Dale Smith aka “The Sausage Man” has dedicated his life to skateboarding- first as a freestyle skater, then coach for the Hobie Team in the 1970’s and then as a board manufacturer and innovator of safety gear like Smith caps, Smith Gloves etc. Dale Smith began skateboarding in 1958 at the age of just over
George Trafton was on the original Hobie Team back in the 1960’s. He shifted to surfing by the early 1970’s and ruled the beach at Topanga for more than half a century. Tony Alva and Jim Muir credit Trafton with being one of the OG style masters that they looked up to.
Steve and Dave Hilton were members of the original Hobie Skateboards team in the 1960’s. They traveled around the country doing demos and showing people what skateboarding was.
At the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024 Todd Huber organically started this series of unboxing skateboard decks he’s collected, that hadn’t been touched in a long time. Now they got bagged and tagged, but he’s invited you to join in the journey. There’s a lot of great skate history in each box. 1970’s
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Born in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 6 he saw his neighbors ripping roller skates apart to skate on a piece of wood, and knew he had to try it. Since then,Ray became part of the Hobie team, the C&D team, and Dewey Weber. He also had the honor of representing Zephyr in
Follow Colleen on Social Media Colleen Boyd was among the most prominent female skaters of the 1960s, forming the first-ever all-girls team—La Femme Skateboard Team of Pacific Palisades—with Suzie Rowland and Donna Cash. In her first contest at the 1965 International Skateboard Championships in Anaheim, Colleen won first place in the Flatland Slalom and second
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(1952 – May 21, 2014) Whenever the history of skateboarding is discussed, filmed or written about, the name Skitch Hitchcock is almost always criminally overlooked. His main claim to fame is popularizing the gorilla grip, which was a method of catching air on flat ground or launch ramps (by gripping the nose and tail of
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Find Ed on Social Media One of the top freestylers of the 1970s, Ed Nadalin was born in Ridgecrest, California in the Mojave Desert in 1955. He began skating in 1968 in Cupertino when he saw the Hobie team on TV. His first board was a Hobie Super Surfer with clay wheels. By 1975, Ed
Find Deanna on Social Media Born in Inglewood, California in 1959, slalom icon Deanna Calkins started skating just two months before she graduated from South High School in Torrance in 1977. Soon after, she discovered the slalom course at Skateboard World in Torrance, which came to her naturally. Employing a parallel ski stance, Deanna was beating everyone on
Mike Weed was one of the pioneers of modern pool riding and one of the best all-round skaters of the 1970s. Riding vert, freestyle, slalom, and downhill, he had deep surfing roots and was even a pro surfer for a short time. Mike and his friends had the luck to find the Brea Spillway many months
Find Gregg on Social Media Born on January 9, 1961 in San Jose, California, Gregg Weaver aka the Cadillac Kid, was one of the biggest stars during skateboarding’s re-emergence in the mid 1970s. He was featured in some of the very first Cadillac Wheels ads (the urethane wheels responsible for skateboarding’s rebirth), appeared on the
Follow Vicki on Facebook Hailing from Houston, Texas and emerging into the California skateboarding scene of the late 1970s, Vicki Vickers was a vert skater who would later go on to ride for the Hobie pro team, winning the title of female skateboarder of the year in 1978 and even getting her own six page
Find Kim on Social Media Born and raised in San Diego, California, Kim Cespedes was a member of the legendary Hobie and Tracker teams and is regarded as one of the gnarliest girl skaters of the ’70s. While many female participants at the time focused on freestyle and its choreographed gymnastics routines, Kim instead put
During skateboarding’s first big boom in the 1960s, the majority of the coverage making its way into the mainstream media depicted a fad heavily slanted toward young men. A major exception to this occurred in May ’65 when ABC’s Wide World Of Sports decided to not only televise the 1965 American National Skateboard Championships in
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An original pioneering member of both the Makaha and Hobie teams, Brandon “Woody” Woodward was described by Danny Bearer in 2008 as “the youngest member of the Makaha and Hobie Skateboard Clubs. [He] was the most radical. His head was completely shaved. He was born to be wild and lawless. He was incredible to watch
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Find Wendy on Social Media The younger sister of Skateboarding Hall of Fame 2012 inductee Danny Bearer, Wendy Bearer Bull was the only female member of Larry Stevenson’s original Makaha Skateboard Team during the 1960s boom of “sidewalk surfing.” Later, Wendy was also a member of the original Hobie Skateboards and Surf team. Founded in
Introducing polyurethane wheels to skateboarding with his Cadillac Wheels in 1973, Frank Nasworthy paved the way for the second great boom of skateboarding in the 1970s. Skateboarding’s popularity had waned in the ’60s after reaching its peak with freestyle. Everything had seemingly already been done with the standard clay wheels of the time. Then Frank,
