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Terrible. Happy
Shares l Skateboarding l Art
New guest every Sunday.
Hosted by Shannon Farrugia
Terrible. Happy
(Audio-only) #242 - John Bogaerts: Bonzer. Newcastle. Family. Friendships. The Force.
What happens when a passion for skateboarding meets a life of public service? Join us as we navigate the fascinating journey of John Bogaerts, a former professional skateboarder turned dedicated police officer. Along with his close-knit friends Mike Cossettini and Sean Mussett, known affectionately as Gravel Burns, John takes us back to the birth of the Newcastle skateboarding scene. From the early days at Bar Beach in 1979, where fiberglass quarter pipes first made their mark, to the vibrant community that blossomed from these beginnings, we reminisce about the friendships and experiences that defined this era.
We explore the impact of missions to the USA, and icons like Lee Ralph and Gregor Rankin on Newcastle's skating standards. John shares stories of regular road trips to Mona Vale vert ramp, the sheer excitement of competing at the infamous Ridge Street ramp in Mereweather, and then the iconic Bowl-a-rama events at Bondi many years later against the likes of Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero and Kevin Staab.
This episode is somewhat of a heartfelt exploration of the many facets of a skater's life, including John's transition to law enforcement and the eventual reconnection to his skateboarding roots. John discusses the thrill of premier skate facilities emerging from bold visions and the camaraderie of community-driven events like the Australian Bowl Riding Championships.
There's a full video production this week in which John shares never before seen archival pictures and footage. Worth a watch.
Enjoy,
Shan
This episode is brought to you by Coackroach Wheels.
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Hey, it's Shan here. This week I catch up with former professional skateboarder for the iconic Australian skateboard brand, bonza. He's also a former New South Wales police officer of 25 years. He's a Newcastle legend. He's an all-round rad human. It's Mr John Bogarts. We're joined by his good mates Mike Cossettini and Sean Mussett, aka Gravel Burns, who is a former guest as well.
Speaker 2:So the four of us sit down for a video production episode this week. So if you scroll down into this episode's show notes you'll find a link to that and it's worth watching because John and his lovely wife Jo went to considerable effort in digging up some archival pictures and video footage from back in the day and we get it up and we talk about it. I'm really enjoying the video episodes. We're getting better and better at them. I think the production's getting better. It's a whole nother beast as opposed to doing the audio only episodes, but I love it and it definitely gives a lot more depth to John's story. So it's a great episode. I thoroughly enjoyed it. So sit back, relax and get to know Mr John Bogarts. Everyone Cheers. I think in general, in general.
Speaker 2:Well, here we are, gentlemen. So, mr John Bogart, so good to have you and celebrate your life today.
Speaker 4:Thank, you, how are you feeling? Yeah, stoked to be here, honored to be here, honored nice, and we've also got close friends of yours. Very close, yes.
Speaker 2:Mr Mike Cossatini and Sean Mussett. Past guest Gravel Burns. Such a pleasure, bunch of legends, yeah. So listen, John, I want to get stuck straight into it today and I was driving down here with Gravel and I was just thinking about, like, the value of friendships, and can you describe to us the significance of these long-term friendships that you have as you reflect upon it in your older years?
Speaker 4:Oh look, you're only as good as the people you've got around you. So I think that sums it up today. Yeah, yeah. So long and tremendous relationship with these guys. I guess it helps mould who you are, who you become A hundred percent dude. So how did you meet these guys? Sort of um. I guess it helps mold who you are, who you become 100 dude.
Speaker 2:So how did you meet these guys?
Speaker 4:like give us the backstory, like obviously through skating okay uh 79, bar beach, the uh spiritual home of skateboarding in newcastle. Okay, yeah, met Cos there and we had the old Wesnell fiberglass quarter pipes. They were a couple of the first facilities that council put into Newcastle. There was one at Bar Beach. Yeah, six-foot transition that went to six feet high, so it was six to six. It was ultra tight and it had timber coping and, yeah, they were made out of fiberglass from a Wesson factory in Sydney somewhere. I do believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they put one over at Stockton. So you rocked up one day and you seen these two.
Speaker 4:I met Cos there.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 4:That would have been 79?.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 79. Yeah, there was. Just prior to getting installed there was a the wesnall company, uh, and the council had a their wesnall team come up to merriweather surf club car park and they did a demo and a month later we got our own ramp. So we had all these sydney guys from the wesnall team plus one of our newcastle guys, andrew Gordon, who was already involved with the West Knoll people, and yeah, it went from there. So that was the beginning of probably the first transition skating scene in Newcastle.
Speaker 2:Wow, is this before Hullys Ramp?
Speaker 4:Yes, yes, well before yeah that was, yeah, late 79, and then, a bit later on, sean, we met you up there.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I came down from Coffs Harbour to go to uni in 85 and I was skating that ramp and I saw Coz. Coz came over and he does what Coz does and got very excited and showed me, opened up the Newcastle scene to me, got me in his bongo van or whatever it was. We drove around to what was his Recy's place, recy's ramp. And you guys were in the middle of building what never I don't think ever got skated. Did it ever get skated, that ramp?
Speaker 4:A little. I think we had some assistance from Recy's back veranda. Some of the timber went missing from the veranda, got put into the ramp, but we made it happen. Yeah, it wasn't the prettiest structure to skate, but I do remember Sean at Bar Beach because he had his skate. Shorts were cut-off, pyjama pants.
Speaker 2:I've heard about this. He wore a nappy on his head.
Speaker 4:Jim.
Speaker 2:Turvey used to call him nappy head.
Speaker 4:Undie head, undie head, undie head. Yes, he's a bandana.
Speaker 2:You look rad. You look like a Tony Alva wannabe. Thanks no.
Speaker 4:You are, yes, and in that demo that Cos mentioned there was a Meriwether Beach with the Wesnell team and I'm trying to think, maybe Chris Briggs.
Speaker 3:Chris Briggs, sam Lightfoot, that's right Biff.
Speaker 4:Murdoch, sam Lightfoot, biff Murdoch, yeah, some big names.
Speaker 3:Legendary, yeah, and I think it got sessioned. It was that popular. While they left it there, car headlights were shot on it and it got skated until it was removed. We were so hungry for it. Yeah yeah, it was a yellow too. From memory it was a yellow ramp and the installed ramp was like an aqua green Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what drew you to skateboarding Coz originally in that era when it wasn't the darn thing, Okay.
Speaker 3:Well, I started skating in 1975, like, I guess, what people would call the Russ Howell era. He came to Australia. I didn't have firsthand experience of seeing him skate, but through television, seeing him on TV segments. So that was my starting point. Going like many kids in Newcastle did, went to Ray Richards Surf Shop, bought the Bain Superflex or the Chicago Trucks and Wheels and went from there.
Speaker 2:Just enamored by it. What about you, John? What got you to it?
Speaker 4:Yeah, just, my first skateboard was a Surface Sam with the rubber wheels and the big red thick timber deck and yeah, just started with that and was just talked around the streets and, um, yeah, I distinctly remember, uh, the first competition newcastle had over at garden city it was yeah, yeah, which was 70 75, 75 just when color television was starting up in australia describe that competition, though what was involved was it?
Speaker 2:was it in and out of cones type of vibe, or Well, that was part of it.
Speaker 4:The big part of it was just it was on a loading dock at the rear of the shopping centre 75, and just involved getting down the runway of the loading dock, basically onto the flat area, and it was televised by MBN television back in the day 75. There was people everywhere was crazy good times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had you been surfing before.
Speaker 4:That like surfing yeah, a little bit. No, skating was first, surfing come second, yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah just wow, man, there's some magic in the water in that area and it's such a deep history and some of the names you mentioned, like Biff Murdoch and Sam Whitefoot, you know being drawn to the area. Yes, why do you think that was so?
Speaker 4:Oh look, I think Newcastle's just a good place. You know geographically a good part of the world. We've got some nice beaches, everything's pretty easy going. You don't have to travel too far to get to where you've got the some nice beaches. Uh, everything's pretty easy going. You don't have to travel too far to get to where you got to go. As you've probably experienced, yeah, it's quite compact yeah, yeah yeah, so cool, yeah.
Speaker 2:So what about you, sean? Like I know I've had you on the show before and you know when you first met these two, was it an immediate like hey, we're going to be friends for life. Or was it a slow evolution?
Speaker 5:yeah, it's funny when you said that today I think you, when you get along with people immediately through skateboarding, you have, you do, you have like we you know we basically come from very similar backgrounds got into skateboarding about the same time, did the same sort of skateboarding.
Speaker 5:But the thing that I cherish about our group of skaters these guys in particular and a couple of other very close friends is that I didn't have that in Coffs Harbour. It was my brother and I, a couple of other guys when I was in middle high school but really by the time I left Coffs Harbour I was the only skateboarder in Coffs Harbour. And then this guy just comes up to me at the skate park who just is so excited about skateboarding and that I'm there skateboarding and he didn't know who I was and we copped each other's story and next thing, you know, we're 40 years later sitting in a studio talking about skateboarding. But for me it was just this immediate brotherhood that I never had as a skateboarder. I didn't have a community that I came from and that became my community and then it went. It travelled very, very quickly from there. Like very soon after we were, you know, within 12 months, we were building Ridge Street out of Cozz's dad's factory.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so it was, for me it was. That was what I missed, that I didn't realise I missed until I had it.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, fast forward 40 years. I don't care who answers this. Do you feel like the same brotherhood and sense of community still exists in skateboarding? Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:You think it does For sure, yeah, you think it does For sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:How has it changed though?
Speaker 4:Oh well, obviously, look, I think things have become bigger and obviously a lot more facilities. Whether people like it or not, I guess having it in the Olympics has sort of opened up the door for more funding for facilities For the purest. It mightn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I guess it's got us some good facilities and you know, if people want to head down that path of the Olympics sort of things, you know they can go that way and they can always come back. You know, get back to the grassroots. I think that's the beauty of it, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally. I asked Adrian Jones this and when he was on the show we actually watched Keegan Palmer's run in the recent Olympics just to get his thoughts and whether or not he thought he'd ever see skateboarding in the Olympics. So I'm going to ask you now how do you feel when you see skateboarding in the Olympics? So I'm going to ask you now, how do you feel when you see skateboarding?
