#like I know the pic was about chris skateboarding but it was a pic including buck like there was nothing more natural

[buckera]

I don't think we talk enough about Eddie sharing pics of Buck on his insta

[skatingmadwoman]

Skate-Stopped #2

This week I got to interview Matt @mattattack711, a skater from Arizona that wanted to share his skate story, and his perspective of skating in the wild west. He has a great blog, so give him a follow! If you would like to share your story as well, send me a message!

How long have you been skating for?

I’ve been skating for nearly 9 years now. It’s something that’s always been around my life but finally took action when I was a sophomore.

That's great! What made you want to start skating?

I used to watch jack ass all the time and my cousins and I would make up our own stunts and it kind of evolved from there. I took it a little more serious when I was in high school because of a lot of home and personal issues. It kept me from trouble and just losing my mind. It really saved my life.

I can relate to that! Jackass made us all go out and do dumb things with our cousins. I'm glad to hear that skating kept you in a good place despite those issues. Do you think people outside of skateboarding underestimate how much of an escape and good influence skating is?

Definitely. People are quick to judge and because it’s not a school sport or something parents have in mind for their kid, makes skating just a “hobby” but obviously it’s something way bigger than that. Now it’s influencing everything, including clothes and music.

You're so right, it is much bigger than that. I think a lot of parents think skating will turn their kids into delinquents, when it's keeping them away from that. It really has influenced so many things, do you think skating is growing?

I think it’s at its peak in this generation. Having skating on a bunch of platforms from the internet really is changing skating and how we see it in it’s all. People are getting crazier and creative with skating. One day you can see some 12-year-old doing a hippie jump bigger spin and the next some dude gapping off a 3-story roof. At the same time, I think businesses who would never invest into skating are now taking advantage of the whole thing and ripping off original ideas for skateboarding by skateboarders.

That's true, internet and social media have brought out the creativity of so many people. Especially the YouTube skaters who are trying to outdo each other every day. Do you think the rise of bigger brands like Nike and Adidas, who have recently broke into the skating market, are ruining the DIY aspect of skating or do you think they are reaching a larger audience?

I have always backed Adidas because of their team. Nike is the world’s top athletic attire and isn’t a surprise when they showed up to the game around 2005. But again, both brands are like I said taking the original ideas and making it their own. Perfect example is the rubber toe cap which was introduced by HUF, then domino affect with everybody else like New Balance.

It's almost like a love/hate relationship with these types of brands for those reasons. I would've personally never known about the toe cap thing because the market is so saturated with that design. But all the people who are on those teams deserve the recognition that those brands can produce. Back to you though, you've mentioned to me before that you are from Arizona, how is skating like where you are from?

Being next to California has brought a lot of their vibe over to AZ. A lot of pros come over for the ditches and the crusty spots all over since the 90s. At first, I didn’t know how skating in a place where everything is flat ground and you have to make the best to what you’ve got but then I saw A Happy Medium, which is a crew of local AZ skaters killing it all over where I was living which made me the street skater I am today. I occasionally go to the parks with my friends just to mess around. Nothing serious. I guess the thing that stands Arizona out from everywhere else is that you are skating in 115-degree weather, but hey that’s the Wild West for you! Haha! Az has definitely left its mark in skating. Already have a bunch of locals getting big sponsorships and so far to my knowledge 4 pros came from here and the others are on the rise.

I had no idea that Arizona was an escape for Cali skaters. Are there many parks or is it mostly street/ditch skating? I've heard of A Happy Medium! Jaws was in a couple of those right? It bet it was an eye opener to what you could achieve there. Skating seems much more doable when the skaters and the spots are so relatable. I can't image skating in that type of weather, it'll get 85 here and I'm already like nope, especially on the metal ramps. That's incredible, do you have a favorite AZ skater who influences you the most?

There’s parks, all pretty fun but you know... scooters. Personally, nothing beats street skating though. Yes, that’s how jaws got his start. He’s in all 4 AHM videos and I’ve personally met him when he first got on asphalt and even have a tattoo of one of his graphics. One of his teammates from birdhouse took a pic of it and was with Chris Haslem at a local park and I was fortunate enough to skate with them. Very good day. I’d say the man who really got me into skating has to be Chad Muska. Local legend for sure

Oh, so he is one of your inspirations too! Wow just surrounded by legends, what was it like skating with them? Muska is such a good choice, he's an icon!

