|
|
OSS Sponsors
Want to see
|
|
Interview and Gallery from John O'Malley, surfer, skater and skatepark builder
I didn't know much about John O'Malley until I received an incredible gallery of photo's from him. After doing a little research I discovered that John was one of the creator's of the now legendary Carlsbad skatepark, considered to be the first concrete skatepark ever built. John and his partner Jack Graham created some of the epic skateparks of the 70's. He was cool enough to answer a few questions for me and allow me to post his gallery (at the end of the interview) All photo's are property of the creators and may not be used without prior consent. Can you talk a little about skateboarding in that era and what your entry point to it all was? My entry point was to practice for surfing. After learning about "sidewalk surfing" I immediately had my dad make me a skateboard, I remember that the board he made for me was better than those 2x4's with skates nailed on the bottom; the deck was wider and thinner. Then I got a "Shark" for the following Christmas -- that was one scary little death toy: a tiny red thing with metal wheels and stamped trucks that I could barely get my feet on, but store bought and so we supposed better. Emilio's Surf & Ski started carrying factory-made Hobies and I rode the Hobie fiberglass model exclusively after that. It was like a real professional, precision tool after shaky metal wheel boards. Later, the classic fiberglass Z-Flex boards were modeled after those Hobies. Long Island is really flat but, we'd skate at Salisbury Park (now Eisenhower Park). It had hills with brand new, asphalt trails running through the woods down to a lake and it also had an outdoor roller rink made with smooth composite concrete. So I had the skatepark concept from the beginning. I rode around on these great little trails that ran through the trees and did freestyle on this super-smooth skate rink and it all seemed perfect & very natural and I got the idea for the skatepark setting and the fine-tuned concrete was planted then. From there I just began designing skating environments in my mind. The pretense was: if my dad was rich I'd... Also, during the winter we'd build bobsled runs that we rode standup on our Snurfers (early snowboards). If there's a way to get a centrifugal buzz - you can pretty much count me in. The organized skateboard scene in NY in the early '60s was the annual championships at Salisbury Park. They had 2 events freestyle and stick jumping. The stick jumping thing I never got hang of get but between fellow gremmies Mark Herd, Jimmy Gough & myself, we'd would trade off taking first second or third place in those contests. I continued to skateboard all through high school and when one of my friends began driving we started cruising around the North Shore of Long Island looking for hills and interesting terrain. We found a paved a embankment behind this tenement building in Glen Cove that we name Black Death Hill and began riding the bank turn much like they rode the school banks in CA in the 70's. It had kind of a gnarly surface had a steep-drop banked turn bowl and a run out onto a busy street. That took lot of nerve, we'd never seen anyone ride banks before, but it was winter & we were strung out for surf so we did it and that was really a breakthrough.
What do you do these days? I surf in Monmouth County NJ with some of the nicest people I've ever met. I'm Creative Director for the Musical Heritage Society. And I have 2 dogs that I run, swim & surf with. Once in a while I publish a piece in Surfer's Journal. You were like 19 or something when you started building skateparks, including the first of them all, Carlsbad. There wasn't any pre-existing models to work from, what was that like? Some good models actually had presented themselves. The Escondido
bowl the Valley Center bowl. Drainage ditches. The paved, banked schoolyards
that the Dogtown guys began on. Inspiration was also drawn from bobsled
runs, water slides and a particular concrete slide in a park in Solana
Beach that we waxed smooth and rode on rugs. Pools and half pipes
came later Fate really smiled on our feral little group of ex-pat Montauk refugees when she placed us next door to the Graham family in Leucadia and the story of how Jack came to live next to me instead of Sitka, Alaska is an incredible tale of an innocent American family set upon by shipwrecks, pirates, drug smugglers, with appearances by Jacques Costaeu and jeez, it's probably a better story than the skatepark story. Jack was a guy who saw solutions not problems, so after a news report about skateboarders getting arrested in a San Diego parking garage he asked every surfer he knew (the 3 guys I lived with) about skateboarding and soon came walking into our yard and said, "John they say that you're the best skateboarder around" Blissfully unaware that Bruce Logan lived a few blocks away I replied, "Yeah I am, what's up?" He told me his idea for some kind of rink or place for skateboarders to go and I said, "I know EXACLY what it should look like, count me in" and the game was on. And oh -- among his myriad of talents: Jack was also a grading contractor.