Speaker 4:in the Olympics. Yeah, I love it. You do, I think it's fantastic. Yeah, like I said, you too Cos.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, some of those guys that we see in the Olympics now we had involvement with when we were younger. So when they were younger sorry I had a succession of years where I judged the ABC skate comp and I can remember judging a young Keegan Palmer, and he had back then he had that ability to put a run together. He knew how much he had to do to qualify, then he knew how much he had to do in the finals and then he knew how to put the icing on just right. And he's been doing that. What he did at the Olympics he's been doing since he was a little one, you know, and we used to see that at Bar Beach and in those bowl comps. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:That's so crazy. Yeah, listen, you're lovely through the week Yourself and your lovely wife have been, you know, digging up all these archival images and video digging.
Speaker 4:It's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your wife joe has been emailing some stuff and I'm I'm sure you two have been through some stuff, so I might get jock to get our first image up. We'll have a chat. Yeah, so we've got this one up. Uh, can you see that on the monitor there?
Speaker 4:oh yes, that's um peppermint park, paul Macquarie.
Speaker 2:Peppermint Park, port Macquarie, yeah, so tell us about the board you're riding, like that frontside turn you're doing. Yeah, I don't know if it's a frontside air.
Speaker 4:Yeah, start of a frontside air. I wouldn't say it was off the extension, but we're building on it, you know. So that was a Sims, bert Lamar. It was the very first of the concave series. Oh, really yes yes, and independent 151 trucks, stage one, independent 151 trucks. Oh wow, dude. Yeah, and maybe purple mini cubes, I think.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:All right. So how old were you there? You think, oh geez.
Speaker 4:Maybe around 14, 13. 14, 13. 14, 13.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, all right, and you do regular trips up to Peppermint Park from Newcastle. Yes, yeah, so the other one where you're doing the backside turn.
Speaker 4:Yep, that's 79 at Bar Beach Quarter Pipe, the Wesson Quarter Pipe, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's the quarter pipe you're talking about.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's from the back, that's from the back. That's John, the grommet of our scene. He was the youngest by far and he was the little dude out of the whole crew.
Speaker 2:So that's how you see, that's how you, you know, recognise John as the grom of the crew.
Speaker 3:Well, I guess in some ways I still do, because that's when I met John. That's what John looked like, that's what he wore, that's his set up and, yeah, there's always going to be a part of John that looks like that to me.
Speaker 4:I think that was the. It was a Sims skateboard, it was a oh geez. It was the first of the Chicago sealed bearing trucks where, chicago, they had that little very narrow open bearing truck that the open bearing wheels went on and that was the first of the sealed bearing trucks. It had like a Chicago logo, but in a semicircle across the hangar. Remember that? Yeah, yeah, and maybe Sims Pure Juice wheels, I think From Ray Richards Surf Shop, from Ray Richards yeah, from Ray Richards. Yeah, out the back.
Speaker 2:The only place to buy skateboards in the area.
Speaker 4:Well, pretty much at that time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there was another shop in the place called the Hunter Village. It was a ski and skate shop and they also sold martial arts clothing.
Speaker 4:from memory, that's right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I bought my first Simss concave series deck from there. I bought the andrect. John had the belt, lamar, I had the andrect at one stage.
Speaker 4:So yeah, that's right. I think I got the lamar that might have been from skateboard world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like the hand plant yeah what actually, just just off, a tangent, an andrect the hand plant. How's that different?
Speaker 4:it's where you're behind. You're behind your leg.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, yeah and an eggplant is front hand inverts, isn't? It yes, yeah, okay. Yes, sorry, just triggered.
Speaker 5:I've always wondered what the difference was between an android and an eggplant yeah, I'm thinking the eggplant's easier in my world, particularly if you're uh, if you're doing an android, the way they ended up being developed, where you basically pulled your board so far over it was basically touching the back of your helmet, like you know, phillips and blender and losi that's, they were flapping those things over, obviously, till they were, yeah, basically folded in half.
Speaker 2:Folded in half. Okay, Were your parents supportive of your skateboarding at that age?
Speaker 4:Yes, they were, yeah, very supportive.
Speaker 2:How would you describe your relationship with them in general in that era?
Speaker 4:Yeah, really, really yeah. Fond memories.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:They used to lug me around everywhere. I remember doing trips up to Queensland and skating all those places out the back of, oh, the two bowls. What was that place? Ashmore, ashmore, that's it, with that mad rolling. I remember the first day they took me out there, I skated the little bowl. The big bowl had this monster. It was a vertical drop. It was just like I'm not going down there. So I skated the little bowl the first day. We went back the next day and, uh, yeah, I nailed the. Uh, the big bowl. It was all right and it had the. It had this transition. I distinctly remember it had this sort of a decent, sort of a nice curve, but then, just before it got to vertical, it just kinked. There was a kink in the wall, so the vertical was actually sort of felt like it was over vertical, but there's this kink that you hit and then you got up onto it so crazy.
Speaker 2:At what point did you realize, hey, getting pretty good at this. And sponsors such as bonza became interested in you. How old were?
Speaker 4:you? Oh, that would have been in my early 20s, I suppose.
Speaker 2:Early 20s. Yeah, wow, was there a moment?
Speaker 4:No, I don't think so. I think we just sort of gone through having Ridge Street and then Ridge Street wasn't there anymore and we were spending a lot of time skating in Sydney, like going to Mona Vale every Sunday for years. You know Mona Vale, vert Ramp yeah, it was unreal good times Nice.
Speaker 2:Nice. What else we got up there, jock, can we get the next one up? We'll have a chat about it, because there's some gold in there. We've got a fair few to get through, so now can I just guess the one on the right is that Woden vert ramp in.
Speaker 4:Canberra.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey, hey. That's a pangy photo yeah, yeah, david Pang photo how insane, yeah. But let's talk about the one on the left first, because that invert is definitely under the coping.
Speaker 4:Sure is Old school.
Speaker 2:So where was that?
Speaker 4:That's Bar Beach.
Speaker 2:That's the quarters. That's the quarter pipe With the wooden coping.
Speaker 4:Yep, no way, dude. Yeah, that's got to be 79, because I've got the imitation Norcon knee pads on there.
Speaker 2:Imitation.
Speaker 3:We used to call them bubbles, didn't we? Bubble pads, bubbles? Yeah, they were the bubbles.
Speaker 2:Actually let's talk about knee pads. Are they Rector knee pads at Woden there?
Speaker 4:Yes, see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rectors, interesting Yep, nice. So traveling to oh, that's epic, we'll talk about that. Traveling to places like Canberra to skate a vert ramp how regular is that?
Speaker 4:Oh, not very often. We just did a few trips, yeah. I think, we were down there just before the Bones Brigade did a demo one year. We did that and then, yeah, we actually went down and skated the bowl there. The bowl was still pretty, all right. You know, interesting, nice one.
Speaker 2:Far out, and so getting on Bonsai was pretty significant because they turned you pro.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 2:And, as you can see up on the screen, if you go back to that last one, we've got a graphic that I feel is iconic because I remember it as a kid.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, yes.
Speaker 2:So how did that come?
Speaker 4:about. Well, you can thank Sean for that.
Speaker 2:Can I hold up the T-shirt? Sean, yeah, so your first ever board graphic designed by Gravel.
Speaker 4:Gravel Burns the man Sean.
Speaker 2:Mussett, that's it. So you asked Sean to do it for you.
Speaker 4:I did, because I'm not real good when it comes to art. Sean was all over it, so I thought he's the man for the job.
Speaker 2:Well, tell us what's going on in the picture. I mean it's on the screen as well, but tell us what's going on in that picture like that's newcastle I guess I can see the steelworks. Yeah, that's the bhp.
Speaker 4:Yeah and um yeah we've got, um, yeah, the industry, uh and um, yeah, a pool. Yeah, we used to get around and skate a few pools and yeah, just to incorporate everything into it. You know, make it as newcastle as what we can yeah, and he's got the O. Yeah, kiddie bowl.
Speaker 3:Yeah, is there a skater or anyone in particular? It looks like Jim Gray.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's actually been nicked. The original picture I had in there was John doing an invert and I'd photocopied it off a photo I took it was actually an invert of you on another wesnell ramp, over at um stopton, no, the uh one, ataman, ataman, and we went, john and I skated there one day and I took a couple of, because I was at art school and I was doing, you know, photo stuff for art school and taking photos of skateboarding was good and easy and I had a really nice photo of john doing an invert on the coping there.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 5:And I don't. I gave them like all of the lettering was hand drawn and the steelworks and stuff was originally hand drawn. That's been composed for the graphic. But the photo with John, I don't know, just Just worked. Yeah, just I don't whether they couldn't work with the image. It wasn't the resolution, it wasn't good enough, it was a photocopy and it looked like. I was sort of disappointed because that's what I was going for was that tone dropout thing. And then, yeah, this guy comes out of nowhere, who's not John. It just made me think it was a bit Veriflex-y to me, like that. Once Veriflex went to Kmart it just made me think of that. I was disappointed. I like the textures and stuff. But I've recently redone the graphic and I have got the, not the invert. I've got the invert picture that Jim used for that exhibition of John doing the one-foot invert. I've got that in there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, on the cockroach ramp, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah right. But yeah, it literally happened on mine and Koza's kitchen table. John said, hey, I need a graphic, just the same as Al Tindall did with Skateboard Australia. I need a logo. It just got done on the kitchen table in Cameron Street Done.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 4:And now it's timeless. Yep, wow, yeah, so cool. I think it's sort of stood the test of time. People still like it. A few young people, um, yeah, still approaching me saying how cool is that graphic, you know?
Speaker 2:do you think it goes in cycles like you've seen, cycles now over the years, like it's sort of re-emerges, disappears, re-emerges yeah, yeah, for sure yeah, interesting outside of skateboarding in those teen years from, like you know, when you're skating through your teens, like what other things were you?
Speaker 4:into oh, surfing yeah yeah, surfing surfing working working.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, what was your first job? Uh electrician so did you finish school early or?
