TEXANS
(From pege 63) He tied ropes around
these huge pieces of asphalt,
hooked them to his VW and backed
them out. He revived the Rathole for
four or five more years. If that pool
hadn't been around we probably
wouldn't be around. Kevin Brown still
lives in Houston. I saw him last week
at a contest. He graduated college,
got his degree. He dug the Rathole
out by himself.
Johnson: How about the one
where you had to bring a pack of
cigarettes to the lady's house? You'd
bring a carton of smokes and she'd
let you skate her kidney pool in the
backyard. She hated skaters, hated
people coming to her house, hated
strangers, hated everyone. Her kid
didn't even live there anymore. He
lived over at his friend's house.
Gibson: That was cool until some
idiot spray painted it. That was it-
she wigged.
THE SAGA OF THE BLUE RAMP
Phillips: When ramps took over
after the parks died, you guys had
eight-foot transition ramps. We had
the nine and three-fourths transition
Blue Ramp. The Blue Ramp seems
small now, but back then it was big,
and that's what we were used to. The
Blue Ramp kept Taxas alive for a long
time. That thing went from the Fiber
Rider park, to Houston, to Jeff
Newton, to Galveston, to Austin, to
Dallas, behind Starlight, behind
Donel Distributors, and then finally
to Melvin where it died. It was put on
life support systems for two years.
Seriously, that ramp was dead, and
we plugged it in with fiberglass resin
and people still skated it for two
years. That was the ramp that we
watched John do the fakie olie on.
Gibson: We were planning on tak
ing it when the ramp closed down.
Then Newton comes down and says
he's going to call the guy and buy it
from him. He offers him pennies and
the guy takes it. Just about that time
our park on the south side of town
closed down. They had a fiber-ramp
too, and we decided to steal it. So
we're stealing the ramp, fully going.
"Yeah, we're going to get it, and the
cops pull up. Everybody runs but Joe
Nichols and me. Cops come up.
throw us on the ground, handcuff us.
All the cops take off after everyone
radio. We thought he was busted.
The wrecker driver comes back thir-
ty minutes later and he's got some
kid that snuck out in his mom's car.
Wrong guy. He pulls up and he's all,
'Is this him? Is this him?' The guy's
all, 'No, tell them. It's not me!" The
cop helicopters come and they're
circling. Then finally they call the
owner of the skatepark and go,
"Yeah, we got John Gibson, Joe
Nichols and two other guys. The
owner says, 'Oh really? Aw, man, just
let them have the ramp. It's cool. The
cops were so pissed. They asked us,
Man, why didn't you call him and get
permission in the first place?' We go
"We didn't know.' We were just steal
ing it. We had rented a big U-Haul.
We still have that ramp today. Those
blue pieces were like gold to us.
MORE POOLS
Phillips: The Bridge Bowl was in
Dallas. That's where I learned how
to skate after all the parks in Dallas
closed. See, the parks from back.
then would be appreciated today
because of all the free skating stuff,
the ramp jumps and all that, but back
then we had to have vertical. We
thought those parks sucked. The
Bridge Bowl was this pool right by
Wizard skateboard park. The parks
died and me and Craig and Allen and
Dan started skating the Bridge Bowl
every day. That's when I got good
enough for Newton to go, 'Hey,
you're on Zorlac. I don't know what
happened to Craig during that time.
Out of Dallas it was me and Dan and
Craig and Allen Guimond. Allen has
been skating as long and hard as me
and Danny and Craig, but he never
really got sponsored. He was always
as rad but for some reason it didn't
work out. We got the Blue Ramp after
the Bridge Bowl, sot it up behind.
Starlight and had the Spring Series.
After we got the Blue Ramp from Gib
son, we started coming on strong.
We all turned pro together. For me
it went from the back streets, to the
banks, to the years of skateboard
parks, the dying of skateboard parks,
to the Bridge Bowl, to the Blue Ramp.
TEAM TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS
Johnson: Gibson and I were the
only two pros for Zorlac, so anything
that went.
that was going on, we were the guys
Gibson: If they could scratch up
else, chasing them through the the money to buy us tickets, we would
bowls, and come back with only two
other guys. We're sitting there hand-
cuffed when one of our other friends,
Rob, comes running, jumps over the
fence, jumps in his car and peels out.
The cops are all, 'Oh, he ain't going
to get away. They call some wrecker
driver to go and chase him on the
108
be on our own after that.
Johnson: Yeah, we knew every-
one else from the Kona days and we
were going. "Hey, what's up? Floor
space? Cool.
Gibson: Phillips would have a
G&S hotel room paid and we'd end
up there. That's how Zorlac worked.
