ON BOARD
COMING EVENTS****** TREK TOWARDS
Anyone interested in participating in the
BACKYARD SPRING SERIES should
contact Jeff Newton at ZORLAC
SKATES, (214) 352-4372, to be placed
on the mailing list.
This series will be a new concept in
skating, actually using backyard half-
pipes around the state of Texas. And to
finish off the series, there will be a major
contest in Dallas on the now famous
fiberglass half-pipe.
WE FOUGHT THE LAW-
AND WE WON!!!
Recently a group of Texas skate-
boarders had a large brush with the law.
Approximately 12 of the desperate
desperados (including John Gibson) took
a gamble of "borrowing" a fiberglass ramp
from a long defunct skatepark. During the
maneuvers, a BMX'er rolled up, didn't like
what was happening, and called the
authorities. When the flashing lights
appeared, the skaters disappeared.
Within minutes, the Police had rounded
up and handcuffed half of these
substandard, upstanding citizens. When
everyone realized that they were going to
jail, someone called the owner of the park
and explained the situation. The owner in
turn instructed the cops to "let the kids
have the ramp."
THE GOLDEN STATE
Kent Killingsworth of Corpus Christi, TX
plans to skateboard from this Texas Gulf
City to California sometime this winter.
Originally, Kent took up this challenge as
a dare from a friend, but he soon realized
that he had become obsessed with the
idea. At this point in time, Kent (or ZAK to
his friends) is looking for sponsors to help
with expenses for his planned one-month
trip. Reports are that Stacy has agreed to
supply Kent with decks and wheels, but
still this is only speculation from gossip re-
sources.
If Kent completes this daring endeavor,
he will eligible for a spot in the Guinness
Book of World Records.
Kent isn't new to this type of marathon
skating. He has recently completed a 50-
mile trip for M.S. in his hometown. A fool,
some may call him, but Kent hopes to use
this feat as a springboard into Hollywood
as a stuntman.
Kent vows to skate 'til he drops... WITH
or WITHOUT sponsors. GOOD LUCK!!
AGGIES RIDE
In these days of bureaucratic bullshit, it
seems too improbable to have a
skateboard ramp on a major college
campus, BUT IT'S THERE!
COMIC STRIP OF THE MONTH
Lourd'h
man
FREDDIE
FUNSTON-
LAID-BACK
AIR
UNIDENTIFIED SKATER
ATTEMPTS RAD NEW
DROP-IN...
Cool Stuff-Top 10
1. Fake Vaurnet Sunglasses.
(Phonets)
2. Michelob Light in Bottles
2. Harley Davidson Leathers
4. Bootleg THRASHER Stickers
5. Elephant Wrench Keychains
6. Yo Yo's (Duncan Imperial)
A Complete Collection of
Skateboarder Magazine
7.
(Vol. 1, No. 1 Vol. 6, No. 12)
8. The Tucson Slam
9. Freestyle Boards (Nosepickers)
10.501's
This half-pipe is sponsored by the
Texas A&M Surf Club and monies used to
build it were donated by the Student
Activities Fund. David Haynie, President
of the club, says that as far as he knows,
this ramp is the only one on campus any-
where.
At a school mainly known for its
militaristic "AGGIES" and "Cowboy
Types, it is good to have a place to get
away from all of that and just skate.
DOWNHILL ACE, HUEY
DEWHURST TAKES ON
HALF DOME...
Jeff Newton
Steve Veltman, San Jose, CA.
MISSOURI SKATERS
SHREDDING "THE ULTI-
MATE ARCH" IN ST.
LOUIS.
SKATEBOARDING
AND THE MASS
MEDIA
1981 was actually a big year for
skateboarding in the mass media. There
were many T.V. shows, commercials, and
specials that featured skateboarding.
Sony Corp. advertised their Sony
Walkman on all the major channels as
well as in their magazine ads. They
featured skateboarders in both forms of
their advertising. Kodak made a
commercial that included three
skateboarders. Hostess was shooting a
commercial at the end of 1981 which
featured a skater eating Twinkies. Sports
"N" You, a syndicated cable television
show, featured some skaters as guests
on their show. Everett Rosercrans and the
Vans Tennis shoe team did three Romper
Room shows with ramp and freestyle
demos. One of the shows the Vans team
did won the state award for best children's
program. Everett said they are interested
in using the Vans team in upcoming
episodes. Burger King, after shooting a
successful T.V. commercial in 1979 with
skateboarding, has contacted Florida
skater Robbie Weir to shoot another one.