Speaker 4:yeah, year 10. Okay, finished in year 10 and, um, yeah, got myself a trade, like a lot of people do, over the bhp at newcastle and yeah, did my four-year apprenticeship over there and then, uh, when we finished up there, we left with sim and went to torquay for about six months, went and lived down there. Yeah, just to skate and surf just to skate and surf because the rip curl, the big uh ramp behind the rip curl factory, was there. So we went and based ourselves down there for six months.
Speaker 2:It was good and is that where they're having, like, the legendary ramp right?
Speaker 4:yes, skate demos and comps yes, yeah, yeah, yeah and you were going in that uh, oh, we, we saw the demo, like they had the big demo down there and famous, infamous demo. Yep with tony hawk, yeah, jeff phillips and all that yeah yeah, and the lead up was good because, uh, you know skating simon, I skated with mark gonzalez and, um, he was a really good vert skater. He was and chris pain, yeah and uh, gregor, and Gregor Rankin was skating back then From.
Speaker 2:New. Zealand.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, lee, ralph Lee wasn't there. Well, lee was there Pre-Lee, no, in the lead up. I don't remember skating with Lee, but he was there. I think he was there for the demo, yeah. But yeah lots of Simon Sack Reynolds to simon sack reynolds.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was like he was living down there as well, sack. So yeah, good times, good time, best memories 100. Then what happened from there? So you had a nice stint?
Speaker 4:yeah, came back to we had to come back and I I ended up going to the states skating a couple of times and, yeah, skated raging waters and upland and that.
Speaker 2:That famous vert ramp.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the boomerang ramp. I remember the first one, Santa Cruz movie with Wheels of Fire. Yes.
Speaker 2:That's the one in that one isn't it.
Speaker 4:Yes, I don't know why you skated that. Yeah. Yeah, that was in San Jose. Yeah, raging Waters, the big water park there, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow, like did you notice, coming from Australia, a big change in the standard of skateboarding. Did you go with him, klaus?
Speaker 3:No, I went separately. I went in March 1987 and I spent some time at Del Mar Skate Park.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 3:North of.
Speaker 2:San.
Speaker 3:Diego and the depth of even the amateur ranks. It was like tenfold. Yeah, the depth, like the people that you'd session with in the keyhole were like you'd just stand back and take it all in. And there were people you'd never heard of at the time but we were talking about, like the Reece Simpsons and et cetera, who emerged as pros not long after. But, yeah, real depth over there. And it's just because they had that, they had more facilities that you know, their skate parks had those big square meters and the kids had grown up in the parks, yeah, from those that late 70s era of all those iconic parks, so you could just see and feel it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you skated the legendary delmar skate park yeah, bowl, yeah, I felt very fortunate yeah, did you see any like some of those legends, like did you see hawk and cab?
Speaker 3:and I I at delmar itself. Um, I saw adrian domain skate um reese simpson, as I said, but I went to a demo, um a weekend demo I was actually. I went to mike mcgill's skate shop and adrian domain was working behind the counter and he told me that there was going to be this demo at wits surf shop at oceanside. So I caught the bus this saturday morning up there and got all these amazing photos and it was lester and jim gray, chris miller who was ripping, uh, tony hawk, um even paul schmidt he was on the ramp sin paul sin sin iglesia from I'm not sure if I can say his last name right, but from sydney.
Speaker 3:He was over there doing airwalk at the time. He was hanging out at the ramp, so was lester there yeah
Speaker 2:lester was there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, this is some pretty like it's just like moments in history.
Speaker 2:It's just amazing. You know so. When you were, your eyes opened as well, john, did it elevate your skateboarding personally.
Speaker 4:Oh, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:In what way mainly?
Speaker 4:I just exposed to what could be achieved, you know. So the standard was really high. We just touched upon it before when we were talking I think 86 in Newcastle, when we had that competition at Ridge Street on our ramp we had Lee Ralph. Yeah, lee ended up winning it.
Speaker 2:He went to Newcastle for.
Speaker 4:No, he lived there for a while In Newcastle. Yeah, no, way. Yeah, just prior to going to the States he lived there. Lee and Greg would have been there six months Six months, I reckon yeah, yeah, just prior to going to the States he lived there.
Speaker 5:Lee and Gregor would have been there six months, six months, I reckon. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I think Gregor had just come back from the States and he was like a really good Santa Cruz amateur, you know what I mean really good for back in the day and he'd had a back injury and he wasn't skating, for back in the day and he'd had a back injury and he wasn't skating. So, yeah, Lee was charging and he was just sort of light years ahead of everyone else at the time. And, yeah, we had this comp at Ridge Street and it was a bit of a defining moment, I thought, because it was 86.
Speaker 4:I think Darren Burford's ramp on the Gold Coast that had been pulled down, Hully's ramp in Sydney it wasn't around that had been pulled down as well. And it was like I don't think there was anything happening too much in Melbourne because I'm pretty sure we just had the only ramp that was up and running at the time. Because, yeah, all the Chris Payne and a few of the guys from Melbourne, they'd driven up there overnight, Like I remember it was in a mini-minor, They'd ripped the front seats out, They'd driven it from Melbourne from the back seat, only three cylinders running, People just doing what they had to do to get there. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:And the righteous guys, why'd they rip this front seat out? Yeah, why I?
Speaker 5:don't know, Because Chris was so tall. I guess he just didn't fit in otherwise.
Speaker 4:He's a big lanky guy. So yeah, they'd driven up. Oh, so yeah, they'd driven up. Oh, they're sitting in the back seat, driving in the back seat, driving it from the back seat yeah, love that so anyway, they got the job done and Toby Maloney and all the righteous guys from Brisbane were there and I think it was the only ramp around at the time. Pretty, much on the east coast yeah.
Speaker 2:That's so insane. Describe Lee Ralph's personality of the era. He's a character man. Oh, Lee Ralph's personality of the era. He's a.
Speaker 4:He's a character man, oh yeah yeah, in that time was he just wild, like what was he like to be around? I think he was pretty humble at the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very much, uh, though he was in a teetotaling phase, so it was very much about if they weren't skating, they were drinking cups of tea, herbal tea, and learning how to play guitar like these. I remember going around to their place Gregor and Lee were living with Colin Brown all these guys from New Zealand and going around to their house and Lee and Gregor were doing all this finger-tapping guitar and they were really applying themselves to it. So they were like, if anything required technical prowess whether it was their skating or guitar playing everything had to be done just right.
Speaker 3:And yeah, so they were very focused they seemed very, very focused and they seemed like they'd been operating that way for some time, but it was kind of like their modus operandi was to it's got to be done this way. You know, we're applying ourselves to this. Yeah, very, it's all. It was all about mastery, yeah, and they they're kind of they were.
Speaker 5:they were interesting guys, they they kept to themselves but and they had their sort of, had their own sort of language, not I guess, but it was english it was but they had this funny little kiwi twang and they just had in jokes, you know, like even then I mean it's legend now they're in jokes and they're sort of the way they were between each other. But, like I remember, because Cos and I were in a band and Cos was the only, basically the only person I knew who could play guitar, and they would come around and sit and drink cups of tea on our lounge room floor and watch skate videos and play Koz's guitar, and I was just flabbergasted at what they were doing. Like you know, koz is a good guitar player and he played chords and, you know, made songs and stuff. These guys I didn't know what they were doing, but they spoke their language and played the guitar and rewound bits of videos and, just like, stopped talking for a minute and then Gregor would pause, rewind point I was super focused.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, what Coz was saying is absolutely, they were driven, absolutely driven.
Speaker 2:It's interesting because that era is synonymous with heavy partying and just sort of wild behavior and I guess, as an outsider looking in, I always assumed that that's what was going on Skate hard, party hard, drink, hard drink hard, take drugs, probably smoke weed but you're saying sort of the contrary to that oh no, they're pretty straight edge.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's maybe I imagine, perhaps because they'd come from relative isolation, they'd come from rural or maybe semi-rural new zealand that that's just how things.
Speaker 2:Maybe it was a cultural norm for them that, you know, we've devoted ourselves to skating, we, this is how we're going to operate yeah so that we do get good at it yeah, it's really cool to hear because I mean, let's face it, those two, gregor and and lee ralph, and they were just yeah, charges, I think it was a real stepping stone.
Speaker 4:It was quite transitional from that point in 86 in Ridge Street to Lee going to the States and I think that's when it all started, from when he left Newcastle.
Speaker 2:As we get into the late 80s. You know you're skating still sponsored by Bonza.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we start to transition into the 90s, like can you make some observations about the change that you've seen in skateboarding, especially vert skating, as we hit the 90s, Obviously vert really started to die off and that's when we sort of yeah, things started to transition into street skating. How did you feel about that?
Speaker 4:Oh look, it was fine. We used to do the Mona Vale trips every Sunday. You know these guys Macca, geez, mick, jack, sim. Big shout out to Macca and Sim. They're a big part of everything. Andrew Gordon, he was really driven good, wasn't he? So yeah, every Sunday for years we go down and skate Mona.
Speaker 2:Meet up with Sydney crew.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Who are we talking?
Speaker 4:here Ted.
Speaker 2:Ted John Gray.
Speaker 4:John Gray, finn Errol, yep, biff. Wow yeah, good Sunday sessions down there.
Speaker 2:What a crew. Yeah, good Sunday sessions down there.
Speaker 4:What a crew. Yeah, it was a bit of a drive. It was a good two and a half hours to get from Newcastle to Mona.
Speaker 2:What kind of car? Were you rocking back then?
Speaker 4:Oh, I had a. Well, actually, no, I had a Falcon. Did you XD Falcon? Yeah, yeah, it was all right. Oh gee, sean used to get doubled down sometimes on back of Goog's bike.
Speaker 5:I said this to Shane weeks ago. Yeah, andrew and I, when I was in my last year of uni and he was working in a servo, he'd have days and days off and we'd just go down two or three times a week on the back of I'd be on the back of his motorbike. It was horrendous.
Speaker 2:I love that story. I love that story. Ty Just freezing your arse off, yeah.
Speaker 4:I think we're pretty nomadic, aren't we really?
