This Page: Tommy Guerrero dials a
frontside olie-to-revert at a shifty
quarter-pipe in S.F. Inset: A tiny Tommy G.
launches backside off a hip at Victoria
Skatepark. Above, Left to Right: The Fort Miley
banks inspire a stylish backside drifter from Micke
Reyes. Freestylin' in the city night. Ray Meyer.
Camden Scott boasts a frontside invert at the nearby
Bolinas ramp. Photos by Bryce Kanights. Nick Van
Kreijdt carves a fluid line at the Embarcadero tube
in downtown San Francisco, circa 1976.
handplant was done. We had not even heard
of this. A guy named Bobby Valdez did the
first basic invert. It blew the crowd away. He
won the contest. Locals Rick Blackhart and
Tim Marting were second and third."
BRYCE KANIGHTS was introduced to
skateboarding by by his cousins Kenny and
Shawn Fraser in the summer of 1975. He
quickly adapted his skate ability to the steep
concrete terrain of San Francisco. B.K. got
his first taste of vertical skating at the Jungle
Bowl and from that point on skating was
always an adventure for him. Later he became
a local at Victoria skatepark in Milpitas and
feels that it was the best park ever con-
structed. Presently he enjoys skating down
steep hills with the smell of burning urethane
beneath his feet.
"San Francisco has definitely provided me
with the best times of my life. I've always
skated the hills and driveways with all my
buddies. When you're skating a city like San
Francisco it's really fast and you've got to be
alert because you're dealing with cars. You
have to have quick responses. I've always
wanted to go out and find spots. I'd hear
about them from Joe Fong and the guys who
knew and I'd go find them. By BART, bus
train, somehow I'd get there. We'd take BART
to Hayward in the morning, catch a bus and
then skate a mile with sketchy directions and
hopefully find a pool with scum water in it.
Then we'd bail the pool, skate till dark, get
home late and do the same thing the next
day. It was always a sense of adventure. You
learned how to be independent. I wasn't into
drugs or anything. It kept us pretty clean as
kids, we didn't get into trouble. San Francisco
is just one big concrete slab of chutes and
ladders. You take a bus or hike up to charge
down the driveways of a hill. San Francisco
never had its very own skatepark. There were
nearby Bay Area towns that did and we'd find
them, get there and skate. We'd skate
Alameda one week and next week hear
about a new one further down in Newark.
Skateparks were booming and it helped us
progress as skaters. We were Milpitas locals.
Crazy John used to have a car he called the
Cottonmouth Mobile. The upholstery in the
back seat was all ripped up and the stuffing
would fly all over the place and get stuck all
over us. The Winchester locals would heckle
us as soon as we pulled into the parking lot.
Milpitas was definitely the park that we all
hung out at. We all learned our tricks there,
progressed, met up with other people, like
Shrewgy. It was a general skating meeting
spot. That was the best park and those are
the best memories ever. I think San Fran-
cisco is definitely the best anywhere. You can
go to Tahoe in three hours, Modesto in two.
hours, San Jose in forty-five minutes. It's the
central area of Northern California and
there's a lot of skating happening. There are
ramps in the East Bay, a mammoth pipe up
north, ditches in San Mateo, hills in San Fran-
cisco...everything is happening throughout
San Francisco and the Bay Area and I think
it's definitely the place to be."
TONY GUERRERO was among the first
skaters in San Francisco to receive coverage
in a skate magazine (Skateboard World,
August 1977). As a part of the 9th Avenue
skate scene he developed a strong street
sense among the hills and driveways of the
inner-Sunset district. Both he and his brother
Tommy often traveled to ramps, skateparks,
sessions and competitions together (like a
package deal). It was not uncommon to see
Tony beating up Tommy at a skate session for
some senseless reason; perhaps brotherly
love. Currently Tony is focusing his time and
energy as a guitarist, but occasionally he will
pull out the old skate for a soul session.
"When we grew up we had 9th Avenue.
I mean, we have all the hills and banks-
you name it. I can walk out in front of my
house, skate down the block and everything
is there. It's by far the best place for a skater
to grow up. As you can tell, nobody from San
Francisco is a great vertical skater. We had
ramps, like the H.P. ramp, but we didn't have
huge half-pipes or anything. We had hills.
That's what I dig and that's why I think San
Francisco's the best by far. When skateparks
were around we could just hop on Bart and
go to Milpitas, or take Crazy John's death
mobile to Winchester or Campbell or
Alameda. Golden Gate Park is still happen-
ing. We've been going there for as long as
I can remember.
"When Tommy and I were kids, we used
to put milk crates up against our garage and
prop whatever pieces of wood we found up
against them. We would do garage wall rides.
You were lucky if you got up there and the
piece of wood didn't slide down with the milk
crate under it. Sometimes you'd pull it off.
It was cool."
TOMMY GUERRERO, often referred to as the
"little brother" of Tony, learned to skate as a
knee high nine-year-old. He was a little ripper-
type kid who had a natural skate ability and
was welcomed by the older guys at most
skate sessions. His roots are notched in the
hills and driveways of San Francisco and the
Bay Area. Today Tom is a top professional
competitor among the street skating ranks
who utilizes his city roots of style and speed.
"I think San Francisco is best because I
grew up here and I've skated here all my life.
I've skated so many other places and there's
not the same terrain anywhere else. I like the
hills and I like to go really fast, just hit
everything. It's killer. Fast, speed, driveways,
the cars, the rush, the pavement, the slam,
the ground skin.
"About ten years back or so, maybe even
more, we'd take a bus a mile and a half up
the Ninth Avenue hill and just skate down
over the driveways and stuff. It helped me
out on my skating, going fast on the hills and
everything. It's kind of my skating
trademark-high speed.
"My brother and I didn't get along at all.
We used to fight all the time, about
everything. Things like trying to help each
other out with tricks, "Don't tell me what to
do! I know how to do it." It was crazy, but now
we get along real good. He doesn't skate too