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Born in the Badlands of Southern California, Michael “Micke” Alba enjoyed a career as one of the top vert pros from the late 1970s to the late-’80s. Starting out skating freestyle around 1975, Micke switched over to vert at the Bel Air Pool, the Central Pool, the famous L Pool and the Mt. Baldy Pipeline, where he received plenty of inspiration to shred from his older brother, Steve Alba. When the Pipeline Skatepark opened in 1977, Micke scored a spot on the park team, where he enjoyed free entry for life. The Albas practically lived at the place. Micke’s first sponsors were Kryptonics (the brand’s manager, D. David Morin, was his coach) and Independent (Micke never used Grindmasters, preferring the bark of raw aluminum), followed by G&S, Santa Cruz, and Dogtown. On the competitive circuit, in 1979 at just 13 years old, Micke earned first place at the Hester Series contest in Boulder, Colorado as well as a big first place overall in the series that same year. (It’s important to note that at the time, he was the youngest pro except for Bela Horvath.)
In 1980, Micke took top honors at the first Gold Cup at Oasis, and another first in the Upland edition of the Rusty Harris Series in 1982. After the Gold Cup series in 1980, Micke started roller skating for a while, but soon got bored and resumed skateboarding, making a comeback at the Great Desert Ramp Battle in Palmdale in 1983, where he placed 10th. Micke always preferred the simple, aggressive approach to skateboarding, as opposed to the robotic technical style. Micke is one of only four skaters to make the cover of Skateboarder magazine twice, in November 1979 and April 1980. As if that weren’t enough, he repeated that feat with Thrasher in July 1982 and April 1983. He was also honored with interviews in the April 1980 issue of Skateboarder, the July 1982 issue of Thrasher, and a Pro Spotlight in the April 1988 issue of TransWorld Skateboarding.