Speaker 5:We had to be, and it's really difficult for people Newcastle skaters now to understand that to be a Newcastle skater you had to be passionate, which they are still, but you had to drive Like you couldn't. There was no skateboarding in Newcastle. Once Ridge Street stopped, we actually thought the Velodrome ramp was going to be a permanent fixture. It lasted I don't even remember, but maybe two months or something. Yeah right. But then you're back on the road, and we did it for years and years and years and years until.
Speaker 4:Bar Beach was built, I don't think you could question our commitment, and all the trips to Quakers Hill as well. Yeah, no way.
Speaker 2:Qu and all the trips to Quakers Hill as well. Yeah, no way, quakers Hill, quakers Hill has come up a lot in other podcasts, you know Sounds like it was very significant in terms of the progression.
Speaker 4:Oh for sure. And I remember going there one time and Johnny Gray and John Finlay thought it would be funny to send me on a shortcut via Peats Ridge. We had to get the ferry across but we were going forever. Yeah, they told us it was a shortcut, but yeah, it was anything but a shortcut.
Speaker 2:A slow ferry. Yeah, the little ferry that went across the river there down the bottom of Peats Ridge, so we had to wait for the ferry. Then it was slow.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and all these windy roads they set us up. It took forever. That had like another two hours to the trip.
Speaker 2:Oh, no way, that's crazy. Let's get some more images out. I want to get a picture up. What have we got? I love this. It's so fun, wow, oh yeah, so we'll fast forward it a little bit here and we We'll go back to the chronology of your life a little bit. But let's talk about these pictures. So the picture of you in Bar Beach Bowl. Let's talk about that first.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a layback, or it's about to be.
Speaker 2:About to be a layback About to be a layback, yeah. Yeah, what year do you reckon that was It'll?
Speaker 4:be more in recent times. Oh, that'll be about eight years ago, I think.
Speaker 2:Eight years ago.
Speaker 4:I, I think so yeah, Okay. Yeah, it's a black label board from memory, but yeah, that'd be. Oh, I think Jeremy took that photo, did he?
Speaker 2:Jeremy Rowling Gembot.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think Gembot took that one. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Nice, you look like you're really concentrating, which is good.
Speaker 4:Well, you're trying to not take it to tail. Okay so yeah, try and get it in without the tail scraping.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like I mean, these are some things I've had written down. Actually, like I know we are fast-forwarding and we will go back, but skateboarding is an older person. You know how has it evolved in terms of not just physically but mentally. So, like I said, you're concentrating harder. There has the fear developed in you over the years? What do you think it is?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think. Yeah, there's definitely a bit of fear, but that can be a good thing. You can make it work for you yeah, okay, no major injuries. Yeah, broken both wrists in the last decade. I've got pins and plates and screws and but you know that's part of it bar, beach bowl, um very significant to the newcastle scene yes and I know that you've been integral in its creation.
Speaker 2:So can you tell us the back story there?
Speaker 4:How did it come about? Well, I think, historically speaking, we've been trying for years to get a decent facility and yeah, I think it was like a bit of the last chance saloon sort of scenario. I'd seen Bondi, I'd seen Frankston Bowl and I thought surely we can get something at Newcastle along these lines. You know what I mean. And I met a bloke called Dave Boatswain in my travels and Dave gave us a real big hand with getting everything together. He was a big part of it too. And yeah, I think it's one of those when the planets align scenarios, because as far as council went in Newcastle, we didn't ever have a real progressive council. And on this occasion we got this pretty big submission. It was almost like a brief of evidence together and we submitted it to the council. Just fortunately we had some progressive, forward-thinking councillors on board and it all married up with when Kevin Rudd put out all that stimulus money, the stimulus package.
Speaker 2:I remember that I've got $900 in my account for just appeared money, the stimulus package. I remember that I got $900 in my account for just appeared in my account.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I forget that. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow, free money.
Speaker 4:So we had the good submission, we had an understanding and progressive counsel, we had Kevin 07 throwing all the stimulus package money around to get things stimulated. And yeah, we had Bar Beach, which was the prime location, and we went with an upgrade because, as far as getting skate paths go, it's easier to do an upgrade than to try and put it in a new location less hoops to jump through. So, yeah, like I said, it was like the perfect scenario. Wow, man, yeah, planets aligned.
Speaker 2:And since then it's been just the focal point of so much progressive bowl skating and were you one of the founders of the abc?
Speaker 4:uh, yeah, well, that was chad and sasha. Yeah, chad ford and sasha signerhurst um, they sort of so it's the Australian Bowl Riding Championships.
Speaker 4:Yep, yeah, they had Bola Rama in Bondi was pretty well established. And then Bar Beach come along and council were like we're keen to do a Bola Rama style competition in Newcastle. And I just went and spoke to Chad and Sasha and yeah, come up with the ABC, and sort of they went hand in hand together. You know what I mean. They complimented each other and it was the pros are coming over for a week to skate Bondi, they may as well stay two weeks and skate Bar Beach as well. So yeah, it gained, yeah, a fair bit of momentum.
Speaker 2:So why did it stop then? Like was it just because Borama stopped as well?
Speaker 4:I think it was a combination of funding. Uh, we went through all the covid business and, um, yeah, it's all tragically seemed to die a natural death. It was a shame, because it just brought everyone together. It was more than just a competition. They had the art shows, there was all the lead up to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, was there art shows for the ABC as well?
Speaker 4:Oh, I don't think we had an art show for ABC. There was Love and Guts for.
Speaker 2:Bola Rama.
Speaker 4:That was quite good. That went for ages. So it wasn't just a skate competition, there was more to it. Ages so it wasn't just a skate competition, there was more to it. But uh, I've mentioned the cause before that. Uh, it was good how chad and sasha they just had this ability to make everyone feel so welcome you know, chad ford, yeah, yeah, sasha, sasha, steinherst, yeah so, um, yeah, good times, but maybe we need to get something else up and running I think, think a key to it was that that was a time when there was a lot of corporate sponsorship.
Speaker 3:You know you had Hyundai the first year the ABC ran. One of the major sponsors was Hyundai and Hurley, yeah, and corporate yeah.
Speaker 2:Why do you think that dropped off then? Because actually Sean and I were talking about like corporate brands not getting as involved. What do you think that dropped off then? Because actually Sean and I were talking about like corporate brands not getting as involved. What do you think it is?
Speaker 4:I'm not too sure if everyone's feeling the pinch with the cost of living.
Speaker 2:Or they don't see value in it for their brand. I don't know Possibly.
Speaker 4:I know Destination New South Wales. There's still funding available. I guess it's just a matter of the right people with the motivation.
Speaker 2:So you've skated in every single Balarama.
Speaker 4:No, I missed the first couple.
Speaker 2:Okay, but you've skated in every other one. Yes, in the Masters Division. Yes, wow, yeah Against. Tell me who some of the people were in your division. Let's rattle off the names.
Speaker 4:Yes, wow, yeah Against. Tell me who some of the people were in your division. Let's rattle off the names.
Speaker 1:Go, come on, there's Lester, love Lester, he's the best guy ever.
Speaker 2:Come on, let's go. Yeah, tony Hawk, tony Hawk, I've heard of him.
Speaker 4:Yeah, kevin, stab Steve Caballero.
Speaker 2:Heard of him.
Speaker 4:Gravel Burns, burns, johnny Gray, adrian James, scotty Spring Wedge, francis, adam Luxor, you name it. As I said, good times brought everyone together, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, competitively, though did you still want to beat them? No, no, no, oh, no chance. You were just stoked to be there.
Speaker 4:I was just happy to be there.
Speaker 2:How did you find skating in front of that many people?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was a bit overwhelming, you know um yeah but you sort of learn to embrace it. I think, yeah, just look forward to it every year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, again like I'm a bit out of the loop in terms of why balorama dropped off. Was it maybe a funding thing, or because I mean it must have been good for the area financially.
Speaker 4:The amount of money that would have brought to to bondi I think um I'm not too sure if um you're dealing with council was getting too difficult, you know council being difficult yeah, more hoops to jump through you know, so, uh, not not too sure exactly yeah, interesting, and sometimes I think event event contracts can run their course as well.
Speaker 3:But thinking of um, when we had the abc in newcastle, I know events contracts might run for, say, you get like a five-year tenure. We had supercars, for example, in newcastle for a number of years but but that was only ever going to go for five years max and then be up for review. So it might have been that that side of things as well.
Speaker 2:Because that's stopped now, hasn't it? It's pretty loud. Yeah, you reckon. It was on when I first moved to Newcastle. It was like one of my first nights in Newcastle and I was like what's that fucking noise?
Speaker 4:I don't know if.
Speaker 2:I can swear Actually we can swear, it's my podcast. But I was like what's that noise? It's so loud. Newcastle sucks, it's so loud. Someone's like oh, there's a big race car event on.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was pretty popular, but I guess it's not for everyone.
Speaker 2:you know, yeah, it's fair enough. Wow, man, I want to go back to that era. We're talking about early 90s the infamous slow degradation of skating and you know the infamous slump in skateboarding where a lot of people stopped, and you know where did you go from there.
Speaker 4:Were you still just trying to keep the dream alive, or did you start to?
Speaker 2:move out of it a little bit.
Speaker 4:Mid-90s we were still skating a fair bit. I think it still would have only been the old Sunday sessions at Mona Vale, yeah. And then I think come 97, I joined the police 97?. Yeah, 97,. Joined the cops and then never stopped skating the skateboard always come away with us on holidays. But definitely sort of took a backseat to relationship, marriage, kids, a career, raka raka, you know. But then never gave up. Still skate every now and then, but not like we were obsessed before.
Speaker 2:Why the police force?
Speaker 4:Probably a myriad of reasons. It was something that I guess I always envisioned doing Gotcha, yeah, and I think I remember one day putting in a heap of ceiling fans. As an electrician I'd been crawling through the roof all day and I was covered in insulation probably lost about five kilos crawling around the roof running cables doing everything.
Speaker 4:And I come out and I walked up this driveway and my mate was driving past in the police car, this nice air-conditioned police car. He's just put the window down, he's looking at me. I'm all disheveled and covered in sweat and insulation and I'm thinking, oh jeez, what you're doing looks a bit easier than what I'm doing. Might give it a go, you know.
