Jeremy Henderson The Godfather of NYC skatebarding 1989 Thompkins square park contest, photos by I Ching. Shut Skates NYC Rodney Smith fills us in.

Jeremy Henderson Boardslide 1989 Tompkins square park NYC

Jeremy Henderson Wall Ride 1989 Tompkins square park NYC

Photo’s I Ching

Ok so these photos from Irene Ching are too cool!!

NYC’s Jeremy Henderson, Barn Ramp Local and Godfather of NY Skate competing in 1989.

For all the skate historians touring NYC, Tompkins Square park is between 7th and 10th, and Avenue’s A and B in what used to be lovingly referred to as Alphabet city. Along with this seminal skating event the park is also infamous for the Tompkins Square park police riot(1988). Not many people remember this bit of NYC history. I do because myself and Chris “Weepy” Blank happened to be in the riots attendance. We where walking home (Chris’s Mother had recently moved into one of the near by re gentrified apartments) after attending a Danzig (hell yeah!) show at The Ritz and found ourselves in a bit of Chaos. A lot about that neighborhood has changed since then it was in 1989 when The Ritz moved uptown and Tompkins Square park till this day is still closed every night to the public (seriously do not cross that park at night, it will earn you a one way ticket to a police holding cell)

I am not gonna say much here about these pictures. Hopefully Irene Ching and her NYC Crew can chime in with more detail. Maybe Rodney Smith of Shut skates will add a thing or two as well. (Oh look, he has!!)

SHUT NYC

Jason

I’ll do my best to keep you updated on NYC. The SHUT shop will open in three or less weeks. It will be located at 158 Orchard street between Stanton and Rivington.
Our office is in the basement. Come check us out when your in the city.

The photos you have are from back in 1989. Shut and Skate NYC ( a now de-funkt shop that was located in L.E.S. ) held an Am. contest in Tompkins Square park. It was in association with the parks dept. Because of the parks departments willingness to support skate boarding at the time, this contest was legendary and laid the groundwork for skate parks in NYC.

Not trying to take anything away from Kessler ( Riverside wasn’t the first NYC skate park). After the contest these ramps were placed ( thanks to the parks dept.) in Malally park ( in the Bronx near Yankee stadium) and designated as the first skate park in NYC.
The contest was pretty big and got written up in THRASHER. Shut also received it’s first cover, which Henderson got at the banks.

The Parks dept. commissioner Bill Castro put up the money up, gave the “ Go ahead” and the Shut squad built the course. This was the biggest step toward skaters no longer being labeled as a “menace to society”. The parks dept. was keeping a close watch on the activities. None the less we kept shit in order and impressed the City officials.

We invited some of the top Am riders from Cali ( H-Street, Schmitt stix, Circle-A, Z etc…) as well as the mid –west and east coast. Bryce Kanights and Bill Thomas shot the flicks.
Some notable riders included Danny Sargeant , Brian Lotti, Carl Schultz, Steve teague , , Jeff Toma and the entire Shut team.

1989 was also the same year Darren “Team Steam’s Moose” Menditto , Steve Herring and seven Shut boys made the NSA eastern district finals for Vert and street.

Peace

Rodney

Nice one Rodney!!

Big thanks and best of luck with SHUT’s NYC Flagship operation. I know we will all be hanging out there soon.

Keep checking in for News and pictures from the Upcoming SHUT shop grand opening and as always go to http://skatedaily.net for all your skating news.

Its vacation time!! See everyone in a week or so…. keep the emails flowing

New Jersey Skate Legend JT Murphy. Films by Jeff Roenning 1990

Ummmm? These are priceless!

Is that Lake Riviera and the 78 ditch I spy in the first one.

I am going on a holiday next week so I figure I will leave these up till I return, see how many comments we generate.

Ps Corn we need to see the JT 80’s skate demo!

Nice one Jeff, keep em rolling in!!

JT MURPHY 1990 16MM Film Jeff Roenning

JT MURPHY 16mm Film Jeff Roenning

Nothing like a beautiful (snake) session on a September afternoon. Cedar Crest Country Club, VA

The Dag Nasty comes on, just as Tobin cracks an Eggplant on the face wall (with a borrowed board).

