ESSIONS
SHOP
Above: Bricky beanplant beneath sheltering South Bank cement. Inset: An unidentified Kennington
cruiser unleashes a boneless one Belou: The stone survivor of a bygone era. Left: Back home
after an extended American hiatus, Bod Boyle snaps it in the keyhole
(on vert), laybacks, Miller flips, to name
a few. Even so, many of the skateparks
were abandoned. The hardcores who
were still into it were chuffed. The spots
were empty and admission was free.
However, skate equipment was very ex-
pensive (it still is). Boards were ridden
till they had no tail or nose and shoes.
and pads were sewn up and put
together. Most of the top skaters stop-
ped skating and it seemed like the
weather was returning to the ice age. Hard,
gloomy times. In early '79 the company that
owned the building which housed Rolling
Thunder put the squeeze on them for £500 a
week rent. They couldn't hack it, and Thunder
was lost. It is said that when Rolling Thunder
closed, the crime rate in that area doubled.
Rodga Harvey describes this time of harsh
transitions....
"We were then left with Rom. It was a good
park, but we were not too popular with the
management. The problem was nobody was
skating much and our attitude was no longer
valid in the fast diminishing skateboard world.
Slowly the sessions at Rom became more and
more sparse and lame. I decided to go back to
Harrow to see what was going on and found
a rad scene happening with names like Buzby.
Mick Forster, Colin Taylor, Steve Douglas, Tim
Jenn, Little John and many more. These guys
were to become the H-Boyz."
HARROWING TALES
Steve Douglas takes over to describe changes
and the "passing of the torch," as it were...
"Being from Harrow, I was involved with the
H-Boyz. We used to travel around, skating main-
ly banks, slalom and freestyle. This was a time
when if you saw someone with a skateboard
you would rush up to them and say, "Where do
you skate?" You were mates for life, it seemed.
There were other groups of hardcore skaters
around, at South Bank for instance. Mainly, it
was all banks, slalom, freestyle parks. It wasn't
until 1982 that the Crystal Palace ramp was born
(thanks to Phil Burgoyne, and Lucien Hendricks,
among other stalwarts). Crystal Palace was the
main place for vertical skating for the next four
years. We'd session to Phil's Music Box, the Cure,
Dead Kennedys and New Order. At this time.
Kennington, Meanwhile and South Bank were
still being skated as well. South Bank was the
central meeting place. We would all hook up
there in the evening. Sometimes we would sit
around and watch Mac and the boys freestyle.
or watch Martin Sweeny, Floyd, Chris, Dobie,
and Linford rip through the most amazing stag-
gered slalom course you'll ever see. Anyone who
slags off slalom will change his mind after see
ing these lads. Cab and McGill visited the Palace,
they were the first visiting pros since 1978 and
we were stoked. At this time things were look-
ing good everywhere except Harrow.
"I don't know how we survived those days at
Harrow. Ten of us would be skating the pool