EXIT 37
140
Jimmy Carter
Boulevard
1 3/4 MILES
Above: John Hughes picks
out on a PVC Nip at Bart's
ramp. Right: A childish Don
Hillsman tucks frontside at
National skate park. Far
Right: An able park squad
circa 1978. Opposite Page,
Top: Load sweeps up some
ground coping at Mouse's.
Right: Don Hillman teeters
an invert at the steel ramp.
58
G&
INTERVIEW WITH TOMMY KAY
B.K.-How did you meet your friend Load?
I met him at a pool called Ebster in my
neighborhood, around 1976. This dude, Chris
Wilson, would cruise past my house on his
board. I asked him where he was going and
he said to this pool called Ebster. So I went
there with him. It was a deep, banked pool,
square with a long, shallow end. You'd drop
in the side, go down the banked wall and
carve up on the walls, just touching vertical.
The first time I dropped into the pool I
bamooed, man, had a conference with Mr.
Wilson, a long conference. I didn't skate the
rest of that day, but after that I started going
back there by myself or with a couple other
friends. More and more people started catch-
ing on to that pool and before you know it
people from all over northeast Atlanta were
coming. The most people I ever counted
there was twenty-nine.
It was a great thing to learn in. Lee Turner,
this other buddy of mine, was the first per-
son I saw really skate in there. He was get-
ting two wheels on the vert and carving. That
was a good inspiration. He's still skating. I
met Load there, the Load warrior. He's always
in search of the ultimate load. I didn't see
him for about two or three years, but I remem-
bered him. He remembered this board that
I had, because he wanted it from me and I
wouldn't sell it. I had glued a piece of wood
on the end of the tail and made a wedge-tail.
Did it out of a water ski.
We had our scene on our side of town
where my ramp is. We'd go to this skate park.
I had met Load at that pool, then I met him
again at the skateboard park. He had a car
no insurance, bald tires, the hood was all
ruffled up on it because he had left it unlat-
ched and it flipped over the top. Mark
Johnson and I had skated out there and we
needed a ride back. Load gave us a ride
back, so Load and I hitched up right there.
We started looking for pools. I bought a sump
pump. We'd go to this abandoned park call
ed the Tube and drain the pools. It didn't last
too long. They had a big, long half-pipe that
was real beat. Then I built a ramp with the
help of Chris Bealy and some other skaters,
who were on the vert scene before I even
knew it was happening. Load and I went to
the Mansion pool after no one had skated
it for a long time. The water was all the way
up to the steps, so we drained it and that
became our pool. Not that it was actually
our's, but we were the only people who gave
it any attention. Everybody had given up
because it had so much (Continued on page 100)
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