Skateboarding in Bremerton w/ Blair Taylor and Ben Hooker

In this season ending episode we sit down with Kitsap skating legends, Ben Hooker and Blair Taylor. A lot of great insight into the early skateboarding scene around these parts. These dudes were around for all of it .they're still shredding!! They were our first in studio guests. A format that we are going to moving forward with in the next season and beyond! Thanks for all the support thus far. It’s great appreciated! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:19

What's up, friends? Welcome back to another nostalgic episode of B Town Stories with Schnazzle and Jerry on Schnazzle. And I'm Little Jerry. You're still going with Little Jerry?

SPEAKER_03 0:31

That's my gang name. I'm in a gang.

SPEAKER_05 0:34

This is the third straight episode that Little Jerry has been his official name.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

I actually just I got some custom vans made last night. On the back, I have embossed Little Jerry. Well, it was little, Lil, but then it looked weird because it was two different size words. So I put changed it to Little Jerry. Smart or similar.

SPEAKER_05 0:59

So I just gotta say, this we're already at the end of our season three, dude. Can you believe it's come this far for B Town stories?

SPEAKER_03 1:06

I didn't even think season three would happen just because like we're like, I think we ran out of B Town stories to tell. So we've got to get some other people on here to tell some B Town stories, which is working out well.

SPEAKER_05 1:17

I love it. Yeah, it's super cool. I love that people are digging it. And you know, as long as we can generate some type of like little thing that sparks something in a listener's brain and at least gives them like one laugh, we've done our job. That's all I care about, honestly. Seriously. And uh, so we've been putting this off for a while, all three seasons, and today we're gonna get into this shit. We're gonna talk about skateboarding in B Town and how much of a poser I was.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

I had vision shirts, streetwear, shoes, fucking brand new boards, no scratches on them.

SPEAKER_05 1:53

I will we'll we'll get into I was okay for a while, then I turned into my dad. That's the you know, then I became like an offensive lineman. So uh I'd like to welcome our special guest today, Blair Taylor and Ben motherfucking hooker. What's up, boys? Good to be here. Right on. Um, and uh I just you know, you guys are like still doing it out there, right?

SPEAKER_04 2:16

Yeah, yesterday.

SPEAKER_06 2:17

For better or for worse, yes, yes, generally worse. Yeah, exactly. It's fun. And um, yeah, I it just it's fun.

SPEAKER_05 2:28

For me, it was like, well, we should probably talk about the 90s and how it all kind of got going around here. I mean, I can go back further.

SPEAKER_06 2:37

Well, you can start in the 80s. I could. So where were we- I don't know if I don't know about what your uh podcast demographic is, so I don't know uh where we should start.

SPEAKER_05 2:46

This is the demographic.

SPEAKER_06 2:47

Right here.

SPEAKER_05 2:48

This is the entire audience. So well, I mean uh we were on the east side skating, right? I mean, we had the pavilion. Did you guys skate the have you skated the pavilion recently?

SPEAKER_04 3:00

No, I have.

SPEAKER_05 3:01

Really? Yeah, that's that long curb that was there.

SPEAKER_04 3:04

Those curbs maybe a couple years ago. Me, Billy Kane. Oh nice, a few others. Billy was the path master, by the way. I mean, he like had all the crazy tricks there.

SPEAKER_05 3:12

I was I used to chill with Billy. We were really good friends. Like, I remember being at Billy Kane's house when Welcome to the Jungle Music video came out originally, and I waited for like 12 hours for it to play again and didn't go to sleep.

SPEAKER_04 3:28

He's sorry, Billy, I'm here now. I live here now.

SPEAKER_06 3:30

Is that when like MTV would do every day at three o'clock, they'd do like the top 10 countdown with Adam, whatever his name was? Yeah, it was rush home and be like, and I remember rushing home to see Yankee Rose. Was this oh yeah, dude?

SPEAKER_03 3:46

Was this dial MTV where you could call in and no?

SPEAKER_06 3:49

This was just like they do like oh they just at do like the top ten videos of the day at three.

SPEAKER_03 3:55

I because I very specifically remember coming home when I was living in Fairwood Ranch behind Fairview, and I was voting on I would call in and vote for the cult firewoman because I wanted it to beat Sweet Child of Mine. Yeah. So that was the competition for a while.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

I think the cult played like the Auburn Casino last year. Oh, really? Yeah, I think they're really uh doing cool things.

SPEAKER_05 4:19

So like Billy was always a great skater. Yes, so I remembered riding my bike down Wheaton Way from east side to like towards Silverdale, you know, where it's down, and looking to my right and seeing Billy skate, and he was going full speed, and he was he could always like just straight up Ollie up onto a curb, like flawlessly. Back when it was like I had to really focus to Ollie, you know what I mean? Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. So yeah, so um Fred Meyer.

SPEAKER_04 4:48

I remember when that first got built, and Ben and I we were probably the first people to skate that. We had those big tall curves in the back. Yeah, Ben actually used to slappy grind onto those things, which is like kind of cool and also kind of anachronistic then because they're like you know, almost two feet and half tall. No, they're about slightly slanty. Thanks, I appreciate you. But you kind of like you're ahead of a slappy trend revival. You were like how does a slappy grind compare to a K grind? A K grind. So a K grind.

SPEAKER_06 5:13

You could do a slappy K grind.

SPEAKER_04 5:15

That is also a thing now. Yeah. I mean, basically K grinds and most grinds you all into them, and slappy is you just you know slam.

SPEAKER_06 5:21

Slappy is you you don't you like you don't lift your trucks, you don't step on the tail. Basically, you just put your pressure on your toes and then you pop your board up onto the curb.

SPEAKER_04 5:33

But it truly is kind of like an alchemical process because it defies explain it is impossible. We just ride into it, you slam into it, and sometimes so it's a wall ride, basically.

SPEAKER_06 5:43

It's a wall ride to grind on a curb. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:46

Amazing, and they went away for a long time, and now they're like there was a New York Times article this past like two weeks ago about old guys skating curbs in LA and like how it's this curb revival and spirit. That was a that was a really good story. It was really good. Um, yeah, check it out. I feel inspired, yeah. Yeah, except I never recommend people go back and pick up skateboarding after a gap because it's like whatever I would say it's the opposite of like riding a bike. It's like, you know, it's like riding a bike. You never forget, as soon as you step off a skateboard, you get like 50% worse, and every day or second after you just fucking suck, and it's so hard. Like you it's just like how much worse you get.

SPEAKER_06 6:24

I maintain I maintenance skate. Yeah, all my time skating is just trying to keep the five tricks that I have. It's like not necessarily trying to learn new stuff, but if you don't, they're gone. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_05 6:34

That so that you know that pad out front of Fred Meyer? Like your brother Mike Kennedy. I mean, we I was I think a fancy must. I was the best skater. I could do like 360 flips, I could Ollie over uh you know, shopping carts and shit. He only had a couple tricks, but one time like lightning in a bottle struck, and he did like a kick flip to a nose manual across that whole thing and landed, and he was just like, What the fuck is that?

SPEAKER_06 7:02

That's amazing. I mean, that's still if you see if you saw someone do that today, that's impressive.

SPEAKER_03 7:07

Yeah, that's like shit clips you see on highlight reels on Instagram, you know.

SPEAKER_04 7:12

I drove through there today and actually I was looking at that because I remember when they built that was that was like the best manual package. Absolutely. I was looking at it, I was like, yeah, it is so crusty, it's super low still, but there's like big cracks in the middle. I'm like, yeah, just get your wheels eaten now.

