520: The Dust Bowls PA 1999-2000 :Derek Rinaldi, Patrick Guidotti and Frank Straker

Dust Bowls 1999-2000

Filmed by Frank Straker

Edited by Patrick Guidotti

DIY is not just a phrase to be thrown around, it’s the very foundation of skateboarding. DIY is what created skateboarding. The term multi-use may not have been created by skateboarders, but we have found a way to perfect the concept. Benches, ledges, railings, and pools were all designed with specific function. Skaters had their own ideas.

The world is a playground, you just have to have know how to use it.

Most skate spots carry a shelf like similar to milk, so it’s best to get on them enjoy them for as long as possible. It’s rare that spots become heirlooms, to be passed down for generations. Manicured and added down as time goes on.

Yards from a Pennsylvania Interstate but miles from anyone’s radar sits one of the best skate parks that was never designed for skateboarding. It’s free, you don’t have to wear pads, and you can listen to Mercyful Fate as loud as you want.

For years skaters have been riding the bowled, concrete water spillway that is the Dust Bowls, adding simple nuances here and there, QuickCrete, angle iron, parking blocks etc.

Having been designed for one purpose and refined for another while never jeopardizing it’s original function. You can call it multi-use, you can call it adaptation. But it’s just skateboarding. And it’s just perfect.

Derek Rinaldi

Too cool…looks like yesterday as opposed to a decade ago. I still have my Thrasher Skate Mag Cassette knocking around as well.

Rumor has it Derek can do some frontside marvel  on one of those walls.

Jason

Guidotti Playing Director At Dust Bowls

Zoli (w/ Camera), Nick Urso (w/ quickie Cam)

Photo Derek Rinaldi

Patrick G,

Photo Kiifner

Courtesy Totally Skateboading

476: Derek Rinaldi doing who knows what. Photo Todd Laffler (Fish*Eye Issue 1)and Full Bleed: New York City Skate Photography

Derek Rinaldi

Photo Todd Laffler

Special thanks to Sean Kazelesky as well(Welcome to THOS)

Here is a great picture of the DR doing something magical from Todd Laffler’s epic Fish*Eye Numero Uno. Besides being pretty darn cool this sequence reminds me of those worthless trick tip articles.  The trick would be an egg plant with pictures of someone cool like Dan Wilkes and the captions would read….drop in and approach the wall with a moderate amount of speed …pump the transition and as you approach the vert grab your board with the opposite hand that you would use to do an invert ….now reach for the coping invert your body extend then compress let go land back on the ramp….then the inevitable……NOW PUMP AND DO ANOTHER…too ridiculous. I have tried to get Pump and do another into the everday vernacular of life but it never would stick and in most cases it sounds like a sexual innuendo. Next time you are done instructing someone finish by saying “Now  pump and do another” …also if you can scan a ridiculous trick tip please email me one all my mags are in temporary storage. Most of them should just read….drop in with the trick in mind…spazz your body around in some semblance of what you imagine it would need to be doing….bail and slam enough times until the enlightenment of the fact that it is  less tiring and alot less painful to just go ahead and land the trick…..THEN pump and do another.

Now as for Derek…approach the transitioned street obstacle with a blazing amount of speed…. utilise a lifetimes worth of hard work and practice in order to ollie ridiculously high…..take your front foot off the board and then replace it before landing….Now pump and do another.

Also Derek has landed (no Pun) a photo in the upcoming Full Bleed:New York City Skate Photography it is a picture of a gentleman who is well represented in our archive:

Mike Vallely 1988 Brooklyn Bridge Banks

Photo Derek Rinaldi

As far as Full Bleed:New York Skateboard Photography goes I do not know the peeps personally behind it but I am familiar with the peeps behind the peeps and that is the distributer PowerHouse Books in D.U.M.B.O. The place is worth a trip over the Brooklyn Bridge, have lunch at Bubby’s too and send me an iphoto of some pie! PowerHouse is an amazing Independent art/photography book distributer and book store. Its one of those NY places that you can spend hours milling around in and sometimes a band will be performing. So check out Full Bleed and then inundate PowerHouse with email requests for a THOS Book!! Great stuff!

