Who is the first Pro you met?

[Donkey Lips]

heath, andrew, dollin and mark appleyard at a birdhouse demo.  heath was scary as shit.  super nice guy, not like any of the shit people say about him today.  andrew's first emerica shoe was about to come out and he was wearing a prototype that he was showing.

appleyard ran out of product to give away and started giving kids cd's out of the van.

dollin was drunk (1999) and bigspin flipped a gap but then fell trying to ollie up a ledge.  spent most of the day chewing on a straw and PD'ing kids shirts.  i remember looking at that logo on a tie-dye shirt and thinking it would never take off...

[Canuck]

Stevie Williams, Mike York and Rudy Johnson at the chocolate tour around 1999-2000ish. All the other dudes were there but, I was really afraid to approach MC or Rickk.

In a sidenote, Rickk was wearing the "I <3 NY" hat from "being john malkovich" at the demo.

[Guile]

chris haslam. i would see him every morning with orange julius at the richmond park and he would roll up at like 9 in the morning and warm up with pivot fakies on the spine and bigspin flip front boards on the flat rail, and anytime he saw one of us little scumbags with a messed up board he would hook us up right away. always a real cool guy.

[Stinky Wizzleteets]

Todd Conglierre at Visalia Skate Camp in 1990

[Uncle John]

I met Matt Rodriguez five years back at an I-Path signing. Chillest dude.

[Baby Gerber]

Muska, The tightest experience ever.

[Upgrayedd]

first pros i met were fred gall, pops, jason dill, and a few others at stratosphere in atlanta, they were touring for mosaic. All those dudes were nice as hell. two weeks later i saw the Zero team at x-games skatepark. And ISUCK, thanks again for all those stickers. I still get stoked thinking about it.

[bumpnrun]

TFerg when he was shop sponsored before he was on Real or Plan B or Girl, 1988ish.

[Chris P. Bacon]

willy santos at carlsbad park, and warner ave crew at huntington park, young reynolds was so dope

[max power]

probably chad bartie

[alienlurkshop]

danny way & caine gayle

[whiteley]

dave crabb. what!

[FROST YOUR TIPS]

Colin McKay, he is the dopest dude alive.

[east is in the house]

I met bam margera and his cronies walking around west chester PA in the midst of their CKY fame. bam's girl was with them too, this was in the middle of february and my friends and I were just checking out west chester for spots, bam offered to tell us about some places to skate in west chester so we went and got a bite to eat at some diner and he drew a bunch of maps on the back of the diner's placemats for us. pretty cool memoriabilia, I wish I didn't throw out the maps after getting to each spot.

I've only been to two demos, and I don't really count those situations as 'meeting' people. Both times I tried to fuck around with some of the guys skating, ie flashing a focus cover in dylan rieder's face and telling him he needed to emulate the dude on the cover (ryan nix).

I ran into harold and billy rohan in the middle of december in NYC...this was about a month or two before harold's death. My friend and I were waiting on some weed on a corner, and out of no where I hear a 'heyy you guys wanna skate around with us?' and turn around to see the puggy face of harold hunter. It had to be 30 degrees, but never the less we skated around st. marks and the village with rohan and harold, just riding around the streets looking for 'nug spots' and dicking around. as they were about to leave, harold grabbed some tees, sweatshirts and pants from rohan's backpack and gave them to us, as well as cell phone number to 'come hangout and watch some videos, maybe skate some more.' if I wasn't an out of towner I would have hopped on this opportunity; but that night alone was fucking sick on its own.

[ZipZinger]

danny garcia

[Donkey Lips]

I've only been to two demos, and I don't really count those situations as 'meeting' people. Both times I tried to fuck around with some of the guys skating, ie flashing a focus cover in dylan rieder's face and telling him he needed to emulate the dude on the cover (ryan nix).

you sure you didnt flash a cover of cosmo in his face, cause he's emulating that shit pretty well

[Fongstarr.]

Muska, The tightest experience ever.

I met the whole Circa team on one of the first couch tours that Zumiez put up and yeah, Muska was just a cool ass dude. He had messed up ankle too and didn't skate but the guy was just hyped to see people there. I met Appleyard, Ramendetta (he was a nobody back then), Blodsoe (dude was a little tike on Element), Caswell, Lenny Rivas, Colt Cannon, and some other people I can't remember.