SPEAKER_05 7:24

That's awesome. So now where's where do you guys still skate in B Town? I mean, where's the gym? Um, I feel like if there's like now these great fucking skate parks now. Like Port Orchard has an insane skate park. Yeah, totally close here.

SPEAKER_06 7:37

And that and I think I don't know the last time I've skated Bremerton with you. I think we skated the park a couple years ago, and I hate I mean the Brem Park? Yeah, yeah. But like not our favorite.

SPEAKER_04 7:49

Not up by the Y there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a poor Wilson. The metal one before that.

SPEAKER_06 7:55

But that was at least had some like Ben preferred the metal one. Jesus. I mean, it's just that had some transition. I I don't want to waste time talking about the Bremsen park, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_04 8:04

Um so yeah, that that's one big thing. It's like people skate parks now, right? Because there are good ones all over. I mean, growing up, we had to go to Yakima. Air Radical was a park way four hours out there, yeah, and then or four hours north to Vancouver.

SPEAKER_06 8:17

Or Blair and I would drive, we would leave at night, drive to Vancouver, Washington, sleep at the rest area, and then skate burnside the next morning. Sick. And then drive home because we wanted to skate round wall concrete. Yeah, it was like because other than that, it was curbs, banks, yeah, tripukes.

SPEAKER_04 8:37

Tripukes is like an iconic Bremerton spot. Yeah, it's in Manette. Uh, I went to kindergarten there, now it's capitalist school. Yeah, oh I know.

SPEAKER_06 8:44

So it was like a just a tar bank with a parking block on top, and that was our skate park. Three banks.

SPEAKER_04 8:50

Oh, three different banks, which was incredible.

SPEAKER_06 8:53

Yes, yes, but there's the one that got the most action. But um, and I skated there with Tony Alva and Chris. Really? And it was amazing because like I thought I was pretty good there. I'm like, I got this shit wired, and then those guys like roll out of a Volkswagen bus, stoned, and like proceeded to do stuff on that curb that I couldn't with speed and precision that I could I it was beyond me.

SPEAKER_05 9:20

That's really the fucking holy trinity of skateboarding, though, speed. Oh, yeah. Like instead of style, but instead you have the balls enough to do it fast, yeah, it it goes better. Yeah, but also the stakes are really fucking well it's you know, it costs more than I got I ate shit really hard about a month ago at Tripux.

SPEAKER_04 9:39

My my wheel just went I got scorpioned across a curve.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

Why is it why is it tripukes then?

SPEAKER_06 9:45

So the story is so I think it got tripe's motherfucker. No, not tri-peaks. Okay, yeah. Um, I think it was discovered in probably 1986, and people found it, and they're like, oh, this would be a fun place to skate. And there's like some apple trees around there, and like there were some apples that were splatted on the ground, and they said it looked like puke. And there was Tripukes was born. Tripukes.

SPEAKER_04 10:15

Tri-Peaks makes a lot of sense because yeah, three peaks, but that's actually apparently false.

SPEAKER_06 10:20

But I was never one of those guys who hated on Tri-Peak stayers. I'm like, I don't care. There, dude, Burnside was the shit though.

SPEAKER_05 10:26

Burnside Eric Gazetti, shout out, Eric Gazetti used to take me down to Burnside when I was when he when he was like just old enough to drive and I was like a little bit younger.

SPEAKER_06 10:33

Also very intimidating. Oh, yeah. So Blair and I, like I said, we would get there early because no one would be there. Yeah. And as soon as people started like rolling out of their like Simpson in the bush. Yeah, we would just be like, all right, we've been here four hours, time to fucking blaze. Because those guys were no mercy. Real and like real long hairs. Well, let's just say that it was none of this, like you know, skateboarding now is very accepting. Yeah, and it's great. Like, hey, if you're having fun and you there's you're you're okay. That's great, awesome. Don't care how old you are, how young you are, but that was not the case then. Yeah, get the fuck out of my way. You know, it's like, yes, sir, yes, sir. It was a total locals only. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_04 11:24

Yeah, don't approach my line, get out of the way.

SPEAKER_06 11:27

Yeah, exactly. So it was like, yeah, you got there early and then got out. Or at least that's what that was that was our strategy. Let me ask you this Did you guys ever skate barbs in Auburn?

SPEAKER_04 11:36

Yeah, absolutely. I went to a skateboard camp um that just happened to be by barbs. It was actually so growing up, there was this group called Radical Life. They were this Christian group that basically bribed kids um into Christianity through skateboarding. We were thankful for it because like they actually had this crazy old big hearse. I don't know if you ever went on these trips with Billy Kane and Quinn Davis, all these guys did. So it was like a big hearse, and they would, this dude who did not skate would drive us up to again Vancouver, Washington, or Vancouver, BC, or out to Yakima, and we could skate. But they had a skate camp and it was like a hundred bucks. And we went out there, me, Rob Mansfield, another guy, and some other dudes. Well, one of the campers there was Steve Olson, who would later become a huge pro for short. He's from Tacoma, he skate for Foundation. Oh, yeah, I remember that. He got hooked up there for the first time, and it happened to be like half a mile from Barb. So we go to Barb's and one of the one of the counselors was Eddie Elgato El Guerra from H Street. Um he was the main guy. I don't remember. There was um that uh woman pro Sasha, something or other. Anyway, so we go to Barb's and uh Steve Olson is just destroying this ramp, like better than the pros.

SPEAKER_05 12:40

And it was just like, all right, this kid is yeah, did you skate the big ramp or the small ramp?

SPEAKER_04 12:45

The big ramp, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:46

I mean, I did very little on that ramp, especially when there's like these pros and Steve Olson going at it, but I I like I've I think I dropped in on the big ramp at barbs like maybe two or three times, but I would just kick it on that other little ramp, which was still a sick little kind of mini ramp.

SPEAKER_06 13:00

Yeah, but not to not to we gotta bring it back to Bremerton. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. Yeah, so Eric Simpson's ramp. Yes, did you guys ever skate that? I heard all about this.

SPEAKER_05 13:12

I didn't even know they the source has concrete.

SPEAKER_06 13:16

So so Eric Simpson had an indoor 16-foot wide mini ramp with with extensions, and that's where we were months of the year.

SPEAKER_04 13:27

That was the only place you could skate. I was like, exactly.

SPEAKER_06 13:30

And that that place produced some talent.

SPEAKER_04 13:35

Ben Tron, for example, who's he I think he lives in Portland now. He's a Burnside guy. Yeah, well, and what Jason, um, who is that justice?

SPEAKER_06 13:42

No, Jason, that's a whole nother topic, but um Gordon, Jason Gordon. Okay, yeah. Remember Jason Gordon? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he lived here and then ended up moving to Burnside and he ripped that place. But Eric Simpson's ramp, right engorst. It was in a huge metal shed. They had shows out there.

SPEAKER_03 14:00

Yeah, we went there once. Really? Yeah, but I think just to buy weed off somebody or something.

SPEAKER_06 14:06

I mean, that that tracks, yeah. But uh that was we were really lucky to have that.

SPEAKER_04 14:12

Even though it was it was elliptical, it went, it was six feet tall, but it went straight to vert, so it was actually really challenging to skate. Um, it was like a mini, but it was it felt like a vert ramp kind of because that was the problem, like talking about parks now and parks being everywhere.

