NPC FILMS is now Six Stair:
Head over to Buddy and Charno’s Public FaceBook page and become a Fan!! They have a ton of great stuff to check out and a lot going on.
370: Danny Gonzalez retires from skatebaording
July 8, 2009
To be honest I did not know about Danny Gonzalez until I stumbled upon this vid, but what I do know is (Im sure the Captain will agree) what its like to not be able to skate due to injury. In my case it was several dislocated shoulders and a subsequent operation. Even as I type this I am laid up on the couch with a wrenched back and no milk in the house. I have to say there are a couple things in this video that I definitely have had re-occurring dreams about, like the ollies to one foot jazz…lets face it all my street skating has occurred in dream form but I do dig watching that Ray Barbee street cruising street style in the vids. Being a pro who has to hang up his guns must be awful I cant say that I can comprehend what that feels like but I can sympathize. So to all those who have been sidelined due to injury and age (especially Danny) I say, Cheers for pushing it that far and not playing it safe.
PS thanks to everyone who has been heading over to my New Facebook page and following along…feel free to spread the word!
Jason, Happy 6th of July!
Man, me and Derek really got our money’s worth this weekend! We cleaned, skated, drank, swam and grilled all day on the 4th at Fight Club with rooftop access to watch the fire works. 5 bands played, and Rube from Richmond Virginia really rocked the house. Then Sunday we finally made it down to the American Indian Museum, and got to watch the demo. Then it was off to Green Skate Lab for a session with JC, Tommy and Derek. I was too tired to skate but took some great pics which I will send in soon. After the session we met up with Steve Teig at his new bar in Georgetown (Bread Soda), and drank some good beers, had some great food, and got schooled at pool by Steve himself. Here’s a couple of old men skating the punk ramp at Fight Club; Derek Rinaldi with a hefty backside ollie disaster (photo Henry), and who knew Jay Henry could do a crail? And it’s a big one! (photo Rinaldi)
Jay Henry
Technology and Beer Analyst
Team Steam/FCDC
Jay Henry The Holy “Crail”
Derek Rinaldi….SKAAAA-BAP!!!(emphasis added, jason)
The National Museum of The American Indian
Skate ramp for the Ramp it up exhibit
Photo Derek Rinaldi (4:11 PM Sunday July 5th)
So having contributed to this historic event I was granted an invitation to a swanky party and to skate within the Smithsonian Museum…too cool! When faced with an overwhelming desire to be somewhere one cannot the obvious solution was to send Derek Rinaldi and Jay Henry as my eyes and ears!! It looks like DR and Sleepy head Jay are on site and skating (with uber VIP permission and hopefully alongside Jim Murphy) It seems that the roof of the Smithsonian is considerably higher then that of of the Barn. I can hear one of Jay Henry’s classsic …”DAMMMMITSSSSS” echoing through those hollowed halls…Derek what have you gotten yourself into?
-More to come!!
These just in 6:11 pm July 5th
Yeah Murph!!
Thats my pic too!! (Jason)
Head on down to DC this summer and get some Murphchendise!
Seriously what an amazing accomplishment…unreal..Murph! Well Done!
Hitting the hay…more tomorrow!!
Jason
So the Pipeline in Upland Ca was one of the coolest places on Earth. I was fortunate enough to have a Father who because of work was commuting out to the west coast and quite near the place. I spent a lot of time there from 85-88. The following video is one of the best looks at the park on a whole. Anyone who skated there would recall the three bowls in the back with the view of the BMX dirt track or the long ditch run the ended in a vertless pool. Those places never really got too much photographic love. The combi pool was great to skate and no matter how packed the place got it never became much of a snake session, it always seemed more like a bunch of surfers waiting for a big wave. I on the otherhand took a Barn ramp approach and rolled into that beast as much an as often as possible. Eventually I was able to pull all of my limited number of tricks somewhere in its belly, including dropping into the corner of the square pool where Miller showed the skate world what he was made of (steel apparently) Every once and a while someone like Salba, Micke Alba or believe it or not a young Jessica Alba showed up, then the park would stop an stare. In my opinion the pro Bmxers seemed to get the most out of the full pipe itself.
