COL
KEEPING UP WITH THEI
SANTA BARBARIANS
JOHN DETTMAN
et it be known here and now that you are
reading about the most aggressive side of
Santa Barbara...the skateboarders. The side
not associated with the rest of the pretty pic-
ture, one that your elders would certainly love
to be a part of, the beautiful California tourist trap
that will never change. I'm talking about the outlaws
versus the in-laws, the harsh vs. the meek and in
Santa Barbara's case, the skaters vs. the non-
skaters, parents, cops, newlyweds and the
nearlydeads, you name it. It's enough to make 'em
wind up in juvie. The perils of the Santa Barbara
skate fiend are rooted back to the respectable days
of old so we must look back to find out who's to
blame here.
After our evil pastime was weaned in the vicious
vicinity of Los Angeles, it spread rampant in all
directions. Santa Barbara lays like a sleeping dog
about 90 miles north of Santa Monica right on the
bleeding Pacific. To throw a year in your face I'l
I'll give
you 1976, a year that found some of today's familiar
names barging barefoot down Cold Springs Road
on 4-foot taperkicks with Sims Comps, on high-
velocity, non-stop missions to the beach. These
skate, surf and future snowboard pioneers were
founding a framework of responsibility that kept
them maniacally in tune and eventually gave them
companies. Meanwhile, an industrious individual
hanging out in his kitchen began to pour wheels
on his stove. The damned things came out white
so he called them Bones. He gave them out to the
ones who mattered and they wore them out fair and
square. Good deal. These heads joined forces and
came up with the Quicksilver decks. Mothers kept
their distances, fearing the worst, until 1978 when
a long-haired Z-boy showed up and blammo!
Powell-Peralta was born. ►
Left: Slashing a backside layback on the Spine ramp, we find Rob
Washburn, long-term Brigade member and founding father of
Team Bro. Below: When Doug De Montmorency returned to the
pool scene a few years back, you could be assured that the best
were sessioning. Rock 'n roll at the Tilt Bowl. Photos: Scott Starr