I can’t tell you how bewildering it is to stumble randomly upon this blog.Mike Vallely,Kevin Hartel (pictured in the first photo) and I would hold many a session in my basement during Edison Winters.I actually partly blame that basement for being the reason I compound-fractured my arm later that year,since I would jump that ramp and kept weakening my left arm by stopping myself against the wall when I ran out of room (haha)!

I remember we each took turns taking pictures of ourselves since inverts were so new and we had no one in town to learn from,except the odd Mark Gonzales Venture ad.Who uploaded those pics? Was it Mike Spotte?

I remember the video and the day when Derek and his crew came up from the South with a video camera.Video cameras weren’t too handy in Edison at that time.I was kind of out of it and giggly that day,so many skaters! That was the first big skate session of that whole scene!

Derek Rinaldi had the best hand flip aerials I’ve ever seen.Mike and I saw him in-flight in Seaside one day and looked at each other as if we discovered a long lost brother,skaters were very few.Years later in the same Seaside/Point Pleasant area,I saw Derek ollie 10-12 boards length-wise one night as 25+ skate rats looked on.Rodney Smith was another one that was way rad.

Oh,the stories! Mike Vallely,Kevin and I were best friends and Mike and I actually shared his first board (the red Jeff Phillips) until I’d received mine weeks later.

I still talk to Mike,(last night,in fact,about his role in Paul Blart:Mall Cop).Needless to say,it’s great to see how much success he’s had over the years.It would be way rad to get in contact with Derek Rinaldi and Mike Spotte somehow.I also hung out with Dune/Chris Pastras and Kevin alot up to the early 00’s.Kevin went on tour with my band,Loose in 1992.A highlight was when the Gonz stayed at Kevin’s crash pad,(New Brunswick) and then mine for awhile. Hanging with the Gonz here in New Brunswick,Edison and New York was a highlight of those years,without question.I skated North Brunswick HIgh School and the curb at the New Brunswick Grease Trucks quite often in 1992-94,if anyone from those days wants to give a holler.

I skated pretty regularly until about 1995.Music and art were my other passions and that’s what I’ve been doing since.

I have some interesting skate documents,I’ll try and produce some for this blog.

It’s great to see this stuff.Keep it up!

Don Bruno

I’m five minutes from Rutgers…I just might have to go to the river dorms this weekend!