"I ALWAYS
HAVE FUN
(from page 50) have round noses. After all,
a skateboard should have two tails if
that's the way you're going to ride it.
Skating owes a lot to surfing, but
lately surfing owes a lot to skating.
especially in the form of aerials.
Probably the most important and for-
gotten surf/skate crossover is Larry
Bertleman. During the late 70s he
pushed the limits of surfing with low,
pivotal full roundhouse carves,
carving (not sliding) 360's and just
generally being a "rubberman" by
surfing the way he rode his skate-
board. On land, that's where the
Bertleman slide or "Bert" came from
and it was quickly followed by the
"Bert Revert." More importantly,
Bertleman took the aerials he saw at
the skateparks back into the water
with him. Some people were calling
them "Larryials," but the fact is, he
was nailing them over ten years ago.
You can surf-skate in the street, on a
ramp, in a pool, anywhere. It's all
about getting low and gyrating. It's
a certain kind of feeling, a style.
Also, I think hand style is a major
factor. If you look at Tony Alva or
Jay or Olson or Christian, they
always have really clean hand
styles. That extra touch of finesse
tells you this guy is doing every-
thing so stylish and clean he has
time to make his hands look
perfect. -David Hackett
In the mid-seventies, Skateboarder
Magazine would print tons of bail
shots of skaters doing aerials with
one foot falling off or something. That
is where surfing is today. For every
successful aerial shot there are
numerous full-bail shots. Some
surfers get there, but it's a little more
difficult than it is for skaters. For one
thing, the wave moves, so you have
to predict what the wave will look like
when you land. That's why most
aerial attempts in surfing end in
failure. Even if they look good in the
air, you either eat it on impact or land
in some weird spot on the wave. It
doesn't help that waves are like
snowflakes; no two are the same.
Picture a moving pipe about
twenty-five feet in diameter and set
on rollers that make it turn. Imagine
yourself prone, being sucked up the
wall of the pipe, to drop in at or
above nine o'clock. As soon as you
hit the bottom, you carve a bottom
turn, and because the pipe is rotating.
Whether he's lofting frontside out of the ocean (above) or rocking frontside on the ply (below! Christian Fletcher is one skate surfer who surely makes the most of both mediums.
What was the first radical move you brought to
surfing!
I don't know, fer been doing salefish, indy ain,
For how long!
Eve been doing len aits for four or five ye
stalelist or a year and
What do people think? Is that what the judges
met when they wanted you to slow down!
No, they just des tundentand things He poin
s doing a floater and sliding the tel, going over
the backwank and the sicking the tal in at
the lot second and tuning back around forward, or
Jus mala borhide olies and stuf. You would
think that you would get more point, lux doing an an
then at the lp because X's unbelievable how much
harks
People doni ndervand because they
dont know how to do themselves
What other things do you do waves
I've been doing a 34 slide of the lip and t
dest pulled a stalelish 540" backside, went
all the way around landed it and then lett
want to be able to do auto-lakies.I can do
ant a plain tile Co up, hit the lies, come
dows hackwards, pin at the tetican, keep
ging I want to do a salelish-to-revert. That
would laty rail. Oh I've pulled a couple
et ales-op to stash. That's hard I do
ten at Ppoline and two right feet out
of the pupside down tal
Does anybody give you hit for doing too
much hotshot stuff?
fon norham Califormia
wher write into the magazines about bow
aerial sack because they don't as how to
de them
What are your favorite places to skale!
Stole Big in Floridi was pretty ad and
Chrician tool's house up in Hollywood. It'
o bichini kening Pipefire riding fut
wm. There's an exdoor skogark Penny
rania. These's Piel Smith's State Hut m
Shade land. That place is so much fun, t
w to Australia and these sex all kinds of
tech gablic things. These we some cool
Indoor skateparks. The best place I ever
Saved was the Big O Skatepark when I was a kd
My dad used to take me, my Itle brother and lino
lese when we were eleves, Dad's
lootage of me and son doing when we were le
What differences de you see within the skate and
the surf scenes
For awhile I was thinking sters were a lot more
radical than surfers because surfers are a comer-
vative, straight edge and all that. I've been going
all the skateparks and basically the new freed of
skabs is the same way
Really straight edge comerathe
Yeah and into ele tricks and staff, not seal
smooth or anething. They don't use the whole samp
aty mom, they just go back and forth, That's the
younger Lids. Thats a bummer because Ike to see
people came up the whole thing
Who are seme your favorite skaterd
Well I was sking with Tony Alva the other day
he was ripping Eddle Rekgai and Christian, y
Adam. I lied tod Howman and Duase Perm
when I was little. Jason jesie and were good hos
in fth grade. He turned out to be the slater and I
numed out to be the suner. We wert our opposite
Ways He quk saling around the same time! gt
transferred to a ditinent school. I gat in some trou
ble when I was lite so thad to go to private mes
Were you a troublemaker
No. I was just faving fun. I got blamed for some
But you didn't rat on him
No, but I pe kicked out of my eld elementary
school, sacied. Thad to go to private school fea
couple years, so my parents weren't acked. They
were e le still whef came home with all
B. They were st
So what kind of punishment did you get for that!
US restition to a whole semester but it only
lared there wees because my mon couldn't has
die me in the bouse, lagler. That's the way to do
Ran be uncontrollable, Your men will text
g outside and desething!
Who are your varite surfers of all time?
My dad, because he did a kt o enoxane ticks,
rode incase bands and salt. Share Horan and i
Mania Foster, Dane Kraicha. Ronnie Bama was
really my favorite Pipeline surier out of all the other
phs going. He recently died. 1 sucks, My good
friend Astin Rubenson, who was a year older tun
me died last samt in a car accident. He was one
of the saddest sales. My Itle Inocher defable
shreds. He is my indication. Is rool became bes
the only gave to match and he does the rides
He's fites, and he's skating good too-big ol
Smith grinds and sf. Frathide and buckoide
What about the old time surfer p
Will Lance Canon is a rad old timer. Dave
Nahwa's awesome. My grandether Water and
beher Flippy Hofman, they rode big, big waves
My gandther was one the first haole beach boy
in Hawa, and my att Joyce Hofman was right-
time world champion or something like that
What kind of response do you get from the shock
ing artwork on yeur surfboards?
Bad pose The kid lke fiens, but the pos
ut against and the contest people don't like them
Do they tell you to cover them up or anything!
They can't tell you to cover them up No way
You're allowed to do whatever you want
(Conad on page 82)
Mike Prosenko puls
an ollie-to-sugar cane at
the Kennedy Warehouse, a move
that has yet to be seen on a surfboard