Five bucks. That's what it cost me to access the Internet back in 1995. This got me an email address and an opportunity to have my own website. According to an inflation calculator, $5 is about $9.40 in today's money. In the mid-90s, the Internet was just entering the public's consciousness. As I mentioned, I learned about the Dansworld Skateboarding Website in December of 1994. 1995, I wrote to Dan and sent him an essay about my skateboarding journey. I made one critical mistake - I actually started skateboarding in 1975, not 1976.
Here is what I wrote at the age of 31 - I have slightly corrected some of the more atrocious spelling and grammatical errors.
Summer 1976. The Bicentennial. Elton John. Chevy Vans. Skateboarding...
For movie trivia buffs out there, you may know which film had this promotional tagline: "Where were you in '62?" Well, I wasn't even born in 62, but I guess a lot of people reading this article weren't born in 1976. But that's the year I started skateboarding. I was 11 years old.
Strangely enough, I can still remember my first ride on a skateboard. The board belonged to some kid who had traded a knife for it. My neighbourhood wasn't rough, but this kid wasn't from the neighbourhood... Anyway, I jumped on thinking that I'd crash big time and was amazed I didn't fall. That was it. I spent about 5 minutes fooling around on this skate without knowing how much impact the sport would have on my life.
My first board cost about 15 bucks and was a birthday present. The dimensions of the plank were about 6" x 24". Needless to say, the board was great fun, and the only drawback was the clay wheels. Clay wheels? Yes, wheels made from baked crud. Mighty slippery and guaranteed to get your knees and shoulders shaking! I think in the end, I painted the board gold and took apart the wheels and trucks. It was high time to move on up and get into plastic.
Ah, plastic. Believe me, going from clay to urethane plastic wheels was like moving from a Lada to a Lexus. I went through a series of boards, and in hindsight, all were equally poor in construction and design. All had loose ball bearings - precision bearings were too difficult to find. Despite all the lame boards, I kept practicing.
Back in the 70's, freestyle skating meant tricks. Handstands, 360's, nose wheelies. Radical meant pulling a "coffin" at high speed. What's a coffin? Well, jump on your skate, lie down on your back, put your hands together like you are praying and you're doing a coffin. Ollie North was probably stuck behind some desk in Iceland shredding documents. It was only in 1980 that the word ollie as it relates to skating would enter skating vocabulary.
In 1978, my world changed with my parent's trip to Oregon. At an appropriately named shop called "California Pro," they picked up the Rolls Royce of skateboards - a Gordon and Smith FibreFlex with Bennett Pro trucks and Road Rider Wheels. How did I know this was the ultimate? Well, SkateBoarder Magazine, for one thing. Each magazine had slick ads and editorials featuring all the pros riding this equipment. There was also a guy in my hometown who had picked up a board with the same setup, and it was a dream board compared to my plastic crud. My first run out with this board just happened to coincide with the entire neighbourhood receiving a fresh face of asphalt. Needless to say, it was as close to nirvana as a 13-year-old skater could get.
People often ask me what the worst accident I've ever had was skating. Well, apart from the near misses from cars and bikes (which would have ended my career pretty effectively), the worst accident was when one of my trucks broke while I was rolling down a hill. I land right on my tailbone. I was in quite a bit of pain but got so bored waiting in the hospital emergency department that I just got up and walked out. A few days later, I was back on the board.
Of course, in the 70s, one way to avoid cars and pedestrians was to go to a skateboard park. Of course, you had to live near a park, and many states were blessed with several. Unfortunately, it would take until 1979 for them to put wooden ramps in a hockey arena near my house. In fact, I was even a member of the freestyle demo team, and we went to shopping malls to perform. I went to a few parks in Toronto (one was across the street from Honest Eds!), and they were amazing but small. I want to mention my mindblowing time at "Skatopia" on a 1978 trip to California. Imagine a skatepark with landscaping to rival any golf course - including a waterfall. Of course, the lengthy halfpipe and snake run were outstanding.
