ASK THE DOCTOR
With Dr. Rick Blackhart
Blackhart, Uvis, 1976
I was just wondering what ever hap-
pened to the early skate pioneers? What
are they doing right now? You know, are
they skating perfection on the other side
of the world somewhere, or are they
married, have five kids and drive a station
wagon? It would be cool if one of your
Editorial Staff could dig up some info on a
few of them, or maybe an interview.
Your mag is way cool,
C.W.
O.C.
As far as anybody else I really can't tell
ya. I'm too busy skatin' myself. Concerning
the station wagon and kids scene, well, I
just can't relate. If I had to reel off a
couple of names of skaters that I would
like to session with again, the first would
have to be my old sidekick Doug
Schneider. I've been totally out of touch
with Doug but as far as I know he's a
college boy now. I never did skate enough
with T.A. although I do know you can find
him shredding the uppers at Baldy Pipe
on any given Sunday. Chris Strople is one
heavy sessioner. Always aggro, Chris
maintains a strict diet of pools and
reservoirs down in the North Co./San
Diego area. Gregg Ayres might be kind of
fun, Rodd Saunders, Steve Olsen...
As far as the guys who have given it up.
it's their prerogative. If they've given it up.
let's just bury 'em. That's a good question
though, C.W., and as skateboarding
evolves into another lifecycle, I'm sure we
will be digging up more info on these early
skate warriors and I think you will find that
most of them are ready to skate with the
best of them.
Doc,
DRB
I know that you and K.T. are sick of
hearing, "Your mag is so hot, I'll skate
forever,
rules!" So I'll get to
the point, my friend and I are the only
skaters in the area. We skate street all the
time. But right now, there's four inches of
snow on the ground. I have outgrown my
basement pipe ramp. I freestyle in the
basement, but when I do a kickflip, I hit
my head on the ceiling. I'm just reading
and waiting. What should I do to keep en-
thusiasm?
Doug McBride
Chicago, IL
Well, I'll tell ya. As far as the kickflips
and hitting your head on the ceiling, come
on, let's get real. If you can't do it in the
basement, go up into the kitchen. Hit up
your bathtub or something, I don't know.
With all the snow on the ground I guess
you're out of luck until the season comes
back again, eh? It's kind of a seasonal
sport sometimes. If you can't wait until the
season's over, move. While you're in
there with four inches of snow, we're
happening out here. Go to Florida.
Blackhart, Punk Pool, 1982
2-T
DRB
HAPPENING DOWN UNDER...
It's about time you skaters made your
own Mag. And I've got to say, it's fully rad.
So much so that we've gotten together
here "Down Under" in Sydney, Australia,
to produce our own skatepaper, "Pressure
Drop. By doing so we are capturing the
true heart of skateboarding. We don't
need some thirty plus faggot in Action
Lame telling us how skating and the
scene should be.
It's strange though. Here, when skating
was very "chic" in 78-79, a certain
entrepreneur writing in a well known
mag. claimed "Punk Element Destroys
Skate Scene." Of course, we were
delighted at this label and readily adopted
it. But I have to laugh now cause they
have been and gone with their parks, and
it's now us who are keeping the thing
happening. Who wants to skate under
their conditions, not that we did anyway.
but in the words of the Clash, "Are you
taking orders or are you taking over?"
Making your own fun is what it's always
been about anyway.
Also, the return of C. R. Stecyk III's
photography is total. Perhaps some shots
of Stacy Peralta doing berts in some
upcoming issues? Hang on in there and
we'll all be fully behind you.
John Tez
Sydney, Australia
P.S. Listen to "Theatre of Hate," an
English punk band-totally rad but not
just a bunch of noise.
FINALLY! GOOD T.V.
COVERAGE...
The 30 minute film Hot Shots was aired
January 3rd here on public non-cable T.V.
The show featured notables such as
Eddie Elguera, Tony Alva, Dave Hackett
and some hip host whose name escapes
me due to excitement.
All the phases of skateboarding were
covered. Skating's rich past, present and
future were covered like the mellowness
of a news report but with that thrashing
blaze of intensity as in Thrasher.
History included Torger Johnson and
Frank Nasworthy, bun busting, school
banks and pool hunts during the vintage
year of 1975. Tony was shown on his
junkets to England and Sweden, with the
mega crowds tearing at him for "the" auto-
graph.
The only new, radical vert action was
done by Eddie Elguera at Lakewood.
Afterwards, Eddie also spoke in an
interview. After covering the street
experience, they wrapped up the show
with a blazing session at the Nukeland
Pipes featuring Alva.
All in all it was an excellent film
considering they only had a half hour.
When Tony mentioned Cherry Hill, I felt
sad because the park was closed and
dozed. But since the park's closing I have
successfully passed on the sport by
building a 16 ft. wide half-pipe and
reading Thrasher with five new skaters
that I introduced the sport to.
Joe "Maniac" McGibney
Cranford, NJ
HEY...WE'RE SORRY...
Over the past 13 issues of publication
we have inadvertently, and with no
intention of forgetting who has helped us
out, left out photo and story credits. For
this we are sorry and intend to be more
watchful and aware of this in the future.
We are starting to receive overwhelming
amounts of mail, photo and story contrib-
utions. Sometimes in the course of just
getting the magazine to the printer and
meeting deadlines, certain things get
forgotten or lost in the shuffle. Thrasher is
not a multi-million dollar corporation and
skateboarding is not a billion dollar
industry right now. We truly believe that
we can make skateboarding bigger than
ever before while at the same time
retaining the energy and enthusiasm that
caused the original innovators to create
that first skateboard.
Anyway, I would like to make amends
for a few credits that were left out of the
January 82 issue. The T-shirt ad photo of
Lance Mountain on page 9 and the What
sort of kid...photo of Tony Hawk on page
40 were both taken by skatographer
extraordinaire Glen E. Friedman at
Pamona. Niel Blender, of all people, was
responsible for the cool photos of Mike
Smith going through his daily routine. In
the Lakewood contest coverage, Brad
Jackman snapped Billy Ruff on page 29.
Chuck Walstead clicked photos of
Christian Hosoi on page 30, Lance
Mountain on page 31 and Raul Escobedo
on page 32.
Because of the volume of photos we
are receiving, we would like to request
that you send black & white negatives or
good quality prints only. We cannot return
photos or negatives unless you provide a
stamped, self-addressed envelope.
Thanx and stay jamming,
Kevin J. Thatcher
Editor/Art Director
P.S. Oh Yeah! The photo of Mike Smith
on the cover was taken by me.
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