VISION
Clockwise from Upper Left: Crystal Palace coping falls victim to Steve Douglas' steel Smith attack. Freestyle
and fine English cuisine-a combination fit for a king (or at least Prince Charles) Eternal rager Rodga
Harvey hightails it out of the Harrow pool way back in 79. Two prime modes of transportation in traffic-
wracked London Town. A close look at the Royal board graphics, Buckingham Palace. International skate
rambler Jeremy Henderson (seen here in his formative years, laying back at Rolling Thunder) makes
it into his second skatetown article. The epitome of a late-eighties skater, Brian takes a trip down the
pipe outside of County Hall. In active appreciation of art. Toby ollie airwalks on a slick structure.
and there'd be about fifty skinheads on one side
of the park and a gang of big gnarly black guys
on the other side. We'd be in the middle going
'Hey, let's skate. The skinheads flattened, the
vacant pro shop one night. The pool, the pro
bowl and the peanut were filled with dirt.
Everything else was left, but it definitely.
slowed our scene a bit.
"Then, lo and behold, we started having
contests. The E.S.A. (English Skateboard
Association) series pulled everyone together
It was like a big family. We also had the Dobie
Fun Series bank contests. That was good.
fun, low key skating.
"Blender and Ruff came over in '83. They
skated Palace and once again we got a
boost-more contests and fun trips, like the
H-Boyz trip to the zoo. There were also Rom
days. Rom was basically a biker-run park, but
one day a year we'd all go there and take over
the park. This event was fun because people
used to travel from far away to get there.
Everyone had the dream about going to the
States, but nobody had money. The Swedish
summer camp was another place people
wanted to go, but only a lucky handful of us
got the chance.
"Sponsorship came into skating in '83 and
'84, and people started to get more interested
in it. We had to travel over an hour to get
the new issues of the mag and some months
it never got through. Alpine Action was the
only shop in London and we used to get all
the new stuff about eight months after it came
out in America"
"Sluggo" Douglas was one who made it to the
states and stuck for a while with London mate.
Hugh "Bod" Boyle. Both recently returned after
over two years in San Jose, CA. "There's no vert
scene like the Crystal Palace days anymore," said
Steve almost teary eyed. "It seems strange to
be in London and not be able to go down to
Crystal Palace and skate the ramp. But times
change. Now they've got things like Neasdon
pool and Latimer Road, and the weather has
been really good."
According to Mick Foster and Matt Baine,
there are good things in store these days for
Harrow, the half buried legend....
"Lane and Gary are the main people behind
the move to save Harrow at the moment. They
want to totally dig out the park, put coping on
everything, maybe add a bit of vert in some
places, build a 28-foot wide vert ramp, and build
the hut back up so they can house their shop
New Deal skates. If that works out. Harrow will
be the most happening place once again."
"The rebuilding of Harrow would be good for
the whole London scene. A lot of good skaters
have come out of Harrow in the past, but the
scene in London has died down a bit. Up north
they've got loads of indoor places to skate, so
people up there are getting real good. With Har
row happening again and with the screwed up
ozone giving us more dry weather (that thought
is scary but true), the future looks good."
MODERN BRITISH SKATE
But what's the state of the London scene as
we enter the 90's? Mad Mike John- skater.
photographer, crazy man, drifter, observer-
gives a partial scoop....
"It's impossible to say what the London scene
is. It's a collection of small scenes and each
scene has got it's own spot. All through the years
though, the South Bank has always brought
everyone together. Everyone would skate their
individual spot, but in the evening we would
meet at South Bank just to rap and dream about
going to California and getting sponsored.
Mad Mike puts the London park scene in
perspective...
"Yeah, Harrow has a lot of history, but it was
just one of the parks. Rom never closed, it's still
got the pool and it's been happening all along
There are a multitude of cement spots like
Stevenage, Kennington Reservoir and Mean-
while still around.
"The heart of London skating is the South
Bank. South Bank has always been much more
than a collection of shitty little banks. It is the
heart and the mother of English skating. It
all started way back in the 70s, and the thing
that held skating together were the skate
shops, the magazines (Thrasher and Steve
Douglas' Go For It) and the South Bank. As
Shane O'Brien said, it brought together a lot
of people who would not ordinarily meet. A
lot of different cultures, different races, dif-
ferent backgrounds and different attitudes.
met at the South Bank. We didn't always have
a lot in common but what we did have in com-
mon was skating. Dobie, Floyd and I had dif-
ferent tastes in music than, say, Darrel or
Steve, but one thing was music to us all: the
sound of urethane rolling along the street or
a truck grinding concrete. It was the sweet
music that brought us together
"Right now in Lon-
don, as it's always been.
the scene is in several
places. You've got the
guys who have been CADILLY
skating through the
dark ages who are in-
volved with the maga-
zine, sponsorship and
industry kind of thing.
We're doing our kind of
thing, and then there
are up and coming street
kids. We call them street wizards. Team Toast
from South Bank. William Bankhead and John.
You can't name them and you can't even name
their tricks. They turn up and they're ripping.
Their names will be known in a few years time
when they ripen. It's an eye opener. I did a ses-
sion with some kids the other day around the
South Bank and while us 'eighties skaters
maybe used to skate the banks and the bank-
to-wall, these kids find a little concrete block
and skate that and the handrails around it. They
find all the street obstacles to ollie over. It really
widens the scope of the place for all of us."
We asked skater, sage, philosopher, writer
Shane O'Brien for more modern London
focus...
"It's mini-ramps, handrails (Continued on page 117)