On NBC the Surgeon General has been
running a commercial dedicated to safe
skateboarding since 1978. It must be at
very successful commercial because it's
been running a long time. Sprite filmed a
commercial with skateboarding featuring
Bowman, Johnson, and Mueller skating
the pipe in Upland. The show "You Asked
For It featured Neil Blender, Duke Reiny,
and a few others skating bionically at
Whittier. NBC News featured a special
segment on Steve Caballero as a
professional skater. He was shot street-
skating and ramp-riding on his backyard
ramp. The show that Scott Biao hosts on
Saturday mornings showed some skating
on it. Capri Sun Juices in Florida showed
skating in one of its commercials. Micky
and Steve Alba and Chris Miller were
featured on a show called Super Kids,
which was a long 20-minute segment.
The commentator on that show was
calling skateboarding the sport of the
eighties. The Mr. Merlin show on Prime
Time NBC featured skating throughout its
first show with skaters Coleman and
Peralta. The Washington downhill racers
were featured on Real People; they
showed some real good speed-skating.
Rodney Mullen was in a T.V. commercial
for a shopping plaza in Gainesville, Fl.
There are probably many more I've
missed, but the main point is that 1981
was a good year for skateboarding on
television. We definitely got our share of
air time.
Stacy Peralta
At approximately 11:00 o'clock in the
morning on approximately November 9,
1981, I received a phone call from the
associate producer of the Captain
Kangaroo T.V. show. He said that his
production company was interested and
planning on shooting a feature on skate-
boarding. He was notified a few weeks
earlier by a skate industry observer that
Tony Hawk would be a good choice for
the feature.
On Friday, December 4, at exactly
11:00 o'clock in the morning, the shooting
for the Captain Kangaroo feature began.
The Captain's production company and a
T.V. crew from CBS were there to do one
thing: to shoot a seven-minute segment
on amateur athlete-skater Tony Hawk
skating his home park, Del Mar.
Although none of the production people
on the job knew anything about skate-
boarding and how it has progressed since
clay wheels, they were fortunate enough
the night before to witness a private
demonstration put on by Tony at the park.
They could not believe it when they saw
him roll into the pool and launch into a
four-foot backside air. They were in awe
of what this unpretentious 13-year-old kid
was doing. They said it just didn't seem
possible that he could perform such wild
stunts; I personally think they wondered
WHY they hadn't seen anything like this
before considering they have access to
the freshest and newest things the media
has to offer. Most likely they hadn't seen
anything like this before because the
networks rarely cover any real aspects of
skateboarding. In the past, T.V. has
almost always covered skateboarding in a
light manner and have missed showing
the real intense and artistic side.
Skateboarding is fun, but it is also an art,
which is probably why it is misunderstood.
Tony Hawk
ON BOARD
Skateboarding is really a sensational
sport, but it is very different from what the.
masses are used to. When you watch
someone ride a bowl, it doesn't seem
possible, therefore it is very hard to
understand it and get a handle on it. To
truly understand skateboarding you either
have to do it or be so immersed in it that
you pick up on the vibes that radiate from
a heated session. The consciousness of
the world still seems to be connected to
blood and guts sports, which means we
still have a lot of homework to do before
the masses latch on to skateboarding.
Personally, I think skateboarding is ahead
of its time and only time will tell. Well,
enough of my personal frustrations, let's
get back to what happened at Del Mar.
When Tony was finished warming up,
the director asked him to drop into the
pool and do a run. The director allowed.
Tony to do whatever tricks he wanted to
do. He basically worked around Tony
instead of Tony working around him,
which made it possible for Tony to skate
the way he thought was best. The
cameras started rolling, the director
motioned Tony, and he dropped in to do a
perfect run that included four-foot Indy
airs, four-foot backside ollies, high lean
airs, etc. The more he skated the more
the cameras rolled. They switched angles,
shot close-ups of different moves, and
even got in the bowl with him to get his
perspective. The entire shoot took around
three hours. They finished up the shoot
with a close-up interview of Hawk and
then called it a RAP.
They definitely got some excellent
skating, and we can only hope that the
guys in the editing room put it together in
an honest progressive way to really show
the public what skateboarding in the
eighties is really about. Stacy Peralta