Jay Adams revisited…Jay was a supremely gifted athlete, highly creative, wildly spontaneous and a joy to watch because you never knew what was coming…He was that rare kid bestowed with a gift as bright as the sun and I believe Jay may have been aware of his gift but he lacked the skill set required to focus it. He was completely deficient in that department. Gifts come with enormous power and enormous responsibility and that power is dangerous because it can turn against you if you’re not prepared for it. It takes years to recognize a gift, to become familiar with it, to develop it and then to learn to live with it peacefully – and gifts don’t come with mentors or manuals, they come with force. Jay’s gift was dropped on him like an anvil at age 12, how does a kid that age know anything about anything? He had no idea how to turn his gift into a functional and sustainable career. For a current example look no further than basketball star Ja Morant for someone who’s struggling to come to terms with his enormous gift. It ain’t easy. And remember we were the first pro skaters in the world, we had no role models, we had to figure this out on our own while it was all unfolding…Alva ran at a similar voltage to Jay and initially created some big problems; he was temporarily banned from Skateboarder Mag and then got close to losing an eye in a fight, but ultimately Tony figured out how to channel his enormous gift with its massive payload into a remarkable career. For me, I didn’t want to burn so bright, too dangerous, I wanted to burn long…None of this excuses Jay for the act that got him thrown in the pen but it does provide some context to the chaos, because Jay did light up the hearts of skaters across the planet with the power and brightness of his gift, but the very power and brightness of that gift cost Jay his own career and the quality of his own life.
Life long skater, skate adventurer, skate museum founder and friend Jack Smith suggested I post this story which I wrote a few years back. It’s much longer than normal and a test on my part to see if it works. Hope you all enjoy it and thanks for all the feedback! More stories are on the way…
Life long skater, skate adventurer, skate museum founder and friend Jack Smith suggested I post this story which I wrote a few years back. It’s much longer than normal and a test on my part to see if it works. Hope you all enjoy it and thanks for all the feedback! More stories are on the way…
Life long skater, skate adventurer, skate museum founder and friend Jack Smith suggested I post this story which I wrote a few years back. It’s much longer than normal and a test on my part to see if it works. Hope you all enjoy it and thanks for all the feedback! More stories are on the way…
Life long skater, skate adventurer, skate museum founder and friend Jack Smith suggested I post this story which I wrote a few years back. It’s much longer than normal and a test on my part to see if it works. Hope you all enjoy it and thanks for all the feedback! More stories are on the way…
Life long skater, skate adventurer, skate museum founder and friend Jack Smith suggested I post this story which I wrote a few years back. It’s much longer than normal and a test on my part to see if it works. Hope you all enjoy it and thanks for all the feedback! More stories are on the way…
Life long skater, skate adventurer, skate museum founder and friend Jack Smith suggested I post this story which I wrote a few years back. It’s much longer than normal and a test on my part to see if it works. Hope you all enjoy it and thanks for all the feedback! More stories are on the way…
Life long skater, skate adventurer, skate museum founder and friend Jack Smith suggested I post this story which I wrote a few years back. It’s much longer than normal and a test on my part to see if it works. Hope you all enjoy it and thanks for all the feedback! More stories are on the way…
Life long skater, skate adventurer, skate museum founder and friend Jack Smith suggested I post this story which I wrote a few years back. It’s much longer than normal and a test on my part to see if it works. Hope you all enjoy it and thanks for all the feedback! More stories are on the way…
Life long skater, skate adventurer, skate museum founder and friend Jack Smith suggested I post this story which I wrote a few years back. It’s much longer than normal and a test on my part to see if it works. Hope you all enjoy it and thanks for all the feedback! More stories are on the way…
Life long skater, skate adventurer, skate museum founder and friend Jack Smith suggested I post this story which I wrote a few years back. It’s much longer than normal and a test on my part to see if it works. Hope you all enjoy it and thanks for all the feedback! More stories are on the way…
Circa 1974. The first Zephyr skateboard has arrived at the shop and Skip and Jeff want it tested. We’re all told to meet at Marine Street which is every skater’s nightmare; a dreadfully steep and unforgiving hill. Everyone shows up and there’s a gang of us taking the drop and things are heating up as they always do. Tony’s on deck at the top of the hill and he knows we’re all watching. He looks at the bottom of the hill and sees a car heading up, simultaneously another car at the top of the hill is now passing Tony and beginning his descent. Tony carefully calculates the positions of both cars and then takes off. Within moments he’s drafting the downhill car in a tail-gate like position. At the midpoint mark of the hill, just as both cars are about to converge Tony makes a perilous decision and pulls into the center of the road, pitting himself between both cars – he’s now shooting the hill between both cars and has about a foot of clearance on each side, there’s zero room for error, the slightest wobble and he’s a skid mark under two tons of steel. We all watch in horror at what he’s doing because what he’s doing is mad. What’s he thinking? Is he thinking? He then shoots thru both cars and not only takes the lead on the downhill car but pulls in front of the driver and makes it comfortably to the bottom, one hand raised in victory. All of us shake our heads. Incredible! He must be insane. But if he is insane, his insanity on this day is usurped by his physical skill and balls-out confidence. Today many people refer to Tony as a legend, one of skateboarding’s best and brightest, I’m here to share with you that the legend began that day.