It was a difficult place to take pictures as well if you were just an onlooker because of the fences but my Father was able to snap a few, even one of my Grandparents there to cringe at there grandson in action.
Samuel and Rose Oliva March 1988 The Pipeline, Upland California
Photo Carmine Oliva
A look at that ditch run that ended in a bowl.
Photo Jason Oliva 1986
Jason Oliva: Blue n Black AJ’s with a sensible amount of duct tape, Steam Sticker on Tommy G Board circa 88
Micke Alba Mute air Combi pool Upland 1986
Photo Jason Oliva
Jason Oliva 1988 Pipeline Upland CA…best to hand it over to Chris Miller at this point me thinks!
Send me some Upland Pics!!!
Another for the “UnKnown Skater” File
Tom Groholski’s Contest day
Photo Dietz Bruthas
Bernie wins the Prize!! It is Doug Mayer from PA…and we spy your yellow helmet…Rodney (Smith)!
Here is a tip of the hat to another “Unknown Skater” Invert on the extension…no easy feet considering Tom’s ramp was layered in ice. Anyone know who he or anyone on deck is? We see you Murph(Jim) with your pink zorlac board! What do you think the high bid on ebay would be for that Silver “Hawk” the lad in the red helmet is sporting? Lad? He is probably 40+ now…
Dan Brown at Tom Groholski’s on Contest Day.
Photo Deitz Bruthas
Maybe Bernie can confirm that this is indeed Dan Brown (I for one hope so because it will mean adding about the 185th! skater to our all important archive) Also if you are on the deck in this picture send me an email!!
Jason;
I love all the stuff my brother Ken has sent you. I haven’t seen this stuff in years so its cool seeing it on the site. I can ID the following people on the deck:
Far left, brown sweat shirt, white helmet John Aires (from PA/MD ?)
On the extension (left to right) Jeff Jones (in Variflex gear)
Jim “Outlaw” Murphy
Steve Herring
Steve Deitz
PS The skater is definately Dan Brown chucking either an invert or one of his extended layback airs
364: Tom Groholski’s Ramp Contest Day NJ 80’s
June 17, 2009
Tom Groholski’s Ramp Contest Day NJ Circa the 80’s
Gonna be away till next week which means (I miss out on using my Bouncing Souls backstage passes for London…aaaarrrgh..Thanks for getting them for me WIG!) everyone will have to wait to see some serious pics from Tom’s backyard. For those of you who have had an idea of what this abstraction of ramp reality looked like, wait no longer! (or at least till next week) All secrets will be revealed in these Dietz Brutha pics! Also thanks and cheers to all the people who have hit me up over here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Oliva/88479491316
Means a ton!
363: C is for Kapten… John Ballon/Barn
June 9, 2009
Captain John Ballon Barn NJ
Photo Dietz Bruthas
Captain n.
Ben Cornish Team Steam’s King of all media. Self Portrait
Uber skater, Photographer, Print Maker, Film Maker, Editor, Dad…..Corn is the King of all media. Ben Cornish encouraged me when we were teens to take pictures (and skive off classes by hiding in the Graphic arts department dark room). In addition to being encouraged to take pics by Corn another added benefit of being friends with Ben is you could count on having some experimental gem of a picture of yourself, either on or off your board. His skate photography is more then just visual documents of what trick one could pull or where you skated. The place, the trick or the antics are all secondary every click is a portrait whether you were on your board or off it. Here is what I am talking about:
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I can go on all day with Ben’s pictures they make my point for me. You dont have to know the people in these photographs to appreciate their artistry. I for one would pay for a book with a big heaping helping of Ben’s work in it…encourage him to get on with it!
Photographs By Ben Cornish
Self Portrait
Jason Oliva
Jason Oliva
Jimmy Kane
Bucky Lasek
Weep
Weep
Steve Mannion (Raging Lamos)
Rocky Vertone & Dan Tag
Bernie O’Dowd
Ben’s Father
Weep
Rocky Vertone
John Ballon & Dan Tag
Dan Tag
Jimmy Kane, Dan Tag, & Rocky Vertone.