Speaker 2:Easier. Yeah, I want to talk about it because it's very unique. You know, I don't know many skateboarders, especially pro skateboarders, that did become law enforcers. Yes, you know, and skateboarding has a bit of a, I guess, a juxtaposition to the culture of skateboarding as being I guess it's always had that underlying rebellious vibe vibe.
Speaker 4:So what? What did you sort of notice about it in the force? Mentally challenging, oh, oh, look, yeah, look, I guess um presented its challenges constantly, constantly, um, I guess you could say um, you, yeah, you are. You do tend to be exposed to traumatic and distressing incidents, so, um, it can over time, buddy, uh, wear you down a bit, yeah how are you managing that? Yeah, look, I think having good friends, having a good wife, kids, uh I think there's a lot to it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I just know that, yeah, like some of the stuff I've got so much admiration and respect for people on the front line like that who, can you know, deal with traumatic situations day in, day out.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 2:Really, what would you say would be one of the highlights of your career in the police force?
Speaker 4:you say would be one of the highlights of your career in the police force? Um, oh, I think. Um, when I left after 26 years, I still got nominated as the finalist for police officer of the year, did you? Yeah, so, even though I was pretty worn out, um, I was still trying.
Speaker 2:Why were you a nominee?
Speaker 4:Oh, just consistently operating at a high standard. Yeah, that was the award.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, aside from helping people, where do you feel like you're really making a difference in that profession?
Speaker 4:Oh look, I think obviously victim support, going through the process of going into court, being there for the victims I think that was very. Some of the victims have been through some horrendous things. You're not necessarily going to mend these people, but you're steering them in the right direction and I guess hopefully, in result, you can give them a bit of closure on certain things, especially the more serious offences.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but were you able to just separate yourself emotionally from them?
Speaker 4:Not always.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 4:Near, impossible sometimes. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It goes hand in hand with someone that is passionate about their job and does care, yeah, you know.
Speaker 4:So I think it's really challenging yeah, but I think if you've got that, probably giving me the 26 years of longevity um having a good circle of friends and family is probably there was probably the only reason that I could go for so long, you know. So yeah, no very happy Left on good terms, so yeah.
Speaker 2:You left on good terms. Yeah, that's a big one, yeah it doesn't always happen. It doesn't, because people who don't can then hold this resentment and grudge for the rest of their life right, exactly, yeah, you don't have that. No, congratulations.
Speaker 4:I didn't throw a computer out the window or anything like that, I just left gracefully.
Speaker 2:Didn't try and get your monitor and rip it out and then put it in the photocopier.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's been done. I get that one when technology breaks down.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, oh man, no, left on good terms and, yeah, been enjoying retirement for a couple years.
Speaker 2:It's been yeah every time and wow, like I'm jealous. But also I know, recently even on an amazing trip around Australia yeah, 25,000 K's a full loop of Australia.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, keep her right, drag the very caravan across here. They call it the Caravan Killer. But we got out the other side, no dramas, yeah.
Speaker 2:How do you feel about the term grey nomad?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 2:You're okay with it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but there's lots of young people doing it. You know, I think people's mindset's different these days. There's young people not waiting until they retire in their early 30s, early 40s, selling the house, buying a caravan, buying a car to tow it with, and just doing it while they can well, if you had your time again, would you do it differently? Um, no, look, I probably wouldn't, because it's not. I think I've been brainwashed to just keep working until you nearly, you know, drop it's a new way, mate. Yeah, just keep working.
Speaker 2:Is there a respect to that though?
Speaker 4:I'm not too sure. Things have changed a bit. Like I said, people's, people's mindsets a bit different, which isn't a bad thing. You know what I mean. I think they want to get out and do things, while they can not leave it until you know they're not so physically able to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do it in reverse, yeah, when your body still works.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I guess you can always work a bit longer if you have to.
Speaker 2:There's also the fact that young people can't afford to buy houses anymore.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a real, real sticking point, that's a real thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man life, that's nothing wrong with that. I don't reckon. Hey, joe, can we go back to that last picture, because I was john was with someone. Yeah, who's that you're with in? That photo simon sack reynolds, he's a bloody champion yeah, why did you pick that photo?
Speaker 4:uh, oh, because he's known him forever and yeah, sack's always been the life of the party, you know. So I caught up with him in south australia. It was good, him and fiona yeah, nice yeah we come around and, uh, I don't know we've one minute, we're having morning tea, cups of tea, coffee before you. Before we knew it was, we'd been talking for hours and yeah, we're having beers.
Speaker 2:So really good. Yeah, nice man, yeah, love it. Just one last thing on the police career. You know, can you share like of a significant moment in that profession? Sure where?
Speaker 4:I think that probably one defining moment. Um, oh, when was that? Uh, old school skate chair member ruba, what year was that?
Speaker 3:2006, something like that maybe yeah, a little bit earlier.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think I was probably a little bit beaten up around that period and yeah, cos had sort of reached out and said mate Fox has organised this old-school skate jam at Maroobra. He said we should go down, you know, yeah, so I was sort of working on some complex cases involving kids not good stuff. Yeah, a couple of murder. I was a primary investigator for a couple of murders we had and uh, yeah, I sort of fell in the heat a little bit and luckily cause reached out and yeah, sort of went, started going to all the old school stuff and you feel like skateboarding sort of helped you through that period yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I wouldn't go as far as saying skateboarding saved me, but it certainly brought a bit of clarity to the situation, so yeah. Wow.
Speaker 2:And from there do you feel like that reignited your passion and you got right back into skateboarding. A hundred percent yeah, wow, how long do you think the gap was? Because I know you didn't stop skating, but you said you really dropped off with it.
Speaker 4:What was the gap? Yeah, oh geez, probably from 97 to 06, 07. Yeah, nine or ten years.
Speaker 2:I feel like a lot of skaters have that. Like I spoke to Chris Markovich, I don't know if you know him pro skater and he said that he had like, yeah, a solid ten years of no skateboarding and no skateboarding. Yeah, I mean he was significant, and then came back with a vengeance and now he's 50 and I mean he's a street skater.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:And just ripping, yeah, so do you believe that some skaters sort of give up too early and think they're done sooner than they really are?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, 100%. I think I know I'm a better person when I've had a skate. Yeah. And surf and surf and surf, but I mean the facilities we've got now. It's incentive to look after yourself, because look at what you've got to ride these days. It's nothing like when we used to bloody, you know, have to travel two or three hours to skate ride, skate park. What about the trips to Manly Skate City?
Speaker 2:What about you, Cos? Where are you at with skateboarding?
Speaker 3:I still skate. I kind of call it skating on my own terms, but I live in the city now, so in Newcastle in an apartment. So skating for me is just getting out on the street and the pavement in the main street of Newcastle is awesome, so it just sort of go, sort of gone back to where it started for me, like some more of a surf skating style and just going from a to b. Yeah, but um, it's, it's still that same. The same kind of monologue going on in my head I'm still mark richards on four wheels is that what was in your head when I was a kid yeah, because I lived sort of out in the western suburbs of newcastle.
Speaker 3:I was out of catara yeah and, yeah, it was all driven by the, the idea that if I'm too far from the beach, I want to pretend I'm surfing. But that's like the era that I came through, like the paradigm of skateboarding in the mid 70s. It was all about just lighting bolts on your deck skateboard deck and try and copy, pretend you're surfing.
Speaker 2:What drew you to Mark Richards as a surfer? Oh, it's just that local icon Okay icon.
Speaker 3:And the fact that when you did get to the beach at that time, if you were fortunate, you'd see MR surfing at Merriweather, yeah. And so you'd go home and loosen your back trucks off until they were nearly about to fall apart, because you wanted that twin fin feeling when you were skating the driveways down your street.
Speaker 2:Have you got an MR twin fin yourself?
Speaker 3:I have had some MR twin fins over the years but they don't really suit my surfing style.
Speaker 2:Do you know MR? Do you guys know him?
Speaker 3:We have interacted with him over the years. He had a fair bit to do with the building of Bar Beach Bowl in terms of endorsing it and with some of our chaos jams. I remember we visited his shop with Wedge and who's the guy from Melbourne that spray painted up those MR Replicas skate decks?
Speaker 4:Dazzer, Dazzer yeah.
Speaker 3:So we have interacted with him over the years, but in more recent years, wow, yeah.
Speaker 2:So significant. Yeah, his style whether you're into surfing or not was so recognisable. You know his bottom turns.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he's the king. He's the king Again.
Speaker 2:Newcastle like you can rattle off so many greats that come out of that city Like I mean, silverchair is one and they get thrown around a lot. Amazing music, amazing artists. I went and seen Machine Gun Fallatio the other night. That band and apparently a lot of the band members are from Newcastle. I didn't even know that.
Speaker 5:No, neither did I Lower Hunter guys. I think yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm just trying to think of that other rock band that came out of Newey, screaming Jets.
Speaker 3:Just going back to Machine Gun Flay Show, I went to school with Marie Hawker, who's in that group. Yeah, she was in my year at school. Of course you did.
Speaker 5:That's Newcastle Slipping further back. If anyone's ever seen Cos on a skateboard on a footpath, he is the embodiment of surf style in our scene. Man, I just I can't do what Cos does in that flexible, surfy way. I just didn't have that. But yeah, cos has mastered it.
Speaker 4:And the style.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that surf style. I've seen Cos skate something the size of this table and make it look like a wave. Like it's you, he has the style there's something to be said about it. And when, yeah, when you say you're pushing down the and literally there's the pavement in Newcastle in that section between sort of Union Street and the beach now is just it's like glass. Like that blue tile. Yeah, it's just so good.
Speaker 5:When Cos said, oh yeah, pushing down there, I just picture him just like bottom turn, hitting off the lip, Wind in his hair, Tight turns. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is that's. It's an image that sticks in my mind from hundreds and hundreds of sessions on footpaths in Newcastle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so rad. Speaking of that stuff, I know that you skate and surf with your son.
Speaker 4:True Sons. Yeah, toby, with your son, true sons, uh, yeah, toby the the little one, he, he does a little bit of surfing as well. Yeah, okay, little one, he's, uh he's, he's more of a fisherman but jackson became quite significant and skating bowls as well yes you know um describe those feelings of seeing jackson I don't know.
