Smooth style and a friendly manner are two of the trademarks belonging to Ray Barbee.
Rock solid and far ahead of his time, he has pop and a deep bag of tricks that goes on forever.
How old are you now?
I'm twenty-two.
How did you get into skateboarding?
From this kid, Jason. We always went over to
his house just to mess around. His mom bought
him a Varillex, so he was riding his board around
while I rode my bike, and I was thinking, "Man,
that looks like way more fun." Then he said he
had an old skateboard in his garage and he went
and dug it out, it was this old Sims Woodkick. I
used that, and we started skating around.
Where was this?
This was in San Jose. I think I was twelve.
How did it evolve from there?
I wanted a bigger board, and someone sold
me a Jammer for like five bucks, so I remember
just bugging my dad to give me five bucks.
So your family moved to LA?
We moved to Tustin because my
dad got a better job and my mom
could get transferred.
How did you meet Robert Torres back then?
Just through skating at Mike Griffin's ramp. I
started skating with Robert a lot, and he knew
Randy Katen. Then there was a contest out
there, and we stayed at Katen's house. That's
where we met Ricky Windsor, Micke Alba and
Randy Smith. After that, me and Robert would
always take the Greyhound and go back and
stay with Randy.
Who were your early influences back then?
Randy Smith, Gonz, and I loved all the vert
dudes like Micke Alba, he was bad. I remember
just liking Lance Mountain and Neil Blender, that
one Thrasher interview where Neil was doing
those inverts. I remember Christian Hosoi too, I
was stoked on Christian because he seemed so
young, and he was out there doing good. And I
remember liking John Fabriquer a lot too.
You used to ride vert a lot.
Yeah, totally. It sucked when I broke my wrist
and they tore down the ramp, we'd just wind up
street skating all around because there weren't
any ramps or anything.
Where has skating taken you?
I got to go to South Africa and then just all
over Europe, like Portugal and all those places.
What was your favorite place?
I guess England, because we could communi-
cate, and South Banks was cool to skate.
Are you still playing music?
I'm playing in a band called Cold Water Crane
with a bunch of friends of mine that live over in
Huntington Beach. We just recorded two songs
for Tod Swank and Mark Water's label, Golden
Rod. They did a 7" for us.
What are your musical influences?
I dig all of the country guitar players,
those dudes are bad, like this guy
Danny Gatten, he plays everything.
Ray
BARBEE
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BRYCE KANIGHTS PHOTOS BY LANCE MOUNTAIN
INTERVIEW BY BR
38 T
JESUS