SPEAKER_06 14:26

Like I've skated more transition in the last 12 years than I skated before because it's everywhere, yeah. And so growing up, it's like if you were lucky enough to have a ramp in your backyard or know a kid who had a ramp in their backyard, still you couldn't skate it that much because of the weather, or their parents were like, No, you can't have friends over. Get Ben Hooker the fuck out of my yard. Exactly. Yeah, so but Eric Simpson, it was indoor, their parents were cool. I mean, I feel like I remember pretty much anyone could skate there. Or do you I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

You kind of had to know a lot. Although, did you have to sign a release or anything?

SPEAKER_06 15:02

So, no, no, no, no. You did you did in the beginning, and you had to have people have Polaroids of themselves signing this contract.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

See, I heard something. Yes, I do not remember.

SPEAKER_06 15:13

Ask Dan Water about this. Okay, there's people like making funny faces and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_05 15:18

Well, I mean, if you bust your ass, your parents are gonna be like, I'm suing them.

SPEAKER_06 15:22

Well, exactly, too. And that was, I mean, that was the whole reason there was no skate parks because people were like, Well, if we build a park, we're gonna get sued. Yeah. So naturally, a parent who has a ramp in their backyard with dozens of kids coming and going, buying weed, whatever. I don't know. Josh Kennedy buying up all the dope. That's a liability.

SPEAKER_07 15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 15:43

Um, but uh that place was really special. We were really lucky to have that. And then there was the ramp at that skateboard shop by the zoo cafe.

SPEAKER_05 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:51

Washboards. That was washwash. I skated for that shop. I don't know, I don't know if you were still around, but they had one in the basement. Uh Adam Crew, I mean, that's where he learned a skate transition. Adam's like, you know, one of our local heroes who went and he was a sponsored am for Pop War, which was Cairo Foster's company. Um, and yeah, it was it was adjacent to Cafe Zoo, so you go skate and then you have punk shows. Yeah. Uh we we booked Defiance played a show there, which then the cops tried to shut down and turn into like a little punk rock riot out there. Uh JJ Hewitt got detained in the back of a cop car momentarily for taking pictures. And beautiful. Yeah, that was that was a fun spot. It's actually now it's the T Blackbird is the new the new wine bar that's uh washboards, which would be to have a ramp in the basement.

SPEAKER_06 16:33

We would go there, we would go there.

SPEAKER_04 16:34

I love that ramp. Oh, yeah. We had a key, and one there was like some like weird groundskeeper Willie guy that worked in there. I remember him coming down one night. We were skating, like, what are you guys doing? Like, well, uh Lisa Phipps was the owner's name, and there were a couple they split up, but she actually does real estate now.

SPEAKER_06 16:47

Yeah, I see her, I see her signs around.

SPEAKER_04 16:49

Yeah, so she uh gave us a key and we were down there like, what are you guys doing? And we're like, Well, we're just skating. Like, you can't do that later night. Yeah, we can. Lisa says that's fine. It's like when he got started kind of getting up in our face, he was like this old meth head dude. And it's like, we're like, you know, teenagers down here in the middle of the night. He's like, get on with your bad sales, brothers. We're like, all right, dude.

SPEAKER_05 17:06

I had one at like just a little sidebar about Zoo Cafe. I love that place. Oh, yeah. They let me paint the sickest fucking graffiti mural there, too. It was like if you walk in, like it was all on the biggest wall, like above the main window. Oh, I remember that. It was it I it said juvenile. I remember that. Oh, yeah. It was like that was such a sick spot, dude. It was a it was my sickest mural that I've ever painted. And I was like, I can't believe I fucking painted that. I didn't even trace it or nothing. I was like, holy shit. Right on.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

Uh not to be a downer or anything, but George Eubanks, whose family ran the zoo, just passed away the other day. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:38

Actually, I went to see Neutral Boy at uh at the net and they gave him a shout out pretty recently. R.I.P. George. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But um, God, what a fucking good little two spot that was. Yeah, for sure. What about Silverdale?

SPEAKER_04 17:54

Yeah, so at some point, I mean, Ben and I both went to Bremerton High School. We got burned there real well. And uh, but then I don't know, when skateboarding hit its second wave in the 90s, Silverdale was kind of like the place, I guess. Yeah, I think that was the third or fourth.

unknown 18:07

Fine, fine.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

Target. Yeah, targeted. Dude, the long ass curbs. The racks curves where the racks that was and then safe way, safeway curbs. There's a red curb out there. Safeway is like a parking lot. You guys probably hung out there. We we hung out there. Sure, Cafe Revista. Cafe Revista, get a maximum rock and roll, and skate this. There was like a red curb and a two-stair, and we just skate there all night long, and there was lights and what was that?

SPEAKER_06 18:29

Was it was it a thriftway that had the bank to walls?

SPEAKER_04 18:33

Oh, you mean theft way? Nope, that's that's uh snagging TJ Maxx is still there. Are those banks still there?

SPEAKER_06 18:44

Yeah, it is like it's crusty. Yeah, very it's the kind of thing that you could see people destroy now, but like then it was like you're like, oh, that'd be so fun to skate. And then you try and skate it, you're like, this is really hard to skate. There's one part where there's a pipe that sticks up, and if you can go up over the pipe, wall right over the pipe.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

I was like, Yeah, I never see kids just out skateboarding anymore unless I drive by location, they're out on Quincy Square there, or at this skate park. And I never see kids just bombing hills anywhere.

SPEAKER_06 19:16

It's so I was in location, and I was like, because I see they do they'd post clips of doing stuff on the curbs out front. Uh-huh. And I'm like, man, don't you guys get shit from the cops for that? They're like, no, man, they love us. And I'm like, big, big difference between uh, I mean, I fully was skating in downtown Bremerton, and a cop came around the corner, got sideways, sped up, slammed on the brakes because I was skateboarding on the just pushing down the sidewalk. Wow. Chasing like a drug bust.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:50

I was rolling through Redwood Plaza once with like Jesse Oki, and like this guy came out of like a kinkos or some shit and was like, I will kill you. Yeah, yeah. I've beat up kids like you all the time.

SPEAKER_04 20:01

So I'm just like, who the fuck is this guy? Redwood Theater was ground zero for skate culture. Uh they used to have Northwest Redworth. Oh, yeah. I got my first skateboard there. I was gonna say that's where I got my first skateboard. Um, I saw Gleaming the Cube at the Redwood Theater, lining up with all the skaters there. And I remember they had a skate jam there. And I stinky remember being there, Ryan Hardesty, yeah. And hearing the bass line to Fugazi waiting room for the first time, like seeing their like a hundred heads all start to nod in unison. I was like, what is this? It's minor threats new band. Oh, this is sick.

SPEAKER_03 20:34

It was all happening right there at the Redwood Theater. Ah, crazy. Yeah, I didn't know about that. Well, so back to location. When I was doing that Caballeros band show at the Redwood uh at the movie theater, um, I went down to location to see if they wanted to kind of co-sponsor it with me so we could, you know, get more get more of a word out to the skate scene, not just the music scene. And those dudes are straight up drinking fucking tall guys in fucking brown bags right in front, right on Quincy Square on the main road. No one giving a shit, you know, like different times, different numbers. Those guys are holding it down in downtown Berkeley. That's a great shop.