As with any non-mainstream sport, it evolves quietly yet forcefully. Although I was into punk and new wave, I missed out on the crucial connection of hardcore and skating. Thrasher Magazine and all the music in the scene were not really happening in my small hometown. Only when I moved to start university in Toronto in 1983 did I get seriously back into skating?
Back in 1983, skating started to take off bigger than ever before. In Toronto, there were very few places to get skateboarding stuff. However, one shop called Rudy's stocked everything. It was here where I saw a video on the new freestyle. Skinny decks with tiny trucks and wheels. A guy called Rodney Mullen pulled off tricks I never thought were imaginable. Four years later, I would get a chance to meet Rodney at a demo. Live or on tape, he is probably skateboarding, the most impressive freestyle skater. Nice guy, too.
Over the years, I have met a lot of people who skateboard. The best part about being older than the current new skaters is when I hop on a board and pull a nose wheelie for 50 meters. There is mutual respect between the two generations. I can't believe some of the tricks kids are doing, and they can't think an older geezer like me can actually skate.
Before the Internet started taking over my life, I once tried to coordinate a freestyle pen pal service. It was mentioned in both Thrasher and Transworld Skateboarding. It had some success, but the postage was murder. Once I have time, I may just reactivate "Freestyle International" via the Internet.
Although I've ridden ramps and halfpipes, I remain, first and foremost, a freestyle skater. This is probably because ramps and halfpipes are not as accessible as a driveway or tennis court. As I enter my 20th year of skateboarding, there is only one thing I'm really looking forward to: teaching my baby girl g-turns. Hey, at my age, you're allowed to get sentimental! If there are other geezers out there who remember the 70's, send me a note at michal_brooke@edu.yorku.ca.
Michael Brooke
PS: the movie was American Graffiti
Back in the mid 90s, receiving an email was quite a big deal as not too many people had email. I felt it was like receiving an actual letter. Every evening, I'd come home after work, have dinner and then head over to the computer to check to see if I'd received any emails. As my story gained more and more feedback, I realized capturing people's thoughts in a more formal way would be a pretty good idea. I contacted my brother Andrew, a technical wizard, and by mid-1995, The SkateGeezer Homepage existed. You can see it for yourself here: http://www.interlog.com/~mbrooke/skategeezer.html
Warning - the site, from a graphics perspective, is truly horrendous. But you have to understand, it was the beginning of things. I had no idea at the time where this humble idea would take me. All I knew was that the site resonated with skateboarders worldwide, and I couldn't have created it without my brother's immense help. Andrew never skated but I cannot thank him enough.
One of the earliest contributors to the site was Michael Moore. Not the filmmaker from Flint, Michigan - the other Michael Moore. The one from Belton, Texas, who is a terrific graphic artist. Michael graciously donated the SkateGeeezer logo artwork.
At the time, the Internet was really new and exciting. This technology was going to impact humanity in a truly positive way. Then, I made the decision to put up a forum on the site. What a shitshow! While some people were cool and interacted with their fellow visitors in a calm manner, there was an army of trolls who shitposted with impunity. And remember, this was long before being an internet troll became a thing. It got so bad that we had to remove the forum.
Despite this, I have some excellent memories of the SkateGeezer Homepage. The feedback section remains my favourite part because people shared their genuine feelings about what skateboarding meant to them.
Here's just a sample:
Hi Michael,
I'm glad that I'm not the only geezer still interested in boarding. The last time I skateboarded was back in the mid/late '70s, when bell-bottomed pants were the rage. Back then, our ramp consisted of an old table tennis board laid up against someone's front wall or coconut tree.(Bailing at 8' near vertical was not always fun!)
I'm now 27 and going through an early life crisis of predictability, being a responsible citizen etc. I want to construct a halfpipe either on a backyard scale or bigger but need some info on construction, e.g. wood used for the ramp surface etc. If you know of any links, please send them to me. Thanx for any help.
Mark S.
*****
I was net surfing and found your web page! I nearly jumped up and down with joy!
I am an avid collector & long-time skater since the "clay" age. I can remember my first board was a "Knight Rider"..a wooden deck with clay wheels that my parents bought for me at FAO Schwartz in San Francisco. I skated in my grandmother's driveway and promptly fell on my ass! That was back in 1974 and only the beginning!
