RCrobar Posted July 30, 2016 Report Share Posted July 30, 2016 (edited) Hello This thread could also be titled Love Letters to Skateboarding - by Jeff Grosso. If you haven't seen this YouTube skateboarding series sponsored by Vans, give it a look as it will be a trip down memory lane for many boarders of a certain vintage on this site; maybe you too were lucky enough to have parents that let you build an ARC sized ramp in your backyard! The ramp episodes really hit home for me. The young skateshop owners here in my hometown had heard of the 'Letters' but hadn't sat down to watch them, I encouraged them to do so. I think that those of you who are not into skateboarding at all might still find the boarding history lesson of obscure facts interesting as well. If you have the time, I would love to see pictures of the oldschool, or present day, vert riding. Enjoy the rest of your summer. Cheers Rob Edited July 30, 2016 by RCrobar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Gendzwill Posted July 31, 2016 Report Share Posted July 31, 2016 (edited) Me,1985-ish. Edited August 1, 2016 by Neil Gendzwill 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCrobar Posted August 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2016 Great picture Neil. Here I am about the same time period. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big mario Posted August 1, 2016 Report Share Posted August 1, 2016 (edited) Nice Neil! Takes me back to my delinquent days! Way back in '77, my skate rat friends and I decided we needed a half pipe just like all of those cool kids in Cali and skate magazines had. We hot wired my friends fathers 63 dodge pickup and raided a bunch of jobsites, roadside signs, gathering any plywood and all 2x's we could find. We found a spot in the south jersey woods and built our ramp, and had a blast for about a month, until one of us ( I suspect Wally) found the property owners pot plants, and decided to harvest all of them( dumbass, take a little at a time!) and opened his mouth to some of the other snot nosed punks in the hood. I went to skate after school one day, and our ramp was mobbed with about 20 or so kids. I knew then it was over. We where soon found out and booted, but damn, it was beyond awesome while it lasted. I miss that Ramp. Unfortunately, no pics of our backwoods halfpipe exist that I know of, only memories mario Edited August 1, 2016 by big mario 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Gendzwill Posted August 1, 2016 Report Share Posted August 1, 2016 Nice invert Rob, never could get the hang of those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corey Posted August 1, 2016 Report Share Posted August 1, 2016 Cool pics guys! My talent level on a skateboard never matched my love of it. But that didn't stop me and some buddies from making a 6' high, 12' wide halfpipe in a barn in the late 80's. I rode it on a skateboard, rollerblades, and a BMX over a few years. I tried to get fancy with an elliptical radius and made it way too tight at the top. It gave you a hell of a kick in the last couple feet before the coping, and not in a good way. It was pretty terrifying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Gendzwill Posted August 1, 2016 Report Share Posted August 1, 2016 My dad helped me build my ramp. It had 8' transitions, 2' of vert and was 8' wide. At first there was no flat and it was just way too hard to get yourself sorted out from wall to wall, but then we saw a flat-bottom design in a magazine and added 4' in the middle, much better. It also had chicken wire board catchers at the corners. What a monstrosity, I still can't believe they let me build it or that the neighbours stood for all the noise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lordmetroland Posted August 1, 2016 Report Share Posted August 1, 2016 14 hours ago, big mario said: We hot wired my friends fathers 63 dodge pickup and raided a bunch of jobsites, roadside signs, gathering any plywood and all 2x's we could find. Outstanding! That was some punk rock s*** before punk rock. If "Born to Run" plays any role in this story, feel free to preserve the illusion by leaving that part out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big mario Posted August 1, 2016 Report Share Posted August 1, 2016 1 hour ago, lordmetroland said: Outstanding! That was some punk rock s*** before punk rock. If "Born to Run" plays any role in this story, feel free to preserve the illusion by leaving that part out. No born to run, more like the tail end of my kiss years, which is embarrassing enough 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Brammer aka PSR Posted August 2, 2016 Report Share Posted August 2, 2016 (edited) OMG, Neil, that's an UncleWiggley under your feet!! Damn, loved those boards! Unbreakable, great concave, and the killer double'kinked tail. I saw Ian Spiro take Burnham's Wiggley, first try, and totally own an Ollie Impossible at my (and Jeff Webster's) indoor ramp Quonset-hut in Pomphret (about 4 miles from S-6 Ski-hill) because of that tail. Akeena Pickett used KTB's Wiggley for a few weeks after he destroyed his SC Slasher (I still have the Air-Tech, foam-core variant, used it last week, even!) in tromping on my ramp. My ramp; Built first in late '84, in my yard in Reading, Vt., was 8 ft. wide, and had 3'-8" of flat with a 7'-8' graduated arc (sorry, the math is beyond me, but my Dad, an engineer, made the curve; PERFECTLY!, btw!). It got moved, in sections, to Webster's alcove in the next summer. I went to college, in AZ for 2 yrs. Summers were great, though, as my ramp was inside, and lightly used by only locals. We widened it's flat, rebuilt one half, and made it two 1/4 pipes in '86. After Webster moved on (Post College), I packed it all up, put it in my barn in Perkinsville. Re-assembled, now with a dedicated flat section of 6'-6", but still only 8' wide, and slower, PVC Black coping, it was a great 'rainy-day' spot to sk8, up thru early '96. However, my wife then had other plans, more schooling over in Albany, so i had to rent out the house, which meant the Ramp had to go... [Sniff, whine,,grin..] So, I sold it to a local township as a center-piece for their skatepark. It didn't come back down until 2006. When I build stuff, I mean it to last! It gave two solid decades of skating to the various locals. I'd list Names, but it's pointless. My area was, as they said back in the early days of the USAF, a "target rich environment". .. I hooked a few.. Edited August 2, 2016 by Eric Brammer aka PSR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Gendzwill Posted August 2, 2016 Report Share Posted August 2, 2016 Tony Magnussen model, one of my favourites. Motobilt trucks, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCrobar Posted August 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2016 (edited) Hello My parents were so patient and supportive, but in no way builders! I discovered that I had an interest in building via the desire to ride vert! A P.O.S. Black and Decker jig and skill saw, a few dull blades, some graph paper and I, with the help of 2 or 3 buddies, built the backyard arc in the summer of 1978. The October 1977 issue of SkateBoarder had an article called, 'On The Rampage: How to Build Your Own Ramp. The ramp in the magazine had 10' transitions, drawn with a string ... so that is what I did. After the dust settled, flat was added, etc., the Ramp was 8' wide, had 10' transitions with a foot of vert on one side and 3 feet on the other and eventually 8 feet of flat. I didn't have room for two platforms at the top, so the platform side hung over the fence and 4' in to the alley way and the 3' of vert went up the back of a garage. I don't think I had a building permit:) .... some pretty fantastic memories for sure! Cheers Rob Edited August 2, 2016 by RCrobar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCrobar Posted October 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2016 Chin Ramp - 30 years later. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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