SPEAKER_06 21:12

They had a uh one of their shop decks was the Hams beer can and it said location. I'm pretty sure that's what he was drinking. And on their Instagram was like three dudes with those boards, gold chains and tattoos, and I was showing to my friends I skate with in Seattle. I'm like, this is fucking Bremerton right here, motherfucker. Oh yeah. Just beer skateboard, just fucking it up. Don't even give a shit about anything else.

SPEAKER_05 21:39

Just like uh one of the more B townish things I did with my skateboard, me and Adam Russell. You know Adam Russell? I I don't know, probably not, but uh, we wrote mall security sucks on paint pens on our big skateboards, and we were like skating through the mall. Oh yeah, and they're just like, give me your fucking skateboard, and they're just completely got it taken away. I had to get a new one.

SPEAKER_06 21:59

That was My first time I got arrested was at Kids At Mall. Really? For skateboarding. And they took me.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

We were like, Reddy, fuck you.

SPEAKER_06 22:08

They took me in the back and they asked me all these questions, and I gave them all false information. They're like, Tony Hawk is a big thing. Oh my god, nobody knows the banana. Cops everywhere in like 1995 were like, I arrested that guy. Bremerton skateboarding. Long time ago. I knew him, but it was not them. Um, but yeah, it's like I was just skating. There's like a little gap there. I was skating, and they pulled up and I just took off running and they got me because I'm not smart about that. And they're like, ask me all these questions, and they have me in the back and they're like, What's your address? I'm like, ah, one, two, three, mocking birds. How about eat my asshole? Like, eat my asshole. All these, all this stuff, and then they're like, What's the what's the license plate of your vehicle? I'm like, I don't know. They're like, Really? You don't know? How long have you owned that car? I'm like, a year, and you don't know your license plate? I'm like, no, I don't even know. Yeah. You take a look at my phone and be like, what's yeah, yeah. But they took my mugshot and it was like you in a black flag shirt. And oh my god. I don't have that. Maybe they have some archives, we would get out of like braces and a black flag shirt.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

Like was this in the mall security office? Yes. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:28

And then right across the case.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Is that like a legitimate arrest? No.

SPEAKER_06 23:32

Just got no trespassers. Try to scare you straight. You can't have Orange Julius for a year.

SPEAKER_05 23:37

It was like four members of the Silverdale Rotary going like, who is this kid?

SPEAKER_06 23:43

He's not even from here. He's from Bremerton. I can smell them. Those types.

SPEAKER_04 23:47

Yeah, there was also, I mean, Silverdale spots. There was the Tracy in elementary school that had that insane bank to bank part of like evil Knievel. We got some great pictures of like going over picnic tables there. Later oh good. Good. Oh, Adam Crew would bring people there like on tour and they would like go from the loading dock into the bank, like flip tricks in, which is crazy. Sick. And then Ross Gap. Ross Gap. Yeah. Ross Gap was approving ground behind Ross. It's just like a huge drop. Um, there was the double set also, like kind of in that same parking lot area, like in front of I think it's also in front of Ross or TJ Maxx. It's like a double set, it's like cobblestone. Even then it was super rough.

SPEAKER_05 24:23

Yeah. What about Clear Creek? Remember that? There's like that, there's like a two-tier, like with grass. Isn't that oh yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

Down to the soccer field. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:33

I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

That's a pretty sick one. See, we were like a little closer to Silverdale than you guys. So like we went that way a lot for a lot of things.

SPEAKER_05 24:42

Kitsap bank. That's kind of a nice little curb like up near the ATMs. It's where I got caught sneaking out. Is that the one that's Chase Bank now?

SPEAKER_04 24:49

Because that was a spot out there. It was like the Chase Bank today. There's like the sidewalk in front of the ATM. It was like a three-stair, a little tiny bonk handrail, and people first started doing handrails. That was one of the ones people hit. And then it's like a sidewalk. So I remember like Billy Kane doing that pressure flip three-stair over the sidewalk into skippers or whatever parking lot. Yeah. So Billy still skates. Yeah, yeah. I saw him yesterday at the Paulsbow Park. He was not skating though. We did we worked on the Paulsboro Skate Park edition this past summer. But uh he's building like the groundskeeper Willie like um grounds dude's house.

SPEAKER_03 25:21

Yeah, yeah, I just saw him post something about that.

SPEAKER_04 25:23

That's awesome. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 25:24

Okay, so who who else was do you think was good skaters back in the day? Let's talk some shit.

SPEAKER_06 25:29

So I mean, like, how far back you want to go? Well, we're gonna talk about Junior. So Junior Woodruff was the best. The fucking king. He's like he was, he got Santa Cruz flow, Santa Monica or Santa Cruz. Uh I thought it was Santa Cruz, but maybe SMA because he was like like not us adjacent. He he was incredible, and he was one of those, you know, this is before people post clips. So you just hear someone does something dope. Oh, Junior did a grind on this or junior ollied over this, and you're just like fuck.

SPEAKER_04 26:00

I remember hearing you all like fire hydrant, like when only pros did that. Like two pros.

SPEAKER_06 26:05

And you're like, what hand he was first to do hand rails, yep, super high ollies, um, amazing style. I seem to recall that Dale Yobb could ollie high as fuck.

SPEAKER_05 26:15

Oh, I don't remember that. We we uh we might be like a couple years under your your guys' like yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:20

I skated with Dale a lot. I mean, Dale I didn't skate with Dale very much.

SPEAKER_04 26:24

I did, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:25

Well he didn't Ollie when he was playing.

SPEAKER_04 26:26

Yeah, sorry, truth, truth. He's in action, Psalms of Falls, yeah, truthfully the drummer for.

SPEAKER_05 26:31

Yep, yep. That's awesome, man. No, and uh well, what yeah, what else what other stuff you guys want to cover here? You guys any any other cool Bremerton talking points about the skateboarding?

SPEAKER_04 26:41

Um well what Nick White out in Silverdale, he was another Silverdale legend could Ollie, huge and was just this super sick stylish. Yeah, there was the Burger King curb out in um Silverdale that was like everybody it was just like a wax flat curb.

SPEAKER_06 26:54

It's I think it's now like Pizza Hut, but that was like where everyone learned curb tricks and axe behind so even before that, there was behind Denny's on the east side.

SPEAKER_04 27:03

Oh yeah, Denny's curb.

SPEAKER_06 27:04

There was a a curb. And so did you guys hang out at Denny's all the time? Yeah, okay. So people would hang out at Denny's, all the goth chicks would be inside smoking cigarettes, oh yeah, and all the dudes would be doing slappies and curb tricks until 2A, 3 all night. Just skate back. Yeah, that's that's where everyone has to have skated there because like we were flying.

SPEAKER_04 27:28

They were there all the time. Yeah, it was like here's the exit to Denny's, and then straight across there's a bank. Like, yeah, the curb's still there. Yeah, it's gnarled to beyond all recognition.

SPEAKER_06 27:38

It got heavily sessioned.

SPEAKER_04 27:39

That was that was a very fun spot.

SPEAKER_05 27:42

Um dude, let's rebuild that spot. Let's fucking go.

SPEAKER_06 27:45

I've been doing a little work.

SPEAKER_04 27:49

Went down on Ben Hooker slappy curb. We should put a plaque on there. Broad statue. That is literally Ben's curb for sure. I love that. I love that. There's also the the park, I mean, we talked about, you know, obviously it rains a lot. So the parking garage downtown was another important one. There was like on the second floor for sure, sure. Like a very mellow bank to a um a curb, like a taller curb that you could also kind of slap you onto, which they recently just um capped because even the location guys were skating it. And then there was also like where the um the driveways go down, yeah, there's like a bank to wall. Yeah, you could like blast up the wall and then it drops down, so it makes you higher.