Circa 1974. The first Zephyr skateboard has arrived at the shop and Skip and Jeff want it tested. We’re all told to meet at Marine Street which is every skater’s nightmare; a dreadfully steep and unforgiving hill. Everyone shows up and there’s a gang of us taking the drop and things are heating up as they always do. Tony’s on deck at the top of the hill and he knows we’re all watching. He looks at the bottom of the hill and sees a car heading up, simultaneously another car at the top of the hill is now passing Tony and beginning his descent. Tony carefully calculates the positions of both cars and then takes off. Within moments he’s drafting the downhill car in a tail-gate like position. At the midpoint mark of the hill, just as both cars are about to converge Tony makes a perilous decision and pulls into the center of the road, pitting himself between both cars – he’s now shooting the hill between both cars and has about a foot of clearance on each side, there’s zero room for error, the slightest wobble and he’s a skid mark under two tons of steel. We all watch in horror at what he’s doing because what he’s doing is mad. What’s he thinking? Is he thinking? He then shoots thru both cars and not only takes the lead on the downhill car but pulls in front of the driver and makes it comfortably to the bottom, one hand raised in victory. All of us shake our heads. Incredible! He must be insane. But if he is insane, his insanity on this day is usurped by his physical skill and balls-out confidence. Today many people refer to Tony as a legend, one of skateboarding’s best and brightest, I’m here to share with you that the legend began that day.
At age 17, Golden Breed Sportswear is flying me to Australia to introduce modern skateboarding – a dream come true as I will get to surf the fabled Gold Coast! I pack two things; my Zephyr surfboard and orange Zephyr skate (pictured)…So I’m at LAX with my Mom at the Qantas counter and the ticket agent says, “No surfboards!” I’m dumbstruck! What? I plead, “But I’ve taken this to Hawaii!” In his best school principal, “No surfboards on international flights.” I step out of line, melt down and begin sobbing. “I can’t go to Australia without my surfboard! My mom, unaware of how to handle this strange mishap, stares at me, considering. She then looks at my skateboard and then my surfboard and very gently says, “which one is your future?” I look at her with tears running down my face desperately wanting to avoid the answer. Moments later I hand her my surfboard, we hug and say goodbye. “See you in 6 months”…I arrived to drizzly skies and quickly jumped into demos all over Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne and everywhere else except the Gold Coast. During my trip I’m plagued by vivid dreams of never reaching the Gold Coast, dreams so real I’d wake up not knowing where I was…After 5 months I was done. I procured a car and a surfboard and headed out. I was alone and finally on my way to the Gold Coast. At a campground on night two an intuition blew a hole thru me, “Get home now!” Intuition has always been my trusted guide as so much of my life has made no sense. The next morning I obeyed it and turned around. I arrived home just in time for the Cow Palace event in San Francisco. It was at this event where Larry Gordon saw me skate and approached me to ride for G&S. Had I not made that contest on that weekend I doubt I would’ve had the opportunity to write this post.
