Spit and Goo Issue 2 1986 By Ken and Steve Deitz NJ
BARN article
WestWood Cycle Sponsored contest with Marc Gonzalez
This is well worth a read… classic 80’s skatezine from ken and Steve Deitz. All the usual suspects appear in The Barn section. It really makes me recall what was going on in our lives circa 1986. I must admit to having watched Mark Gonzales instead of the contest.
Great stuff
Thanks to Jeff Roenning for vaulting this gem all these years.
Mid 80′ Blue N Black Air Jordans
Foot Armor -Jason Oliva
Photo by -Jason Oliva
So I thought I would start a new category in the Archive called Weapons of Choice, a place to document all the armor and tools of the trade. SO send me some pics!
Back in the day you didnt have to be Sherlock Holmes to tell who skated vert. One glance at the feet and the jig was up, no need to even confess. Vert shoes would cause murder mystery wonderment amongst the uninitiated, racking their brains for the answer as to how you wear out the tops of your sneakers even to the point your big toes were visible!(some Chuck taylor wearers even had big toe holes in all their socks as well, too funny)
During the 80’s there was a shoe shop in South Plainfield , NJ that we would hit up while en route to the Salvation Army looking for clothes. The shoe shop was great, they had one shrink wrap shoe on the wall and they brought out the other one if you wanted to buy them, and that was that. No selection of sizes at all. I cleaned em out of over sized Air Jordans for a couple years. Red Black n Blue(x2), Black n white (wore those only one time to the prom) , metallic blue and white, then one day I scored a pair of Red n Black and Blue n Black (both a perfect fit) I think they cost $18 as well. I wore the blue n blacks skating for over 20 years (the last time was 06-07 at the Battery Park skate park) My blue n black and Red n blacks look like they have been blasted by a shot gun under the duct tape…I even took a 12 inch splinter (which I kept forever in my skate-bag) through the top between my big and second toes through my sock and out the sole-lucky that time.Unfortunately over time the foam in the ankles would rot, but they still look good. I always kept em in my bag too and would wear my Puma cats (another life altering score from the shop, for you FaceBook Users you can see em here: http://tinyurl.com/opkxux) for walking and street skating. It was often a bit of muddy/snowy mess out to the Barn. Most NJ/PA ramps required a traipse through the woods or snow and I think that alone started the habit of having two pairs of sneakers, it was never the hi performance issue that shoes seem to garnish these days. You just needed to keep your “Wednesday best” sneakers outta the muck.
Ok send some gear pics, boards, sneakers etc whatever is lying about. I know I have a pair of unused Texas Pads up in the attic…Are they still around?
Jason Oliva (Ben Cornish looking on) 1987 NJ McDowells ramp.
Sporting said ‘Air Jordans’….and some Jay Henry drawn/Tom Groholski skate shorts!
Hey Jason
SkateBoarding” Clip
That’s Tag to start. Looks like there a ton of people on the ground watching. Next is Rocky in the White Helmet. He always skated like Cab with that smooth style and crooked neck. That’s Corn in the blue shirt and yellow helmet. That’ Jeff Roenning in the white Zorlac shirt and yellow helmet. And I think thats weep sitting on the platform as Rocky chucks an air over his knees. Next is Corn and Weeps at the Ditch. Corn said it’s the ditch by the highschool but I think it’s the one closer to Bridgewater on 78 East. I could be wrong. This part kinda chokes me up watching it. And then there’s the weird Kona part at the end. I know nothing about it.
The second part of the clip is at my ramp again and it’s Tag again.
I’m sure the people that did the original transfer just stuck it together with no rhyme or reason. My folks still have the original film too.
Dave Padulo
Classic stuff! That is the ditch on route 78 across from Watchung Hills regional Highschool.
Out the cafeteria (during lunch) and through the woods then it was just a quick game of Frogger across 78 and you could skate for 15 minutes or so and have time to get back to class. Unless you went with Weep who would take one annoying long 15 minute run and leave you standing there to watch…Commmmmmaaaahhhhhhnnnnn WEEP!! enough already!…great times.
PS. The generic transfer music is too sad.
Jason Oliva and Weep Sciving off from school: High School Ditch NJ…86’ish
Photo Ben Cornish
Weepee right in the middle of it head and shoulders above the rest, rockin the JG Tee and the Barfoot ride…G.O.A.T. Yo!!