I have so many, but he is defiantly apart of it. But ever since I started skating I’ve met so many people and been able to call them my friends and the people who help us skating. Skating with them was very humbling and fortunate experience. I was just letting them skate and they were also filming for a bones bearing edit. I also got to be a part of KOTR for next year. The Element team made their final stop in Az and I helped them with a challenge.

That's great to hear! I think with a lot of other sports it's almost impossible to meet your idols, but with skating they can just show up to where you are skating and be completely chill about it. They can be such good role models too. I gotta ask, do you have any favorite female skaters?

Definitely NORA ALL DAY! I’m so hyped there’s more female skaters, because they have really good vert style. It’s like it’s a natural talent.

Yes!! I feel like Nora is everyone's favorite right now, and rightly so! Have you tried her pro board? I'm glad you are hyped! It really is just pure talent! Her and Lizzie and Allysha make vert skating look so easy.

No but I’ve held one and looks like a great board to ride.

It's definitely a great board, highly recommend it. Do you have any advice or thoughts to share for anyone who would like to start skating?

Do it for you and everything will come naturally. Patience really is key. Be yourself and send it!

Perfect words of wisdom!! And finally, what's your board setup at the moment?

8.3 krooked, 147s Indy’s, 54mm bones wheels, bones swiss bearings.

[whokilledlaurapodcast]

A Trip to the RR Diner Pop-Up in L.A.

So I drove up from San Diego and picked up Scott an hour north and we made our way through Los Angeles after-work traffic to the short-lived RR Diner pop-up on Melrose Ave. It opened on 10/16 and closes a week after. We arrived at about 7:05 to a substantial line of people wanting to get into a small space before the scheduled closing time of 8:00. It didn’t look like it was going to happen.

I was just in jeans, white shirt and navy sport coat, but Scott got kudos for finding a great facsimile of Dougie Jones’ lime green jacket from a thrift store. That it was a ladies jacket didn’t matter. What’s your problem? 

The first thing we noticed, waiting in line, was the signage, which provided good facsimiles of the RR signs and the famous Welcome to Twin Peaks sign, although for some reason the RR sign wasn’t lit up until the store was ready to close. Anyway, we inched along, taking pictures and inhaling propane leaking from one of those warmers restaurants use for outdoor diners, and while it was about 8:00, it looked like we and anyone else left were going to get in, if only for a few moments or so.

The store is in an old Johnny Rockets and very small, really just a guest checkout stand, diner bar and fixed bar stools, with no room for booths. Rather than try to approximate the RR’s interior, they mostly emphasized the Red Room, with a wall of red velvet curtains suitable for posing against. 

There was room for one wardrobe rack that, aside from some RR uniforms, didn’t have much in the way of easily recognizable Twin Peaks costumes. Neither Scott nor I remembered which female character wore a leopard coat, so let us know if you recall. Leland’s vintage record player played the TP: The Return soundtrack as we got our turn at the bar and checked out the merch. There were embroidered patches ($10 ea.) for Welcome to Twin Peaks, Big Ed’s Gas Farm, the bloody Fire Walk With Me note, a broken locket patch with “T” on one half and “P” on the other, RR Diner, and maybe one or two more I’m forgetting. I don’t think there was a Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department patch, but a lucky woman next to us thought to ask if they had a Bookhouse Boys patch and the clerk found the last one for her. 

There were handsomely designed skateboard decks hanging behind the bar for Cooper, Log Lady, Laura wrapped in plastic and Laura’s prom queen pic. A Darn Good Coffee mug, Andy’s mug, RR Diner hat, a few varieties of lunchboxes, Dr. Jacoby red and blue sunglasses, and Jacoby’s gold shovel hat, of which the clerk was wearing the last one. There was a Jacobyean “Shovel the Shit to Get to the Truth” inspirational poster in gold lettering, with three gold shovels, that was pretty nice but maybe a bit pricey at $50. No hot coffee left, but I at least had a cup of Lynch’s cold brew, which was delicious.

We talked a bit with the people working there, who were all very nice and seemed pretty informed on the show, and a trio of customers including two young women in RR Diner uniforms asked to take pics with us, and one of the workers photographed us against the red curtains. 

All in all, a pretty fun experience despite the time expended. If you go, go early, as the pie goes quickly, and expect more of a store experience rather than a real diner or museum quality recreation of the RR; i.e. learn from us. 

