A SKATE
INVESTIGATION
THRASHER presents a series of interviews as part of our continuing quest for clues to the
who, what, where, why and how of skateboarding in the '80s.
Crazy old man or young at heart skate dog? It's Lee Carter grinding and posing with his skate vehicles.
LEE CARTER-36-YEAR-
OLD SKATE DOG FROM FRESNO
Q. Hey, who are you?
A. I'm Lee Carter.
Q. How long have you been skating?
A. Four to four and a half years.
Q. How old are you anyway?
A. 36.
Q. What caused you to start skating?
A. I picked up Skateboarder mag four to five
years ago and I decided that I wanted to skate. I
bought an old wood Santa Cruz and skated this
ditch by my house and started leaming how to
skate by myself.
Q. Did you skate at the Mogul Bowl?
A. Yeah! From the day the park opened, not
every day but often.
Q. I thought you had something to do with
the park?
A. After a while of skating there, I met Brad. It
just happened that they needed a part-time
manager, then I skated a lot more consistently.
Q. So you must have gotten the job?
A. Yeah, I worked there for about a year till the
park's downfall.
Q. Did you keep skating after the park
closed?
A. Not really, I moved down south and my board
got ripped, then about a year and a half ago I
started skating again in Fresno. From that first
day on my skating progressed.
Q. How often do you skate?
A. Every day unless I have to go to work early.
Q. But I heard stories of you riding to work,
is it true?
A. Yeah! It's a trip, sometimes people come up
to me and ask if I'm Lee Carter.
Q. From what I've heard little kids respect
you for your age? What do you think about
this?
A. It makes me feel really good inside. I guess
they respect me for my age.
Q. So I guess you're into skating totally. Are
you a skate rat?
A. Totally, it's what I live for, no wife to tie me
down, my kids don't bother me. I just go and
skate.
Q. How long will you be skating?
A. Till I'm on a wheelchair, some people take up
golf in their later years, but I like skating because
it appeals to me, and it's a personal sport. No
teams or rules.
Q. Who do you think has contributed to your
skating?
A. Chuck Gillete has
pushed me since
day one. When
the park was
open, Chuck,
Eric Holt,
Rick S.
and
Eric Tsuda (he ripped like the pros back then),
we each pushed each other.
Q. Do you like old-style skaters or new style,
or do you care?
A. Style doesn't matter that much, as long as
you skate. But I like street style, banks,
halfpipes, pools and pipes. No matter what the
terrain is you should try to rip it.
Q. What do you think of girls who skate?
A. I think it's rad, I wish there were more out
there, although it's a rough sport, Hillary's
starting to get rad.
Q. What do you think of the punk/skating
scene?
A. It's connected with skating somewhat,
because the beat's fast and it gets you going
Q. What's the skate scene in Fresno like right
now?
A. It was very underground until Tony Tapian
opened up Landshark Skate Shop. We started
passing out flyers, and generally promoting
skating, now everyone kinda hangs out at
Landshark and skates the mini halfpipe. It's a lot
more united now, all of us just go out and skate
one of the many halfpipes or pools in the area.
-During a recent session at Funnel, when told to
leave by security, Lee started yelling, "Hey you,
having fun. Stop!!
-Lee quote: "I don't even go to a party without
my board."
-Got hassled by police at Clovis Banks, so Lee
spray painted "Stop skate harassment" on the
bank. Cops saw this and skaters have never
been harassed again at Clovis Banks.
-A Betty at Del Mar was raving about how Lee
is as wild as Jay Adams but 10 years older, as
he pulled her into his sleeping bag.
Photo: Bryce Kanights.
INTERVIEW: TONY & BEVERLY LOPES
& FAMILY
How did all this come about?
Tony: Well, I never expected the magnitude of
what's happened. Joe wanted a ramp, so we
went ahead and built a little 12 foot wide by 20'
halfpipe.