At age 17, Golden Breed Sportswear is flying me to Australia to introduce modern skateboarding – a dream come true as I will get to surf the fabled Gold Coast! I pack two things; my Zephyr surfboard and orange Zephyr skate (pictured)…So I’m at LAX with my Mom at the Qantas counter and the ticket agent says, “No surfboards!” I’m dumbstruck! What? I plead, “But I’ve taken this to Hawaii!” In his best school principal, “No surfboards on international flights.” I step out of line, melt down and begin sobbing. “I can’t go to Australia without my surfboard! My mom, unaware of how to handle this strange mishap, stares at me, considering. She then looks at my skateboard and then my surfboard and very gently says, “which one is your future?” I look at her with tears running down my face desperately wanting to avoid the answer. Moments later I hand her my surfboard, we hug and say goodbye. “See you in 6 months”…I arrived to drizzly skies and quickly jumped into demos all over Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne and everywhere else except the Gold Coast. During my trip I’m plagued by vivid dreams of never reaching the Gold Coast, dreams so real I’d wake up not knowing where I was…After 5 months I was done. I procured a car and a surfboard and headed out. I was alone and finally on my way to the Gold Coast. At a campground on night two an intuition blew a hole thru me, “Get home now!” Intuition has always been my trusted guide as so much of my life has made no sense. The next morning I obeyed it and turned around. I arrived home just in time for the Cow Palace event in San Francisco. It was at this event where Larry Gordon saw me skate and approached me to ride for G&S. Had I not made that contest on that weekend I doubt I would’ve had the opportunity to write this post.
At age 17, Golden Breed Sportswear is flying me to Australia to introduce modern skateboarding – a dream come true as I will get to surf the fabled Gold Coast! I pack two things; my Zephyr surfboard and orange Zephyr skate (pictured)…So I’m at LAX with my Mom at the Qantas counter and the ticket agent says, “No surfboards!” I’m dumbstruck! What? I plead, “But I’ve taken this to Hawaii!” In his best school principal, “No surfboards on international flights.” I step out of line, melt down and begin sobbing. “I can’t go to Australia without my surfboard! My mom, unaware of how to handle this strange mishap, stares at me, considering. She then looks at my skateboard and then my surfboard and very gently says, “which one is your future?” I look at her with tears running down my face desperately wanting to avoid the answer. Moments later I hand her my surfboard, we hug and say goodbye. “See you in 6 months”…I arrived to drizzly skies and quickly jumped into demos all over Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne and everywhere else except the Gold Coast. During my trip I’m plagued by vivid dreams of never reaching the Gold Coast, dreams so real I’d wake up not knowing where I was…After 5 months I was done. I procured a car and a surfboard and headed out. I was alone and finally on my way to the Gold Coast. At a campground on night two an intuition blew a hole thru me, “Get home now!” Intuition has always been my trusted guide as so much of my life has made no sense. The next morning I obeyed it and turned around. I arrived home just in time for the Cow Palace event in San Francisco. It was at this event where Larry Gordon saw me skate and approached me to ride for G&S. Had I not made that contest on that weekend I doubt I would’ve had the opportunity to write this post.
At age 17, Golden Breed Sportswear is flying me to Australia to introduce modern skateboarding – a dream come true as I will get to surf the fabled Gold Coast! I pack two things; my Zephyr surfboard and orange Zephyr skate (pictured)…So I’m at LAX with my Mom at the Qantas counter and the ticket agent says, “No surfboards!” I’m dumbstruck! What? I plead, “But I’ve taken this to Hawaii!” In his best school principal, “No surfboards on international flights.” I step out of line, melt down and begin sobbing. “I can’t go to Australia without my surfboard! My mom, unaware of how to handle this strange mishap, stares at me, considering. She then looks at my skateboard and then my surfboard and very gently says, “which one is your future?” I look at her with tears running down my face desperately wanting to avoid the answer. Moments later I hand her my surfboard, we hug and say goodbye. “See you in 6 months”…I arrived to drizzly skies and quickly jumped into demos all over Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne and everywhere else except the Gold Coast. During my trip I’m plagued by vivid dreams of never reaching the Gold Coast, dreams so real I’d wake up not knowing where I was…After 5 months I was done. I procured a car and a surfboard and headed out. I was alone and finally on my way to the Gold Coast. At a campground on night two an intuition blew a hole thru me, “Get home now!” Intuition has always been my trusted guide as so much of my life has made no sense. The next morning I obeyed it and turned around. I arrived home just in time for the Cow Palace event in San Francisco. It was at this event where Larry Gordon saw me skate and approached me to ride for G&S. Had I not made that contest on that weekend I doubt I would’ve had the opportunity to write this post.