SPEAKER_06 28:27

You were going 500 miles an hour when you landed, and it was frightening.

SPEAKER_04 28:32

But that was a fun spot because you could bomb it, you could hit those spots, and of course, eventually the cops or the security guards will chase you down. You pretend you're in like thrashing or something, you're like doing the spiral downhill, going right behind me. That was you could dip out through like the uh the side doors, like the stairs, because they they're on cars.

SPEAKER_06 28:48

So I that was the first time I got chased on foot by a cop, and it was me, Junior, and Rico. Rico slayed the Denny's curb, front side slappies. Um, but we were skating the garage, cop pulled up, we bailed, it's raining outside. We get because cops have a radio, they could be like, Yeah, we got some fuckers running down park or whatever. And so we got caught, and the guy pulls up, he's like, What were you guys doing in there? We're like skateboarding, and his name Officer or yeah, Officer Trudeau was his name. And he's all what were you guys doing in there? We're like skateboarding. He's like, That's it. Skateboarding. Yep, you weren't stealing stuff. Nope. Then why'd you run? We're like, because we thought we weren't supposed to be in there. He's like, I don't give a shit.

SPEAKER_03 29:36

Is it skateboarding across?

SPEAKER_06 29:38

Yeah, and he's like, he's like, I don't give a shit. And we're like, really? He's like, no, it's like if you're just skateboarding, I don't care. So we went back, we're skating. He came back like an hour later, pulled up next to us, and he's like, Isn't this better? We're not out in the rain, you guys are having fun. Have fun, guys.

SPEAKER_05 29:55

Well, you know that you raise an interesting point, both of you guys, because you now what you were talking about is like skateboarding is so it's so so communal and and so accepted now. Wasn't it kind of doper for there to be a little bit of element of danger?

SPEAKER_06 30:10

Of course, a little bit, but I was thinking about that because we got shit from everybody. Yeah. The guys in the Camaros driving down Perry Avenue. Jobs were a bit concerned. Thought you were gay. Oh, yeah. Skaterfag!

SPEAKER_04 30:24

Yeah, dude, that was I have a scar somewhere from like I was skating down Pine Road. I live down. Pine Road is fucking gnarly if you yeah, it's long, it's you know, not super steep, but it's like anyway, and someone threw a bag of bottles at me and hit me off my board, and I hit my forehead on the fucking culvert. I was like, Yeah, wake up.

SPEAKER_06 30:43

I I I on high street, I got my skateboard stolen by a couple guys in a Camaro. I got my money stolen from BMX dudes with Iron Maiden shirts that were my age.

SPEAKER_05 30:57

Hold on a second, and then you let a fucking BMX guy steal your money? Dude, those were big metal heads.

SPEAKER_06 31:03

I could not listen to Iron Maiden for a long time because they were like they were just like they would just riding packs and be like dudes in maiden shirts on BMX bikes, and I just remember them rolling up on us, circling us, just reaching in our pockets, grabbing our shit, and taking off. And and like our age, yeah, not like older, but then even the older skaters were dicks to us.

SPEAKER_04 31:28

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 31:29

Like, I remember oh yeah, I will not say his name because he's a nice person now, but one of my friends say his name. No, one of my friends had the same skateboard as him, same deck. He was insulted by that. And he he focused it, fucking grabbed it, threw it over a fence, was like, fuck you guys. Oh my god. So even from other skaters.

SPEAKER_04 31:52

Food mentioned uh Vision Streetwear poser. Like when I was growing up, I mean, you know, there's no there was no shop. So like I would, my mom would bring me down to Tacoma Mob for, you know, whatever, uh back to school shopping. And one year they had like Vision Streetwear fucking everything. And I wanted the older kids to like me, and I will name them names. Martin Elton, uh what are the what are those other guys? Martin's still skating. I hear he skated tripukes with us when I moved back and I did a little game there. But who else was in that crew? Just like the Bremerton Girls, like Mike Poole, Mike, Adrian Hoover, yeah, all those guys. So they're a little older than me, and I was just like this koop kid, but uh, you know, I love skateboarding. And so I'm like, mom, they got vision streetwear, we gotta get it. So I fucking went to school like junior high, junior high in uh Wheaton Way, or not Wheaton Way, but uh Perry. Yeah, fucking head to toe Vision Streetwear. Those dudes called me Vision Streetwear man for years. Now, now rewind though, rewind, because then when they finally got popped for, you know, I think it was robbing the uh kids up sports with the prison. I remember coming back and they came to skate park and they had a skate and they're like, oh no, oh yeah. Now who's skating better? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:57

Quick question. Tiny question off the top of your head. What was your favorite ever skateboard?

SPEAKER_06 33:01

Ben go. Oh, Corey O'Brien.

SPEAKER_05 33:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:05

Uh the real Jim Thebo hanging clansmen. Wow, I broke in Paul's bow. I I had for exactly three hours. I bought it and go to Fallout Records, come back and skating uh in Paul's bow, Ollie to Gap. Snap, I was like, no! That was a good one.

SPEAKER_05 33:20

My favorite was a like a bright neon green, like Powell Peralta. Uh I got it offline or like out of a skate magazine, I ordered it, but it was like the first board I ever landed a kickflip on, and then it just became like my the board that I could just do like 360 flips on. So it was like one of those milestone boards where you're like California cheapskates.

SPEAKER_07 33:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:41

Oh yeah, that's where I bought all my shoes from. I give my mom cash and then she would use her credit card because if you paid with the check, it was like four to six weeks after the check clears.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

The first board I ordered off of there was that uh Neo Blender coffee break. Oh, yeah. And it was like turquoise, it was the coolest looking thing. But you could get it COD. So I just had to make sure that I was there when it got delivered and paid cash on it.

SPEAKER_06 34:07

Ben, where did you get your first board? Kids app sports. Actually, my very first skateboard was Value Giant.

SPEAKER_04 34:16

And a Volterra from there. I had it upgraded.

SPEAKER_06 34:19

I had a the uh Veriflex Eliminator. Oh nice. That's old school, dude. $39.95 complete. Every guard weighed so much 600 pounds.

SPEAKER_04 34:29

Yeah, yeah, that's it. I mean, I I was definitely like the back to the future generation. Oh, yeah, yeah. All of a sudden, everybody else terror in 1985. Yeah. And we used to skate at Olympic View Elementary, which when you come across the bridge, it's just that flat area. But there's there's still the reservoir there. And they would let us during recess go out there, and like I remember third and fourth grade, it was no second and third grade, it was breakdancing. You'd be out there with uh with cardboard boxes, break dancing, and then it was skateboarding, everyone skateboarding, push around, and then like one year or the next, it just like wasn't cool anymore, and everyone stopped, and it was like three of us were like, What's going on? People started like looking at us weird. But I remember getting my first board up at um or asking for for Christmas from Santa at Northwest Records. Go down to Manette, go down to what we called Stoner Park. We said go up above and throw the people.

SPEAKER_06 35:13

We could do a whole episode on that.

SPEAKER_04 35:14

Yeah, I need my brand new, beautiful Vision Mark Gonzalez there. And I go down to the beach, flip some rocks, and uh come back up, and there's these two older homeless guys in a Volkswagen or like a bus, and they stick it in the back. And I'm like, you know, 12. Like, what am I gonna say?

