110 THRASHER
SLUGGO:
ON SNOW &
SKATEBOARDING
PHOTOS BY SCOTT SERFAS
MY NAME IS ROBERT BOYCE. Sluggo is a nickname I received
nine years ago, skating the local cement park. This guy named
Orion Anthony, who at the time was one of the best skaters around,
looked at me standing at the side of the bowl awaiting a run. I stood 4'6"
(short) with very blonde, spiky hair. He pointed at me and laughed out loud saying.
"Holy shit, that kid looks like Sluggo," after a cartoon character that appears in
newspapers all across Canada. The rest of the locals laughed and agreed. Since that
summer day in '86, I've been known as Sluggo. Before skateboarding and snowboard-
ing, I lived in Victoria, BC, with my mom and brother. At the age of six, I started taking
gymnastics. And by the time I was ten, I was in the gym six days a week, five hours a
day. School and gymnastics were pretty much all I did until one day on the way to the
gym, I saw a group of kids breakdancing. It looked pretty fun, so I decided to give it a try. Because of
gymnastics, breakdancing came easy to me. Windmills and headspins quickly became all I wanted to
do. I spent all my spare time breakdancing on street corners with my friends. Soon, all the record
stores and malls were having breakdance contests. Me and my friends entered every one. I don't
think we ever lost. When I turned fifteen, my mom remarried a man named Mike Boyce, a welder
from Vancouver. So once they were married, we all moved from Victoria to North Vancouver. At this
point, I gave up gymnastics after nine years and continued to breakdance. I started breaking with a
group of guys from East Vancouver
called the Floor Lords. I signed up
for school at Sutherland Secondary,
a place that catered to things like
soccer, rugby, basketball and
wrestling. I made a mistake the first
week in my brand new school by
walking down the "jock hall" with
my breakdance jacket on (jean jack-
et with graffiti on the back). The
jocks were attracted to me like
white on rice, and quickly surround-
ed me, wanting to know what I was
all about. I explained that I break.
danced, then they demanded to
see some. I said I needed music,
dine
and they said "too bad" and that
I'd better start breaking. I made a
run for the biggest gap in the
crowd. No go, a couple of the
biggest jocks picked me up and
took my shoes. They told me I
wasn't getting my shoes back until I
did some breakdancing, and if I
sucked, I wouldn't get them back at
all. So, I started into windmills to
backspins to headspins and back to
my feet. I looked around at the
large circle that had gathered, and
they were going crazy. I was
stoked. The jocks let me have my
shoes back and said I could walk
down their hall,
I continued to breakdance with
my friends from East Vancouver for
a couple more years before they all
quit breaking to join gangs. Around
this time, everyone at my school
was skateboarding, but I couldn't
afford a board. A breakdance friend
called me up and said he had a
couple decks (continued on page 116)
Clockwise from opposite top: Sluggo clears the timber-
line at Cypress, outside of Vancouver. Portrait of man
and Red Dragon. Sequential visions of a misty flip at
Cypress. Driving off the cliff at Seymour. High altitude
frontside tailgrab at The Clubhouse in Vancouver.
111