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The first time I met Al was on a mission that Dave Tuck and I took back
sometime in the mid 80s. Al and I had exchanged postal mails a few times
and he invited us down to skate his ramp. Al published a 'zine back then
called "Art of Fallin". I'm not sure how many issues he did....but I still
have issue #1.
Al's ramp was known as the "rebel ramp". He and the locals there
ripped with a FULL-ON "roots" style. Go fast and grind 'em hard.
Reggae music would play all the time and after getting "proper",
the session would begin. There is no doubt that we brought the "Rebel Ramp"
culture back to Michigan with us as all we skated to after that was reggae music.
Ok .. so Dave and I stop at a gas station in Georgetown, South
Carolina, Al's home town, and gave him a call on the phone to
let him know we were there. In no time a car load of skaters
grinning from ear to ear pull up! Even though it was our first
meeting in person, I felt like we were old friends who hadn't
seen each other in a long time.
So cool! .. its all good and we head back to Al's place. As soon as we get there a session begins. The best way to get to know people is to skate with 'em. And session we did. All those cats could rip. It was cool. Al's parents, Ray and Peggy. VERY nice folks. Ray kept us in beer and Peggy cooked for us all the time. Southern Hospitality was in FULL effect.
We would spend the heat of the day at Pawley's Island. Always a party
going on there. Jumping into the Ocean was an experience!
'especially with the various skate related abrasions that we all
had. Every rasberry, ramp burn and road rash would burn HARD
from the salty water. A true "cleansing" one might say. Another place we hit up was a local ditch/water thing they called "the bowl". That place was RAD! Lines all over and plenty of room.
Anyway... I could go on and on as I have a few stories I could tell about that crew. ;-) I will come back and add more words..but I couldn't wait any longer to get these pix online.---Wes
al spent some time in ann arbor around 1989? andrecht at the babylon ramp
al in his backyard - rebel ramp channelplant
a more recent al at NMB
al andrechts at home - rebel rampfrontside alal's first ramp - 1982al grinds at ramphouseal flows at rasta
ollie to grinds are sooo fine
al's signature tuck knee invert
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dave tuck channels in babylon
dave spent some time in georgetown
