COPY FACTORY
For those of you who follow board
graphics, the latest trend is straight knock-
offs of famous logos. At first it seemed a
nice tribute to a skater's favorite style or
maybe a personal statement that, "Hey,
this is what I'm into. Now it's obvious it
has nothing to do with the pro skater's
style, it's simply an easy and cheap way
for manufacturers to pump out graphics
and T-shirt designs without having to pay
designers or anyone else with original
ideas. The funniest thing about this situa-
tion is imagining all these.
skater/businessmen watching
TV or going to the supermarket
and looking for logos to rip off.
Being influenced by something
you like is one thing, but mak-
ing a Xerox and calling it your
own is a crime. It seems that
skateboarders who used to
be perceived as creative
individuals, each with their
own style and fresh ideas,
At left: Recent
Polaroids of the leg
endary Salba
appear casual at
first only to reveal
perhaps the most
legendary hipper
since the dark
ages. Photos:
Joel Cherry
Below: Chris
"Tonto" Ortiz,
world's hard-
est working
skate photo-
grapher.
MoFoto
wild actions and a lust for fun, new exper-
iences have now digressed into paranoid
businessmen who have to copy and pimp
on each other. Affected most is you, the
skater, the buyer. Beware.
FACTORY FACTOR
Who could be too surprised when the
mercurial Skipperboy emerged from
another self-imposed exile as a factory.
man. Yep, high in Topanga Canyon, Mr.
Engblom is hard at it, cutting out and shap-
ing custom skate protos and sanding the
odd surf craft. The scene is so secluded
that no one ever questions the adjacent
ramp activity.
Vert-meister and New Dealer, Steve
Douglas got the raw end of an 18-wheeler
when he fell asleep at the wheel on lonely
Interstate 5 between LA and San Jose.
Steve says he's glad to be alive and is
thankful his VW was chock full of new
skateboards, else he would have been
snuffed. Fharthigfugginout!
Officially, it's said, "Ken Park has left the
Planet. Then came the month when Blind
beat World in sales. Was Rocco actually
disturbed or was it a clever ruse to elicit
sympathy from a certain femme? Rocco's
response: a bigger boat? Perhaps a not-
so-subtle slam of a big company's
graphics?
ART AND FASHION ACTIONS
Mo, Robert Williams, Greg Escalante
and thousands of others were
observed recently at the
Tattoo Convention. Live
needles, live models
and living art were the
rule rather than the exception.
Suzanne Williams recently held a
one-woman art extravaganza at The
La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Ange-
les. The opening was standing room
only and many art aficionados
crawled into submission at the sight of
Ms. Williams aggressively structured
color studies.
What highly placed clothing execu-
tive was stressing over the basically
paranoid assumption that the Thrash-
er "fashion" article would slam his
vogue products? Hail, thunder, light-
ning or snow could not stop the evil
Ms. Weidman's lux life summer pre-
view, and neither could Mr. Big.
DROPPING IN
Was Jason Neuman busted again
riding a snowboard downtown at Port-
land's Waterfront Park? Why was he
again wearing a business suit?
Lipslide Skatepark in L.A. recently
bought Lance Mountain's legendary
Manor Ramp (including installation by
Lance) only to have it torched in the
early a.m. and half-burnt down within
hours of the final nail. Undaunted,
blackened and soot covered Lance,
Eric Nash and Bod Boyle conducted
a rebuild along with park members
and had it skateable by the next day.
The most-talked-about skaters this
month (based on an evaluation of
over 2,300 phone calls) were: Willie
Santos, Chris Senn, Simon Wood-
stock, David Graves and Bobby
Ferry.
QUEST FOR IONS
Is Jim Phillips actually coming out
with his own skate comic book?
Is Kim Robinson going team dou-
bles with Glenn Cowan in ping-pong
and looking to play Ridge and Rocco
for serious money?
just about out? Is Glen E. Friedman
coming west to record a rap album in
Studio 43 in S.F.?
Is Daddy V-Tello sporting a full race
prep Triumph with slightly suspicious
stock purple tank? Is it perhaps the
fastest of the current crop of British
race units?
Is Lou Gherig (Yankee great) actu-
ally Chip Morton's (Limpy grump)
uncle?
Where does Don Bostick acquire
those prehistoric 12-foot-long out-
sized snow planks he takes to the
Is Jawhn Dettman now editing a slopes?
British Motorcycle zine?
Is pro skater-turned-salesman Steve
Is the Guerrero Brothers' record Cathey now doing software telemar-
HAWK GETS HITCHED
DATELINE: Easter Sunday, 1991, Fallbrook, CA
The world's greatest skateboarder has tied the proverbial knot with the ravishing Miss Cindy, leaving
thousands of young, adoring female fans heartbroken. Hundreds of sports greats, near greats.
ingrates and potentates watched in abject proverbial horror. Mohammed All sent flowers in his
stead while Bo Jackson bet Mamma Hawk that he could lift the back of Grant's Volvo. Somehow,
Bucky Lasek and Tony Hawk ended up in the pool and O drank a glass of champagne. Congrats
to big Frank on the superb landscaping job.
Above: A ripe
and beckoning
clamshell pool
lies in wait at
the Screamin
Squeegies
Headquarters
in California.
Photo by M.Fo.
Below, Left to
Right: Stacy
Peralta
squeezes his
main squeere
while two Mrs.
Hawks look
toward the
future. Though
stranded at the
airport, Kevin
Staab finally
made it to the
wedding in
time for the
portrait ses
sions, albeit six
hours late.
Newlyweds,
and their
respective
proverbial
in-laws. Photos
by M.Fo and
Chris Ortiz.