Phillips: I got my model from G&S
and they strung me out forever. I said
forget it. Brad Dorfman said I could
have a board from him in a week, so
I got it going. I started doing the best
job I could do for Sims, I won some
contests and got dicked over big
time. It seemed like Craig and John
were the Texas guys and all of the
sudden I wasn't. I always wanted to
be with those guys, but it was either
stay with Jeff Newton and drive in his
truck for two weeks or take a plane.
After Sims I went to Life's a Beach
and those guys treated me right. Now
I don't feel like just a number on a
check. I'm part of the team. I get to
design the products, I get to help pick
the team, I get a say in what goes on.
Plus, the team is totally tight. It's the
best team I've ever been on. I don't
care what anyone says about Life's
A Beach, they're the raddest. Period.
MoFo: How can Craig and John
top that?
Phillips: Well, they were in a big
ger shithole than me riding for Zorlac
They skated as hard or better than
me the whole way through and got
less than me. I didn't get what I
deserved, and they got less than me.
MoFo: Is that how you guys feel?
Johnson: I just don't need as
much security. I'd rather wake up out
on the floor of the lobby. At least I got
a roof.
Gibson: Craig and I were Zorlac.
We were promoting Texas. That's
what we wanted to do. We were do-
ing it and scratching constantly.
Johnson: Riding for Zorlac meant
not even caring if you got a board
check, it was just making sure the
company survived.
Gibson: We wanted Zorlac to
make it. It was our life. Zorlac, all the
way to Skate Tough or Go Home.
Skate Tough or Die. We were in it all
the way up, Zorlac was doing it
worldwide, people were stoked on it.
We would go to California and
everybody would be all, 'Uh oh, the
Zorlac guys. That was when Zorlac
was big and skating was small. I
mean Zorlac could have been the big
company that we wanted it to be, and
we hung with them until the very end,
until we were going to have to get
regular jobs. Then we had to shine
it and join Alva.
Johnson: When it was time to quit
I flew down here from Houston and
I was like, John, I have no money."
He's like, 'I have no money either' My
mom paid my plane ticket down. We
didn't know what to do. We were
thinking about getting jobs. Then
Alva called and asked us what was
going on. So I told John, 'Let's go to
California tomorrow and check it out.
Gibson: Murph was in the same
boat as us. He was calling us asking
what we were going to do. Quitting
Zorlac was tough. We all wanted to
see Zorlac make it. We didn't want
to ride for anyone else because we
were Zorlac. It was the original.
That's why we found T.A.
Johnson: Now it's good, because
Alva has brought us around the
world, twice. We're stoked.
Gibson: The Alva team is tight. Wo
can look at everyone on our team,
know who they are and go, 'Yeah."
And we can still make our own deci
sions about where we want to go. If
we want to go to the contest we can
go, but no flack if we don't.
FUTURE DAYS
Gibson: A year ago I had a pretty
bad injury that's been holding me
back all this year.
MoFo: What kind of injury?
Gibson: I had a broken wrist for a
long time and I didn't even know it
was broken for six months before I
finally got it looked at. Before then,
like '87 and '88, I had been traveling
around the world, going to places like
Australia and Brazil, instead of going
to lots of contests. I see skating level-
ling off in the future.
Johnson: I think skating's heading
for a weeding out phase, which is
cool. I'm stoked because the
numbers will never dwindle like they
did before. You've got a whole new
generation of parents who were
skaters as kids.
MoFo: Have you guys gotten ev-
erything you've ever wanted out of it?
Phillips: More. I never imagined I
would get what I got. I never
imagined I would be a pro, making
money doing all this stuff. I lived up
to my goal in life. I remember being
a kid and saying to my friend Kevin,
the guy who dug out the Rathole, "I'm
going to be a pro someday, then
laughing like there was no way. And
here I am. To me, the hardest thing
is battling injuries. I had a wrist in-
jury that plagued me over a year-and-
a-half and Vision wouldn't help me
out. I had to pay for it all myself. I had
three dead wrist bones. Now instead
of having eight wrist bones in my left
wrist I have five. Then I dislocated my
shoulder. I know I can still place in
the top five whenever I want. I haven't
cared about contests for the last cou-
ple of years, but it's still fun to go.
Johnson: It's the same kind of
thing for me. It just happens to you.
I didn't plan this, it just happened and
it's rad. Now I just try to travel and
do as many demos as I can to get
the message out about roots-where
it comes from, where we should take
it and what it's all about. I still dig con-
tests a lot, but (Continued on page 110)
ALL THE STYLES THAT FIT IN:
814
PADDED SHORTS
FIFTIES SHONT
SKATE BAIES
BOXER SHORT
STREET STYLE JAN BANT
FILES PANT
BAGGY KATE ANTS
KNIT TOPS
ZIP TOPS
HEAVY KNITS
JERSEY KNITS
WOVEN TOPS
WIND BREAKERS
JACKETS
SCREENED TS
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