Did you know what Joe had in mind when he
said 'I want a ramp'?
Tony: Absolutely not! I didn't expect anything
like this happening. After the halfpipe, Joe didn't
like that 'cause he didn't have any flat bottom on
it, we turned it sideways and put 12 feet of flat
bottom on it with 8 foot walls on each side. That
went on for a while and then he said 'No, it's got
to be twenty feet wide,' the transition wasn't right
either. So then we went ahead, with Al Asbe,
one of the guys that helped us out a lot, and
made all new transitions and widened it to
twenty feet wide, with a canyon. It really turned
out nice, but, I didn't expect anything to happen
like it's been happening, which is great, I love it.
What's going to happen now?
Tony: As far as the neighbors are concerned I
only have really one neighbor to contend with.
Fortunately we live on a dead end street, there
isn't a neighbor around who can see the ramp,
or hear the ramp. The only gripe they have, if
any at all, is parking. My neighbor, God bless
her, she's sweet. She's in her seventies, but she
understands and she puts up with it. At first Joe
used to have music out there, blaring all the time
and the minute she complained about it, it was
turned off and no more music. Other than that,
it's like any other neighborhood, you've got
neighbors that are chronic complainers no
Tony and Beverly Lopes with their son Joe on the family ramp. Photo: Bryce Kanights.
matter what. Fortunately I have some good and
really close neighbors and heck, they go along
with it. What happened today with this contest,
other than the spectators that showed up, that
happens every day here. There's people
skating here every day until dark.
Have you ever come home or woken up to
find that some kids have busted the chain
and are skating the ramp?
Beverly: Never, that's never happened. Maybe
because they are welcome most of the time
during the day and are able to skate. We've
never had any bad vibes from any of the kids as
far as fighting or anything.
Cost of the ramp so far?
Tony: Oh God!!
Beverly: Well, he says about three, I'd say closer
to four thousand dollars. We put nine layers of
plywood on the ramp. Probably the reason why
is because we couldn't find the right formula.
When he (Joe) said he wanted a ramp no one
knew how to build a ramp or what to build.
Tony: We didn't know the first thing about it.
Can you give any tips to the kids, or their
parents, who are building ramps?
Tony: Well, in fact our transitions and the
extension that we put on the ramp came out of
the magazine, which was great. Boy, the main
thing on a ramp is that it's really got to be solid
and the framing has got to be real close
together. When these kids come off they really
hit hard, the last time we reframed the ramp we
put the 2'x4" framing six inches apart and they
went through it. It's really important that it is
solid. Especially where all the hard riding is. Al
and I, and Joe, we've had to take it apart already
and fill in areas.
I know that you've been involved in construc-
tion for a long time, have you ever seen a
wooden structure take as much abuse as a
skateboard ramp?
Tony: I couldn't believe the beating that ramps
take, and the way they come down and hit even
the way the skaters hit the ramp.
How do you maintain a private life?
Tony: It's tough.
Bev: We go to motels.
Tony: Well, one thing about it, we love kids.
Bev: Especially ours
Tony: Fortunately Joe has got some real good
friends and they are real courteous people and
we allow them in our house anytime.
Beverly: I really think, with all of our kids, if they
were into some thing then we were into it.
Whatever it was, with my older son it was
motorcycles and water skiing and you know, you
have your kids for such a short time, you should
enjoy them and enjoy what they enjoy. That's
just the way we are, we enjoy our children and
their friends and it's kind of a way of life with us.
We had them early and I think we're going to
have them late.
Any serious injuries that have happened
here?
Beverly: Weve had a lot of broken bones, torn
ligaments, stitches, cuts, missing teeth.
How about insurance and liability?
Beverly: We just have been very lucky, if there is
a bad injury and they sue us, that will be the end
of the ramp except Joe personally.
Tony: We hope they understand this. We love to
have them ride it, they are welcome to ride it, but
if anybody ever comes down on us, that's the
end of it.
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