UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF PARANORMAL INVESTIGATION
SKATEBOARDING DIVISION
CLASSIFIED
In reply, please re
File No.
Eight out of Nowhere:
The Curious Case of Hitch Frydrich
Case No.. 3166
San Francisco, CA
April 13, 1997
Every once arent while, something cones along that entirely changes the face of skateboarding. In 1
Alan Gelfand invented the ollie: In Nike McGill invented the McTwist. In
first kickflip. In.) Mark Gonzales slid a handrail for the first time on a skateboard. The people who inno-
Rodney Mullen popped the
vated these landmark achievenants are some of the chief directors of where skateboarding has been and where it
will go. The list of giants who have played a role in directing the history of skateboarding is long, though;
It stretches far beyond the few names listed above. What we reveal in this report is a nano which could easily
surpass the influence of any other in the past, present, or future of skateboarding. The introduction of Mitch
Frydrich to the public eye of skateboarding had been postponed somewhat unnaturally for a while, but it has now
finally and inevitably cone to pass. The greatness of Mitch's abilities may prove to be the most important thing
to ever occur for us of the skateboard faith.
We came upon Mitch by the purest stroke of luck and amidst none rather strange circumstances. We met him
while driving through
en route from Seattle to Hilwaukee. Our occupation at the time was to gath-
er material for an article consisting of one photograph of every public skatepark in the continental US. We
stopped in a tiny town called
for gas and some breakfast. It was at this gas station/diner that we
overheard a middle-aged man, wearing a John Deere hat, telling his friend, who wore a Jack Daniels hat, about
his brother-in-law who "could build damn near anything. When his friend asked him what sort of stuff this
brother-in-law buil he answered, "Well, built one huge hell of a skateboard track for his son Mitch that
I have never seen or heard the likes of in my life. Being naturally interested, we quickly introduced ourselves
as having official business with such things. He showed the nan our credentials (business cards) and grateful-
ly received directions to the skateboard track."
After a wrong turn and sone backtracking, we arrived at what the directions told us was our destination.
As soon as we got out of our car, we were confronted by a locked gate and a pack of snarling, barking dogs.
After about two minutes of alternately watching the dogs and looking for anything resembling one huge hell
of a skateboard track, a man carrying a shotgun cane out of the large house a hundred yards back from the
gate. By the looks of this guy. I was pretty sure we were in the wrong place. He asked us what we wanted,
and we timidly explained ourselves. He then told us that we had the wrong place. Pretty discouraged by the
gun and its owner, we were about to leave. Just as I was turning around to return to our car, a younger guy
came out of a small, windowless shed thirty feet away from where we stood. I noticed instantly that his shoes
had ollie holes in them. Gun or no gun, I introduced myself to this new guy with the renewed hope of riding
and documenting what was now appearing to be one huge hell of a secret skateboard track. Upon learning of
our connection to Thrasher and the purpose of our presence, this new guy appeared to be pretty fired up. He
asked us right away if we wanted to ride his set up. The guy with the gun just stood there and looked
pissed. The new guy said his name was Mitch as he led us toward the little shed he had come out of a few
ninutes before. The guy with the gun chose this time as well to introduce himself as Mitch's father and left
his shotgun inside the cab of an old pickup truck next to the gate. Very strange, is what I thought to
myself about my situation as I hesitantly walked towards the shed. I was willing to go along with these guys
only because of the promise that one huge hell of a skateboard track" held.
Once inside the shed, we saw there was nothing in there but a flight of stairs spiraling downward. As
we walked down the stairs that brought us to a large, motal door, asked Mitch if he really wanted to
do this. "Do what? I thought. At this point I was about to start talking about how my travel companions
and I had to be getting back to driving. I was harboring the growing fear that these two guys intended to
kill us, or torture us, or something. But I forgot this little worry as soon as Mitch opened the door into
the hugest warehouse/skatepark-type area anybody on this earth has ever seen. The place contains just about
every type of thing that is good to ride skateboards on, with plenty of space for whatever anyone could want
to do. As I looked at the huge quantity and variety of things to skate, I was in awe. I remember thinking,
"I could easily spend the rest of my life here in complete happiness. At the same time I was beginning to
wonder just what the hell was really going on. I could not believe that anything like that existed without
tons of people knowing about it, especially in the outskirts of some tiny town in the middle of
As far as the terrain inside the place, it defies description. It would take the length of this report to
describe it properly. Pictures would have clarified what I'm talking about, but the first thing said
after our entrance into this area was that he would allow us to skate, but not to take photos. I felt fine
about that because I realized this place wouldn't qualify for the article we were working on anyway. After
what we just went through to get into it, I could see that it was anything but publie.