Speaker 4:It's something about a big bloke doing a big invert that people like I think I'm trying to think, dude, I could do comparisons like neil blender, like, yeah, just something about a big guy that can do a good invert, you know, I think, uh, yeah, I think that's the attraction. Yeah, so I know I grew up to surfed with Jackson the other day. It was fantastic, nice so, but yeah, love watching him surf, oh, love watching him skate. I should say yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I'm more of a street skater. I mean, there's a skater, jackson Foy, not Jackson Foy, jamie Foy. Yeah, excuse me. And he's just a street skater, but he's kind of a bit more round, you know, a bit solid, a bit bigger guy yeah throws himself down handrails and stair sets and yeah, it just catches your attention straight away. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I see that picture there I want to talk about that, so can you tell us about the one?
Speaker 4:see the one on the right. Yeah, you might know where it is. That's, that's ala dala ala dala years ago that's one of the two. I just remember it was down the south coast, I thought it was ala dala not stewart muns right no, no, no where are you doing that india? No, no, that's, that's, that's manly oh, that's.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say that looks like a park. All right, okay, you're talking. The one on the right with that's Manly. Oh, I was going to say that looks like a park. Oh right, okay, you're talking.
Speaker 4:The one on the right, that's Jackson and me.
Speaker 2:Is that Aladala Skate Park?
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, no way yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the Funbox Park. Yeah, no way, there you go. That's from a while back there you go Crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was at the opening of that skate park. I skated in a bit of a demo at it, yeah yeah, adam luxford was there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, it had no graffiti on it.
Speaker 2:Who else was there? There was no like really significant pros or anything at the demo. It was just like a pretty uh, the opening, it was just a council opening. Local skaters came out. Adam luxford was kind of like the, the pro that came down to help open it and skated, and it was a really significant day for me personally because I actually got a photo. It was kind of like the pro that came down to help open it and skate it. It was a really significant day for me personally because I actually got a photo in a magazine. I don't get many photos, mike O'Meally took it. So that day sticks in my memory and I cherish it, it was just a very small moment in time.
Speaker 4:Because that was a really good park for that time, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:For the era. Yeah, it was attracting all the best. Whenever it was a pro tour in the country, they all stopped at all the dollar. It was, just at the time, one of the best designed skate parks. The transitions were perfect, the coping was perfect and uh, yeah, it's become quite significant, I think yeah yeah anyway, but I love that you put that photo interview on viewing jacks then.
Speaker 4:And then the other photo is at Curl Park correct. Yes, that's right. Yeah, Indy Air at Curl Park, nice. What board is that Actually? Is that an omni? No, that's a Bonza, I think. I think that's a Bonza, one Interesting.
Speaker 2:Nice Cricket game in the background.
Speaker 4:So Cricket game in the background?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so was he, I'm pretty sure Dave Pang took that photo. That India yeah, dave Pang comes up a lot, yeah. So what else we got? Jock, I want to keep. Let's get through, because there's a bunch. Let's talk about this picture, wow, okay. So who have we got? Give us a roll call.
Speaker 4:Oh jeez Too many. That's it that. So who have we got? Give us a roll call? Oh geez Too many. That's one of the ABC ones, I think.
Speaker 3:You can see the ABC platform, the bowl platform, there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's just one of the masters comps. There's Renton at the front, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Is that Wedge Francis?
Speaker 4:Yeah, Wedge.
Speaker 2:I think Mick's in there. Mick Marlowe, I see him, lester's in there. Mick Marlowe, I see him, lester's in there somewhere I can see AJ.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think Kevin Moran's in there. Oh, paulie Savos, there you go. Is Al Miller in there? Can you see Al?
Speaker 2:Lovely, that's a great photo.
Speaker 4:Yeah, lots of legends in there.
Speaker 2:There really is you know what a brotherhood Like, it feels like a brotherhood. I love it With your son. I want to go back to your son Jackson a little bit. Did he really get into bowl skating because of Bar Beach Bowl?
Speaker 4:Yes, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think, so how does that feel?
Speaker 4:Yeah, look, that's a really nice result. We sort of nurtured a lot of kids through there. We've had Jed McKenzie come out of there, we've had George Richards, we've had Marley Ray oh jeez, the list goes on, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they're just the bowl skaters. Yeah, exactly, yeah Got some other legendary street skaters in the area.
Speaker 4:We do, yeah. So now it's been a good little stomping ground for everyone. Yeah, but the new bowl in it, South Newcastle, is not too bad either.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, did you have any say in the development of South Newcastle?
Speaker 4:Yeah, had a little bit. I think my only contribution to that was tiles on the extension and the little clamshell in the corner. That was about it. I think all the rest come back to George and Russell. Russell Grundy.
Speaker 2:Russell Grundy, yeah.
Speaker 4:Russell and Convict, who helped design it yeah, so they didn't build it no they designed it. Yeah, so't build it. Yeah, they know they designed it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so um I think it's worked out all right glad to see it out of the ground yeah, finally we won't go there I had simon bogglo on here. He was the lead designer convict and I picked his brain and you know these constructions. I think a lot of people don't understand really what goes into them and the behind the scenes stuff and the negotiating and the budgeting and the contracting yeah and then a lot of people wind. Oh, where's our skate park? This is bullshit yeah, I think.
Speaker 4:Look things that are out of your control too. We had a lot of bad weather uh, like 18 months of pretty much rain. I think a lot of work that went into the ground works to just shore up everything around that area, for starters, like the skate park, was minimal compared to all the earthworks that had to be done to reinforce the shoreline path and that big embankment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because they had to put like special fencing for any land slippage.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And it's literally like I think it must be the closest skate park to a beach ever built, Like it's right on the beach.
Speaker 4:It's right there. Yeah, so it doesn't project out any further than what the original one did. Yeah, so that sort of appeased a fair few people. But yeah, and I mean I think the other little thing, I think the people with the original mob that were doing all the earthworks they might have gone bust.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the job had to be finished off by a company called Daracon. So not so much the skate park building, but the civil works had to be finished by Daracon because the original builder they blew out by several million dollars, I think, maybe at least $4 million.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so sort of exponential things that are out of your control you know, and these things happen, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, like I said, it's built into the cliff face and they've colour matched with the natural earth.
Speaker 4:Yep.
Speaker 2:And it already has a feel like it's going to be legendary and continue to be legendary and significant right.
Speaker 4:Oh, I think that's a real important part of our history there, especially the transition street area that caters to so many people. I think it was a long grind. Excuse the pun, but we got there.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's really catering to George Richards and Marley Ray. I don't know if you've seen what they've been doing in that place already.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 2:Like Marley Ray, there's a 13 stair before the bowl, which wasn't designed to be skated at all.
Speaker 4:I've seen the footage, marley.
Speaker 2:Ray's only did.
Speaker 4:Straight into rolling into a backside 360 in the bowl.
Speaker 2:George. Richards has been like back-deckering one of the vert balls, the vert balls, about four foot vertical Again. I don't think it was meant to be skated, it's just like it got right up there and it's really hard to get an angle.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just pushing the boundaries.
Speaker 4:That's it.
Speaker 2:It's really inspiring eh.
Speaker 4:That's a Newcastle thing.
Speaker 2:I know it is.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's got a subtle competitive vibe. I've noticed. Yeah, I'm not saying it's a bad thing.
Speaker 4:No, no, it just means.
Speaker 2:I've got to get off my ass and try harder.
Speaker 4:Keep going.
Speaker 2:Is that your mantra in life? I think so You've just got to keep pushing through, pushing through.
Speaker 4:Everything, everything, yeah, keep going.
Speaker 2:Would you say you're in one of the easiest times of your life, right now.
Speaker 4:Oh, definitely.
Speaker 2:Why.
Speaker 4:Oh well, I'm not doing shift work for starters, that's a bonus.
Speaker 2:Not arresting criminals.
Speaker 4:No, no confrontation.
Speaker 2:That's a good thing, Dude did you get any like police brawls or anything like that?
Speaker 4:Give me something juicy.
Speaker 2:You don't want to say.
Speaker 4:Nah, nah, it's all good, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't want to stir that stuff up.
Speaker 4:Nah, nah, it's all good. I try to, yeah, be fairly calm and composed.
Speaker 2:You are, and that's why I find it hard to believe that you're a cop, you know.
Speaker 4:Don't worry. Some people within the force said that I was too nice to be there, so yes, yeah it's a conundrum.
Speaker 2:It's a conundrum, okay. I know we've got some videos and some more images. Here we go. We've got some okay hand plans. Now that is curl park curl park, but the actual, because I'm not a vert skater. It just looks like a hand plant to me. But I know, is that and that's not an andrek so that's a sad plant, that's a sad plant. Yeah, they're both a sad plant. No, no, no, no, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 4:The black and white one is a sad plant.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 4:And the other one is a normal invert and that was at Mick Jack's ramp in Adamstown.
Speaker 5:Which is flabbergasting, because what was that like? Seven foot high, kinked yeah. To even be in that position on that ramp, as stretched out as you are and composed in an invert, is just phenomenal. Knowing that you're basically coming into something about as budget as a backyard can be, it's pretty impressive Well.
Speaker 2:Mick Mulhall told me that they put the transitions on the wrong way around. On Kerr Park for a ramp the upside down.
Speaker 4:Did you know that? Okay, I had heard a rumour, yeah.
Speaker 3:It definitely had. When you looked at it side on, it definitely had that the flat bottom kind of had like a slight rise profile. As you came off the transition, you felt like you were sort of going up onto the flat bottom. Yeah, so there could be something in there.
Speaker 5:I don't know.
Speaker 3:There were no transitions.
Speaker 5:It was really banky as well, wasn't it? It didn't really have proper vert.
Speaker 2:In that black and white photo what was going on that day?
Speaker 4:I think that might have been the lead up to one of the Bones Brigade demos, possibly.
Speaker 2:Nice, tony Hawk.
Speaker 4:Yep Steve Steudam, Lance Lance Mountain who else was there that day.
Speaker 3:I remember Lance. Lance did a McTwist over the channel. Yeah, that was amazing.
Speaker 2:Lance Mountain yeah.
Speaker 4:I think he might have done a frontside hand plant over it too, did he? Yeah, that's gnarly.
