there you are sammy! / think of something original, everyone is doing the honk.

i was gonna tell you, stop skating and start blogging! Wow! how crazy is it to hear this. I love skateboarding, always have. i started skating in 1984 when i was 5. by the time i was 10 i was skating with junior high and high school kids. Riding launch ramps and small half pipes. i remember when we saw josh roo do the first kickflip, and he was the only kid in town who could land one, i think that was 1987. And you are right my mom wasnt very "supportive", though she wasnt flat out discourageing. She did buy me my first pro board for my birth day when i was in 3rd grade. hot pink tommy guerro(once again, down with the brown since day one) full size, white tracker ultralites, bullet wheels, and german bearings. but she never watched me skate, or filmed us riding the ramps or anything, and we had a camcorder. the neighbor lady saw me one day and called over these other neighbors and i did a little demo for like 4 neighbors. ollies, ollie 180s, boneless, shov its, cherry pickers, flatground hand plants, finger flip bonless, various acid drops off those green things in neighborhoods, ollie truck stalls on curbs, and my specialty, big power slides with 360 outs. they were amazed. my parents never watched. maybe part of the reason i started playing organized sports, was i thought they would start to pay attention. the reason i got into art and design is all due to skatebording. i used to walk down to the corner store and buy thrasher magazine for like 2 maybe 3 bucks, and go home and redraw all the ads and pictures of skaters and board graphics. the first thing i ever wanted to be "when i grow up" was a skateboard graphic designer(the shoe thing didnt happen till 6th grade). and youre right my dad wasnt too down, though he didnt flat out deny me, he paid way more attention to the organized sports. its funny you bring this up cus im actually working on a book called skateboarding saved my life. i own skateboardingsavedmylife.com and i am gonna start making some clothing and stickers and doing some decks too. you remember i built the mini ramp in my garage 3-4 years ago, i have been skating on and off since then, and have recently been doing it more frequently with zeke. i have trying to take him to the skate park once a week. and remember i have 2 skate related tats, the vallely and the screaming hands. i just finished this deck for myself, i filmed myself making it, but i dont have the video edited yet, but heres a picture for now( i use a snow owl for my graphic, cus it freaking snowed for months here and no one could skate). ill have to get your story to put in my book. and i can get kerns too, if he want to relive how his dad called him a wanker. i remember people used to call us skaters that in the 80s.



i had this natas board in 1988, he owned everyone. dont front on the fire hydrant, and if you wanna see whats really up watch the natas bio, you can find it on youtube. and speaking about beaners you gotta get into mark gonzales. still skating still ripping. one of the first "street skaters", one of the first skaters to do his own graphics, one of the first skaters to start his own company, still owns his own company, does tons of graphics, does tons of art, true inovator, true icon, highly respected, total wierdo!