I can’t ride my motorcycle at the moment due to lockdown so I started researching my family history starting with information found in an old tin box given to me by my Uncle. Amongst the contents along with birth and death certificates of old family ancestors I came across an old newspaper clipping my mum posted out to him over 40 years ago. My parents were busy publicans back then and as I entered my teenage years myself and my kid brother would be left to explore activities on our own. I vaguely remember this news article being published in 1978, just after the Arrow Indoor Skatepark opened in Broad St Wolverhampton. Later, digging around at my Dads, I found a few old photos too that made me smile thinking back to those fun years skateboarding anywhere and everywhere I could.
A ‘Goofy’ kid (I lead with my right foot), on my first custom board setup, Dunlop Green flash and the Adidas t-shirt, a real fashion statement back then! The canoe helmet was mandatory to gain access to the skatepark, but considered uncool so usually thrown to one side 5 minutes after entry.
A few years before that newspaper feature I’d repeatedly begged my Dad to buy me a ‘board’ after seeing a cool kid carving up Weymouth promenade one day while on holiday. Skateboarding was a new phenomenon back then that developed in to the sport we know today well on its way to making its debut as an event at the Olympics this year if it ever gets the go-ahead. Back then talking to that kid in Weymouth I realised these newer boards were fitted with shiny coloured wheels made of urethane composite, a new material used for skateboard wheels at that time and he told me they were a new export from the USA that made for good grip and speed as each wheel being fitted with two caged race bearings but these American imports were expensive though, and Dads budget would only stretch to a primitive ‘surf flyer’ model fitted with rubber skate wheels and pressed steel trucks.
I remember being slightly disappointed at the time, that kid I met said he’d rather ‘eat worms’ than have a surf flyer. I wanted those coloured compound wheels fitted with precision race bearings to get me started but Dads approach was simple, ‘eat worms’ and learn to ride the basic board, if the novelty didn’t wear off he might see about getting one fitted with the new technology wheels nearer my birthday! So, after learning to skate by trial and error every night after school, falling off often to start with I ended up literally riding the wheels off the thing impressing him enough to keep his promise stepping up to a better one I’d seen in a local sports shop window. Again, with this next board, although not an authentic American setup I spent all of my spare time learning new moves and skills adding to a repertoire of tricks I’d read about in UK ‘Skateboard’ magazine. Back then of course there was no Internet, no YouTube to lean on, it was just a case of read the mag look at the pictures and figure it out by trial and error. It was just a a case of if you get it wrong try and try again, you might get it right the next time.
The Pub yard ramp. The beer mats forced me to lower my centre of gravity, and the broom handle to safely practice jumps without snagging up. Three wheels out on the ramp on a G&S Peralta solid deck and 70mm soft red Kryptonics (ideal for tarmac). A G&S FibreFlex deck for street surf, slalom and ‘jump’ tricks.
During the summer of ‘77 Mum and Dad took a short break from running the pub for a most memorable family trip down to London during the Jubilee celebrations. My brother Phil and I revelled in our first time visit to the capital, we were both fascinated with the place. Punk Rock was at its height, kids everywhere with safety pins and coloured hair I have so many great memories including a trip to Leicester Square Cinema to see the new James Bond film ‘The Spy who Loved Me’ (the one with Jaws and the metal teeth and the cool underwater white Lotus car) but the real highlight for me had to be the trips out each morning to Skate City, the new skatepark on the South bank near HMS Belfast just off Tooley Street. This was the first real skatepark built in the UK on an old dockside wasteland featured repeatedly in UK ‘Skateboard’ mag with pictures that looked amazing of local London kids riding the concrete half pipe structures. Myself and my kid bro’ spent all day riding down the basic run, each day progressing through the simple coloured badge proficiency system hoping to qualify and have a go on one of the many half pipe sections.
Unfortunately, on that occasion I didn’t advance that far I couldn’t gain as much speed for some reason, so when Dad got talking to another Dad who’s kid had a board fitted with the new ‘Kryptonics’ wheels we had read so much about (he was often found reading my skateboard magazines too) he arranged for me to borrow the board and try it out. I couldn’t believe the difference to my own set up, the wheels were amazing and so fast I had to jump off half way down the run because I wasn’t sure I would stop before hitting the end stop fence. That afternoon Mum and Dad took us both for a surprise cab and tube ride out to Notting Hill Gate to the famed ‘Alpine Sports’ shop. Anyone into skateboarding at that time would know this ski shop were also the main UK importers of American made skateboards who had a custom build workshop in the basement packed out with kids like me drooling over all of the decks, trucks wheels and even the original expensive Vans ‘Off the Wall’ shoes. The trendy Vans were featured in the US Skateboarder magazine as worn by famous Californian skaters and designed by one of the founding members of the ‘Z Boy’ team Tony Alva. I recall us UK kids wore the more affordable Dunlop ‘Green Flash’ tennis shoe instead but really yearned for a pair of those Vans.