At age 17, Golden Breed Sportswear is flying me to Australia to introduce modern skateboarding – a dream come true as I will get to surf the fabled Gold Coast! I pack two things; my Zephyr surfboard and orange Zephyr skate (pictured)…So I’m at LAX with my Mom at the Qantas counter and the ticket agent says, “No surfboards!” I’m dumbstruck! What? I plead, “But I’ve taken this to Hawaii!” In his best school principal, “No surfboards on international flights.” I step out of line, melt down and begin sobbing. “I can’t go to Australia without my surfboard! My mom, unaware of how to handle this strange mishap, stares at me, considering. She then looks at my skateboard and then my surfboard and very gently says, “which one is your future?” I look at her with tears running down my face desperately wanting to avoid the answer. Moments later I hand her my surfboard, we hug and say goodbye. “See you in 6 months”…I arrived to drizzly skies and quickly jumped into demos all over Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne and everywhere else except the Gold Coast. During my trip I’m plagued by vivid dreams of never reaching the Gold Coast, dreams so real I’d wake up not knowing where I was…After 5 months I was done. I procured a car and a surfboard and headed out. I was alone and finally on my way to the Gold Coast. At a campground on night two an intuition blew a hole thru me, “Get home now!” Intuition has always been my trusted guide as so much of my life has made no sense. The next morning I obeyed it and turned around. I arrived home just in time for the Cow Palace event in San Francisco. It was at this event where Larry Gordon saw me skate and approached me to ride for G&S. Had I not made that contest on that weekend I doubt I would’ve had the opportunity to write this post.
At age 17, Golden Breed Sportswear is flying me to Australia to introduce modern skateboarding – a dream come true as I will get to surf the fabled Gold Coast! I pack two things; my Zephyr surfboard and orange Zephyr skate (pictured)…So I’m at LAX with my Mom at the Qantas counter and the ticket agent says, “No surfboards!” I’m dumbstruck! What? I plead, “But I’ve taken this to Hawaii!” In his best school principal, “No surfboards on international flights.” I step out of line, melt down and begin sobbing. “I can’t go to Australia without my surfboard! My mom, unaware of how to handle this strange mishap, stares at me, considering. She then looks at my skateboard and then my surfboard and very gently says, “which one is your future?” I look at her with tears running down my face desperately wanting to avoid the answer. Moments later I hand her my surfboard, we hug and say goodbye. “See you in 6 months”…I arrived to drizzly skies and quickly jumped into demos all over Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne and everywhere else except the Gold Coast. During my trip I’m plagued by vivid dreams of never reaching the Gold Coast, dreams so real I’d wake up not knowing where I was…After 5 months I was done. I procured a car and a surfboard and headed out. I was alone and finally on my way to the Gold Coast. At a campground on night two an intuition blew a hole thru me, “Get home now!” Intuition has always been my trusted guide as so much of my life has made no sense. The next morning I obeyed it and turned around. I arrived home just in time for the Cow Palace event in San Francisco. It was at this event where Larry Gordon saw me skate and approached me to ride for G&S. Had I not made that contest on that weekend I doubt I would’ve had the opportunity to write this post.