Speaker 2:What's it like interacting with legends such as Lance Mountain and Tony Hawk at things like Bola, rama and stuff like that?
Speaker 4:Oh look, I guess it's a bit surreal. Okay. Yeah, well, it's surreal. I think the fact that we're all there still skating is surreal too at this stage in life, but yeah.
Speaker 2:It's surreal, it's good, beautiful, it's beautiful. All right, what have we got next? Here we go. I love this.
Speaker 4:It's another. That's Pangey. That's a photo that Pangey took. That's an eggplant at Curl Park. So okay for those that are unaware, eggplants are different because You're planting your hand with your front hand Front hand which is significantly more difficult, because you have planning your hand with your your front front, which is significantly more difficult because you have to contort your body more to get around is that correct. It's probably a bit harder than a standard in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay am I right grub? Is that you?
Speaker 5:got to push with your arm okay who said that mcgill did he? Yeah, who said it? Mill said it on in the animal tune in yeah on, what's his name? Chris Bors. Chris Bors, back out ramp. Yeah, I can't remember the kid. It might have been Danny Way. Some kid's trying eggplants and he can't get my eggplants around. Mike, mike goes, you gotta push with your arm that's so funny.
Speaker 2:See, sorry, that was, I just remember Yabble dabble From yeah yeah, and Lance's head.
Speaker 5:Is that the same movie? Yeah, yeah, yeah, lance's head sitting in the ground, so silly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so legendary Now that photo of you On the platform. Sorry, can you go back, brother, the photo of you On the platform.
Speaker 4:So that's a bowler, armor.
Speaker 2:With Tony Hawk, yeah, john Gray, who? Else?
Speaker 4:we got.
Speaker 2:Sasha, that's a bowl of armour.
Speaker 4:With Tony Hawk. Yeah, john Gray.
Speaker 2:Kevin, who else have you got Sasha? Kevin Starr? Oh sorry, kevin Starr, excuse me, and I think the other one's Mike, isn't it?
Speaker 4:Mike from the? Oh yeah, Mike Rogers, yeah.
Speaker 5:Mike.
Speaker 4:Rogers yeah, yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:Johnny Gray.
Speaker 4:The man.
Speaker 2:There we go. Hey, look at him, the goat. He's just got the goat aura, tony, doesn't he? How much money Tony Hawk's worth these days? It?
Speaker 5:doesn't even matter, it's beyond money eh. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:He's kept it pretty real, don't you reckon? Despite all that? Yeah, for sure, I know he's done a few McDonald's commercials over the years, but we won't hold that against him.
Speaker 5:No, according to him, he'd trade a lot of it in just to be able to walk down the street and not get hassled Like he doesn't love it.
Speaker 2:But didn't he still have to have a security guard at Balarama when he was cruising around to get a drink and stuff?
Speaker 5:Damn dude. Those other guys like Elguera, hazoy, cab, they're big pros. They could just skate. Like you'd wake up in the morning and you'd look out the window and you'd see Cab and Hazoy skating from their hotel down the street, Like Christian Hazoy ripping out like power slides on a hill with his bag on his back at 8 in the morning out your hotel window. It was a sight to behold. And they're just doing that. And yeah, tony couldn't leave the hotel without people with him. He couldn't go out for breakfast. He had to sit on his own. I mean, not that he wouldn't have hated sitting upstairs with a roof over top of him looking over the bowl, but I mean he just couldn't just be one of those guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, thanks man.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and he says that like, wouldn't you know, give him the chance, I'd swap half of it for being able to just go and be a guy on the street.
Speaker 2:All right, what have we got next? Jock, let's keep scrolling through. There it is the layback at Bar Beach.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's the layback.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the bowl looks pretty like new still.
Speaker 4:Yeah, pretty pristine there isn't it yeah?
Speaker 2:Did you ever just hang out at the bowl when you've got nothing to do and just look at it and go like did you help design it?
Speaker 4:Yes, dave Boatswain and myself designed it. Yeah, what?
Speaker 2:did you base it off mainly?
Speaker 4:Oh, I think I wanted to factor in the old-fashioned vert ramp with the 10-foot curve. A foot of vert, 14 feet of flat bottom. So that was a big part of it. And then I just sort of thought, after skating Frankston and Bondi, I thought we could sort of just do the shallow end a little bit mellow just to allow for progression, because it's just given the kids somewhere to ease into it. You know what I mean. Instead of I guess the purists would want to see the shallow end go to vert, but not necessarily the best thing for everyone. Like a Bondi, yeah, a Bondi is fine, but I think this bar is a little bit more user-friendly, especially if you're starting out, you know. So, yeah, but it's worked, you know it's fine.
Speaker 3:I think, john, you said at one point it had something for everyone, which I think was a good way for you to surmise it. Yeah, you ended up with a little something to keep everyone happy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think um yeah, that shallow end's got like a nine foot transition. We cut it off at seven, so I just thought, as long as you can lock in a smith grind, that'll do.
Speaker 4:You know, so um that means it's steep enough it's steep, it's steep enough without being too steep, you know. So that was that was my theory around it anyway. So and then we just sort of concentrated on getting the right coping protrusion and just I think getting that solid foot avert was a big thing, because there had been a few places that you know people were complaining that there wasn't a solid foot avert. You need a solid foot avert. So those were the two big things.
Speaker 2:Am I right in saying does that mean it's safer because there's less chance you'll hang up then?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think it's just easier for doing airs and inverts and vert tricks. Basically, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Over the years, like who are some skaters that have skated Bar Beach Bowl that really stood out, destroyed the place, Like for me, I kind of feel like people like Pedro Barros have just destroyed that place Sandra Pedro Barros just destroyed that place, sandro, sandro, sandro. Hey man, that guy still rules.
Speaker 4:I don't know if you've ever seen the footage he does a Naja in there, isn't it the 540 to tail? It was just next level. It was amazing seeing him skate it.
Speaker 2:Okay, so he was like my man, oh for me.
Speaker 5:I know there's been a lot, but a couple of standouts for you. Oh yeah, any standouts. I reckon the year charlie blair came and skated with no pads on, was doing six foot airs to fakie and ollie's to fakie and like he'd slip off at the occasional one, he'd be dropping backwards off his board and he just land like a cat and run out backwards with no pads on and, yeah, and you like it, they were six foot in your face. Olly DeFakis, ben Hatchell, yeah. Jed McKenzie, yeah, like when he got to be a bigger boy, like they do high air comps, and he'd blast a seven foot.
Speaker 5:I mean, it's his bowl, he had the line, but he would blast a seven foot front side air in the square end Like it just makes my skin tingle just thinking about him coming along from being a little kid, literally not being able to look out of the bowl when he was skating to being a guy who's up at the level of that shelter roof in the air. Perfect style, perfect timing, perfect landing yeah, what about you Cos?
Speaker 3:I can't go past Alex Surgente and Clay Kreiner those guys. Clay Kreiner, I reckon he took it to another level when he turned up. He was amazing.
Speaker 2:They're your modern day standouts.
Speaker 3:They're your modern day standouts, yes yeah, and I guess I was looking at it through judges' eyes too. So you're kind of like looking for you're really focusing on the who's, taking it to another level and you're trying to quantify that actually. So, yeah, it gets really interesting. 540 body variable. Yeah, that was a moment.
Speaker 2:Hard to judge.
Speaker 4:Oh, the Italian guy. Ivan, Ivan Federico yeah geez, he used to rip in there.
Speaker 2:That Clay Kreiner. I feel like he's one of those vert skaters. He looks like a street skater who skates vert. That's like the vibe. A hundred percent, kind of like that's how I used to see Danny Way and Colin McKay. They were like vert skaters, but they had such a street influence yeah, like an all-terrain dude. And I notice Jed McKenzie takes that real no pads approach, like he doesn't wear pads to every comp. Is that correct? That's his thing, like he goes padless a lot.
Speaker 4:He does now. Yeah, he didn't used to when he was a little bit smaller. He's a big unit now.
Speaker 2:Interesting. All right, let's go Jock. What have we got here we go yeah.
Speaker 4:A ball of Rama, inverted ball of Rama, a layback.
Speaker 2:And another layback. Yeah, Look at that crowd. I'm a bit nervous.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember Nick Mendesa. When he first got into Bola Rama, nick was just like he didn't know which way to look. It was all too much. He did really well, but he got that first run out of the way and, yeah, he got that under his belt and he was all good to go. So, yeah, always good skating with Nick.
Speaker 3:Nice, John. Did you ever did you skate at the same Bola Rama as when Shane Ayers skated?
Speaker 4:Yes, yes, that's right.
Speaker 3:There was another Newcastle skater that we should mention, because he actually got a wild card to Bola Rama didn't he? That's right, yeah qualified through the ABC. Shane's been one of our stalwarts over the years.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Shane and Ant and all those guys. Luke.
Speaker 2:I notice that stalwarts over the years yeah, shane and ant and yeah for sure those guys luke.
Speaker 4:And yeah, I noticed that's a jeremy photo as well. Yeah, yeah, thank you, jeremy rolling beautiful.
Speaker 2:And can we go back to the other image, this one? Where's that smith grind at?
Speaker 4:oh, that's at the globe factory. Yeah, right in melbourne, in melbourne, yeah.
Speaker 2:Nice, let's keep going, it's a nice one.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's just a frontside grind at Bondi. There we go. Oh Miller Flip, Now that.
Speaker 2:Where is it?
Speaker 4:That's a Miller Flip. That was on the ramps that come from Canberra, that got relocated up to Foster, remember.
Speaker 3:Like on the Tunkurry side.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Why dude Was yeah like on the tongue curry side. Yeah, yeah, was that he dude? Was that? What was that? Like um had? It was like a grass skiing.
Speaker 4:They had a grass facility there as well. Yeah, and they had the old woden ramps here, but they had that w ramp remember, with the uh, the two quarter pipes and the, the platform in the middle we skated that on the way up the gold coast.
Speaker 5:That trip we skated coughs and we skated junction hill and a few other places. That ramp was terrifying because it didn't have a platform.
Speaker 4:No, no platform.
Speaker 5:It'd go up to. You can see it's a big ramp. It didn't have a platform. So no one. We didn't go anywhere near the coping because you'd fall off the back of that and you'd just drop forward in.