Photo Deitz Bruthas
Jay Henry Layback air, Ben Cornish(Sportin a Craig Johnson), Chris”Weep” Blank, Steve Mannion(Overkill Sticker! Possible Tommy G hand me down Gator, Rick Holtzman, A Deitz Brutha (Stripey Socks)…Who is watching from the flat?
Yar Weep, remember that time we….. maaan that was dope.
Aaahhn, B-E-A-S-T-I-E go!
Drop some love comments all!
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Team Steam 1987 Photo Annual created by Ben Cornish
Music Raging Lamos
Photos by:
Ben Cornish
Jason Oliva
Video by Jason Oliva
Try out:
Dave Padulo Mute air The Barn NJ (Wednesday night) Circa 1986
Part 3 in our ongoing series of pictures. I am going to create a category called Wednesday Night for the interested parties to follow along. Here is a gem of Dave Padulo…Mute air on the pool coping side with Ben Cornish, Jimmy Kane and Stevie “D” Mannion looking on. The Padulo brothers had that mid eighties Tony Hawk thing going on.
Stay tuned for a lot more!
Ps. Just counted there are over 166 skaters represented in The House of Steam archive…crazy stuff!
Its 2 years on and here is how things stand:
100,000+ hits!! (right on the anniversary too)
274 entries into the archive scattered across 500 categories.
491 comments
Lets also not forget YouTubeSkate with 8,000 hits, 46 videos and counting and a year old too!
No money generated.
No Money lost!
Lots of old friends catching up and getting together. Allan Gibson has put out an all call to skaters wishing to ride his Uber-Ramp. Wreckroom skates is putting out boards for three Steam riders, Dan Tag, Darren Menditto, and Bernie O’Dowd. I have a couple pictures going into an HR documentary and I had a cool email conversation with Guy from Fugazi. If you google/image search the word “signature” my name is number 2 on the entire internet(try it, its crazy!!). The 78 ditch is being ridden again by a whole new generation of skaters. Ben Cornish has dusted off his old films (Cant wait to see “Demo” again) I have gotten no better or worse at writing. SteamBoat released an amazing (cant wait to see it) skate film. Chuck is skating and performing.Jay Henry is still…Well, Jay Henry. The Padulos’s have a quarterpipe in their driveway again, for their kids. Mike Pruskowski is a Dad this year. Rinaldi is blogging away. Rodney opened a shop in the lower east side.Bernie is skating and directing creativity. John is sculpting.Tom Groholski chimed in with a killer essay on East Coast pride. Vallely always has great things to say here. Mertz is gonna be back in action as well as making music. Rocky is spinning, Dennis is fishing. Taylor is blackberrying. 300+ people are trolling through our nostalgic past on a daily basis. Everyone will always miss Weep, JT,Sean, Hula and the rest. Anyway…
So two years ago on July 20th I posted a picture of the Barn on this free blog site. I have not done a thing to change the look and feel of the place since then. I am not sure why I did it at the time, I guess I wanted to throw up a flag and see who would salute. It was dawning on me at the time I had not seen some really important people in my life for over 10 years and I needed to change that. I always took pride in my skate photo album and I felt others took pride in theirs as well. I had hoped everyone would want to dust theirs off and compile it all in one place, The House of Steam like a wing of the Metropolitan museum of art. So I guess its mission accomplished. The main thing I constantly take away from working on THOS is that we had some great early years, surrounded by cool supportive people and families. We had places to go, places to stay and we made our own decisions. Most importantly everyone seemed to know at the time how good we had it then and how good we have it now. Life enjoyed/Enjoying life, so far so good.
Thanks to everyone who reads,contributes,comments,emails, sends pictures etc. etc. Also thank you for all the great comments concerning my art over at Http://jasonoliva.com they are always appreciated (keep em coming!)
I will keep this post up for a bit while I get ready for year 3 and everyone can get a chance to drop a comment or even a suggestion.
Well without further adieu here is Ben Cornish’s SUPER 8 YOUTH in its entirety…Enjoy!
DIRECTOR-EDITOR
ben cornish
CAMERA
dave padulo
dan tag
rocky vertone
others
FEATURING
chris blank
simon curtis
dan tag
rocky vertone
jt murphy
jimmy kane
dennis kane
steve mannion
john ballon
bernie o’dowd
jason oliva
tim cornish
matt padulo
cornish chickens
MUSIC and SAMPLES
dj king weep
apple x
civ
descendents
bad brains
modest mouse
rambling jack elliot