August of 76. We have just learned “one-wheelers” where three wheels have lost contact with the pool and only one remains rolling on the coping’s edge before you turn 180 and drop back down. Bob Biniak and I are in the shallow end of the Devonshire pool watching Alva hit back to back one wheelers. Tony’s riding a Logan Earth Ski, Road Riders and very loose Bennett Trucks and at one point his one wheel rolls across the coping but then rolls up and over and out onto the flat of the pool’s deck. His body is now completely hung over the deep end while his one wheel is far behind him rolling over the pool’s deck and somehow Tony manages to pull his single wheel back from that position and roll it back over the top of the coping and into the pool. What he’s pulled off is the single most insane thing Bob and I have ever witnessed in a pool. It’s so shocking that Bob looks at me with his mouth agape as if he’s seen a ghost. I will never forget his reaction nor will I ever forget what I saw Tony do. If Tony had failed to pull his wheel back in, his back truck would’ve caught and hooked on the coping and he would’ve been thrown to the bottom and broken his neck because of the forward placement and momentum of his body. He was at that moment vulnerable to pool skating’s most dangerous fall. It was a stunning thing to witness and just as soon as Bob and I recovered, Bob turned to me and said quietly, “don’t let him know you saw that otherwise we’ll never hear the end of it on the drive home.”……..photos Pat Darrin.
August of 76. We have just learned “one-wheelers” where three wheels have lost contact with the pool and only one remains rolling on the coping’s edge before you turn 180 and drop back down. Bob Biniak and I are in the shallow end of the Devonshire pool watching Alva hit back to back one wheelers. Tony’s riding a Logan Earth Ski, Road Riders and very loose Bennett Trucks and at one point his one wheel rolls across the coping but then rolls up and over and out onto the flat of the pool’s deck. His body is now completely hung over the deep end while his one wheel is far behind him rolling over the pool’s deck and somehow Tony manages to pull his single wheel back from that position and roll it back over the top of the coping and into the pool. What he’s pulled off is the single most insane thing Bob and I have ever witnessed in a pool. It’s so shocking that Bob looks at me with his mouth agape as if he’s seen a ghost. I will never forget his reaction nor will I ever forget what I saw Tony do. If Tony had failed to pull his wheel back in, his back truck would’ve caught and hooked on the coping and he would’ve been thrown to the bottom and broken his neck because of the forward placement and momentum of his body. He was at that moment vulnerable to pool skating’s most dangerous fall. It was a stunning thing to witness and just as soon as Bob and I recovered, Bob turned to me and said quietly, “don’t let him know you saw that otherwise we’ll never hear the end of it on the drive home.”……..photos Pat Darrin.
August of 76. We have just learned “one-wheelers” where three wheels have lost contact with the pool and only one remains rolling on the coping’s edge before you turn 180 and drop back down. Bob Biniak and I are in the shallow end of the Devonshire pool watching Alva hit back to back one wheelers. Tony’s riding a Logan Earth Ski, Road Riders and very loose Bennett Trucks and at one point his one wheel rolls across the coping but then rolls up and over and out onto the flat of the pool’s deck. His body is now completely hung over the deep end while his one wheel is far behind him rolling over the pool’s deck and somehow Tony manages to pull his single wheel back from that position and roll it back over the top of the coping and into the pool. What he’s pulled off is the single most insane thing Bob and I have ever witnessed in a pool. It’s so shocking that Bob looks at me with his mouth agape as if he’s seen a ghost. I will never forget his reaction nor will I ever forget what I saw Tony do. If Tony had failed to pull his wheel back in, his back truck would’ve caught and hooked on the coping and he would’ve been thrown to the bottom and broken his neck because of the forward placement and momentum of his body. He was at that moment vulnerable to pool skating’s most dangerous fall. It was a stunning thing to witness and just as soon as Bob and I recovered, Bob turned to me and said quietly, “don’t let him know you saw that otherwise we’ll never hear the end of it on the drive home.”……..photos Pat Darrin.
Painting of a 2X6 skateboard. There was a time when it wasn’t uncommon to see boards like this, Jay Adams showed up at Paul Revere one day riding a 2X4 with wheels and he ripped on it.
There was no such thing as a skate shop in the clay wheel days so we rode wheels until they couldn’t roll any longer. This image I painted came from Grandmaster Todd at the SHOF.
