Semi-OT == Who here skateboards?

<SniP>

I grew up skating in Central Florida. Started in the early 80's and skated for 10+ years. I loved skating vert. I would crave it so much my feet used to 'itch' when I couldnt skate. I skated a number of places in central Florida: I skated Kona in Jacksonvill and an abondend skate park in Ft. Meyers. Visited the Bro Bowl in Tampa on a regular basis. Skated the Carrolwood ramp in Tampa and 301 in Sarasota quite a few times. Skated a ramp in Orlando occasionally and was a regular at the Haines City ramp.

My buddies and I built several nice half pipes in Lakeland. The best and most famous was the 37B ramp. 32' wide and 14' high (I think). that ramp was in the middle of a field, surrounded by Oak trees. There where little 'tree forts' built off of the upper decks and and a nice sized room under the deck for sleeping bags and a keg.-we used to have great parties at that ramp. We would set up a generater and flood lights, lit a bonfire, tap a keg and skate all night. Lots of fun. We had a contest there once and Monty Nolder and the Schmitt Stix crew showed up. They had this one guy with them who would ride the ramp on roller skates (not roller blades but skates) that was the first time I had ever seen that. he was good.

Come to think of it we had a number of good ramps, Scott lake, Cook's, Banana Lake, Tom's......

I stopped skating for a few years and started up again recently. I went over and skated the tiny concrete half pipe at Scituate high school, near my house. The ramp was so small (I guess that is the style these days?) that it was sorta strange, but it still felt good.

lakeland, haines city in the 80's hmm, did you anyone by the name of covington?

monty was all over the place then. the guy ripped.

intersting, i skated in central fla around that time. had a ramp in my yard in longwood. big and blue. later moved to gainesville for college, where we had a succession of ramps. i would go and watch the action at the jonesville ramp every now and then, see the guys like monty, rob, and mike fraizer go ballistic.

do you rmemeber the giant triple half pipe at the park in ocala florida? the place was closed but we skated the ramp and the bowl anyway until they tore it down.

here is some video:
http://www-scf.usc.edu/~jborrero/hub/josevid/josevid.html

'monty' at jonesville 1990-ish and 'backyard ramp' from one of our ramps in gainesville, fall 1990

what is your name? we may have skated together...

-jose (i've retired from skateboards, concentrating on my aquatic pursuits)

'lakeland, haines city in the 80's hmm, did you anyone by the name of covington?'

-I'm not sure. It seems that there where several 'generations' of skaters back then. I was like in the 2nd generation. (Graduated high school in 87). You dont mean Coyle do you?

'monty was all over the place then. the guy ripped.'

-Yeah he did. He skated for Schmitt Stix at the time. I remember the first time I heard of that company: When I was in 7 or 8th grade. My town and Scmitt Stix sponsored a contest at the Lakeland Civic Center. I won the street division for my age group and the prize was a new Scmitt deck. This guy handed it to me and I wasn't very impressed.( I wanted whatever the other prize was. Even though it was really a revolutionary board for the time, very much like the boards of today.) Anyway, I wasn't very thrilled about it and let it on to the guy who gave it to me. He said, 'Well, I hope you like it, I made it'. He was Paul Scmitt. That board eventually became my favorites of all time

'intersting, i skated in central fla around that time. had a ramp in my yard in longwood. big and blue. '

Is that near Orlando? Was it in a fenced in back yard, taking up most of the yard?

'later moved to gainesville for college, where we had a succession of ramps. i would go and watch the action at the jonesville ramp every now and then, see the guys like monty, rob, and mike fraizer go ballistic.'

-Most of my skating friends either went to Gainseville or FSU for college or to Cocoa Beach after high school. (I went to Vermont) If you and I never skated together, I am positive that some of my friends would have skated/surfed with you or maybe have known you at school. (Do you know names like: Nixon, Duffield, Phillips, Miller, Ledford, Coyle, Abernathy, Beauragard, Langley ,man, now that I think of it, tons of guys were in one of those places in the early 90's -too many to list here)

'do you rmemeber the giant triple half pipe at the park in ocala florida? The place was closed but we skated the ramp and the bowl anyway until they tore it down.'

-I don't think I know that spot.

'here is some video: http://www-scf.usc.edu/~jborrero/hub/josevid/josevid.html

'monty' at jonesville 1990-ish and 'backyard ramp' from one of our ramps in gainesville, fall 1990'

-Good stuff!

'-jose (i've retired from skateboards, concentrating on my aquatic pursuits)'

- I think I saw you on TV again a week or so ago. Are you on the Travel Channel show 'Tsunami Chasers' ?

yeah, he used to go out with my friends older sister. she was like a 16 year old fox when i was 13 or so. he built a ramp in her back yard, because her little brother was a skater too. i remember first learning how to ride the big roll in channel there.

yes and no

too bad, that thing was pretty spectacular. something like 40 ft wide, 12 ft or more high, spined into a real tight 6ft ramp spined into a medium sized 8 ft ramp. all along one side there was a sort of channel that you could go from ramp to ram on. the whole thing was covered in steel and painted blue. it was way too advanced of a skating structure for me to use it properly, but i saw some guys ripping it. after the park closed thay dozed everything.

healdsburg and santa rosa are my haunts when there's no surf. i may try to squeeze a few days in this summer to head north to oregon. they have by far the sickest parks on the west coast.

About 7 years ago the kids in the 'hood and I duct taped skates to a longboard of mine. We had a blast going down the hill.

I then ordered a 'Payaso' long board from a company in NJ. It was some guys that had a factory. Carving hills has been a blast.

Have you heard of them, Mark?

No, but sounds like a friend of Sarge and mine named Aaron Abel who owns a longboard skateboard co called Fish. http://www.fishskates.com

Payaso / fish ....hmmm....
http://www.monmouth.com/user_pages/sisom http://www.altsurfing.org

check out the birds eye view of newburg

I'm approaching middle age and I still love to skate. I do so on a gravity board these days. I broke my wrist last summer on my kid's small halfpipe in our yard-that hasn't stopped me either. Never really gave it up ever since I was in 4 th. grade and got my first Hang 10 board with clay wheels. I then graduated to a Makaha 32' longboard. In the mid-late 70's I spent a lot summers in California and got to hang around with lots of skaters. The guys I idolized were Alva, Waldo, Hester etc. They were the 1'st generation, probably all dead or in jail by now. I look at the tricks the average grom does today and realize that they would have totally blown minds 25 years ago. Skating is wonderful.. My grom tells me that his crew of skater-surfer buddies look down on anyone that rollerblades. They have a little park in Venice to go to, and another park going up in North Port(opens Feb. 1) that looks like it will be awesome.

that's a sick looking park =)