Alpine Sports Ads, £60 in 1977 would get you a Games Console today (£350). So glad I got to play in the real world when I was a kid.
While in the basement we asked the staff to try and retro-fit a set of Kryptonics to my trucks, but unfortunately the copy board I had (probably made in Taiwan) didn’t have the standard axle diameter required and just as my chin dropped with that sinking feeling of disappointment Dad agreed to buy me some new trucks too, then later realising the deck hole alignment was in a different position so in the end, me and my brother came out of the shop with massive grins and we both had a brand new complete setup including, for me this was my chosen blue (mid compound) Krypto’s, a G&S Fibreflex deck and some Gull Wing trucks.
Outside the shop on the pavement I decided to have a quick test ride and soon found I had no control and it felt like I’d have to learn to skate all over again. These Gull Wing trucks were going to take some getting used to I thought, yet the harder I tried on the way down to the Taxi rank the worse it became. Something was wrong, and after a quick return to the shop much to everyone’s relief and amusement we found out they had fitted the trucks the wrong way around. A lean to the left had me counter turning to the right and vice versa. The shop soon fixed it and the next day back at Skate City I remember having so much fun getting used to my new board in glorious summer sunshine, hundreds of kids flying down the blue run to this new film theme single just released in the UK charts called ‘Star Wars’ by Meco.
Gull Wing Trucks and the original blue compound Kryptonics.
Back home more tricks would follow regularly practising fakys, flips, hot dogs, 180’s, 360’s, tail scrapes and slides all on the pub car park and a back yard ramp made out of beer crates and old bits of plywood taken from reclaimed fencing (while no one was looking of course). During this time I practised high jump manoeuvres too, slaloms and even learned how to skate a down hill car park upside down on a handstand steering with my wrists. Eventually, I found my real passion getting some good ‘three wheels out’ action to emulate my skate idols. The block of flats up the road had what we kids called ‘the wall of death’ a great angled concrete embankment I managed to impress my mates by riding around almost at 45 degrees while taking the fast bend at the end before being chased off by the angry Janitor/Caretaker who threatened to call the police ! I’d always wanted to try a real half pipe though and see if I could get some ‘air’, but without a custom built skatepark nearby I had to try and ride whatever I could that looked like fun. And then, in early ‘78 the Arrow indoor park opened and it changed everything. School home work? No thanks. My school books would be thrown in the corner of my room, while Mum and Dad would be preparing for opening time each night I’d be sneaking off to catch the two buses into Wolverhampton every evening to practise my ‘radical’ pursuit in search of the ‘vert’ and ‘air’.
These two shallow bowls at Arrow pictured above (featured in the newspaper article) would be where I first ‘cut my teeth’ learning how to carve up a bowl. Keeping momentum and getting two wheels out to start with and later grinding my rear truck on the precast concrete and fibreglass edge. A few different skateboards would follow to include Jeremy Henderson Benjy board decks, a green harder compound Krypto’s and bowl rider Tracker trucks to keep stability with a lowest centre of gravity required for bowl and pipe riding. The high sided plywood sides were designed to stop skateboard and rider from flying out yet became the next challenge for us all where we would eventually learn to get up onto the vertical after a hard bounce on the ‘up’ and then relax to get the board to jump back over the lip on the ‘down’ hoping the deck grip tape and green flash would do their job and keep my feet in contact with board on the ‘bounce’. I never quite got up to the top of the wood on this bowl though due to the shallow run up required your body mass through legs would require too much energy to get past, but riding on the vertical was always an incredible adrenaline buzz, we used to manage about two thirds up on those. I do recall drilling small holes in our trucks to fit cigarette lighter flint so on an evening skate session in low light we could grind out our trucks out on the bowl lip edge so impressive sparks would fly.
‘Jer’ on the half pipe in the basement. (I’m stood in the background behind his right arm)
On one occasion as I was leaving Arrow late at night to catch the last bus home, one of the owners lads shouted ‘hey Mark, you here on Saturday? We have the Americans coming in for a visit’. So there I was that Saturday morning ready to greet my heroes while they came to the West Midlands on their tour of the UK and European Skateparks. The Californian skaters all grew up surfing the Pacific Ocean in summer waiting out the surf by skating concrete pipes and drained swimming pools. The most famous of these were Jay Adams, Stacy Peralta, Tony ‘Mad Dog’ Alva and Jerry Valdez to name a few. The Z Boys Zephyr team of Venice Beach, Santa Monica (Dogtown) were legendary pro skaters and that Saturday skating right in front of me was Jerry ‘Jer’ Valdez one of the most famous sponsored skaters who flew on Concorde to get here. His signature move was the ‘tail tap’ where the rear of the deck would make a cool sounding ‘tap’ as he hit the edge at the top of the bowl/pipe before leaving for full on air. We spent all day skating with them mostly watching open mouthed. I smile to think how we followed them around town that lunchtime like they were Rock Star gods. I do remember asking Jerry how I could improve on the vertical, and he was such a great guy taking to the pipe pictured above to demonstrate in detail where I needed to lower my centre of gravity.