My amazement at the oddness of my situation was about to increase greatly as we were about to witness Mitch
skate for the first time. I swear I am still in a state of shock over the things I saw hin do that day, as well
as everything else I now see Mitch do on a skateboard. After he started skating, I didn't even want to skate
anymore, because I was afraid I might miss something. I later learned that that was the first time Hitch had
ever skated in front of anyone except his dad and that he was really nervous because we were there. No signs of
this nervousness were evident to me at the time. Mitch began his session that day at the top of a vertical quar-
ter-pipe that was about eleven feet tall. He dropped into the ramp, punping down hard for speed. He ained straight
for an office chair standing in a flat, open area of his underground wonderland. Hitch had to have been going
at least twenty mph when he popped (off flat) an effortless 360° flip straight over the backrest of the chair.
The stupefying aspect of this part of the story is that the chair was standing the tall way: that made the 360°
flip about three feet high. He was going so fast that he must've popped his tail at least ten feet before the
chair and landed a good five feet past it. I felt my mouth involuntarily open in awe. but I couldn't speak.
He wasn't even warmed up or anything. He wasn't sweaty when we met him, and I knew that was the first time.
he had stepped on his skateboard that day. Most people scoop a little ollie for their first trick or maybe roll
around for a while to loosen up, but this guy just got on his board and whipped out a trick that no one else
in the entire world could even hope to do. And he did it with the ease that I might ollie up a curb with. Never
before had I seen anything like what Mitch had just done. I questioned if my eyes lied to me. I was so dumb-
struck that all I could do was stand where I was and look at those who I'd come in with to see if they'd
seen the same thing I did: they had. All of my travel companions looked as stupefied as I felt. Such a
thing was unprecedented in my experience, nothing prepared ne for it... I cannot properly express the pro-
fundity of that moment. I was deeply moved. And that was only the beginning of the astounding things he
did that day. My mind is still boggled at the existence of Hitch. From this description you will think
you know how amazing Mitch is, but you won't. At best, you will be able to get only a alight inkling of
the huge dimensions of Mitch's abilities. To acquire any sort of sufficient comprehension of his abili-
ties, you must witness then in person.
The question still remains, though, of how a phenomenon like Mitch Frydrich remained hidden from the view
of the world until now. This and more was revealed to me during a long talk with Mitch's dad, Mitch did-
n't want to participate in any sort of interview as of yet. My talk with involved him telling me some of
his own history as well as his son's. The central point of this talk was that intentionally sheltered Hitch
from the glamour and glory of professional skateboarding, as well as from a lot of the outside world.
's reasons for hiding his son, who is clearly born to ride skateboards, are very questionable in nature.
They begin with 's clain that in 1977 he was one of the best skateboarders in the world and was on the verge
of what he calls a full blown $1,000,000 skateboard career sponsorship. Such a large salary sounds incredi-
ble by today's standards. But renember, people with lots of money liked to invest in skateboarding back then.
's final run
That's where all the skateparks cane from. However, this sponsorship was apparently upset by a malicious act of
sabotage. This sabotage occurred when someone dropped a bunch of marbles into the bowl during
suffered two broken legs
in a longest carve competition held at Skatepark Victoris in Milpitas, California.
and a compound fracture of the humerus as a result of this vicious horseplay. And, to top it all off, the sabo-
teur was never identified. says he was in first place at the time of the sabotage and says that if he had
won the carving contest, the $1,000,000 sponsorship would've been his. He says people from the company he was
dealing with were waiting for him in the parking lot with a contract ready for him to sign. says he recalls
being wheeled into the anbulance, and seeing one of the men who offered him the sponsorship tearing up his con-
tract and saying, "Too bad. Being so close to the glory and the good life of a big-time pro skateboarder
only to have it all snatched away at the last possible second soured on the whole concept of skateboarding.
