when i got my first skateboard of my own (i shared a McGill with three friends for a year or so first), it was the original Vision Mark Gonzales, and that fucker was white (painted), with all of the neon colors on it, it had neon pink Vision Shredder Wheels, neon pink rails, and shiny white Gullwings on it. brand new that thing fucking glowed, it radiated “brand new” into the air, and i’d be lying if i denied the fact that i couldn’t get myself to seriously skate it for at least a few weeks after getting my hands on it.
i bought it from a wind-surf shop (yep, we’re talking the inner-ring suburbs of Detroit here) called Coastline Styles, which was the only place to buy boards in the early to mid-1980s on the east side of the Detroit area.
Endless Summer was the concrete skatepark in the area, which had been jackhammered not too long before i started, and the locals included Bill Ferguson (rode for Veriflex and Losi, and owns K-ZOO), Bill Tocco, Ward Cramer (RIP), Bud Burcar (i know i’m spelling some of these wrong), Bill Danforth, and Chris “OP” Moore (rode for Powell, drummer for Negative Approach), and Dave-O (who probably designed the whole thing as well as the "9-Bowl" which has made it into a few videos).
after Endless Summer got jackhammered, the above pillars of Michigan skateboarding (and others) built a half-pipe in Bud’s backyard, and it was called the Dude Ramp. pretty standard for the time, the dimensions being i think about 8- to 9-feet and about a foot of vert--they ended up building a 4-foot mini across the flat (way before its time), that actually had a photo in Thrasher at one point, back when it was still newsprint.
when i bought the above board, there were flyers on the counter of Coastline Styles for a halfpipe contest at the Dude Ramp--and yes, this was in Bud’s parents’ backyard (which was a bit of a field), and it was a typical Midwest ramp contest in the early 1980s, where people slept in the cars and shit. i know for a fact Brian Mank from Ohio was there, who is a legend from the Midwest.
i was like 12 or 13 at the time, and got my mom to drop me off the morning of the contest (shit was like 10 miles from my house), with a couple of punk rock girls i was friends with, who had mohawks that required insane amounts of AquaNet--basically we just got stranded for the day, not knowing how out of place we really were. we were the only pre-teens there, so we already stood out, but the biggest thing was, you could literally see my brand new Vision Mark Gonzales complete--with all of the neon colors on it--from every point in the field/area...the fucking thing was the brightest, shiniest thing in the whole scene, the whole day...
...which i thought was sick, at the time. but at one point, some older hessian dude (representative of the time, we could smell his knee pads from feet away, and the tops of his shoes were covered in duct tape from knee-sliding out of shit all day) walks by and says something like: “is that fucking thing brand new, fucking skate it man.” i remember looking at his board, which was of course skated, and tore up, and thinking, “what’s that guy talking about, his board’s all fucked up, mine’s way sweeter.”
i also had one of those iconic JFA stickers on the top, between the two pieces of grip, which i thought was the coolest shit in the world, until I remember quite vividly Bill Tocco walking up and going: “What’s JFA stand for, just another fucking attitude?”
there was so much going on beyond the limited scope of my horizons at that early point, and none of the hazing got to me at all...i was too fucking excited about skateboarding and the world in and of it...a doomed love affair, as it were, that is funny to sit here and reflect on and write about, nearly 40 years later...
(edit: had to include Dave-O, because he probably designed the Dude Ramp and he definitely designed the 9-Bowl, where i've personally skated with the Habitat team at and Joe Brook and lots of other priceless skaters who i've been fortunate enough to cross paths with)