Bernie O’Dowd – This is the magazine that change my life. My friend John and I saw this Thrasher with some dude on it, has a ramp in New Jersey not far from us, and he wrote a letter of Thrasher and they printed it and Tom’s dad saw it and looked us up in …
One of the biggest names in slalom racing in the 1970s, Bobby Piercy pioneered the ultra quick parallel stance, which helped him wiggle at light speed through a tighter course of cones than everyone else. Just as adept at barging bowls and long jumping over Playboy Bunnies, Bobby rocked both print and film media with …
A shoeless Samoan with hamburger feet, Chris Yandall was one of the top pro slalom racers of the mid-1970s. Right after graduating from high school in Michigan, Chris started skateboarding and moved to Pacific Beach, San Diego, California, where he became the manager of PB Surf Shop. By 1974, Chris could lay claim to two …
Find Chris on Social Media Chris Strople is widely recognized as one of the primary vert skateboarders of the late 1970s, inventing such basic moves as the alley-oop, and rock ’n’ roll boardslide. Chris was also among the first to pioneer bionic aerials. Born on February 5, 1960, in Pasadena, California, Chris started skating in …
Find George on social Media George Orton was one of the most bio vert skaters of the late 1970s. Born in Long Beach, California, George was a hyperactive kid with ADHD who was always involved in school sports. At age seven, he discovered surfing and skateboarding on a Black Knight with clay wheels. Around 1974, …
Find Dennis on Social Media Born in San Diego, California, Dennis Martinez started skating and surfing at age 10 on a red Roller Derby with metal wheels. Around 1974, Dennis was slalom racing at La Costa and practicing freestyle, eventually getting sponsored by Bahne. In 1976, he got into pool riding at the Soul Bowl …
Jeff Phillips is widely recognized as one of the most powerful vertical skateboarders of the 1980s. More beast than man, he relentlessly shook the ramp, pounded the coping and launched way above it with the utmost force. Starting out buttboarding in Dallas, Texas at age 10 on a 4” x 10” Shark skateboard with steel …
Find Mike on Social Media Born on September 2, 1964, Mike McGill spent his early years in Florida before making his first trip out to California in 1978 alongside fellow Floridian Alan “Ollie” Gelfand. Through Gelfand’s connection to Powell Peralta, Mike was initially flowed some product by Stacy Peralta. After landing a centerfold in Skateboarder …
Follow Tracker Trucks on Instagram Larry Balma and Dave Dominy conceived their idea for a real skateboard truck and precision bearings in 1973 while riding Cadillac wheels on the poorly performing roller skate trucks of the time period. By 1974, they’d had enough and set about designing their first truck with the mold maker Gary …
Follow Neil on Instagram Neil Blender’s influence on skateboarding is so far and wide–in every realm and direction–that a short summary of his contributions is nearly impossible to undertake. If Jay Adams set the mold for the perennial bad boy, Blender was the creative yin to Adams’ aggressive yang. Born in 1963, Blender grew up …
Follow Laura on Instagram Recruited to Logan Earth Ski by Danny Bearer at age 13 after winning first place in slalom and freestyle at a Steve’s South Bay contest in 1975, Laura Thornhill went on to become the second female skater ever to get her own signature model skateboard. After being taken under the wing …
Find Alan on Social Media It is impossible to overstate the importance of the gift Alan Gelfand bestowed upon skateboarding when he cracked the world’s first Ollie in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1977. Much like a fluke mutation in the evolutionary process, Gelfand has consistently described the first occurrences of the “no-hands air” as an …