to be under the care of his long-
moved to p
About a month after this incident,
After about a year-and-a-halt, could walk normally
time friend and orthopedic surgeon.
never intended to touch or think about skateboards again.
uncovered an
again, and it took him years more to fully recover,
But several years after getting married to and when Mitch was about three years old.
old skateboard from the junk pile out in his toolshed. He decided to roll around on the thing for a little while.
says he was flabbergasted as little Mitch just grabbed the thing like
and baby Nitch ended up trying too.
he knew exactly what he was doing and started rolling and pushing around as if he'd been born knowing how.
decided to nurture his son's talent. but he also remembered the pain from his earlier skateboarding years. He
vowed to not let his son suffer the same fate. That was why lied to us at his gate when we first net hin
he was still trying to protect his son, and he still feared his son could suffer a pain similar to his
were about to see Mitch skate for the first
own. That was also why he questioned Mitch about being ready
time. What I mistook as a signal regarding my own untimely denise actually part of an ongoing father/son
debate about whether Mitch was ready or not for the public ofteboarding.
As Mitch grew up. reports that his son gained skill teboarding as if it were a natural part of
his growing process. Instead of playing with little action figures att bikes or watching TV all the tine,
could make it all the way down
says that before Mitch could even adi
Mitch always wanted to skateboard.
And when Mitch began to
eparts that sone of the
wards like "grind,"
roudly
a four nile downhill run called Pitcher's Peak without dragging his foo
got hin a subscription to Thrasher."
learn to read at the age of six,
first words Mitch read were not dog, cat,spot, or anything like that they
frontside, backside, and "air...
Concerning the super secret and super awesome skateboard facility, which the rydzicfectionate-
ly call "The Lair, says the digging for it began in 1987. It started when choked the pic-
tures in the magazines and wanted to do the same type of stuff the guys in the pictures reging.
admits that his own childhood desire for an underground hideout also played a big role in deciding on the
subterranean nature of the facility. Within two years, the construction of the underground building was
complete. says they only required a construction crew for a total of 54 days. The rest of the work was
handled collectively by and little Mitch. The expensive father/son project was entirely funded with
money came into after the death of his very wealthy grandfather in 1981. He decided there was nothing
better to spend it on than his son's enjoyment. Since the building's completion, the obstacles within The
Lair have been under constant construction and improvement.
ваув
Hitch has led a very sheltered life up until recently, and his environment was very controlled.
and that was only twice. Apparently,
Hitch has travelled only as far as
the capital of
they went there to see about materials for the construction of parts of The Lair. Hitch's exceedingly domestic
life up until very recently, and his nearly superhuman skateboard abilities, might seem to make him a bit awk-
ward to deal with. However, if you net Mitch without knowing his background, or seeing him skate, you would
probably think he was ordinary enough. How that he has been in San Francisco for about two weeks, I have seen
his manner around other people, and it is as friendly and polite as you could expect. For the most part, he
seens very much like most other skaters: very interested in reading skate nagazines and watching skate videos.
He's a little silent around people he doesn't know, but that's normal.
Now that Mitch has been unveiled before the eyes of the world of skateboarding. there are already opinions
of Hitch getting made. Some of the chosen few who have been allowed to witness Mitch's talent and skill previ-
ous to this dossier's release are already labelling Mitch as the first of an entirely new breed of skateboard-
about this label, he claimed that his son is not part of any new breed.
er. When I questioned
Instead, he said, "Mitch is one of a kind, a phenomenon: Mitch is to skateboarding what Mozart is to music.of
course, this could just be a father's pride for his son talking, and we hold back from any claims of our own
about just exactly how great Hitch is, or will grow to be. We feel that what you see here and in the future
will speak for itself. Mitch hieself makes no clains whatsoever and is mainly interested in riding the terrain
he has seen in the magazines and videos for years. He also hopes to meet some of the skaters who inspired him
throughout his life. Last, but not least, Mitch's first board sponsor is undetermined as of yet. The lucky con-
pany's ad that signals Mitch's pro debut could be out as early as next month's issue of Thrasher.
70 TH