underground. And Thrasher was keep
ing things going like having contests.
Like the first street contest in Golden
Gate Park.
Yeah, and the first ramp contest, the
Palmdale Desert Ramp Battle. So, even
though the scene was pretty dead,
Thrasher helped keep it going.
Then came jump ramps.
Yep, because we didn't have too
much to skete here. As soon as the
skate scene started to get real popular,
kids started skating everywhere, and
then that's when the law comes in.
Who do you skate with now?
My friends like Matt Eversol, Dave
Ashley, Gershon Mosley, Marc John-
son and Chris Avery. I think something's
going to happen sometime soon in San
Jose where there'll be a park or some
thing for the skaters. But right now I'm
just stoked on it, because we don't
really have anywhere to skate legally,
but there is a big scene here, and I
think it's because of the amount of pros.
that still live here and support San Jose.
What about vert coming back?
Okay, I wouldn't say that it's back like
everyone says it is. The only way it's
back is it's back in the magazines. I've
always liked to be an overall skater,
didn't like to stick to one thing. At one
point I even tried freestyling. I want to
do it all. I did slalom. When I first start-
ed. I was an amateur, I did downhill
slalom. So, I love skateboarding. I don't
care what kind of skateboarding it is, I
love to do it. When I first started out, it
was parks, then vertical skating came
from the parks and pools after I got.
into skating. When those closed, all we
had was street skating. Then ramps
started popping up, got into ramp skat-
ng. Then the magazines started pro
moting more street skating and had
62
more street contests, so I decided, "If I'm going to
keep on progressing with the sport, I might as well
get into street skating." So now that they're putting
vert more in the magazines, definitely, if I hop on a
ramp, of course I'm going to say, "Yeah, I want to
get back into skating vert," because it still is good.
From skating vert to street and then coming back to
skating vert again, it just feels so much more natural
to skate vert. I have so much more fun skating vert
than I do street, but the fact is, I don't have a
ramp, so I'm stuck skating street. Sometimes I feel
like when I'm skating a ramp, people are like, "Oh,
Cab's just getting into it because he thinks it's back
in. But I don't really care what they say, because
was skating vert before they even started.
What does an eleven-foot backside air feel like?
The only feeling is please don't hang-up or bot-
tom land. But the feeling is not when you're in the
air, the feeling is landing it and coming up the other
side. For that highest air contest at Raging Waters, I
trained for it, I practiced for it, and I prevailed from
it I took it seriously. I think if you take anything seri-
ously, you can prevail, and I did, I practiced for it,
and I got the height.
What about your music career?
Played bass and guitar for The Faction from
1981 to '85, and then Odd Man Out from "86 to
'89, Then Shovelhead, we put out a CD in '93,
we were together for about a year, so from '92
to '94. And my new band is called Soda. So, I
played bass and guitar in The Faction, guitar in
Odd Man Out, bass in Shovelhead, and I'm
back to playing guitar in Sode.
Is they anyone you would want to thank?
I want to thank Stacy Peralta and George
Powell, Fausto, KT, Mofo, BK, Lance Mountain
of course, Everett Rosecrans, Jim Fitzpatrick,
Eric Swenson, Sue Caballero, Matt Eversol,,
Corey and Gavin O'Brien, Johnny Granada, Ray
Stevens, Jim Gray and Joel from Sessions.
What advice do you have about longevity?
Just having a nice, positive attitude towards
everything that has to do with skateboarding.
Going back to his roots, Cab (opposite top) plants
one on Wade Speyer's deck. Keep a steady line
and anything is possible-railslide (opposite bot-
tom) in his hometown. Two Caballeros? What a
concept, but not a reality (above left) as a cart
gets jumped in a deserted downtown parking
garage. Boneless channel hop from 1986 (above)
at Mount Trashmore. In 1980, little Stevie Cabal-
lere had risen from the amateur ranks and was
taking out most of the pros. At Winchester, his
home park, the kid (sequence) had all the lines-
this frontside over the onion in the Keyhole is
humongous. He also did it backside. A portrait
in 1995 (below), of a Cab and his dogs.