Landing it a little sketchy, Lawrence immediately drops in and pops a face high Indy over the Channel to a backside air before Dave even clears the flat. Back to a gnarly tuck knee, hand gripping the pool coping. A little squirly and he decides to
pop out. Kentucky drops in far wall to a face high Madonna over the
channel…

The sun setting behind the trees, a mild 67 degrees. The only difference is
that it is September 18, 2007… I am sitting in the driveway of Fairfax
National Golf Club’s rear pavillion.

17 years ago, I was here the same day, and the above was true, all of it
except the part where Dag Nasty was playing… That is today, and it is
coming off my Sirius Satellite receiver. Back then it was coming out of
Micro’s Red Toyota, or Christian’s Blue Honda, or Brian’s CRX…

Yes, I am sitting here at Cedar Crest, and the air smells the same, it
really does. The sight is atrocious. What was Acropolis for thousands is
a sloped mound of immature trees. Nothing at all suggests that Magnusson
really DID launch over the broom stick in Tobin’s hand, 11 feet, well,
maybe 12, who knows, it was just RAD.

Nothing has B’umble asking you for
your three bucks… Strange, there are no bees either.

Instead, there is evidence of a fire. After the dozing, it appears like
what was left was burned and chainsawed to the ground.

The pressure treated masts which held the catwalk and the roof, little stubs sticking
up. My adrenalin is pumping. My heart feels like I just got here, and
the rumor is true, Midgette, Conroy and Sergie are here to session… No
they are not. It is gone. There is a concrete slab, although not the one
the ramp used for a foundation.

Wait is that Blender over there staring at that kid?

Back then, the Concorde would fly over occasionally. The flight path is
the same, they are taking off to the South tonight. Speaking of air,
Buster just sailed a lien across the whole face wall and stuck it like
glue, not bad for 7 feet out and tweaked to shit..

I know when I heard it was dozed, I came here the next day, climbed the
stairs armed with a screw driver, wrench and hacksaw. I stole the
section of pool coping I used to always drop in from, one block right of
the channel. I have it today. It is an alter of sorts. If you have read
this far, you understand.

Although its gone, it WAS here, and I FEEL it.

I have to go before I get caught here.

Peter Furnee.
‘Go Fakie’

Pete emailed this to me in the morning and I was stoked for the obvious reasons. After reading what I can only describe as a poem I started trolling through my hard drive and the net only to discover a couple pictures that matched his words, right down to the trick/channel and even wall of CCCC. Weird. So if you are reading this and have a photo to match up to any of Pete’s word’s please send it to me post haste!!

Also I gotta say the contributions people have been sending in (Tom,Pete,Dennis,Derek,Bernie,Jay,Irene…etc.etc.etc) have been world class and I have been receiving the emails that prove it. Keep it flowing cause people are reading

thanks everyone!

Ps. I know someone owns the Thrasher or Transworld with Magnussen’s 12 foot CCCC air, so send it to me! (Thanks Mertz!)

Photos:

1) Cedar Crest Country Club Ramp site, 2007

Photo Pete Furnee

2)Dave Tobin Eggplant Cedar Crest Country Club 1986

Photo gbjphotoworks

3)Brian “Kentucky” Boyd face high Madonna over the channel

Photo Jason Oliva

4) Tony Magnusson 11 feet, well, maybe 12

Photo MertzWorld.net

 

Dan Tag at The Barn…this ones for the lady’s!

Dan Tag The Barn NJ circa 85

Photo I CHing

Another gem from Irene Ching. Dan Tag at The Barn…Very Nice!

Jay Henry gets a scanner!

Jason;

I picked up a scanner today off of Craigslist; it’s an old parallel port style, but it works. The picture appears to have some lines in it, I will have to see if I can make some adjustments but for 8 bucks I think it’s worth it! Here is the first scan, me of course.

I didn’t go out of town the last 2 weekends, so here’s an old picture to take the place of the No Way It’s Jay article. This is me doing a Madonna (it’s kind of hard to tell but my front foot IS off of the board a little) at the Laurel Skate Park in Richmond VA, circa 1997. We harassed them into building this ramp after the horrific bowl was built, seen in the background. It’s hard to tell, but the kink in that bowl made it virtually worthless. The ramp was great and we skated it a lot. I believe it’s still there and I am planning to go skate it soon. I have many more pictures from this ramp and will send some in from time to time.