SPEAKER_05 35:29

And I'm like, there goes my brand new skateboards. Dude, I feel so bad for you guys. It seems like you were just like kind of like bullied by long hairs and just people were jacking your shit, you know? It wasn't cool. Skateboarding was not cool.

SPEAKER_06 35:39

No, oh, one quick note about the Thebo board. That was my senior portrait. It's it was taken in Gasoline Alley.

SPEAKER_04 35:48

We gotta talk about gasoline alley.

SPEAKER_06 35:49

And I'm like, have my skateboard like this, and I'm the graphics are that clansman hanging, and I just remember they had like crop in. You can kind of see Santa Cruz on my shirt a little bit, but they had to like, okay, we can't have a clans. You're just like an extreme close-up.

SPEAKER_04 36:04

We don't want to carry it as a clan clan from Bremer in High School. Come on, guys.

SPEAKER_03 36:09

I love it. I thought that would be a funny thing to add to the the uh marketing of this episode to all of us. Get a picture of us when we were like skateboarder kids with totally long hair. Yeah, McSqueeb. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:24

I love it. Um, I think we should probably tag in our producer, Kevin Jones. I bet he has some good questions for you guys. K Kro, you there?

SPEAKER_02 36:31

Yes, and this is truly one of my favorite episodes. This has been so fun, especially too. I've so many things to relate to. First off, gotta talk. Well, for one, asking if Brian ever hung out at Denny's is pretty hilarious. It's like we just had an interview with the guy who was like, You hung out at Denny's all the time, right? That was what you were known for. Um, but no, so the vision thing that was real too, like vision and fair flex. You might as well just like tingle that you were a poser. Even though I learned how to Ollie on a Vera Flex, you know, it was a great starter board. But I still remember my sister giving me a vision fanny pack and wearing school, thinking I'm so cool. Oh, yeah, and having one of my friends take me aside, he's like, Hey buddy, do you know what a poser is?

SPEAKER_06 37:16

Like oh yeah, oh yeah. Same thing. I was at the mall in a Vision Streetwear shirt, and I had took like a bandana and tied it around my head, and had some like converse, and I was like, I just I want to be a skater. And like, I'm there, and then it was like Junior, Eric, all the cool, like three or four older year older guys that the rippers like walk by and they'll look at me, they're like, What the fuck?

SPEAKER_05 37:44

I mean, and they came over, they're just like, did you have one of those hats with the two long strips going down? No, you know, no. That that was some kids at fair stuff right there.

SPEAKER_06 37:54

Oh, yeah. Like that's how we did it. I totally remember that Judas Priest ones. Like, so many kids have the Judas Priest with the neckplit roast clip. I had a Vans one.

SPEAKER_04 38:07

Those are cool. Why are they why haven't they come back? Those are just fucking legit cool.

SPEAKER_05 38:10

I think I was trying to free boarding once with like a Genera hypercolor shirt. And just like trying to mat the chicks afterwards with like fluorescent green armpits. Check out my vision streetwear, babe.

SPEAKER_06 38:22

I'm sweating.

SPEAKER_03 38:24

No, my eighth grade pick, though, I had the button-up vision streetwear shirt that had like 500 skulls all over. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:33

That's cool with my Tony Hawk hair and oh, totally hilarious. I love it. Uh, we're a quick question. You know, when we were we had some Spiro's to celebrate you guys here today. Uh, we're it was awesome. You guys were like the cool guys who worked at Spiro's.

SPEAKER_06 38:47

Can you say something about Spiro's as cool people that worked at Spiro? I mean, if you were to certain things, yeah. I mean, it definitely like a lot of skaters work there, people in bands work there.

SPEAKER_03 38:56

Counterculture workplace.

SPEAKER_06 38:58

Yes, it was a fun, it was a really fun place to work. Uh my god, still some of my best closest friends or people that I met working there. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:09

I think I made this, I made this rap when I was a kid. It was like about B Town, and I made it like on a little boom box. And Al Higby told me it ended up in the kitchen at Spiro's. Oh, damn. In East Bremerton.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

And it was just me going like, bam, bam, bam, another gun blast. But Bremerton's crazy. And then like, like, I had it was so embarrassing.

SPEAKER_05 39:34

It's like I gave it to some, and then there was just like I I remember I had this keyboard and I tried to make like cop sirens, so there would just be this big break, and it was just like, woo wee!

SPEAKER_06 39:43

Woo woo.

SPEAKER_03 39:45

That sounds from that kind of sound familiar for some reason. I didn't work there, but I definitely went in there all the time and hung out in the back when Sean was like, Yeah, Albion Carl would just like clown on me all day, and I was just like, all right, yeah, serves me right.

SPEAKER_05 40:00

That does sound really funny.

SPEAKER_04 40:01

I mean, you guys did a recent episode on like, you know, Lollapalooza and N Fest, and the legend was that when the BC boys came, uh, they came to Spiro's and partied with uh some of our favorite wait staff. It was just uh Mike.

SPEAKER_06 40:15

Oh wow. Oh wow, that's cool. Yeah, he came in. We had a couple waitresses who love band dudes. Oh, yeah, and always seemed to like Mike Love Loved.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

Chica chica wow. So who doesn't love a band dude?

SPEAKER_06 40:29

Yeah, who does that? Who doesn't love a band dude? We're all in bands, yeah, yeah. He came in one day, it was just like with him, and I was like, holy shit, that's the fucking DJ from the Beast. Mixed Master Mike as I think Hurricane.

SPEAKER_02 40:44

That would have been hurricane if it was 92, right? No, it was mixed master mic. It was Mike, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 40:48

Oh, wow, lady, yeah, and it was and I just remember being like, hey man, like, don't you guys skate? Like, and I remember trying to get him to come out to Eric Simpson's ramp. I'm like, I could like, dude, I can like hook you up. But he was like, Yeah, that's just no, we don't actually do that.

SPEAKER_04 41:05

He also works with his hands, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 41:08

Have you any idea what that would do to a person on tour?

SPEAKER_03 41:12

Yeah, I remember those, Dan. So you do you do that atomic children page? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:17

Oh, shout out to this. Talk about your Instagrams. Yeah, what's what's the atomic children?

SPEAKER_04 41:21

So Atomic Children, it's been a little uh you know underposted lately, but it's kind of a Kitsap skate history Instagram. The start is a as a blog, actually, that me and Quinn Davis did, and it's named after different generations called different things. I think the location guys call it the Gray Bank. But basically, it's downtown. It's the it used to be called the Atomic Children Bank because on the wall there it said it was spray painted, we are the atomic children, or we are atomic children. We are atomic children, and it's just like a fun, you know, fun bank downtown Bremer. It was scummy, and so we wanted to like get old skate pictures and put them out there. Yeah, it's been cool because like actually, um some of the location dudes, now I'm forgetting which one I'm blanking out his name, but anyway, uh his mom was like an old skate punk back in the day, and she took these incredible pictures. And my favorite one is one of Junior and uh Lenny downtown. And Lenny's got like a like a mohawk, and Junior's got like a sex pistol shirt, and they're just like it's just a very crusty Bremer in like probably late 80s. It's like my favorite Bremer in skate shots.

SPEAKER_03 42:16

Lenny from uh Galleon's Lap.

SPEAKER_06 42:19

Yes, Lenny was in Gallian's Lap.

SPEAKER_03 42:21

Yeah, now that's uh yeah, I've done I've done my research. Shared makes with uh Foo Fighters, yeah. Yeah, Nate.