Full Bleed: NY City Skate photography

by Alex Corporan, Andre Razo, and Ivory Serra

Distributed by PowerHouse Brooklyn 2010 and Published by Vice

with photo by Derek Rinaldi and a cavalcade of other talented skate photographers

Great work DR..Click for more info/pre-order on FB:NYYCSP and PHB then pump and do another…

PS Guess who that is on the cover?

PSS No its not me

288: Delaware Water Gap Vert Facility…….Allen Gibson says come one come all! Saturdays 1 to 4

Attention Everyone,

I have been speaking with Allen and he has expressed a willingness to cultivate an ever expanding and exciting vert scene at his DWG Vert Facility in Blairstown NJ (Which I like to think of as The Barn 2.0™) Just shoot me an email jasonoliva@gmail.com with DWG as the subject and I will make sure you experience all the Saturday afternoon (1 to 4) fun. Please send pictures!

Hi Jason,

This vid is from Sat. Allen has erected a 3.5-4 foot extension for anyone who’s up to the challenge. You will see his incredible frontside air off this thing!

Hope all is swell, Irene

 

ORIGINALLY POSTED JUNE 5th, 2007

Hi Jason- here are a few pics of my place – the ramp is in Blairstown NJ just
outside the Delaware Water Gap – I built it 3 years ago and it was
constructed by Team Pain and specifically Jeff Hammond – the ramp is a
smaller version of (Bob) Burnquists but with a bend from deep to shallow which
provides a very cool dynamic. 12 vert with 10.6 tranny, 13.5 on the
extensions, 7 shallow bowled corners. It is well heated for winter,
designed for natural light year round and well-maintained.

I welcome anybody who wants to come out and skate – I work in finance
during the week and my family uses this as our weekend home –

I haven’t had a moment to get myself linked into to site but I looked at it this
evening and you should be applauded for not merely a great job but you
have a real sense of the beauty of skateboarding!

all the best,

Allen

Thanks for the kind words Allen.

Allen and I were introduced by mutual friends in NYC…Who would have known he had constructed East Coast Skatings best kept secret!…Well the cats outta the bag and Allen has asked for it..hope you have a BIG couch.. he he

Check out these shots!

Actions shots on there way soon.

If you want to get in touch with Allen you can contact him Via The House of Steam Forums…I have set up a Delaware Water Gap Vert Facility category.

and do not forget to checkout Team Pain for all your Skate Ramp Fantasy needs

Jason

Gentlemen I give you The Delaware Water Gap Vert Facility by Allen Gibson

Could not help myself. Lets visually compare and contrast The DWGVF with The Barn.

photo Dennis Kane

photo Derek Rinaldi

Photo Kevin McDowall

Dennis and Jimmy always liked that shabby sheik look!

Well could this be the new House of Steam! I’ll let Dennis Kane decide after his hopeful July visit.

Welcome to the archive/family Allen! If you want to ride at Allens drop him a line on our forums….and if you do skate their send us your pics……

So SAYS THE HOUSE OF STEAM!!!!

Checkout The House of Steam Online Shop:
[THOS SHOP]

Join [THOS] Email Newsletter:
[Subscribe Me!]

View The House of Steam TV:
[THOS.TV]

View Jason’s Paintings:
[Most Recent]
[Random Painting]
[Selected Artworks for Purchase]

Jason’s Email Newsletter
[Subscribe Me!]

Contact Jason:
[Email] [Facebook]

280: Deathbox to Downtown: The Evolution of Skateboarding in New York premier with Derek Rinaldi

Ok this would have been fun to attend but alas I am an ocean away. Lucky for us I have my eyes an ears (Oil )Derek Rinaldi. Here are some words and a gallery of whose who pictures from Derek. Congrats to Rick and Buddy sounds like their three year labor of love is a big hit. Cannot wait to see it!!

