Lee Ralph stories?
Of course so, dumbass.
Lee Ralph turns up in my scene from time to time, usually when there’s skate or art events. Never seen him skate, but he sometimes puts his wood carvings in skater group exhibitions, usually traditional Maori Tikis carved into wood, bone, old boards, or whatever else he comes across. As a person, he’s pretty much what you’d imagine – humble, loud, friendly, always has a huge smile full of jacked teeth, and looks like he just walked out of the bush. I don’t know if any of the younger cats in the scene know who he is. All the old heads tribe up together at big skate events and drink beer and laugh hysterically together the whole time – not in an exclusive or elitist way or anything, they’re always keen to bro down with us whipper snappers, you can just sense the stoke in their reunion and wanna let the OGs vibe with each other. Must be a wild time catching up with lifelong homies that you only see a few times a year at that age. Most of the older local cats are pretty tight with him (though I’m sure a lot of them talk it up a bit, whatever, good on em) and love telling Lee stories to the young bucks. I couldn’t count the amount of times I’ve heard an OG say, ‘First you hear him, then you smell him, then you see him’ before laughing hysterically.
Best Lee Ralph story I got is the first time I met him. It was at a show my friend put on at a bar for her clothing brand. My role in the show was a ‘Creep’ – her brand has a kind of horror aesthetic (monsters and ghosts and shit) so as part of the show she had me and a few other homies wearing monster/demon/ghoul masks and weird costumes and wander around the show being weirdos and trying to freak people out (there was no central lighting in the bar, just random discordant coloured lights flashing so it was a bit spooky). I took acid that night for obvious reasons.
At some point in the night, I spotted a yeti with no shoes, bald head, and a massive beard, wearing a shredded singlet and board shorts (dunno if that’s a kiwi slang). I suspected it was Lee Ralph. The main demographic there skaters and artists, so it would make sense if he was there. I pointed him out to my friend who was running the show and told her that I was pretty sure he was a legendary pro skater back in the day. To my surprise, she said, ‘Yeah that’s Lee. I used to live with him.’
He seemed pretty approachable so I went and introduced myself to him. I was tripping pretty hard and kept forgetting I had a mask on until people reacted to it, but Lee didn’t react to it at all so I immediately forgot. He was exactly the kind of person you want to meet on acid. Warm, laughed a lot, super talkative but also gave of the vibe that he was stoked to be talking to you. Like he had a full conversation a stranger wearing a demon mask like it was completely normal. I’d describe his presence as ‘earthy’ (bit hippy I know, but describes him well) and excitable, with the kind of breathless voice people sometimes get when they’re astonished, like a loud whisper. Very connected too – I wasn’t very articulate by then, but he always seemed to know what I was trying to say.
- Just thought of this before I posted: Imagine John Cardiel’s breathless voice describing Tony Trujillo in Sight Unseen (I think) but with a kiwi accent and you’ve got Lee’s voice when he’s excited (If you don’t know the kiwi accent, imagine a really tired aussie)
I can’t remember the conversation too well, but a few things stick out. When I told him I was on acid, he said something like, ‘Oh, that’s good,’ which I found quite funny. Like didn’t say it like ‘oh cool’ or ‘crazy’ or anything like that. Just that it was good. Hard to explain, but the way he said it came across like, ‘I should think so. I was beginning to worry that you weren’t, so thank you for clearing that up,’ or like, ‘Good boy. You’ve made the right choice.’ I probably did a terrible job explaining that but I’m grinning to myself right now remembering it. Fuck off it was funny.
Another thing he said that I found interesting was when we got talking about a mutual friend that Lee had seen recently and who I hadn’t seen in a long time. When I asked how he the friend was doing, Lee nodded enthusiastically and said, ‘He’s good. Good in the body,’ then did a strange pose with his whole body, sort of like a statue, ‘And good in the eyes,’ and he opened his eyes wide while making eye contact with me (dunno if I mentioned but he expresses a lot with his eyes). As strange as that all sounds, I understood exactly what he meant, and the way he expressed it was perfect for how my mind was working at the time. And, to me, it really embodies his unique way of communicating.
I’ve Seen him a bunch of times since then, but most of the stories aren’t that interesting. Just a good dude who always seems happy to give me a bit of his time. He also remembered me the second time we met, which is pretty impressive considering I was wearing a mask. Another time he randomly turned up at the bowl at my local park and drank beer with us while trying to coach us, which was awesome. But yeah, overall, solid ass dude with no ego and a lot of stoke.
Topic: Encounters with Pro Skaters (Read 203209 times)