SPEAKER_06 42:28

Yeah, Sunday. And then also the drummer from Christ and Crutch was in that band. Eric Aukri. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:34

Great band. I love that.

SPEAKER_06 42:35

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 42:36

Oh, I found some recordings that Tony Reid had done. Oh, yeah. Like early Tony Reed something. Oh he said he recorded it at like the 8th Street House. I don't know who that was.

SPEAKER_06 42:47

Oh my god, that's so that is um right down. Remember where like Bremerton Tire was? But there's that 7-Eleven down there. Um yeah, so about a block in from there was the eighth eighth street house, and it was a notorious party house from probably the mid 80s up until I don't know, or late 90s, and it one family owned it, and their each kid pretty much like lived in it at some point, and they were all punk rock dudes, and so it was just always a party house. Oh, nice. Dan Hill's parents owned it. Okay, that's and it was it was always something was going on. There was always something going on at that house. You would go there any night, and there would be at least 30 people there.

SPEAKER_03 43:31

Dan Hill from West Side Burrito Connection, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 43:34

His parents owned it. And then Dan bought it.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

Dan never did not. Okay.

SPEAKER_07 43:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

Oh man, but I I I just want to say though, too, like uh talking about the importance of skate shops, too. You mentioned Fallout, such a huge deal. My actually, my brother in law is Tim Hayes, who used to own Fallout. He still skates today. Every birthday, he does as many grinds as years that he has, so he's still he's like were like 68 grinds. Amazing. Films them all. It's amazing. I also wanted to show off. I had to run and get my first, I found this recently. This is my first bit of skate ephemera. A skate rags hat. Yeah. Yeah, no, but like we gotta talk about our world, how important that was, especially too, because that was at the time that everyone, when they look back, they say that was when skateboarding was dying in the early 90s and stuff. I but I remember reading Crasher and thinking it was so great getting all the like uh the airwalks of those times with all the OLLI cards and everything. But first off I wonder does anyone remember there was a skate shop in Port Orchard, I believe that's where I bought my first skate my first complete which was uh Acme 105 Pi Philippic Twin isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 44:48

Oh yeah. Oh down on Bay Street. Yeah, Cussy Curtis held that down for a very long time. And actually if you go there today it's this dude the guy that's owned it forever and it's like a bike mausoleum. You can barely get in there because there's just bikes. And if you go back which I have because he leaves it open he must own the building he's got old skate shirts and he wants to sell them.

SPEAKER_02 45:07

I've tried to make it hard oh no dude tattoo because those old decks go for such bank now but our world so important I still remember going down when you guys had opened up and I got the fucking R I still have the t-shirt somewhere even though it was like a pajama like dress shirt you know like it was extra extra large down to my knees.

SPEAKER_06 45:28

I was very tight at the time of the one in Silverdale uh I believe the one Bremerton okay um yeah the one in Silverdale was in where that flower place right next to the fire yeah the original one was on Burwell in that tiny little shaft that it was like a garage that someone converted to a shop.

SPEAKER_04 45:46

Yeah yeah shout out to Sean Barengo who was a Navy dude from San Francisco came up and opened the shop and we all like I mean he was seemed really old dust he probably wasn't that old yeah he's probably 24. Yeah exactly and um and he did a lot for the skate scene here because like it turns out later on like he was legit tight with all the SF dudes so he brought like the think team up like Wade Spare all these like big name dudes skated the Bremerton high school parking lot we had jams there with that babe demo was so rad I still remember Don Trahobel launch wrap into a pickup truck and doing cannonballs into the back of the pickup truck. That was a function uh Drake Jones who I he I don't know if he skate for Think or for real but some SF company he like lived here for a while he like lived with those guys and like you just see him out around town and like he'd skate and do like perfect kickflips and Timberland boots and um yeah so our world was was really sick and actually so two shout out to two guys um Jeff and Brian Henderson that were oh yeah I always thought the Henderson guys were the best skaters they were so cool. I mean yeah so they went on to actually have like kind of mini careers in skateboarding yeah yeah um Jeff became the main filmer for Soultech which does etnes America whatever so he filmed a lot of IKEA wasn't he a team manager too he was team manager for Soultech he had a picture in Thrasher with the last year and it was in like the like the gossip section Jeff wow really and it was like a pick oh no it was that they they uh people know yeah and it's this thing that they have they'll take a pro skater and it's just like people that they remember throughout their skate career and one was like Jeff Henderson like in bed like making this face on he has a he has either a a toy machine or a foundation board with his face on it's like a filmer board. So he went there and then his brother Brian um and they had a mini ramp a little indoor mini ramp out in Soberdale yes I skated that one a couple times Bob and Nelson Nelson and yeah yeah yeah so he ran scary kid skateboards which is a pretty sick California thing so they're both yeah still pretty engaged but um I actually got really lucky skateboarding around the Henderson guys and I I always like performed a lot better.

SPEAKER_05 47:46

I I did a kickflip over like four boards stacked on top of each other at the Silverdale waterfront when they were around and I skated that ramp with with uh Brian Henderson's ramp in Silverdale and did like a double kickflip to fakie on it. And I just both times I was like I didn't even know how I did it but I like skated away like yeah I'm good.

SPEAKER_03 48:04

Yeah I remember being in the the cafe revista parking lot and I knew Brian from school and he's like Evolution of man. Yeah he gave me an evolution of man demo tape and I was like oh that was like the first time I ever got a demo tape from a band that was also Deliber.

SPEAKER_04 48:21

Yeah Dale was in that and Giles and uh Tom was new ski from I gave Giles a tattoo in in the in the downstairs uh room of my uh parents' house on the double hitch court it just said bass and it was awful sorry Giles you hope you got that covered up buddy there were some other shops so there was Olympic Schwin which Kelsey at Bear Hill that was Paul's bow mid late 80s yeah we went there a lot yeah Chad Dahlquist owned that um that was that was a great shop they had a little quarter pipe in the out back I think something like that yeah um and yeah there was Northern Wave or whatever in Silverdale for a while but I wasn't living here then oh yeah right down at the bottom of the bucklist yeah right in that little complex and then I mean we didn't talk about like Bremer and banning skateboarding or getting like the Silverdale park built in the 90s like that was all yeah yeah yeah both of those like there's there's old pictures of Bremer and son of like all the like late 80s early 90s skaters going to city council meetings to fight against the the skateboard ordinance ban which was like a big big thing. And then yeah like I don't know 15 years later we finally got our first part the Silverdale Park and Terry Burgesson who is I believe a administrator at either Oli or CK really like spearheaded this and like basically took all our input had these meetings raised money and yeah she basically helped us get that part built that was the first one.

SPEAKER_05 49:44

That's amazing dude we should make a little doc short of it I can produce a little documentary short on this with you guys.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

Yeah yeah because there was one little park in Bremerton that I remember that had a bunch of wood ramps in like a just like a a parking lot that I remember and I do remember skating with Junior and everyone just like oh he's on another level like that guy was yeah yeah he really was that's the Bremerton YMCA that's where the the current Bremerton park is it's right in the same spot.