--Chris Allen

BONUS: We had to eat somewhere, and had already driven past the more restaurant-heavy part of Melrose and didn’t really want to backtrack, so we ended up at the promisingly-named The Burgerian. I think there is a very good chance this restaurant will be gone within a year. Not that it was bad, but it hadn’t really figured out a distinctive or consistent identity. If you call yourself The Burgerian, you should offer more than two beef-based burgers besides the choose-your-toppings version. We weren’t really sure exactly what The Original had: cheese (doesn’t specify what kind), veggie slaw, egg, and something called “pork ham,” which I’m guessing is just ham, presumably thin-sliced. The Heart Attack was a triple burger with bacon and three cheeses. The other three choices were a Veggie burger, chicken breast sandwich, and a Shrimp burger that promised a shrimp patty, veggie slaw and more shrimp on top. I don’t think I’ve ever had shrimp ground into a patty. Maybe it works but we went pretty traditional with our own choices. 

There were other oddities, beef sliders along with kimchi rice ball sliders and a kimchi empanada as the only “Small Bites” offering. Apparently their garlic fries are loaded with parmesan and one of their best items, but we split onion rings with ranch and they were very good. The menu claimed the Asado plate was their specialty, which was interesting in that it was $21.99 and the only clearly Mexican item on the menu, unless you count the kimchi empanada, which I don’t. Not counting mayo, ketchup or regular mustard, there were over a dozen dressings and sauces available for free on request, which is nice but I think also adds to the confusion. The menu seems to want to be a lot of different things--a little Korean bulgogi here, Asado there, and if you want salad, well, there’s one offering, a chicken salad with arugula and dried cranberries that probably starts to look a bit gross once the avocado and feta cheese mush together. 

Desserts are a similar headscratching mix: “cream cheese pie,” which I’m guessing is plain cheesecake, Nutella alfajores (sandwich cookies), and Southern favorite, pecan pie. Huh? If you’re thirsty, there’s a decent selection of beers, sparkling water, some wine (by the bottle only, burger lovers!), soda, guarana, Vienna iced coffee (with ice cream!) and even bottomless Mimosas, which must pair well with something on this menu. Don’t get me wrong, the burger was fine, if a little overcooked and overpressed. Apparently the buns are homemade and look kind of like an unshiny brioche but aren’t as buttery or tasty. Caramelized onions had little flavor, and the cheddar cheese used wasn’t sharp. A few tweaks and the burgers could be really good, but in general, they should figure out exactly what their identity is before they don’t have one. Decor is a mix of a nicely designed stainless wire ceiling fixture, attractive bathroom sink basin with an old floor, boring tables and chairs, a couple TVs and two or three Asian beer signs that suggest a different restaurant. I still can’t get over this menu, noticing a section called “Suggestions If You Are Drinking (To Share),” which I guess is if you’re getting loaded on bottomless mimosas and want something spicy and plentiful to soak it up. Why can you only get Mac & Cheese as an $18 item (presumably to share) with Spicy Beef, and is the Spicy Beef the same as the Asado beef? So many questions.

Sexists should also take note, while there is no sign of humor anywhere else (at least not intentionally), the bathroom doors are marked, “BLA” for the men’s room and “BLABLABLABLABLABLABLABLABLA...” for the ladies’. We’re bores, and the ladies can’t stop yapping, right, fellas? 

[houstonlocalus-blog]

Let’s Go Skate: John “Tex” Gibson

John “Tex” Gibson. Photo: Lee Leal

  In my life, I’ve seen a lot from the skateboarding world.  I’ve seen the sport actually get called a sport, I’ve seen it go from skaters being called outcasts to skaters being called cool, and I’ve seen more and more skaters from Texas become pro.  However, when I started skating at the age of twelve, there was pretty much only one pro skater from Texas, John “Tex” Gibson. Coming from Pasadena and getting on the cover of Thrasher, Gibson was different from everyone else in style and that he was ours.  The Houston born skater was always a source of inspiration in that anything is possible.  After vert skating started to go away, the fact that I could see “Tex” anytime I wanted when he played with the killer band Sugar Shack was never lost on me.  Even talking with Tommy Guerrero about Gibson still trips me out, and proves that when you’re amazing, the whole world knows.  Now with his own skateboard company Embassy Skateboards, Gibson still proves that anything is possible, even for a kid born in Houston, Texas. Free Press Houston was more than thrilled to get to pick the brain of one of the most original skaters to ever carve a pool.

