In Bristol, sk8ing became a way of life, aided by an enlightened Council - how many other cities built one free skatepark? Bristol built five! Listen, mate I lived in those gunnite bowls for three years. The main was Dame Em. Built in a victorian park endowed by a rich dowager duchess, complete with a bandstand, full vert in a maximum height of 5". Fudgetrucking brutal transitions. I'll never forget the vicious, scary deep Lockleaze bowls; up to 20" deep, gnarlyus maximus! A capsule and a half pipe, deep, deep, deeeeep, painful to crawl out of with bleeding gums after a massive wipeout. This in the days when a ½ pipe meant semi-circular section. Later there was also a 'Wheel Park' nominally for bmx bikes but we soon learnt it was really for power carving..
I left school in 1981 and immediately became career unemployed…just in time to have been there already when skateboards came in again for the second (third?) time. My mates Mark and Vernon and I sk8ed all the time it seems when I think back. Memory is blurred by the huge amounts of beer and hash we consumed at the time. We ligged our way around the country, skated here and there, I looked around again and it was 1989, in Britain, three million unemployed, mostly sk8ers I think, at the time the Schmidt yard stick was my major tool for big arm movement. Decks were wide, concave was in, and rocker was beginning to reappear on exotic marques. Alva street skins, G&S wheels, Independent trux, etc.
Suddenly I was living in Somerset, in the country. Not in a city. No skateparks (. I built a ramp. Another. Picture this: a small, sky reflecting pond, somewhere in the rolling hills of Dorset. Next to the lake is the mini (6foot high ,12foot wide) ramp that Jock built in his barn, now it's summer so the ramp has been moved, on a trailer usually used for hay and turnips, pulled by Massey Ferguson tractor to this lush green valley. The guys are idling away another day in paradise…weird aerials, olly onto your pal's fingers games, swoosh, rumble, KLAK! That's when I turn up in my mini van with the scroll work sign writing:
Blacksmith
Traditional Wrought Ironwork
Cricket St. Thomas Forge
To you Amerikans a mini is a very small car- 5 feet wide and 8 feet long, 850cc engine- totally cool, designed by the genius Alex Issigonis in the 60's. A mini van is a mini car with an attitude. Its a whole 10 feet long! I stroll up to the ramp and drop in… the kids can't believe this it's a yard long and only 6inches wide! The wheels are huge and the trucks are teeny. ANTIQUE LONGBOARD MAN strikes again!
Rode around the SW of England on Vernon's honda 750cc with a sidecar, Mark, a surfboard, a pile of skateboards and huge grins. By this time Vernon was 'in' with Skane of Skateboard! Magazines second incarnation, and had good contacts all round. I'd been helping him building ramps for a while. He calls me with an idea…Seems Rollermania of Bristol want to keep the sport moving and are prepared to pay for some ramps to be put together. I'm by this time being a blacksmith in the sticks, and get the job. For durability, and 'grrr' I use all steel construction. MENTAL METAL. In the end with Vernon's help, there was a set of s shaped slider rails about 12" long, a jump ramp, a wall ride and a wedge/snowplough shaped geometrical anomaly, with a sloping spine and two transitions.
All duly trucked up to Bristol and bolted down. Hence my name check as Adam the skateboarding blacksmith. I regard it as a triumph of my career that one ramp was stolen within 2 days!
Recently, I went up to Bristol and looked over the remains of Dame Emily. The rhythm run has collapsed, and it seems to be roller blades these days, but that red oxide snowplough is still there after 7 years. HAH!
I'm now building computers for a living, Mark flies Revs with the Decorators Kite Formation team, check em out! Vernon runs a P.A. hire company. I expect you might find him at Skate and Ride. But we're still sk8ers where it counts.
Email: Adamx@mail.eclipse.co.uk