It came from the 80's... D.I.Y. Fingerboards!

I was digging through the closet tonight and I found some old Fingerboards that I made in the late 80's!
Back in the days before Tech Decks we had to make our own fingerboards.

Most of my old fingerboards are long gone but somehow I managed to save this Hawk and Staab.

I found the fingerboards hosed in a reclaimed Crayon box, covered with pics from an old thrasher. There is a Cab pic, a McGill snake, a bikini girl and a small pic of John Lidden on the box.

The fingerboards are constructed of several thin pieces of cardboard laminated with Elmer's glue.

The trucks were made of tiny pieces of balsa wood, the wheels cannibalized from Hot wheels cars.


I would cut graphics from adds in skate magazines and glue them to the deck with stick glue, then I would finish it off with a piece of clear contac paper. Keep in mind, I was like fourteen when I made these so the craftsmanship is a bit inmature .

The grip tape job is unfinished. I planed to put R.I.P.-Grip on the top for finger control!




At one point I had an awesome fingerboard vert ramp which I made in shop class. The vert ramp was about 24"x40" complete with coping, full decks, a roll-in, channel and plenty of tiny stickers at the tile level. I kick myself for throwing that ramp away. Ah, but I digress...

Western Colorado Skateparks vol. 1

I have decided to do a pictorial on western Colorado skateparks. Here is the first installment. Cedaredge, Montrose and Ridgway. These parks are within an hour drive of each other. You can session them all in one day.Cedaredge seems way too spread out for me. Lots of crossing traffic. If bmx bikes show up your session is over. The street features are laid out around the perimeter of the park. The 6' kidney bowl is very tight much like an old (undesirable) backyard pool. The deeper bowl is about 8' or 9'. I didn't have much fun (chasing my kids around instead of skating) but I am willing to give it another try.

Montrose is cool, strange but fun. The "big" bowl has an angled flat bottom. I think this was designed to give you options when learning new tricks. You can start shollow and move deeper as you progress. The 6' bowl is fun. It's round and it connects to a half pipe-ish area where all the groms fly out. There are to 5' deep snake runs that are somewhat parallel to each other. I had a few good lines. Bring a broom to clean out the big bowl.
Ridgway is a small grindline park. Pool coping all the way around. A little too GNAR for me. The deeper bowl is around 9'. The large wall section is 6' ish and the shollow section is around 4' (with pool coping!) As you can see from the picture this park has one of those iconic wave wall things. The park was fun. I think in time I could find some good lines at Ridgway.

Say skate

My little Say-say is a real joy! She is growing up so fast. Right now she is into skateboards, tearing up paper and splashing in the toilet. "Boys, SHUT the lid when you are done!"

Paint that deck!

Last weekend was awesome. In-spite of the fact that our family has been fighting off sickness for almost a week and a half, we pushed through. It was a weekend of choosing to have a good attitude. We look for and find simple joys in everything we do. Friday night kicked the weekend off with a birthday party for my niece. It was great to see the in-laws. Saturday was a mix of Skating and home projects. To finish the day we had a fun hangout with my friend Rich and his family to warm their new house. Late Saturday night I got the wild Idea to paint my skateboard. It's crazy, I haven't done this for... twenty years or so. I decided to do a spin off from an old Neil blender graphic. Here are a few pictures to document this hair brained idea.

Tape, draw, cut and peal

Paint

Finish

Assemble

Skate!

Keep Skating.

"This aint no vert ramp... but it aint no launch ramp either!"

Playing music, working on home projects, skating and just plain fun in the back yard! Another dream weekend is on the books! Unfortunately, I didn't shoot photos of anything but skate. We had four skate sessions total. I had a solo fifth session.
I will attempt a more well rounded photo documentation in the future. For now check out some highlights from Saturday night!A9 and D
Kvon
Kvon
D
A9 wants you!
Kvon
A9
D
D

STOKED TO THE ROOF!... Memoirs of a Rad Dad

Twenty years of practice finally pays off! I got my hand plants on the coping and I am landing them! Now... if I can build an 11' vert ramp I can practice the real deal!
I am not as rad as this dad or this dad but I am not as old mature either... what I mean is... I have a few years to catch up! These guys are quite an inspiration to me because they are bucking the stereotype... but more than that they are skating for the love of skating.

After landing my hand plant several times I went inside the house to find a poop catastrophe. No picture. My yongest son had an accident, "o.k. no problem" but then he tried to clean it up..."uh-oh!, big problem". I love being a dad!

I GOT IT!

Well it's not the full on tuck knee air but I am calling this a personal milestone none the less. I have done the same old frontside air for over twenty years. I tried the tuck knee a few times but it felt weird so I bailed. Today I pushed through to land several demi-tuck knee airs. Now I just need to pull the board back and get that knee down! I don't have access to a real eleven foot vert ramp, Still I press on hoping that my work here on the six will help once I get to ride the real deal. Regardless... I am stoked!

If I could turn back time...

Hats off to calstreets.com and skullandboneskateboards.com for their cool pics and fun discussion. This image triggered such a fond memory that I could literaly smell this skateshop! I never went to this particular shop but I went to many like it. Last week in Denver I looked at several modern skateshops... nothing even comes close, the good ol days are gone forever. pic property of calstreets.com go check them out!

Keep moving forward

These days it seems too many people are bailing out on their marriage. It sucks to have close friends call it quits and then start pressuring you to take a side. It's a bummer when good people split. It's hell if kid's get caught in the middle and it's a waste of precious time. It's a wasted chapter of life!

I want to be that cute old couple at the wedding. The last couple on the dance floor. The couple that has been married for eighty some years!