  Free Press Houston: You were born in Houston and were raised in Pasadena correct? What got you into skating and what was the skate scene in Pasadena like back then?  

John “Tex” Gibson: I started in the mid 1970’s, 1976 or 1977, when everyone had a Nash deck.  I dug my older brother’s deck out of the garage, and in Pasadena we always had these great ditches to skate.  We took the old Gulf Coast Skate Park fiberglass ramp and moved it down here, where it traveled around Pasadena until it landed in a backyard.  That’s how I met Ken Fillion.  There’s nothing to do in Pasadena, so we just skated a lot and we had a really strong scene because of that.  

  FPH:  Where did the “Tex” nickname come from? Was that something you did yourself or was it from the California guys?

Gibson:  When I was sponsored by Caster, in the Summer of 1979 they flew me out to California after seeing me in a contest in Oklahoma City.  I was placing in a contest and everyone called me “that redheaded kid from Texas.”  That’s what everyone knew me as, they couldn’t remember my name, just “the redhead kid from Texas.”  So that’s where Tex came from. I hated it at first, but it grew on me eventually.  

  FPH:  What year did you start riding for Zorlac and was it ever weird for you to see the guys from Metallica holding your deck with the Pushead graphic?

Gibson:  I started in 1978, back when Jeff Newton was making the decks outta’ his garage.  The Dallas guys would come down here and skate these boards with the name Zorlac etched into the decks which we thought was really cool.  The Dallas guys were always so snobbish, so when I went to Dallas to be in a contest, it was cool that Jeff approached me to ride for them.  He’s who took me to Oklahoma right after I’d learned Ollie Airs.  Chris Strople from Caster approached me to ride for them, so I did.  But then the company bombed after Bill Caster got sick, so I went back to Zorlac and that’s when I got my own board.  

I was flattered by the Metallica thing.  We were all such fans of their music, but the whole Metallica thing eventually fell apart after Newton had all of these decks and shirts made, and they were flying off of the shelves.  Lars got involved and the band collectively wanted something like four or five dollars from every deck sale, and they wouldn’t let Jeff sell any of the Metallica branded shirts.  So he had this warehouse full of shirts he couldn’t sell, which helped cause a lot of the financial problems that caused Zorlac to fold.

  FPH:  You were the first Texas skater to turn pro, was there a lot of pressure or was it all about fun, and did that ever resonate with you, the magnitude of it?

Gibson:  No, it didn’t resonate really.  Vicki Vickers turned pro before me, but I think that because she was originally from Houston but moved out to California early on, people considered me to be the first.  When I turned pro, skating was completely dead.  My first professional contest at Whittier, they had to scrape pennies together to get me out there.  

  FPH:  I remember the Alva team photos, and everyone kind of had a similar look in the pics. What year did you head to Alva and what was it like riding with guys who seemed to be the renegades of the skate world?

Gibson:  A lot of those guys were into the whole Rastafarian thing, so they all had dreads.  Me and Craig Johnson didn’t do the dreads thing cause’ he had already had them and it wasn’t my thing.  The team photo I think you’re talking about, we were into wearing black leather jackets at that time cause’ we thought it looked cool.  But we also had them on because that photo was taken in Chicago, and it was like twenty two degrees outside when it was taken.  

When I signed with Alva, I was speaking directly to Tony himself.  After I signed the deal, I noticed that his business partner was this guy named John Falahee, who was with Gyro wheels when I was with Caster.  He was really rude to me back then, so I wasn’t pleased to have to deal with his arrogant attitude when I was with them.  I was with Alva from 1987 to 1989, and I left because vert was dying and John sent me to do a skate demo that was supposed to have a vert ramp. But when I showed up they wanted me to do tricks on a curb instead and the ramp was nowhere to be found, and I slammed my board into it and broke one of my trucks because I wasn’t about to do tricks on a curb.  So, after all of that, I left the team.

  FPH:  What year was it when you realized that vert skating was dying or dead and did you have a backup plan at the time?

Gibson:  That incident at the demo was when I realized vert was dead.  So I left skateboarding and I went to technical school to learn how to record bands.  But after getting into it, I realized there really wasn’t that much money in it, and it was going to be difficult to live off of it.  So, for the last fifteen years I’ve been at Houston Grand Opera with Eddie Hawkins from that band Horseshoe.  There’s a union and it’s a great gig, I love working there.

  FPH:  You were in the band Sugar Shack, who I know had a huge fanbase including Little Steven. While the band changed the sound from long haired punk to garage over the years, was there a reason that you guys called it quits or had it just run it’s course?

