Found my “Holiday Havoc” contest program from 1986 in a box this morning.
Classic memories.. I was 23 at the time and just having fun not even thinking Pro Skateboarding would ever be more than a hobby. Tony Hawk and the top ranked guys were about 18 at the time. I was just happy to be able to go out and skate in an arena 10 minutes from my house (Anaheim Convention Center) with 10,000 people watching.
It may be the first “Contest Program” I can remember from any Skateboarding event, or at least one that looked like a program from a baseball game or something like that. It’s like 30 or 40 pages filled with ads, random data like rankings, etc.
It makes me remember how stoked any of us would be if our boards were in the mail order company ads, because that made you feel important because there was not enough room for them to list all of the boards available so if you made it, you felt you were doing something right. I was on at least one of the ads in this program and that made me happy.
It was also cool that I got a random picture in the program doing an Andrecht at a Virginia Beach Contest, but then funny cause it’s just listed as “NSA Contest Action” but no names are printed under the pics..
The program even had the heat Sheets in it, which usually got changed at any event as people dropped out, got hurt etc.. so that was pretty interesting to see they had it pre-printed in advance time enough to get that program printed..
Another funny thing about my program is it actually has a random defect and it has two covers front and back they stapled it that way…
And then, as you look through it, it just reminds me of all the connections in contacts and friends I’ve made along the way.. It had an ad for the Visalia YMCA Skate camp… I just had dinner the other night with Bobby Goodsby who started that camp. I also won the first ever masters series contest and it was held in Visalia. The first Masters division contest was set at 27 and over, and I was 27. Now the masters starts at like 50+ and we also have legends divisions on occasion. It’s fun to have been around to watch all of this come together..
Thanks for listening to another one of my stories
-Jim Gray – September 2024
I just found your podcast today, I had never heard of before that moment. Thank you for all of your efforts.