Autographed posters on my bedroom wall and my last benjy board with green Kryptonics
Over the next few years I spent all of my spare time, weekends, holidays and even bunking days off school to be at Arrow as the owners built and improved bowls and pipes to skate with other regulars who seemed to be there all the time too (‘Eggy’ are you still out there?). We gave names to the different sections too such as ‘Fish Tank’ with its steep sides and vertical scary ‘drop in’ accessed by stairs half way up at one side and the ‘Drain’ a long back to back half pipe with a return half bowl at one end you could shred an arc and whip round the other side with centrifugal speed to maintain your flow on the return. There was a fast snake run section too that eventually closed down due to the number of injuries sustained as each skater would hurtle down a ramp toward the first wall, if you got it wrong you slammed into the wall at such force many sustained broken wrists. My favourite though was the ‘Giant Saucer’ a large shallow bowl like a huge wooden swimming pool about 30 feet in diameter you could accelerate so fast and flip up the vertical ply at each end and flip off the lip edge to get two or three wheels out on each pass.
Left top edge end of the scary ‘Fish Tank’, I could never get much more than halfway past the blue sticker line, those iron beams and steep sides were intimidating. Heres a pic (right) of one of the most famous Z Boys from the Zephyr team at Arrow .. the late great Jay Adams in the basement with his own design Z-Flex Deck, fully sponsored.
On one fateful occasion I got it all wrong while getting ‘air’ when my rear truck hung up on the edge and I came crashing down head first fracturing my shoulder and spending hours in the X-Ray department at Corbett Hospital Casualty department, almost ruining a pre-booked family holiday to Ireland we were about to depart on a few days later. I spent most of that two week holiday wearing a ‘collar and cuff’, but still took along my board just in case I found an Irish skatepark on our travels. Recently, I have been reading Jordan Paterson’s ‘12 rules of Life’ and rule 11: ‘Do not bother children when they are skateboarding’ discusses how we shouldn’t remove too much risk while growing up instead let children optimise for it and improve their competence. Many parents today shield their kids from risk and interrupt an important process growing up without really letting them take a few chances and experimenting with danger. As we all know motorcycling involves a fair amount of risk too so I believe a healthy respect of danger should be learned through other activities whilst growing up. Freedom of choice is so important instead of letting the Health and Safety hi-viz tabard brigade rule our lives. Luckily for me growing up back then and having an ex-rugby playing Dad meant both parents understood when I arrived home with a gash in my leg, a broken finger or worse knocking my two front teeth out after falling off my bicycle and landing on my chin.
There were some more visits back to Skate City and I did get to skate some of those famous snake runs and half pipes. I was featured on a Tiswas televised open day event (the kids TV show with Chris Tarrant) when they opened the new concrete swimming pool style bowl at the West Midlands Safari Park. The outdoor ‘Skateopia’ opened in Wolverhampton around this time with a really good concrete half pipe section but only good for fair weather days though. Over the years I’ve often followed my skateboard heroes and surprised to see some still skate, well into their 60’s. I’d highly recommend a film produced by Stacy Peralta a few years back called ‘Dogtown and the Z Boys’, It was up on Amazon Prime recently, it’s a really good insight into the ‘70’s skateboard culture and you get to see some great footage of those California kids I idolised so much. Also ‘Lords of Dogtown’ to see why Tony Alva and the rest of the Z Boys made such an impression back then. In later years we saw the likes of Tony Hawk, Ryan Sheckler and Bob Burnquist who I’ve really enjoyed watching on the X Games over the years, these guys took the sport even further as we know, but for me Jay Adams, ‘Mad Dog’ Alva and ‘Jer’ Valdez were the true skateboard pioneers.
Good to see you can still buy a Tony Alva deck. A skate shop in the US a few years ago.
Many years later when my own kids got a board I couldn’t resist going to a local skatepark and having another go. It was so good and surprising at age 40 with a bit of practise I was back up on the vertical again one more time despite my famous ‘wipeout’ where my daughter laughs and reminds me I no longer land as soft as I used to! It’s no surprise when I hear that great song by Gerry Rafferty ‘Get it Right Next Time’ I’m instantly transported back 40 years ago to Arrow. The song was released in the UK charts back in 1979 and each time I hear it I’m endlessly skating the ‘Drain’ or ‘Fish Tank’. Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones was another great skate track booming out over the PA system too. Sadly though I arrived at Arrow on one day in ‘79 or ‘80 to find a fire had ripped through the old Victorian building the night before and destroyed everything. It was a sad day, looking in at the burnt wreck of those wooden bowls and half-pipes. Despite an unsuccessful attempt to reopen some months later, the fire marked the demise of such a great place for us kids. Nowadays the closest I ever get to a half pipe is playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater on the PlayStation. I’d love another go though, so cue Snowboarding ... now that does look like a lot of fun and snow is much softer to land on for an old dude isn’t it? .. hmm.