Speaker 3:And it was thin.
Speaker 4:It didn't have a thin surface you felt like you were going to go through it at any moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's amazing. That's amazing. Wow, anyway, what else we got? Here we go. We've got some video footage to play, is that right? What's this?
Speaker 4:Oh, this is Ridge Street in 86. This is a bit of footage from the comp Okay. Now, when I spoke to you the other week, you said I've got some video footage of Ridge.
Speaker 2:Street rampage of biblical importance. Biblical yeah, that's me. No way, yeah, has this ever?
Speaker 4:been seen this footage? No, We've been meaning to get it up on Facebook.
Speaker 2:There's lots of old faces in it.
Speaker 4:Wow, there he is. How old were you, john? Oh geez, early 20s.
Speaker 2:I guess Little eggplant there, Dude, I want to learn them. Could you learn them on a six-foot mini, you reckon oh?
Speaker 3:yeah, I set myself a challenge. You're skating on a Jeff Kendall deck.
Speaker 4:Yeah, jeff Kendall, there's Coz, that's mine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Coz I love those helmets. They're the OG helmets man.
Speaker 5:It's Coz. It's the only guy that one of the few guys that made that ramp look small. That's sick, coz.
Speaker 2:So how big is it? I mean, to me it looks like it's under 10 foot. What is it?
Speaker 3:16 foot wide.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It was a nine foot curve with a foot of vert on that side, the beach side. It went to vert. Unfortunately, on the other side the vert settled back on that side. It kind of sunk into the ground a bit and settled back slightly on that side.
Speaker 2:No way, dude. That's crazy. Who else we got? I love this, so still Ridge Street, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, still Ridge Street.
Speaker 2:I love that you guys have filmed the TV for this. I love it.
Speaker 3:We used to film almost every session up there. I used to have this sharp VHS format camera that I used to film with.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And one of our friends, wayne Chapman, occasionally he would attach a fisheye lens to it. Yeah, and one of our friends, wayne Chapman, occasionally would attach a fisheye lens to it. Yeah, so we used to get all sorts of camera angles as well.
Speaker 2:No way that front sighted guys was so sick. First one, there he goes. Wait a second, so you finished your run and then just dropped straight back in and snaked everyone. Is that how it went? It's a comp. It's during the comp.
Speaker 5:So you finished your run and then just dropped straight back in and snaked everyone.
Speaker 2:Is that how it was? It's a comp, it's during a comp, so you had a 45-second run. Sorry, I didn't remember.
Speaker 5:Sorry, Cos.
Speaker 2:This is Johnny.
Speaker 4:Yes. Yep, it's a hipper, and that was me out. I was done after that.
Speaker 5:That's a gooda, and that was me out.
Speaker 4:I was done after that, that's a good one, nice.
Speaker 2:Is that Mick?
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's Coz. So Is that Coz Right?
Speaker 2:That's Coz. Sorry, I got it wrong before, didn't I?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's Coz.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Ouch. So watching this. How do you guys feel watching this?
Speaker 3:like what does it stir? Up, just take you back to you, know I haven't seen this footage since about 1989 or 1990, so I'm not sure what to make of it. Actually, I know it happened, it's I I don't know I don't feel nostalgic about it does feel like it was just part of the road we've traveled, I guess, like we're still, I think we're still processing using pallets as a flat bottom was.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we're not over that. The the the flat bottom. That's toby maloney from queensland yeah yeah, um, we built the flat bottom. We thought it'd be a good idea to make it out of pallets got you so, um, the problem we encountered was all the pallets that we scavenged were all different sizes, so it took us forever to to pack everything up. It would have essentially been better just to build a proper timber frame.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah so this is on vhs, yes. Yeah, so we got it converted Absolutely brilliant.
Speaker 4:So that was like I said, that was quite a transitional time. Yeah, probably the only ramp around back then.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was after Darren Burford's. Like you said earlier, darren Burford's ramp was gone. Harley's ramp wasn't there, his fin.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's John Finlay.
Speaker 2:This is John Finlay, is it?
Speaker 4:John.
Speaker 2:Finlay Yep. Oh, this is amazing.
Speaker 4:That's.
Speaker 2:Finn, whoa, yeah Crazy.
Speaker 4:Nice legs, that's my legs.
Speaker 2:This is crazy because it's on VHS tape, which is just really such a lost resource.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know if you could get that converted to digital. It's just crazy because it's on VHS tape which is just really such a lost resource.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you could get that converted to digital, that footage.
Speaker 3:Well, it's on we got it converted to DVD. Yeah, my brother did this for me several years ago. He put this contest VHS across onto DVD for me and then I just passed it on to John because it was Wow. Yeah, I think it was a blu-ray format that I couldn't play at home, so I thought I'll give it to john and it'll be in safe hands and it's surfaced for now.
Speaker 4:Yeah, till now I hadn't seen it until you contacted me and I thought, oh geez, I really need to have a look at this.
Speaker 2:It's been about what close to 30 years since you looked at it. No way. Well, it's an honor to be able to watch it and, um, yeah, hasn't skateboarding come a long way?
Speaker 4:yeah kenny gibbons was there. Yeah, back in the day, tim tim door, dale halpin. It was tim door, the founder of cockroach wheels.
Speaker 2:That's it, and I'm going to take the opportunity to shout out, and thanks to cockroach wheels for sponsoring this episode, been very supportive.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thanks, and I'm riding the 58s. They're fantastic Cockroaches yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm riding the 54 mil Jackson Pills.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think Gravel's riding some Cockroach Wheels as well at the moment too. Yeah, all right, let's keep going. Some police photos it's you and Coz. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was just after doing the law enforcement torch run, where we run so many kilometres every day to raise money for the Special Olympics. Amazing, so I was on the road for a couple of weeks, running so many kilometres every day and, yeah, it finished in Newcastle.
Speaker 3:I remember yeah, I remember seeing you running onto the infield there at the stadium Limping. Yeah, and I remember you were accompanying a special needs child.
Speaker 4:Yes, that's right, and ran on and yeah, that was a really good moment. Yes, a good cause.
Speaker 2:It's a nice contrast, like a skate photo, and then you as a cop, yeah, and then there's as a cop.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and then there's some surf footage. Yeah, let's go. Yeah, that's Cactus in South Australia Magic. A well-known, pretty sort of gnarly surf spot, notorious with sharks.
Speaker 2:How long?
Speaker 4:ago was this footage? Well, this was on our trip around Australia. It was probably about six months ago. So, yeah, that's Cactus. There is some significance there, because the camp at Cactus was built by Dwayne Akita, one of the old skaters. Interesting, yeah, okay. So that's me on the left hand.
Speaker 2:Uncrowded.
Speaker 4:It was uncrowded that day.
Speaker 2:Did you set the caravan up there?
Speaker 4:We stayed at Penong, which is like the start of the Nullarbor it's only about half an hour away, but that camp there was built by Duane Akita.
Speaker 2:There you go. Lovely, so nice around there. I've heard it's remote and raw.
Speaker 4:Sharky.
Speaker 2:What have we got here?
Speaker 4:Just a bit of a run at one of the ABCs.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 4:I'm not too sure what that one was, Sean.
Speaker 2:Masters Division.
Speaker 4:Yeah, not too sure what year that was.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's one of the later ones. It's got two grandstands, yeah.
Speaker 2:They really I don't know. It'd be great to see them back in action. Yeah, for sure they're so popular hey.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, we'll make an effort. There it is. Backside tail slide. Nice Sweep in a layback here.
Speaker 2:There you go yeah, john, only just Well, give us some context. How old were you in that footage?
Speaker 4:Oh, that was only what, maybe four years ago, do you think? Maybe 50, 53 or 54.
Speaker 5:You're 53, 54. Yeah, maybe Is that Navrit just sitting there. Yeah, navs, yeah.
Speaker 4:And Mikey, was it Mikey Zeon, the other guy? I can't remember one of the guys. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:You remember he had like a funky mustache. Yeah, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 4:He did some really amazing, quite unique tricks. Yeah, I'm sure it was Mikey's. Yeah, it's inspiring man. Yeah, so I think that was a good sort of. The comps went hand in hand. This was a precursor to, and a qualifier before Balarama, so, yeah, they served each other well.
Speaker 2:Did. Yeah, exciting. But again, I just think it's inspiring for older guys who have maybe let it go.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 2:And think that they can't do it anymore. For sure, I think.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like I said, always pretty happy after a skate.
Speaker 2:It's a fountain of youth. I think it's the fountain of youth, Like yeah. Yeah, Grav we talked about that in the car.
Speaker 4:Yeah, for sure?
Speaker 2:All right, let's keep going through. Is that it Okay? We've checked it all out, but it's been one of those things with the podcast. I never expected the podcast to go on a trajectory of unearthing some of the history of Australian skateboarding, like now that we've had people such as Scrabble yourself, john Gray, adrian Jones and a few others. I think it's so significant and important to the next generation. So if you are listening and watching this and you love skateboarding, maybe find out where we've been so you know where you're going maybe.
Speaker 4:And push on through, push on through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, push on through, don't slow down.
Speaker 4:Oh, I've got something for you too.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 4:Yes, you did mention the other day you were thinking about riding a nine-inch board. So I've got this one, I've got that one in storage. Thank you so much. That's an Omni. No way, dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So that's nine.
Speaker 2:So is that from the original one of your pro model shapes?
Speaker 4:No, no, that was just one carry from Omni. Knocked me up, dude. Thank you, bro, that's all right.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I'm so stoked I'll definitely ride it. I'm actually like planning on like getting some knee pads and going to start giving the bowl a bit of a go.
Speaker 4:It's got a 15-inch wheelbase, so it's nice and stable. What does that mean again?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's just more stable.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, you've got a bit of distance. Thank you, man.
Speaker 2:And shout out Omni and Carrie Pogson. If you haven't listened to the Carrie Pogson episode, I suggest you do so, because again, there's a lot of history there that is really really good to know. Man, this means the world to me, so thanks, John.
Speaker 4:No, all good, Not a problem.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so, Mr John Bogarts, everyone Thanks for watching and shout out Grav, and thank you Coz as well. Cheers, we'll see you next time.