[sergioflorez]

enrique lorenzo in medellin for the monkey stix tour.

[Hobochilli]

Jason Lee and Mike Vallely in 89 i think.

[McCly]

Johnny Layton, Billy Marks and Josh Harmony at a Toy Machine demo. J Lay and Josh Harmony were super-nice, but Billy Marks was a fucking dick to everyone.

[carbonite]

Quim...but I don't think he was pro at the time...so Ryan Hickey

[Bugs]

Scott Yamamura

[MexicanSpaniard]

Jason Lee and Mike Vallely in 89 i think.

Hobo Tour, Jesse Martinez didn't bother to show up.

[yeah dude!]

chris haslam. i would see him every morning with orange julius at the richmond park and he would roll up at like 9 in the morning and warm up with pivot fakies on the spine and bigspin flip front boards on the flat rail, and anytime he saw one of us little scumbags with a messed up board he would hook us up right away. always a real cool guy.

I used to see him at Richmond every time I'd go there and he's always kiiiiiiiiilll it.

[projectBNE]

Lee Ralph in 1989.  He was chilling at our local park talking to the shop guy.  We (very nervously) asked him 'Are you Lee Ralph?' to which he replied 'Yeah, bro!' Haha... We were stoked.  Autograhs all round.

[the hips dont lie]

Lee Ralph in 1989.  He was chilling at our local park talking to the shop guy.  We (very nervously) asked him 'Are you Lee Ralph?' to which he replied 'Yeah, bro!' Haha... We were stoked.  Autograhs all round.

yeah i met him when i was about 12 he was skating my local park .i also met chris cole at a circa demo back in his world days

[Chris Partlow]

In like 2000 i was 10 yrs old at skater island and this kid was doing the craziest shit i had ever seen in person. I asked him what his name was if he was sponsored, all that stuff. so for years i thought this kids name was Zar but i later learned it was zered. that was before he was pro though.

the first pros i ever met were vanik hacobian, and joey pepper. my friends dad did all the fencing at this giant indoor park so we got in on all the sessions when we were 12 yrs old. i remember being so psyched that i met a pro and i started telling my friends i snaked vanik, but it was just a lie to spice up the story.

[floop]

i met Ray Barbee at a coffee shop in Newport Beach, probably around 1992-93..   that was when coffee shops were first becoming popular around these parts..   i was already not skating (i stopped skating for a loooong time, don't ask me why).  i recognized him and asked if he was Ray Barbee, and said i "used to skate".  felt like a douchebag for saying that
anyway, he was really cool.  just how you'd imagine.  even though i wasn't skating anymore i was in awe of being around a skate legend.  always one of my faves from 'back in the day'..

the last pro i met was Jason Lee who, until recently, lived literally around the corner from me.  i always tried not to bother him since he's a big star and all, and it's where he fucking lives, but i did strike up a convo with him when i was walking my dog and he was out front with his dog Lester.  scientology or no scientology, Jason Lee is a cool motherfucker

[Commercial D]

[shredorbread]

I met bam margera and his cronies walking around west chester PA in the midst of their CKY fame. bam's girl was with them too, this was in the middle of february and my friends and I were just checking out west chester for spots, bam offered to tell us about some places to skate in west chester so we went and got a bite to eat at some diner and he drew a bunch of maps on the back of the diner's placemats for us. pretty cool memoriabilia, I wish I didn't throw out the maps after getting to each spot.

I've only been to two demos, and I don't really count those situations as 'meeting' people. Both times I tried to fuck around with some of the guys skating, ie flashing a focus cover in dylan rieder's face and telling him he needed to emulate the dude on the cover (ryan nix).

I ran into harold and billy rohan in the middle of december in NYC...this was about a month or two before harold's death. My friend and I were waiting on some weed on a corner, and out of no where I hear a 'heyy you guys wanna skate around with us?' and turn around to see the puggy face of harold hunter. It had to be 30 degrees, but never the less we skated around st. marks and the village with rohan and harold, just riding around the streets looking for 'nug spots' and dicking around. as they were about to leave, harold grabbed some tees, sweatshirts and pants from rohan's backpack and gave them to us, as well as cell phone number to 'come hangout and watch some videos, maybe skate some more.' if I wasn't an out of towner I would have hopped on this opportunity; but that night alone was fucking sick on its own.

wow, sounds epic