Touny signing up with stoked Hawaiian locals
Gonzales Mash roll slide
Cadillac
Grigley Lucero and Gator convincing the door at the
Pink Cadillac that they re on the guest list
SKATE HAWAIILES
Since the mid-seventies, when T.A, Jay
Adams and the late Torger Johnson were
making semi-regular forays to tap the
varied island skate/surf resources,
Hawail has provided an influence over
skateboarding that can still be felt.
Skateboarding came to the islands as
naturally as the northern swells that wall
Into stand up tubes at Pipeline on the north
shore of Oahu.
Even though the terrain is plentiful, in
the form of drainage ditches and a healthy
turnover of ramps skated and destroyed
over the years, the realities are harsh.
Truck breaking transitions, a somewhat
scarce and costly wood supply and firm
rules and regulations in the street make
skating 'over there' a hit or miss propo-
sition.
What Tony and the boyz imported to an
already overblown mainland skate scene
was a style that captured skateboarding in
its truest form. An outing with the crew, 'da
boyz,' in those days meant sessioning
with Hawaiian skate pioneers like Roy
Jamison, Darren Ho, Vince Kline, the
Owens bro's and surf/skate dogs Larry
Bert Bertleman and Rory Russell.
Sessions were intense, adventurous,
radical, sometimes barefoot and bottom
line fun; the guts of what skating always
should be. In Hawail an attitude is wel-
come as long as it is coupled with a
respect for local ways and the power of
the terrain whether it be surf, skate or sun
you're after
Some of today's island crop of new
generation skate rats can't claim a full
grasp of the roots that preceeded their
introduction. Many honestly deny any
familiarity with names like Jamison and
Bertleman or the classic Pearl City pool
sessions, which layed down the blood-
lines of their skate heritage. When we
heard that pro skate buds Hosol, Caballero
and Roskopp were taking an entourage
back to the island of Oahu for their
second trip this past winter, I jumped at the
opportunity to tag along and experience
the adventure of skating a tropical
dreamscape first hand.
A COAST OF CHARACTERS
Marcos didn't make this one. Yeah, ole
Ferdinand was exiling his way into
Honolulu aboard a U.S. Air Force CJ just
as I was buckling up for touchdown back
in S.F. Looking back on a whirlwind five
day stay on the island of Oahu during the
flight home I recounted the cast of
characters that had made my assignment
a skate journalist's dream. I took notes as
I stared out the window, trying to find
horizon between blue sky and the Pacific
Ocean. Compiling a list of crew I had
acquainted during my stay tells the whole
story of the trip which involved some 50
rolls of film, countless miles in a rental car
with bad bearings and local hospitality that
made it all unforgettable.
It all started with Grant Fukuda, sort of
the mainstay of an enthusiastic skate crew
on Oahu, and his invitation to come over,
skate his rebuilt ramp and join in a
streetstyle session that he was planning.
Violent thruster at Grant Fukuda's Peace ramp by Eddie Restegul