SPEAKER_04 50:07

Oh great oh I'm glad it's still around now here's a question for you is there an equivalent to the jacks in Bremerton and if there isn't would there be a crew like are there people that you think would come together that'd be equivalent to jacks uh not that I we never really had any whatever there were some crews there there was there was Mist you remember Mist oh there was a West Bremer crew called MST which is funny because there's that gang called but I mean Ryan Cleveland was kind of the ringleader and he legit caught uh shotgun blast of the face and was blinded in one eye holy yeah MST they they like lived um behind that tattoo shop silver city or whatever um and they were just like these West Bremer skate dudes oh I don't remember that yeah yeah my my skate gang underground pimps uh never had any run run-ins with them so no no beef no beef like an 11 year old gang speaking of beefs I gotta tell one story about um Thrasher magazine repping Bremerton so we mentioned Seth book before he went to CK skateboard punk rock kit and the year that Bremerton got the most livable city you guys I think mentioned previous episode um that was like 1990 or something he wrote in to Thrasher magazine and the like little like whatever headline was like yeah it was like most livable I live in Bremer it fucking sucks it's illegal there's no parks more like most leaveable and so I wrote in to defend my hometown's honor which they also printed and I was like fuck you you're a poser you know what you're talking about I skated a pool last week da da da da da da and so this day is like a good friend but we did not know each other then thrasher job we had to pieces we live there three blocks from each other but we communicate through thrasher manager years later we figured out wait you're Seth Kyobo wait you're that other guy holy shit that's hilarious should do a follow-up piece on your guys' relationship where are they now yeah we went to a show two weeks ago oh man yeah I bet Burnett would come out Michael Burnett man listen tune in man come and check out B Town I love it well uh well guys this has been a fucking fantastic episode do you guys got any last uh anything you want to get in about skateboarding before we pinch this guy off gosh I don't I'm not I don't know but I would like to say um whoever gets to use this mic next is gonna be like God I'm craving Spiro's just like absorb my burst I think it's all the oh my god it's that's why I put the foam cover on it yeah yeah so it could soak up uh I don't have much to say we scratched the surface we didn't talk Ben and I once rented a plane from Bremerton airport to go search for pools me him and Sam uh Hansen yeah yeah and it was like 15 bucks it was forty five dollars to rent a plane for a half piece went around with a map and like marked marked pools and we actually found a couple of them skated them wow that's fucking awesome man that's on uh uh dog town and z boys yeah yeah yeah we were big pool dust fans we brought um wes lundry who you know he worked at Fallout and then he also was a writer for Thrasher he came over here and we went skate he still he still writes for Thrasher he still writes i i did a a piece on thrasher for the San Francisco Chronicle and got to interview him for it and yeah actually I don't mean to brag uh but friends with Tom McGuerrero too so now he played just like last week at the the sunset yeah dude such a cool guy such a good lives in Mexico like like seriously just Mexico yeah yeah and like Blair and I and this probably was in that time where skateboarding was like in a low so the people that are still around you're just like looking for the few people that you could skate with yeah because Wes was this like cool guy who skated for Alva he worked at Fallout and he would like pick us up at the ferry terminal and like take us to skate places in Seattle and it was super cool. Did you go skate the West Seattle bowl with us once oh my god we went to that pool up in um Steven's Pass once oh yeah that was a crazy one yeah yeah so it was cool Wes is a he's a great great yeah the the Fallout to Bremeren and Pipeline was strong we would all tromp up there and get our skateboards and our I got my first records there like a rancid and first rancid seven inch and a born again seven inch up there I got Dr.

SPEAKER_06 54:28

No Burn 7 inch and descendants all yes and I uh yeah and my first Noam Chomsky book too.

SPEAKER_02 54:37

Oh then there's also time travelers yeah that the accused did an advertisement for did a television ad for yeah you can find it's gone viral the last couple years an ad, an old like cable TV ad for time travelers I just saw that it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_04 54:51

It's just beautiful people watch it that's like everything that's great about skateboarding in that video is in it.

SPEAKER_05 54:56

Is he yes there's a kid in front with an independent hat on Toly Potter Tolly Potter oh wow okay well he must have been like 14 or 15 I'm gonna rip this video and put it on the end of this episode for everybody to watch but also there was a great um it was John Keester did so I don't know what news channel he's working for but went down to Time Travelers and was like interviewing kids.

SPEAKER_06 55:18

I've seen this too it's so good. And in that video in that bit is Andy Caro who's from Bainbridge and he was like the even older than junior but in the first wake up and smell the pavement he got third place behind uh Matt Galardo and Tom Pia which are were heavy hitters and he's from this side oh no but he's in that he's like working behind the counter he's got this total like cure haircut but it's a really it's a really good I highly recommend watching that one did you guys know Monk did you guys know Monk before he died? I not really I mean I just knew him from skating around Seattle but like and he built all the I mean that guy marginal way but Monk and Red building Burnside starting their own skate park companies are pretty much single handedly responsible for the skate park explosion that we see today.

SPEAKER_04 56:22

We even tried to actually build our own DIY Ben and I a couple times one in the uh YMCA parking lot like a bank over there I think you were with that one but another one over by Stevenson Canyon that hike there there was a there to this day it's still there's like a natural bowl and we went there we brought rebar we had fun company we're gonna try to like make a bowl in the woods and then like day two some guy's like you can't do this one last bit I know you guys want to wrap this up out in Chico oh yeah in the middle of the woods there was a pool next to the golf course it it was the old country club pool and they tore down the country club built a new one but the pool was just in the middle of the woods and we tried to drain it.

SPEAKER_06 57:02

Ben made a flyer I made a flyer which I still have and like rented pumps and we got it was like the deep end was kind of full.

SPEAKER_04 57:10

That's where I met Quinn Davis or maybe early meeting and but yeah we spent all day out there just like listening to music and like rented a pump.

SPEAKER_06 57:17

We pulled out like a hot water jet yeah oh my gosh did you guys ever skate it we go back the next day and we got down to like this much water we're like all right we're there next day we showed up the water was all back up it was like the the plumbing in the bottom was rusted out and then the water table just fucking filled the pool back up. Oh no but a guy came into Spearows but you like we had it down we're like oh my god this thing is totally skatable in the middle of the woods it would have been such a sweet spot but this one guy came into Spearows and he was really old like 25 and he was like ah man I skated you guys there's this pool out in Chico I skated a long time ago and we're like who the fuck is this guy? And then he brought in pictures of him skating it. Oh wow there's like no trees around it because it was just like it was totally in the woods like totally surrounded huh but so in the 70s people were skating it that's like man anyway sorry how to throw no man I think that's awesome um dude I just gotta say Blair and Ben you guys have been fantastic hosts for this season finale please come back we gotta talk about the right things yeah I love I love the podcast we're over here so yeah no I also gotta say Legar it's been awesome to do three seasons so far man and I also special special shout out to our brand new producer this year Kevin L.

SPEAKER_05 58:39

Jones for coming in and making us uh seem a tad bit more professional congratulations thanks Kevin awesome yeah no so onward and upward actually yeah so I think you know I got some shit to do for like a month or two and then uh we'll get back in the lab but uh I think it's a good time to pinch this season off.

SPEAKER_03 58:55

Yeah thanks again Blair and Ben. Happy to be here. Probably the most professional sounding episode we've done so far.

SPEAKER_05 59:03

Super fun it sounded like a real podcast. Yeah no man I loved it. Well we'll get you guys back on next season.

SPEAKER_00 59:08

So anyways for uh B Town Stores uh my name is Schnazzle I'm Jerry I mean little Jerry and until next season take a reasonable Beatdown Stories is a red cobra production created produced and written by Nazil Simpkins and Jerry Lagarde also produced by Kevin L.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:16

Jones with theme songs by the Stuppedongs and logo design from Darren Chalman.