NAME:- Woody / Blackpool

AGE:- 38(nearly 39)

I acquired my 1st skateboard ,Christmas `76. I remember it well ,a Surf Flyer, with black rubber wheels, open bearings, axle connected to main truck component by a rubber block which allowed it to turn and a large metal and rubber stopper under the tail. Little did I know at the time that this would be the start of a never ending journey!!

Parks have come and gone throughout the years ,but these are a few that have kept the fire burning:- Blackpool Pleasure Beach, St.Annes Pier, The Green Meany, Kidderminster, Mad Dog bowl, Romford ,Skate City, Ardwick(Manchester), Warrington, Wigan, Preston, Shrewsbury, Birmingham(Wheels),Goshen ,Lytham and into the present with Stockport, Bolton and our latest addition Ramp City in Blackpool. I have come full circle back to where it all started for me and I have made many stops along the way.

It would be impossible to count the number of friends( and the odd enemy or two!!)I have made along the way, not only in this country but also in the USA. The guys I served my apprenticeship with include Dave "Spig" Cridland ,
Gary"Seahorse" Jones, Paxo, Aaron, my brother "Nobby", Phil Rawcliffe, and a few others whose names escape me (sorry guys). In the mid `80s a group of us including Pete Rogers , Barry Thornton, Dave Arnold, Pike,Wingy and Barney and the rest of the Morecambe crew, Craig Chin, Cyb, could be found sessioning Warrington Roller Rink vert ramp ,Latimer Road in London, Southport and many other places around the country. As skateboarding entered one of its dark periods many people gave up the cause but thankfully a small group of us always managed to find or build (thanks Baz`s Mum and Dad !!)somewhere to carry on our passion. Into the 90`s and I hooked up with one of the next generation of skaters , my buddy Little Ricky(not so little now at 22 years old), he can be seen regularly ripping up our local skate park ,but with 14 years skating under his belt I feel that he qualifies as "one of the old boys".

Skateboarding has been good to me, despite a few broken bones along the way( and I didn`t sue a single park owner!!!), and hopefully any young skaters reading this will be inspired to stick with it and get as much pleasure from the sport as I have had over the years .

As my body becomes less forgiving I have branched out into an entirely different area of skateboarding and fulfilled a dream that I have had for many a year, along with my partner Andrea we have opened our own skate shop in Poulton-le-Fylde near Blackpool in the hope that I can pass on some of my knowledge and experience to the next generation of skateboarders. So if you are in the area call in and say hello.We thought long and hard about what to call our little empire and decided it had to be "BIG WOODYS SKATE SHOP"

2 points to remember:-
1. It`s not how good you are, it`s how good it makes you feel
2. NEVER throw any of your old boards away, one day you will regret it,I know I do.

Things I regret:-
1. Riding Tracker trucks.
2. Not riding Independents from day 1.
3. Selling my Alley Cat "Rocker" deck, ACS trucks and green Kryp wheels.

P.S. I never have learnt to "Ollie", why bother when there are transitions to skate.