport as I am to DIY what Hitler was to world peace-SHITE. I made myself a deck out of one of those old wooden belly boards you get in beach shops that old grannies ride with their swimming caps on, It was in fact very good for a while until that also met it's untimely death- the trials and tribulations of learning to Ollie.

That was it the time had come, I had to beg, steal, borrow and even do chores but that Mike McGill in Ron's shop would be mine oh yes it would be mine. After years of sweating blood I could finally afford it (about a week of lawn mowing) it was the happiest day of my life (except the day stuck in a lift with two Swedish lesbians but that's another story for another website)

By the time I got my Mc Gill and Gullwing trucks with a lovely set of bullets, big G had himself a Tony Hawk so obviously we thought we were the Bones Brigade. We skated every night after school and weekends we would usually go to either Exeter or Taunton for a change of scenery. G built a fly off ramp that we spent many a day lying next to screaming in agony or just unable to move.

Once G's dad drove us to Plymouth for the weekend because there was a big skate comp on the hoe. We met Rodney Mullen (nice guy) and saw Tony, Mike etc rip up the halfpipe but after about ½ hour we said fuck this and went exploring Plymouth in search of animal chin. Good banks, slopes, kerbs etc to be found.

As I said before the 5 years from aged 12-17 were spent skating skating skating but then comes the time you got to get a job, then a mortgage etc. The last 13 years all of my free time was spent surfing (water doesn't hurt like concrete & I'm 10x better at it)

Last year Edgie (founder of M.O.T.H.S.-mostly over the hill skaters) dragged me to Dreamfields after nagging me for months. To my surprise I enjoyed it and am now a regular every week without fail.

YOU'RE NEVER TOO OLD TO HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But it does hurt more when you fall off at 30.

Thanks for bothering to read-Vinny.