Jay Henry

Jay Henry Madonna Laurel Skate Park Richmond VA

Can t wait to see what is in Jay’s secret stash. Also if you have a killer skate album then get on craiglist spend the 8 bucks grab a scanner and start sending photos!!!

“What about the Captain?” Bernie O’Dowd writing about Team Steam’s Capatain John Ballon and good ‘ole’ En-Jay.

“What about the Captain?”

Why did Team Steam have a Captain? Why not? Ours was none other than my
life-long best friend John Ballon of East Brunswick NJ. He had no official
duties, he wasn’t voted into position and didn’t enforce any rules.
(Although there was one official rule of Team Steam and that was to write
Team Steam on your board.) He just had a certain power of Captain-ness
about him. To Tag, Rick, and Darren he was a bit of a scary authority figure
who ripped. He was older than them, tall, and had the driest sense of humor
ever which was confused by many to be no sense of humor at all. Imagine Star
Trek’s Mr. Spock skating and you’d be pretty close to that of the Captain.
Super alien nerve-pinching strength pulled him through many a Wheel Barrow,
Andrecht, Indy air to back truck and other ramp shaking maneuvers.

Captain John Ballon The Barn in Ole En-Jay!

Photo Irene Ching

He has Captain-like smarts too, the kind that led to him quitting college after
three years of being on the Dean’s list because they didn’t get his ideas or
his own alphabet that he could fluently write in. He wrote a letter to
Thrasher after seeing Tom G. on the cover saying we’d like to skate his ramp
sometime which led to Tom’s dad looking John up in the phone book and
inviting us over.

click to enlarge

Tom met us at the Brunswick Square mall in a Camaro.
That’s so New Jersey, we probably went for Pizza afterwards. Shortly after
meeting Tom we built our own training facility in the woods behind John’s
house. Made of all stolen wood she was a grand 4 feet tall, with 4 foot
transitions, 8 feet wide and adorned with world-class PVC coping. It was
there that the Captain learned many a trick which would then be applied to the
slippery Lexan behemoth in Tom G’s backyard on fabled Saturday sessions.

The Captain John Ballon NJ 83 BackSide air

photo Bernie O’Dowd

The Captain John Ballon En-Jay 83 Invert

photo Bernie O’Dowd

Captain John Ballon NJ 1983 Back side Ollie (ZORLAC!)

photo Bernie O’Dowd

El Capitan laback NJ 1983

Photo Bernie O’Dowd (taken from what looks like a tree?, jason)

Looking back at these pictures of a young John Ballon tearing it up on that
tight little ramp in 1983 it was clear he was headed for greatness. I
remember J.T. Murphy, John The Rubber Onion and Dan Bay (Groholski ramp
locals) being impressed with our progression after not seeing us for a few
months.
The Captain and I have been away from NJ for 20 years now, it’s hard to
believe.

Bernie O’Dowd Invert to Fakie OC Captain John Ballon on deck

We went from Jersey to Ocean City MD. to Daytona and then finally
split up in the early 90’s. John headed up to Philly for a stint and then
out to Seattle where he still resides. He’s got a lovely wife, a house, and
a job that utilizes his creativity and smarts. John never gave up on
skateboarding but his body did. He’s just too worn out he says. It’s a sad
thing to not have you’re best skate-bud ride anymore but he skated harder
than most in the time that he was shredding. Hard enough to earn the rank of
Captain.

Bernie O’Dowd 2007

El capitán del vapor John Ballon 2007

Nice one Bernie!!!

I think “ramp shaking maneuvers” or RSM’s as they will now be referred to sums up The Captain best. I can remember him (The Captain) busting out a random act of air walk and everyone on both decks at The Barn going ape . Those where the days.

 

Here is one last RSM of The Cap from Power Edge Magazine:

Post every and all Captain John Ballon story or recollection in the comment section…dont be shy, I am gonna leave this one up for a bit.

Dont forget to checkout the Team Steam Media Archive too.

 

 

 

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