Vertical Rollerskating

Vert-Skating-Forum

Message 10819 (21. Sep. 2009 19:30) (Tree)

biffsk8er
People you skated with in the past or recently
Funny,

I don't really have anyone to mention like you do. I have skated with lots of excellent skateboarders over the years. But, none of the guys I skated with ever became really popular in the skating world, or else I lost touch with them.

I have had the pleasure to meet Lance Mountain. Also got to skate with Sean White in Houston, once. Those two guys are among the nicest guys that you'd ever want to meet!!! As nice as the day is long.

The only influence, other than watching skateboarders, for me, is having had Alan Oates (vert quad skater) introduce me to vert skating. He did some really wicked technical hand plants with all sorts of various foot grabs that would have astounded you all!! I have never achieved his skill at one handed hand plants while grabbing a skate with the other hand.

That's it for me.
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Robert: People you skated with in the past or recently (21. Sep. 2009 05:13)
 I just thought this would be a cool topic for those of us that skated a long time ago. I am realizing that I was so young that I really did not get to know most of the big skateboarders or rollerskaters during my time. I skated Skatercross Skatepark in Van Nuys and the big influence on me was Paul Votava. I am guessing I was 11 years old and he was about 16 or 17. I learned a lot from watching him, but since I was so young I really did not get to know him. I also skated with skateboarders like Eric Grisham and Bert Lamar. I was involved with ASPO so I skated with skaters like Tony Hawk and I think Chris Miller was Pro at the time. I heard of Duke Rennie and Fred Blood, but only met Fred when I was a very young kid. I have recently heard names of Kenny Means, Brian Wainright and met Martin Broich in Germany when I was inline skating in 1992. I did meet Lee Ettinger in 1992 when he was doing inline and killing it as well. I am stoked to have skated with Duke, Desi, Jay, Lee and Biff rencelty. I was so young at the time and never realized how big some of the rollerskaters were and are. Duke shows up at Santa Monica and all the old pros know him and that is cool. Who did you guys skate with back in the day or now? I remember a guy named Jamie Ide who was one of the best I had ever seen. I was so young that I didn't really realize how good he was. I belong to several skateboard forums and it is amazing how many hardcore skateboarders remember these guys. It is pretty cool. I actually started a thread on Concrete Disciples asking thier thoughts about vertical rollerskaters. I was sure I would get at ton of shit, but everyone had good things to say and they all mentioned Duke Rennie. I thought that was pretty cool. I can't forget Irene Ching either because I heard her name many years ago and now she is a part of this forum. I think it is so cool. Who do you oldtimers from the 80's remember?They may be gone or not, but definitely not forgotten.

Rob
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biffsk8er: People you skated with in the past or recently (21. Sep. 2009 19:30)
 Funny,

I don't really have anyone to mention like you do. I have skated with lots of excellent skateboarders over the years. But, none of the guys I skated with ever became really popular in the skating world, or else I lost touch with them.

I have had the pleasure to meet Lance Mountain. Also got to skate with Sean White in Houston, once. Those two guys are among the nicest guys that you'd ever want to meet!!! As nice as the day is long.

The only influence, other than watching skateboarders, for me, is having had Alan Oates (vert quad skater) introduce me to vert skating. He did some really wicked technical hand plants with all sorts of various foot grabs that would have astounded you all!! I have never achieved his skill at one handed hand plants while grabbing a skate with the other hand.

That's it for me.
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Jay: People you skated with in the past or recently (21. Sep. 2009 21:29)
  Hey.
Well...........other than my Dear Ol' Dad, I never had any RollerSkaters to be influenced by. Though I DID see Fred Blood sk8 a couple times when I was like 7. He ripped.
As far as Skateboarders go....hmmmmm, well a Boarder got me into Ramp-Skating & kinda kept me under his Wing til I could hold my own. That was my Buddy Kirk Starrett. Thank You, Kirk! I could not IMAGINE my life without Skating!
But, I expect you mean Famous people.
So....I would be Remiss if I didn't start with my own Quad Hero: Duke Rennie. Though I've only known (or known of!!) Duke for about 3 years, I'm Proud AND Happy to say I can call him my friend. And I have skated with him Many Many times. Always a Joy AND a Clinic! And I got to SK8 with Fred @ RC this year!
Boarders.....well I've skated with Andy MacDonald a few times when I lived in Orlando. Mike Frasier was a local pro @ The S.P.O.T. (Skate Park Of Tampa, Florida USA) & that was my 1st Vert Ramp. We skated together so often he got tired of seeing me get into Handplants, on the 12 foot vert ramp, only to throw them ALL away. I must've got into 100+ Handplants but never really tried to commit to riding it away. Well, Frasier was ALWAYS there on the 1/2, but he NEVER spoke to lowly quad guy Jay. Until one day when, after I'm hiking back up the stairs after throwing away perfectly good handplant # 10 or 11, he screams from the deck "Just put your fuckin feet down! They're tied on for Christ Sake!"
Well I got up top, he looks @ me, repeats it & says, "Now just fuckin do it!" I dropped in & landed AND rode away from my 1st vert handplant ever. Thanks to Mike Frasier. How's that?
Sorry 'bout the language, Kids. But that IS what he said & it DID motivate me successfully!

PEACE.....................................Jay
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Robert: People you skated with in the past or recently (21. Sep. 2009 22:20)
 Jay, that is a great story about the handplant. That is classic. lol
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Ben: People you skated with in the past or recently (21. Sep. 2009 23:34)
 Well, this is kinda a trick question for me. No bull, my first skateboard in 1962 had steel wheels and no trucks at all. We used to go down the entry ramps of I-94 while it was still under construction and the freeway still stopped at the Detroit city limits. We didn't even know pads were an option so road rash was relatively common.

When I started vert sk8ing it was because then 6 year old Jay had a board and wanted to go to a park. We did, but....try as I might I couldn't stay on it. I was on a traveling roller hockey team at the time so I figured ".. you can skate what's the big deal whether it's inside or outside?" So my first bowl was on skates with wooden wheels. That performance proved less than stellar so I cannabalized a pair of Bauer hockey skates and mounted wheels and trucks from a skateboard. TAH DAH. I was a vert skater. Nobody called it that in 1975 though, mostly I just got wierd looks and a wide berth from the shredders. The only other skater I knew was my little brother Ernie and he was an excellent right winger but quickly decided this cement hardness testing hobby of mine wasn't for him.

Then Fred Blood came to our corner of the world. Jay was absolutely geeked and made me promise to take him when Fred came to our home park, Endless Summer in Roseville Michigan. I would have taken him too except two days before during an exhibition I had a slight medical setback. So.......although the reconstructive surgery was complete I was still in BiCounty hospital when Freddy came and Robin took Jay to watch. Fred was great, signed autographs, even took time to pay respects to me in the hospital. For a very busy teenager he showed a lot of character. So I guess Fred was an influence even though I never saw him skate before we skated together at RollerCon.

Mostly though it's got to be my son Jay. If it weren't for him I might still be trading punches with defensemen and spending my time in the penalty box instead of the skatepark. Jay had all the equiptment for me when I got to RollerCon and he knew what would happen once the sk8s were laced up again. Mostly he's a great skater, ten times the vert skater I was at my best, and a genuine good guy.
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