What was your favorite park that you built and how many did you build? We built Carlsbad, Concrete Wave in Anaheim, Shady Acres in Long Beach, Skatepark Goleta that was built but never opened. But we also designed about 6 others and nursed them through development and approval, which was very time consuming. In the space of just under 2 years, we built or blue printed every skating form that is commonly seen today. Carlsbad has to be my favorite project. Because it was simple and organic, close to home and extremely diverse. The beginner’s area was very skateable, safe and lots of fun and it worked. We added the dual slalom runs for the World Contest in 1977 and then Mogul Maze a while after. . To be sure it's not the best Skate park ever built, but It was a very complete and unique skating environment look at the Moguls, they contain everything you'd want & a lot of things that haven't been seen since. What do you think about it now, where there's amazing skateparks popping up everywhere? It's really does my heart good, especially after the bad old years of the 80's when skateparks looked like they were going to be soggy plywood ramps.
When was the last time you skated? I've never stopped -- I always use a street slalom board as a primary mode of transportation particularly at Ditch Plains for surf checks. It's the best way to train when the surf is flat and I'd use it to get around in NYC sometimes. But if you mean riding skateparks, I started again 2 years ago. They opened a great municipal park made of composite ramps about a mile from my house. I stopped there after it opened and I thought, "hell, they're meeting me half way here I can't have a nice little skatepark so close and not ride it." Coincidently just as I this happened, I was speaking with Miki Vukovitch from the Tony Hawk Foundation and they sent me a Peralta retro deck. Thanks to Miki & Tony for that. There's also this super-sweet little concrete municipal park in Sayreville that I go to -- it's really well done with lights & the whole deal.
In a battle to the death, Superman or the Hulk? Green Lantern Is there anybody out there that you feel is important to skateboarding that never got their due credit? A partial list of the under credited in no particular order: Warren Bolster, Dave Dominey, Di Dootson, Kenny Means, Jack Graham, Bobby Turner, Tommy Ryan; Bobby Piercy, Di Dootson, Jay Shurman, Lance Smith, Bill Bahne; Steve Pezman, John Malvino; Ty Page, Paul St. Pierre. Look at Dave Dominy for instance. He had the original idea and design for Tracker Trucks and that is just massive. Every skateboard since essentially rides on a copy of that design. Also David built the first warptailed skateboard -- I was there when the first batch came back from the cabinetmaker in San Diego. So take away the graphics and the griptape and drop Dave a note saying thanks.
That is one huge Afro that Larry Bertleman's got there don't you think? Do you know him? He's got a new board out now along with a lot of older guys, I like that there's some history in the mainstream again now. I was very lucky to meet a lot of really great surfers like Larry. I became friends with a few, like Rory Russell I worked with Dale Dobson. But Gerry Lopez showed up by himself one day to skate...that was very cool. I don't see how skateboarding will every acquire the history lesson that surfing has received from Steve Pezman & Surfers Journal. I would like to thank you John, and everyone who came before me in skateboarding that built the bridges that we walk across every time we go to a skatepark. Is there anyone you would like to thank? Warren Bolster, Jack Graham, Tony Hawk, Fate John O'Malley GalleryJohn O'Malley's been sitting on a personal collection of some of the most interesting slides & prints from the early days of skateboarding that we've ever seen. He showed some to us and they really blew our minds, so we decided to put them up. This Gallery will also be featured in the Gallery section of this site. "I took a lot of photos during the early 70's but was also
given a ton of outstanding slides and prints by some of the best photographers
of the day. My archive begins in 1975 at La Costa. I love having these
shots; I think I might have the most diverse private archive covering
the early skate scene outside of a magazine back file. I had a fire
burn down my house & studio in 1998 but luckily, this stuff survived
with minor damage.
|
||
