Comments on: It’s official: Skateboard week in Vancouver

By: Friday Fun: Extreme Skipping

Friday Fun: Extreme Skipping — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:04:01 +0000

[...] at Matador Sports, we profile all sorts of extreme sports, from the conventional to the up-and-coming. So let us be the first to introduce you to the newest, most adventurous of [...]

By: Carlo

Carlo — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:25:43 +0000

Sweet, DaveO. I’ve actually seen people playing this before, I think it was at Sunset Beach (English Bay)…down on Beach Ave. Thanks!

By: DaveO

DaveO — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:27:07 +0000

Thanks for the article and using my photo from the Coquitlam skate park. Growing up in Whalley, i did some street skating to get around but now i take my kid to the skate parks far and wide since we live in North Van.

You might enjoy a few a artifacts from a mixed media story piece i did about LongBoard Hockey League:

http://feasthouse.wordpress.com/2007/04/03/longbord-hockey-article-in-heads-magazine/

By: Carlo

Carlo — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:53:09 +0000

I remembered the deck! It’s a Mark “Gonz” Gonzales…made by VIsion. And you can get a complete setup through Amazon for $69 – http://www.amazon.com/VISION-Skateboards-RE-ISSUE-Complete-SKATEBOARD/dp/B00210O4KE

By: Baxter

Baxter — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:59:02 +0000

We’ve come a long way, baby.

These little whipper snappers today don’t know how hard we had it way back when we had to skate through snow uphill (both ways) just to hit a launch ramp! (See the pic of Carlo if you don’t believe me).

‘Go Skateboarding Day’ is not only in Vancouver, it’s in in Abu Dhabi, UAE every year (really is global now). Still, in the neighboring Sultanate of Oman, when I skate to the store from my villa to the store or to the sheesha cafe, I get the same incredulous looks I did when I was a kid back in the ’80′s.

By: Carlo Alcos

Carlo Alcos — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:31:39 +0000

Thanks guys…by the way, that little guy is my nephew. He was 2 there I think. He’s now about a foot taller than me.

This was a fun piece to write, there’s nothing like going down memory lane. I only have fond memories of my skateboarding days. A few years ago I bought a setup, just for fun, and would go to the parking lot and bust a couple of moves, a kickflip here, grind there…then I went with a friend to a skatepark, fell and remembered how hard concrete was. That was about it for me.

I’m trying to remember the name of the board I’m riding here. I have the graphic clear in my head, but the name is escaping me. My favourite deck was a Natas Kaupas mini (SMA if I remember right), and the last deck, which I snapped in half, was a Ray Barbee.

By: Carlo Alcos

Carlo Alcos — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:25:39 +0000

Hal, bloody brilliant idea.

By: Hal

Hal — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:06:13 +0000

I second that–this is great.

I’m a big fan of the photo too. I smell a new photo essay…The Way We Were: The Matador Team in the 80s.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:42:03 +0000

Carlo- I loved this piece and the photo especially!

By: Ferd

Ferd — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:32:22 +0000

Ahh, yes, the Walnut grove ramp! Is that a young Animal Chin in the background?