I married my dream girl and she just keeps getting better! She is intelligent, artistic and athletic, she is the worlds best mommy and she is totally hot! The history we have together is amazing. It is something that only she and I share. That, is worth more than all the oil in the world.

So here is a call out to every married couple... do what ever it takes, be the cute old couple who has been married for years and years. Build trust and be trustworthy, be supportive and just always be willing to work it out. Look at your mate and see that good catch that you first fell in love with. Don't take anything for granted!

Frontside Fun

Bail, but the pic looks cool!

Landed it! Senior picture???

Apparently this is the week of frontside posts. Hopefully they will get higher.

Fire your art director!

Maybe the conversation went like this:

Stacy: "Tony, I got a great idea for your new add!"
Tony: "O.K."
later that day...
Tony: "Stacy... I quit"
Stacy: "Now what on earth would make you want to do that?"

I found this old Powell Peralta add on calstreets.com I wonder if Vernon Courtlandt Johnson did the face paint on Tony? Anyone know?? Powell Peralta had some crazy adds back in the day.. I miss those days.

Then and Now

More than twenty years has passed since I started skateboarding. A lot has changed. Much has stayed the same. I am more chill and I am more uptight. I have more money and more bills. My family has grown and my love for them overflows. The world has turned, I am still here. That front-side air feels like the first time! I would like to tuck my knee. The movement is a little different. It will take work. I am also working on a front side air to tail and a finger flip front side air to tail. It will take work.

Anti-pro

I always wanted to be sponsored. Ya know!? I mean, wouldn't it be great to have a short but distinguished list of companies that want to slap their logo all over you... In return they would give you an unlimited supply of shoes, clothes, skateboards, guitars, Drums, energy drink, watches, etc, etc, etc. But who wants to give an endorsement deal to some unknown mid thirties guy who is pretty good at everything but masterful at ... well... nothing (at the moment). So like other cool kids that never grew up I turn to D.I.Y. My plan is to come up with my own designs for everything I like, make my own designs and... well... sponsor myself. Heck, why not? I have to buy the stuff anyway so why not put the name of the financier (in this case me) all over it. Undoubtedly some will say this is the highest (or lowest) level of narcissism. For me it's just another avenue for expression... art. So I set about to express myself in new ways but more importantly I endeavor to enjoy the fruits of my labor or just plain have fun. I don't have any of my own designs done yet but I did do one spoof design for my little brother P. Here is your design P! Now all we need is $200 and we can make one! LOL! oh well... maybe we will just stick to the $29 mini logo.

I created this image from the ground up in photoshop ( no picture was used or harmed), Inspired by another fun photo shop pic, I faked the reflections and everything.

working on it

Everyone wants to get better. We want more tricks in our bag. Sometimes skaters get frustraited with doing the same tricks over and over. We have to do the same tricks over and over. why? Because its not just about landing the trick... it's about style... art! You can land a trick, then you can get it consistent but it might take years to get it styled. Right now I am working on style... and getting things bigger and higher. Here we document the state of my less styled tricks. Hopefully future posts will show a big improvement.

Foot on the coping, but the jump is pretty small. I want to get this trick huge like Steve Steadham or the late Jeff Phillips. I think this trick is called a "boneless" or "boneless one". What's the difference? If anyone knows the difference feel free to advise.

This summer I got hand plants down low but I have been working them up the the coping. I didn't land this one, but I will soon. My ramp is about six feet tall, almost to vert. I am a long way from getting this trick on an eleven foot vert ramp but that is the goal.

"My shoes, they're dirty"

Actually, the real quote is "my shorts.. they're dirty". The line was spoken by skateboarding great, Ray Underhill in the epic skate movie, "The Search for Animal Chin". The quote is part of the funniest scene in the movie. Sadly, Ray passed away recently after a long battle with a brain tumor. We had a death in our family this year as well. You can think it over from every angle but death doesn't make sense. All that we can do is live, love and make the most out of every precious moment we are given. When we think of the people we have lost we must focus on the joy that we shared with them. We must not fear our own mortality. Knowing that life wont last forever is fuel to get up every morning and make it the best day ever. Breathe deep, spend lots of time with the ones you love, laugh, write a song and skate hard!

Saturday morning trip to the Fruita wasteland park

NEWS (who cares?) as it happens!

We went to the Fruita skate... eh... park this morning. We made the most of it and tried to do our part to make the park a .... um... better place.

Hey, city of Fruita, thanks for the park but it really needs maintenance. The skatelite on the ramp is broken up in a very bad way, it's a real hazard. Let me know if I can help. ps We cleaned up most of the trash that everyone leaves around. I looked for a restroom for ten minutes before settling for a few tall weeds... Come on Fruita... at least put a port-a -potty out there.

Rumor has it that the city of Fruita is going to build Haul in a new "Woodward" park. That's great and all... but I really wish there was a vert ramp around here.



Drea resting.

We met this cool kid named Forrest. He's pretty good on that bike.

Kvon backside.

Kvon frontside

Asylum9 backside

Asylum9 backside alt view

Asylum9 rock to fakie

HAIL THE SOUND

Hail the sound is my band. I mean, I play in several other great bands but Hail The Sound is my deal. Adam (my cousin at left) has been playing drums for Hail for almost three years. Asylum 9 (my brother Philip at right) has been playing bass for Hail for about five months. We practice every morning (mon-fri) at 7am. I love playing and writing music. I shot this quick pic of hail the other day in my garage while we were loading gear. The random crap in in the background is testament to my crazy life of "american dream meets skateboard, rock-star want to be". One thing is for sure... I hold onto my passions and I find a way to make an unlikely situation work for the best! Ya know..... I wouldn't have it any other way!