So maybe it’s getting old. All this remembering, talking about the good old days, with websites blogs and magazines dedicated to how things used to be. How it was when I/we were young. Maybe we are spending too much time in the past. Maybe we are missing something in our present by doing so.

But then again, maybe, in the chaos that is adult life. It’s healthy to remember what made you happy growing up, what made you who you are. The things we remember most, before the families happened, before everyone moved away. Time goes by, days lose their face and, the years, they add up so quickly that by the time you have time to look back….

But what would you do if you could go back in time? What if you could see all of your old friends in one place.? What if the images weren’t just in your mind? But organized, and a soundtrack put to it and words narrated. What would you call a place? I’d call it heaven. And for 48 hours, this week, in New York City, it was close to it.

For three years, Rick Charnoski & Coan “Buddy” Nichols had been laboring on a project documenting the history of skateboarding in New York City.

Fast forward to Thursday night at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center where even the guest list line wrapped around the building. The courtyard was filled with reunions. Skaters, Photographers, Old friends. The following night there was a special gallery installation celebrating the release of the film, curated by Ivory Serra. It featured photographic history of skateboarding in New York City as well as artwork selected by Jeremy Hendersen from the Stanton St. Vault and live music by Alex Blake Quartet.

Deathbox To Downtown is more than just a historical timeline. It’s more than a movie. It is a direct connection to New York’s skateboard and cultural past and I am thankful to have been apart of it then and now.

Derek Rinaldi

Bruno Musso

Dave Ortiz

Jahmal Williams, JR Cronheim

Jay Henry, Puppethead

Jeremy Henderson

Jim Murphy, Joey Tersay

JR Cronheim

Obed Rios, Bruno Musso, Bill Thomas

Rick “Steamboat” Charnoski

Rodney Smith

Rodney Torres

265: Derek Rinaldi meets Jay Henry! NYC 2008

Jay Henry and The Empire State building 2008

By rights, I should have met Jay Henry years ago. Being from the same
state and having skateboarding in common. But things sometimes are
not that concrete, no pun intended. Fast forward to the year 2008 and
I find myself in New York City at the release party for the Rock Star
Bearings video, looking over the large group of new, rookie pros that
are currently dominating New York and the world, sipping free drinks
and keeping to myself.

I had e-mailed Jay to let him know the party was going on and he
responded that he and VA Beach legend John Fadula might swing by.

Somewhere about 11:30 pm, a face turned the corner and yells out,
“Derek Rinaldi?” I immediately responded, “Jay Henry?”

I asked him how he knew it was me and he said, “I walked in and asked
the oldest dude at the bar where Derek Rinaldi was…he pointed right at
you.” Jay Henry is obviously a comedian as well. The rest of the
night was spent re-hashing war stories, road stories…jersey stories.

So the Jay Henry mystery is solved. The guy that was always around
way back when. The dude that you always ‘just missed’, or ‘was here
yesterday doing this trick or that trick’. The barn/ steam/ groholski
crony, now has a voice. One more face off the wall.

It became apparent that I did in fact know Jay Henry all these years.
I just hadn’t met him yet.

this last pic was taken before i knew jay was there…funny huh, he was looking for me

Derek Rinaldi

Nice one DR!

Yep, Jay is funny…Dammit!!

263: The Almighty Sean Miller!!

Sean Miller Mellon to Fakie

Ok chime in here with the who, what, where, an whens. Lets here some thoughts about Sean for the Archive. Please send any pictures to Jasonoliva@gmail.com

Checkout The House of Steam Online Shop:
[THOS SHOP]

Join [THOS] Email Newsletter:
[Subscribe Me!]

View The House of Steam TV:
[THOS.TV]

View Jason’s Paintings:
[Most Recent]
[Random Painting]
[Selected Artworks for Purchase]

Jason’s Email Newsletter
[Subscribe Me!]

Contact Jason:
[Email] [Facebook]

248: Weep

Dj King Weep California Trade show  circa the 90’s

Photo Derek Rinaldi