live to skate

Fulmer Ramp 1982 "Fulmer Ramp" was on the westside of town and located at Derrick and Davy Robbins grandparent's house. Those guys along with Dale Calvert (RIP), Luther, Steve "Casper" and some others had one of the first half pipes in the area. It was 8' wide with maybe 6' transitions and no flat space. Tommy and I talked them into letting us cut it in half and add 4' of flat space between the transitions. This was pretty easy to do since the ramp wasn't cemented down in the ground. We also built decks on it and at one time a small vert extention with pool coping. Those guys were pretty receptive to whatever we wanted to do with the ramp. I think they were all stoked seeing some "new blood" take an interest. And skate that ramp we did! Tommy even pitched a tent out there at one time. We ALL learned "the pump" on that ramp. I learned "frontside air" and how to "drop in" there. Most everyone started off at the bottom. Holding the tail of your board and running up one side. Then stuffing the board under you and riding toward the opposite wall. One would then kickturn and pump to try and go higher each time. Only the "brave" would go up to the top and "drop in". Occationally the "old timers", well.. they were old timers to us back then!, would show up just to let us know who built the ramp and who was still boss. Derick Robbins would rip wheelers and backside airs using up the whole ramp. At 8' wide you really didnt have much room to work with. This guy Craig would just drink vodka all day and the more he drank the more "edgy" his wheelers were. He would pump that ramp so hard.. only to slow down at the top to "wheeler perfection". At times it looked like he was about as far on the edge of his wheel as you could get and still be touching ramp. He would glide for about 12"-20" inches across the coping. I remember being in awe of that.



Tommy and Wes double up on Fulmer Ramp while Jamie Lewis and Jim Brown look on.





Adam's Ramp 1982





Adam Graham also had a half-pipe in his backyard. That ramp was located over off Hemlock in Stonybrook. It was 8' wide and had kinda odd eliptical transitions. The ramp use to belong to .....damn.. forgot his name but I do remember the ramp did live over on Torrey St. A few years prior, the then owner wanted to get rid of it. So Adam and a few of his BIG friends went over and got that ramp out of the backyard. They loaded it up on a truck and took it back to Adam's house. The frame was strengthened up a bit and a fresh layer of plywood was put down. He always had some funky coping tho. I remember things like broom sticks, wood corner molding. angle iron or just about anything you could pop off of. MANY great sessions took place on that ramp. Adam rarely wore any pads. He always said, "Only thing I need is my sunglasses". He and Lee would just rip that ramp up! They both had a wild style that was totally their own. Kinda sketchy... always edgy..and they could both pull moves out of thin air! They had been skating together for years and it showed. I remember skating there several times. The grill would be going, music playing loud and a whole bunch of neighbors came out to party and watch the skating. Adam was very popular in his 'hood. Everybody knew him and he knew everybody. Enough said.





Chaos Quarter 1983



One of OUR first ramps was what ended up being called the "Chaos Quarter". Tommy and I took that quarter pipe that was stored behind my parents house and figured out an easy way 


to transport it with my van. When you looked at the side view of the ramp, it kinda sorta looked like a right angle triangle. We thought "Hmmm..." if the ramp was split vertically up the middle, then the two halfs could be flipped to form a "box" which would then slide right into the back of my '66 Ford van. It was easy enough to then bolt the two halfs back together 
and quickly nail down a top layer of plywood to ride on. Leaning the ramp againest the van gave it good solid support. Now that we had a ramp and a way to get it around, we needed a place to set it up.  Well.. right across the street from the Truth House was a nice sloping parking lot that was perfect!. Since we only set it up on weekends, the business who owned the parking lot was never bothered by it.  Obviously, this was way before the country/society became all fucked up with it's STUPID "litigation" way of thinking. I cant remember how many times we sat that quarter up, but I do remember it was several weekends in a row.The crowd of kids that came over to give it a try was awesome! .. It was NOT uncommon for as many as 30 or more kids there at any given time. All learning to kickturn. We were beginners at that time and a sucessful kickturn was a big deal.  If you got a wheeler or did a grind across the top.. then you were "hot shit" for the day.




I remember one day Bill Danforth showing up. He just got out of his car and skated up, hitting a "rock and roll" on his first run. Slaming his front truck into the top of my van denting the top and making a loud noise! Bill rides back and goes .. "sorry man .. didnt mean to do that". HELL! I didnt care! We were all WAY stoked to even SEE a "rock and roll" in person.  Bill rode for Madrid then. We all thought he was GOD. 



Oh and here is a funny story. This car pulls up and Barry Henssler from the then Necros gets out. He was in town looking for something and seen the skate action and came over to ask directions. Well, Barry grabs this kid's board. He takes about 3 pushes toward the quarter pipe and loses control and falls off! We just all kinda stood there looking at him. He gets up, looks at the board and goes.. "What?? doesn't anyone in this town ride Trackers?".  We all rode Independent trucks. We started laughing at him!  he starts going off, telling us how lame WE all are...we tell him to get the fuck out of here before he gets his ass kicked. He runs back towards the car .. gets in.. and flips us off as they leave. What a DORK! I seem to recall someone throwing rocks at the car.  ;-)