FLASHBACK-1976.
Punk rock was in its very early stages and
the likes of the Pistols, the Damned and X-Ray
Specs were playing at the Roxy, while Siouxie
Sioux was hanging out wearing black dustbin
liners and safety pins. This uncharacteristically
hot period was also the year that skateboarding
began to boom. In these days the question
wasn't how high you could ollie but how many
360s you could do or "are those Road Riders?"
Elder skatesman and core member of
London's urethane generation. Rodga Harvey
jogs his memory.
"As I remember, the first spot sessioned in
London town was the boardwalk in Kensington
Gardens, in front of Charles & Di's London
residence. They were not amused and soon after
it was rendered unskateable. From there it went
to the internationally known South Bank and
in early 77 we saw our first council built i
skatepark (Meanwhile Gardens), which we
would skate every day, rain, snow or whatever.
Meanwhile was designed by Mark Sinclair. That
was closely followed by London's first commer
cial skatepark, Skate City, which was on the
Thames near the London Bridge. It had four
major runs, the black bowl being the gnarliest.
You never got to skate the black bowl at all
unless you were fully accepted by the hardcore
of skaters."
Those skaters were Jeremy Henderson. Mark
Sinclair, John Sablosky, Rodga Harvey. Mad
Mark Baker, Beanie, Flouter. Robbie Hunter.
Jingles and Jules Gatton, to name a few. They
went on to become the rulers, in London and
the rest of Europe. They were known as ISD
(London Skates Dominates).
Once Skate City was established, other parks
started happening. By the end of 77 everybody.
and their grannies were skating. In London i
alone five second-generation parks appeared:
Mad Dog Bowl (marbelite surface,indoors) Roll-
ing Thunder (indoors), Skate Circus, (converted
old English picture house); Rom (Romford, at
pool with tile and coping and more) and
Harrow. This last park saw a lot of the major
action through the big summer of 78. The LSD
had severe sessions in the concrete halfpipe with
a big fat sound system. No pads, just a bandan
na keeping the hair out of your eyes
Rodga remembers that summer in a
slashback.
"The LSD were highly respected for their
skating ability but hated for their bad attitude
and disrespect toward anyone but each other.
We would go to other parks around the coun-
try and never pay for anything. All the people
who owned and ran the parks would totally look
after us, yet we would terrorize everybody and i
take over the best runs. Nobody would skate
with us, they would just watch. It wasn't that i
we didn't want to skate with other people, it was
just that the sessions were heavy and most were
intimidated. There were guys like Neil Harding
and Clive Manderson doing frontside double
axle carves in the 14-foot bowl at Harrow and
spraying concrete in the air. That mutha had
4% feet of vertical. It was a whole different at-
titude. You just wanted to get gnarly and stoke
your friends"
After the summer of 78 skateboarding was
declared dead by the newspapers and
skateboard magazines. Most of the core crew
had to get jobs and grow up, right? Wrong. At
that time new tricks started hoppening-inverts
Andrechts, backside airs, rock and rolls, allies
Clockwise from Above: The daily grind at Neal's Hassle-Free Mini. Hurricane Brian hits beneath
the Secret Bank. Meanwhile Il madness by Richard Balgobin and Rici Plant Lucian Hendricks lifts
a lofty one at Crystal Palace Jumpin' Boma Jo Jo-smooth ollie, strange name
60