Go ahead and laugh at the old sk8r...a 26" Nash Sidewalk Surfboard with metal wheels.

2nd was a Champion 35" Sidewalk Surfboard "Wakiki Model" longboard (they spelled Waikiki wrong no less) but it had clay wheels and boy did it work better on the Mission Beach Boardwalk!

3rd was a Logan EarthSki diamondtail flat deck with Chicago 3-hole plates & single bushing trucks that screwed in with sheet metal screws (before anybody thought to drill through) and the loose ball bearing style Roller Sport Urethane MK IV wheels. Urethane was an incredible jump in technology. Suddenly we could really ride.

Then the mid-70s happened and there was an explosion of designs & wheels & trucks. Totally bitchen for us surfer/skaters.

I've been collecting copies of my old boards off of eBay for a year along with original trucks and wheels I had on them. Trying for all nine from the 60s Nash to my last pool rider. I still had two hanging out, a '77-78 Sims Quicksilver 50kg with Sims Comp wheels and HPG IV Gull Wings and the Champion (which was in a box in my dad's garage after he died). I've got 8 decks sitting here now! Five are done and rolling again and two need sanded off and re-varnished (a beat up Hobie Woodie and the never mounted Logan). I'm stoked. Most of the wheels & trucks, too, but bearings are impossible to find. No German or Z or anything left from those days. Found some used that I cleaned up but they don't roll like the new bearings did.

I just got a DEAL on my old Sims longboard. For some reason few people bid on it. Must have been a busy week or something. It's a mint never-gripped & never drilled Pure Juice 36" longboard kicktail. I paid 103 bucks for it. Not a ding or a scrape or a spot of cracking varnish. It's beautiful!!! The original hardware is ready; mint California Slalom wides and never rolled OJs. No shit, NEVER seen cement OJs. It's going on the wall no doubt!!! My Boardwalk Kamikazi runner from 1977 through about 1982. I never could figure out how Tom Sims rolled walls in pools on a longboard. Just too much swing weight.

Did a little street skating this summer and at a local little city-maintained flat ground 1/4 pipe-type place (I don't really like ramps as I surfed pools) on a old Hobie SkatePark model 27" w/ Lazer mids & red Sims Pure Juice wheels, but my pool & bowl board is a Sims 30" Pure Juice with Tracker 6trax wide and Sims red Bowl Rider wheels (which in my opinion were the best wheel ever made for bowls).

I've got a shot of three of them on my pictures page. The Rockit with ACS 500 trucks & Solar Radiation II wheels (a Pure Juice wheel copy no doubt), the Hobie SkatePark, and the Sims 30". I'll post more when I get them done.

And yes, I'm still skating bowls on occasion. Go down to Hillyard in Spokane when nobody is around (mid-week early morning) when on shopping trips. An hour wears me out but I'm old! And it's still a freaking rush. And any of the rats that show up can't believe an old gray ponytailed dude is rolling coping in Rector pads and a flyaway helmet. Hahahaha! No airs I will admit. Don't want to deal with the falls anymore.

Something to look forward to, eh younger riders? Stay flexible, stretch. That's a key! No fat bellies and weak legs or you won't be able to do this later on. Guess I've talked enough!!

fist board was a nash...first pro was kevin staab pirate..i got from ccs in 86....over the years i got all the roskopp target decks...

mine was a fisher price flexiflyer, followed by a variflex, followed by a sure grip, followed by powell tommy g, etc. etc..

these days i just buy blanks and make my own graphics..

anyone in the Bay, come out and skate with us on Sunday mornings at Alameda.

I dont even remember the name of it, bananna boat board or something. It was 1975, I was 8 going on 9. The deck was get this; made of plastic, it had swirls of purple, green, red and blue. It had HUGE wheels that were cones inside and clear red, about 2 inches long. The trucks were metal, and it had a nice tail with a pointy front. That deck took me all over N.D.G. and Montreal West where I grew up. I later moved on to other decks like the Kamakazee, a Vision from 1984 (which I still have around) that had an angel on it holding the Earth, it is a mercedes of the skateboard world. At present I am designing an off road deck.

old school blind gonzales

two years ago, hand me down bootleg board....are they even in business anymore?

1st- Alva Fish with Gullwings & Kryptonics wheels
after that:(in no particular order)
-Rob Roskopp 3
-Cab Street
-SMA Natas
-Lance Mountain mini
-Johnee Kop street
-Hosoi street
-Corey O'Brien Reeper
-Tom Knox Warlock
-Frankie Hill Bulldog
-Zorlac John Gibson
-Lester Kasai Oak Leaf
-Alva Dagger Tail
-Aaron "Fingers" Murray
-Per Welinder Street
-Air Tech Slasher
-Rob Roskopp Street

Current Quiver:

-Frankie Hill Bulldog Reissue w/ Indy 169's & Powell G Bones Reissues
-Hosoi Rising Sun(New Version) w/ Indy 169's & OJ III 100% Pure Juice wheels