Hey cat... I'm an old geezer too! (29) and I've been skating since 1975, I grew up in Longwood, fl (near Orlando) and skated the beautiful cement parks in the 70's, we had one in my town called the Longwood Pipeline... man, what I wouldn't give for one more day there again!!!! I miss that place. I got to skate upland in 85 for a day, but that was during a time when I wasn't skating much : ( but I did hit coping backside in the combi pool!! :) a scary experience... that pool is gnarly, bro!!! Hey, let's chat. Do you have any back issues of Skateboarder mag? How about old boards? I'm trying to track down stuff.
Dumb ass me, I had 76-81 skateboarder mag in the protective boxes with covers in mint condition and over the years, they got lent away, given, trashed, whatever, so now, I have one issue from 79 and one from 75, both pretty trashed (missing covers and such). But, life comes round again.
Well, good to see your site. Good luck, and please mail me back.
Kevin F
P.S. I saw Rodney Mullen last summer at a Menace/101 demo in Tampa and he ruled!!!!!
PPS Are you still ripping? Never quit, bro. I've watched 3 generations of lamerz quit on my ass. I'm going to skate until I'm 100!!! put it this way... Tony Alva still rips pools everyday at 39!!!?!!!! so I have no excuse. Later!
*****
I have always been in contact with skateboards. Most of my guy friends have been and are skaters. I am not a true geezer, as I was born in 78, but I feel pretty old when I see kids half my age and twice as good at tricks.
I will share a few tales that made me realize this:
I was sitting there at Wendy's talking w/ my best bud and his sister who's 20. Both of them are former skaters. And we were reminiscing over the glory days of the 80's cause that's when it seemed so exciting and innovative and all. When some of my younger skate friends stopped in and sat by us. And they overheard us, and they were like, "who's Christian Hosoi?" man, did I feel old! I mean, he was big time less than a decade ago. I got a used deck w/ his name on it and was so stoked and that was a year ago!
I'm always getting free boards-not cause I'm sponsored but because my friends quit when they get older, and I'm still doing it... and on my Vision deck,the one I tend to favor, one of the trucks was loose and a wheel needed replacing, so i looked forlorn at the alternative- the dreaded NASH' nana board w/"everything you don't want" on a board.you know what? I said hey. Who cares? I didn't care what people thought of me, a dorky skater then, so why should I now? I skated all the way down, just free gliding on the street, much as I could, and was almost at my destination when I decided to kick a trick on a curb.
Surprisingly, it became an attempt to do a dumb old curbside. Then all the way across the parking lot,a kid, maybe like 10 years old, came to a screeching halt on his bike and just stared. I couldn't let him down, or embarass myself, so I succeeded in doing my first trick on a Nash in years. The kid stared on, probably because a) I was an old skater, b) I was a girl skater and c)I was an old girl skater on a Nash! Show over, I carried the heavy thing to my friend's house, another former skater who could skate again if he tried.
I love to skate, I don't do it enough, but my friends who do always want me to go sessioning, they consider me quite a rarity, the girl who skates and keeps on skating. I will never quit. How do I know this? cause my wheel is getting fixed soon, and I'll still ride the Nash! And as the years pass, others may forget, but I will never let memories of Gleaming the cube's Tony Hawk sequence, camouflage Vision hi-tops, or sk8 tv slip away. I AM AN OLD SKOOL SKATER AND I AM PROUD OF IT!
Amen
Lisa
There are dozens of emails like this, and each of them kept feeding my skate stoke. At one point, I received an email from a guy in California named Todd Huber. We started emailing back and forth, and one day, I was delighted to receive four of his Skatetrader Magazines. I was absolutely amazed and couldn't believe there were people who actually traded old skateboards and memorabilia.
Tucked inside Todd's zines were a few ads for longboards. They immediately got my attention. At one time back in the late 70s, a neighbour had given me a longboard with clay wheels. It was at least a decade old, and within a week or so, it broke. The longboards advertised as Surf One ignited something deep within me. I knew I had to get one. Now the question was where?
