DONNY BARLEY
W
HAT WAS THE FIRST THRASHER
you saw?
I can think of hundreds of covers actually, from
way back, but I can't really think of the first for
some reason. That was so long ago I couldn't
even tell you.
Did you start skating before you saw maga-
zines, or did you see magazines and then
start skating?
I started skating two years before I even knew
there was even such thing as a magazine. I mean,
I didn't even know there was such thing as a
board bigger than a banana board. I had a
banana board, like any little kid has a bike or a
pair of roller skates. I just found a little banana
board and cruised.
Did you bomb hills?
Yeah. I got so worked on hills back in the day,
because you know the banana boards are so
small. I used to get towed by a motorcycle on the
banana board. A couple of times I got worked.
What year or era was this?
That was the era when the Sims Lester was out
on the market. And the Vision Shredder.
What town did you live in?
I'm from Groton, Connecticut. The Southeastern
corner of Connecticut.
Who did you skate with when you started?
When I first started there was this kid Mike
Davis who lived a block away. He, his Grampa,
and I actually would take marine plywood and
draw shapes and cut them out with a jigsaw. We'd
every day trying to figure out
how to get it off the ground.
Finally I figured it out.
Do you remember your first
photo in Thrasher?
No; I have no idea what it
was. I think it was a Wheelie
Company ad or something
like that. I remember getting a
little check-out in Thrasher
and being so stoked.
When was that?
That was a long time ago; I
lived in Santa Cruz at the
time. I remember I shot the
photos with Sean Dolinsky; I
did a 180° over this gap. I
came across the photo not
too long ago, and it's funny
because I had dyed white
hair. I had a hat on and a
chipped tooth.
Did you get your tooth fixed?
Yeah. I turned pro, saved up
some money, and got it fixed.
I had broken my front teeth
maybe three times skating
and probably six times my
whole life.
This is the 20th anniversary
of Thrasher, do you remem-
ber any of the early issues
"I USED TO GET TOWED BY A MOTORCYCLE
ON THE BANANA BOARD"
smooth out the corners. It didn't have a tail or a
nose; it was just flat, and we'd drill some trucks
and wheels into it. They were roller skates but
the wheels were urethane, but it was probably six
or seven inches wide. Probably 26 inches long.
Did it flex?
Yeah, but I was light; I weighed like 60 pounds,
so it didn't matter.
How old were you then?
Ten or 12, somewhere between there.
How long till you started learning tricks?
I remember there was this little school next to
my house, and they'd have football practice
every fall. I was always like, "Screw football, I
want to play soccer." So I would skate to soccer
practice, and I remember one time I was skating
through and some football player had on his
cleats, and he was like, "Let me get on your
board, I wanna do an ollie." I was all, "What's an
ollie?" So he showed me. The kid figured out
how to get his board off the ground, and I was
like, "Oh my lord!" So I spent every second of
when it was on newsprint?
I remember there were music covers-I
remember a weird cover of some band, maybe
The Misfits or some punk band. Thrasher had a
lot more to do with music.
Do you think the Thrasher attitude has changed?
I sort of agree that it has, but it's still there
in the end. I mean, whatever, skating's
changed a little bit. So of course anything
that's involved with skating has to roll with
the punches and go with it. It was definitely a
lot more hardcore and underground back in
the day, but they still have that edge over
every magazine out there.
What are your favorite skate videos of all time?
My friend Jason got his hands on some sick
videos back in the day. I never really had much
money; when I saved up my money it was strictly
to buy wheels or bearings, or like a noseguard or
rails. But he always had a video or two. He had
Wheels of Fire with Natas, and Public Domain was
great, but Blind Video Days is hands down the
best video ever. So good, so early, so stylish. My
favorites were Rudy, Guy, Mark, and Jason-the
whole video basically.
Who was your favorite skater when you started?
Eric Dressen. I saw him on Skate TV with
Skatemaster Tate. They were asking him questions
and he seemed super cool; I like the way he cruised
on a mini-ramp. He was so in control. It seemed
like he could turn on a dime, and hit any part of
his board on any part of the ramp at any time.
Do you find it hard to live in Rhode Island and
be a pro skater?
No, I love it. I've got my own scene. It's cool
because every time a pro comes through, I'm
like, "Dude, I have to go meet up with that dude
and skate with him." I can feed off what they're
doing. It's cool to be over here-I have a lot of,
opportunities. It's not a blown-out scene. I don't
skate with anyone who's sponsored; I skate with
all underground heads who just cruise and shred,
and it brings me to that level where I want to be.
I just want to be level-headed.
Who are some of the people you
skate with?
I skate with a wide variety of peo-
ple-a lot of little kids at the park,
who are just buddies who are
younger than I am. All the older guys
and I try to shape the little guys a lit-
tle bit, in a good way if possible, but
sometimes they see a little more than
they need to see.
Do you skate the park mostly
when you're out here?
Yeah. I'm getting older, and I love
street skating. In California, skating's
accepted. Today, the popular thing to
do is skateboard, whereas when I was
going to school out here there were
three of us in the whole high school. If
I was going to school in Vision Street
Wears or Chuck Taylor's, kids were like,
"Whoa, those aren't suede Adidas or
Air Jordans." You'd get bagged on for
dying your hair or having that hair-
piece that went down to your nose
that Tony Hawk style haircut. If I
rocked that back in the day I would get
bagged on all day.
Did you have that haircut?
No, but I had something similar as
time went on. Brian Anderson had one
for a little while. Anderson was the
truest skate rat out of all of us. He grew
up with all these older sisters who were
kind of on the hippie edge, so he did
his own thing at a young age, whereas I
was always intimidated. I was always
the smallest kid in every class. I
brought my skateboard everywhere,
but I wasn't as outward. I have footage
of me skating in a Santa Cruz shirt and
tight black jeans. Funny footage.
Are you happy about the new free
concrete parks popping up all over?
Anything to skate that's free is good.
Sometimes though, the towns pick the
wrong guy to build the park and they
don't come out that good, and they
paid 30 grand to get the whole park in
there. That's pretty wack. At least
they're trying, I guess.
Do you think kids skating now will
become much better because of all the
parks?
I have no idea. Every day my thoughts
change on that. I just hope in the end
that it stays heart and soul. Sometimes
you see kids skating for the total wrong
reasons. They're just there for the
whole wrong deal. They think skate-
boarding is one way, but it's totally its
own thing. There isn't anything out
there like skating.
Do you think as skating continues to
gain popularity it will lose something?
What goes up always comes down.
I hate to say anything negative
about skateboarding.
-Pat O'Dell
Backside heelflip.