Gibson:  We were all kind of shocked when it ended.  But you have to remember that they had been doing the band since 1987, and I didn’t join until 1994 when they were doing more garage rock.  We put out a record with an Australian label and we got to tour Australia.  That whole ride was a blast.  A lot of great people and great bands.  We did a couple more records, but after people started getting married and having kids, Andy was just kind of done with it.  So I guess you can say that it ran its course.  It’s sad that it’s over, but when we did those reunion shows, we realized quickly how much they wore us out.

  John “Tex” Gibson with Skateboarding Legend Steve Olson. Photo: Lee Leal

  FPH:  Embassy Skateboards started up in 2009, can you tell us where the name came from and were you scared to do your own thing?

Gibson:  The name came from Lee Leal.  He and some other guys had moved to DC at one point and they had a house near the White House that had shows, parties, and what not.  These guys from Cedar Crest (Country Club) used to hang out there all of the time and they referred to the house as the Texas Embassy.  So, when we were setting up the logo, we went with that name, but changed it to just Embassy to make it more global of a name.  

I wasn’t scared.  We steered from doing a retail thing because that’s just a nightmare.  We were just like, “let’s just do decks,” and that was what we knew best.  We started up in a recession while everyone was broke.  We just took things slow and started from the underground.  

  FPH:  You have a respectable crew of riders including legends like yourself, with Ken Fillion and Craig Johnson. How do you find new team members and how often do you skate nowadays?

Gibson:  Well, nothing was happening in the 2000’s and every company just wanted street skaters.  Lee wanted all of the Texas guys to be a part of the team, as well as give each of us partial ownership in the company.  So, we did it for the love.  Lee does all of the work.  He travels to get the newest skaters and keep things going smoothly.  As team riders and pros, we put our board royalties back into the company to help it grow and increase our ownership stake.  Doing that helps pay for the new guys to travel to contests and keep the name out there, so it works best for everyone.  

Back in the day, Texas had such a strong scene with skating and music, especially in the 1980’s. It felt like, in other places, when the ramps were all torn down from the skateparks, they didn’t really know what to do.  Because Texas never really had much, we were used to just building our own ramps.  In 1983, we even did a backyard tour across the country, and it was really cool.  We just wanted that kind of vibe again with the company. That like it’s always been, we do our own thing here in Texas.

  FPH:  I know from talking to Tommy [Guerrero] that he and Mark [Gonzales] are huge fans of yours, especially your invert style. How did the guest deck for Krooked come about and do you have any plans for more of that stuff in the future, like the Dave Duncan Embassy guest deck?

Gibson:  I never talked to Mark, it was Jim Thiebaud who called me up and said, “Mark wants you to do a guest deck.”  So we talked, he sent the contract, I signed it, and then I got some decks and a big check six weeks later.  It was pretty easy and cool.

The Dave Duncan deck we did and we also did a Bill Danforth deck.  We have a great artist, Shane Munce who is a tattoo artist who does all of our stuff.  We have some people in mind for the next one, so I’m sure we’ll do more of them in the future.  

  FPH:  You’ve seen the rise and fall and rise again of skateboarding, yet you’ve always seemed to follow your own path. If you had the chance, would you change anything or would you do things the same way?

Gibson:  I think about that.  When Bill Caster got sick, I wondered if I should go to a big company like Santa Cruz or go to a small Texas company like Zorlac.  Todd Prince told me that I should go to Zorlac and it turned out great.  That time was when the Big Boys, The Dicks, and Butthole Surfers were all happening while Thrasher was just getting started.  We had our own world in Texas back then.  Neil Blender would get G&S to pay for him to fly down here and he’d just hang out for three weeks at a time.  He just liked what was happening here and he came down more than once. Thrasher and the rest of the world were into what was happening down here which placed us on a global stage.  So yeah, I’d keep things the same.  It turned out great the way it all went down.

  No matter what, Gibson proves that you can carve your own path by doing things your own way. By putting Texas on the map in the skateboarding world, John “Tex” Gibson deserves a thanks from every kid who rides in a park that’s located down here.  You can find his and other Embassy team riders’ decks here, and you can listen to Sugar Shack here.  Keep your eyes peeled out there for Gibson, who still skates regularly and spreads the Embassy Skateboards brand all over Texas.

Let’s Go Skate: John “Tex” Gibson this is a repost