VALLELY
STORY BY MIKE VALLELY
PHOTOS BY JIM KNIGHT
LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY, I can remember standing on Kevin
Hartel's back porch as he stood leaning half in/half out of his
doorway. I had followed him home one day after school as I
had heard he had a skateboard magazine in his possession
called Thrasher. It was the fall of 1984, and Thrasher wasn't
something you could find at the local grocery store in my
hometown. This Kevin kid had come across a copy and he
guarded it like it was gold. But to me, it would turn out to be
something much more valuable.
He held the magazine in his hands from
within his house and turned the pages for
me as I stood on his back porch absorbing
as much of each page as I could before he'd
flip to the next. I didn't really mind such
treatment, I felt privileged to look upon
the magazine under any circumstances, and
he knew it. It was the September '84 "Street
Sequence Issue" with Natas Kaupas on the
cover, and I guess in a sense that very issue
is probably why I became a "street skater."
The old Powell mini-ramp (opposite) gets opened
for some of Mike's slob tweakers. A picturesque
fountain (above) feels the thump of the man with
the biggest fists in skateboarding. One fat pop
(left) from one skinny pop at Santa Rosa-over
the big hip and on the way to the fun box.