First Skate.....

image by PWA

All right then. We may as well start the skate Quiver here. This would be skate stick numeor uno. A weird looking piece of fibreglass made by Dyno called appropriately, the "Fiber-Flexi". It had trucks with hangers about an inch-and-a-half in width, with for-real ball bearing wheels. What those O.G. guys talk about in the Z-boys movies is true, you'd lose a wheel and then be scrambling around on the deck looking for all those little ball bearings, after getting over the pain of the beef, of course. It's every bit of 23" long with a monster wheelbase of about 12". At least it did have urethane wheels, of a sort.

One of it's most redeeming factors was the graphic on it's slick as glass top surface of a beach scene with a babe in a sky-blue bikini frolicking in the surf. You'll have to look really close in this pic to see her, but she's there. As is a waterfall that's totally out of place.........

This stick came from the Woolco (remember those?) department store over in East Nashville on Dickerson Road in early 1972. Me and my major buddy Jamie Whitefield both bought our first ever sticks that day, if'n I remember correctly.

Looking back now I realize that it was a mondo important day for me and my psyche. The skate thing is something that you really can't explain to anyone. Even now I can't believe that I'm almost freaking fifty years of age and I have gotten the opportunity to skate again. It always made me walk a little taller with a different stride to my step. Some things never change..........Thank God.

Skate hard.