#242 - John Bogaerts: Bonzer. Newcastle. Family. Friendships. The Force. - Terrible. Happy

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey, it's Shan here.
This week I catch up withformer professional skateboarder
for the iconic Australianskateboard brand, bonza.
He's also a former New SouthWales police officer of 25 years
.
He's a Newcastle legend.
He's an all-round rad human.
It's Mr John Bogarts.

(00:42):
We're joined by his good matesMike Cossettini and Sean Mussett
, aka Gravel Burns, who is aformer guest as well.
So the four of us sit down for avideo production episode this
week.
So if you scroll down into thisepisode's show notes you'll
find a link to that and it'sworth watching because John and

(01:03):
his lovely wife Jo went toconsiderable effort in digging
up some archival pictures andvideo footage from back in the
day and we get it up and we talkabout it.
I'm really enjoying the videoepisodes.
We're getting better and betterat them.
I think the production'sgetting better.
It's a whole nother beast asopposed to doing the audio only

(01:24):
episodes, but I love it and itdefinitely gives a lot more
depth to John's story.
So it's a great episode.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
So sit back, relax and get toknow Mr John Bogarts.
Everyone Cheers.
I think in general, in general.

(02:05):
Well, here we are, gentlemen.
So, mr John Bogart, so good tohave you and celebrate your life
today.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
Thank, you, how are you feeling?
Yeah, stoked to be here,honored to be here, honored nice
, and we've also got closefriends of yours.
Very close, yes.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Mr Mike Cossatini and Sean Mussett.
Past guest Gravel Burns.
Such a pleasure, bunch oflegends, yeah.
So listen, John, I want to getstuck straight into it today and
I was driving down here withGravel and I was just thinking
about, like, the value offriendships, and can you
describe to us the significanceof these long-term friendships

(02:44):
that you have as you reflectupon it in your older years?

Speaker 4 (02:49):
Oh look, you're only as good as the people you've got
around you.
So I think that sums it uptoday.
Yeah, yeah.
So long and tremendousrelationship with these guys.
I guess it helps mould who youare, who you become A hundred
percent dude.
So how did you meet these guys?
Sort of um.
I guess it helps mold who youare, who you become 100 dude.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
So how did you meet these guys?

Speaker 4 (03:08):
like give us the backstory, like obviously
through skating okay uh 79, barbeach, the uh spiritual home of
skateboarding in newcastle.
Okay, yeah, met Cos there andwe had the old Wesnell
fiberglass quarter pipes.

(03:29):
They were a couple of the firstfacilities that council put
into Newcastle.
There was one at Bar Beach.
Yeah, six-foot transition thatwent to six feet high, so it was
six to six.
It was ultra tight and it hadtimber coping and, yeah, they
were made out of fiberglass froma Wesson factory in Sydney

(03:52):
somewhere.
I do believe.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, they put one over at Stockton.
So you rocked up one day andyou seen these two.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
I met Cos there.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
That would have been 79?
.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, 79.
Yeah, there was.
Just prior to getting installedthere was a the wesnall company
, uh, and the council had atheir wesnall team come up to
merriweather surf club car parkand they did a demo and a month
later we got our own ramp.
So we had all these sydney guysfrom the wesnall team plus one

(04:23):
of our newcastle guys, andrewGordon, who was already involved
with the West Knoll people, andyeah, it went from there.
So that was the beginning ofprobably the first transition
skating scene in Newcastle.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Wow, is this before Hullys Ramp?

Speaker 4 (04:38):
Yes, yes, well before yeah that was, yeah, late 79,
and then, a bit later on, sean,we met you up there.

Speaker 5 (04:47):
Yeah, I came down from Coffs Harbour to go to uni
in 85 and I was skating thatramp and I saw Coz.
Coz came over and he does whatCoz does and got very excited
and showed me, opened up theNewcastle scene to me, got me in
his bongo van or whatever itwas.
We drove around to what was hisRecy's place, recy's ramp.
And you guys were in the middleof building what never I don't

(05:12):
think ever got skated.
Did it ever get skated, thatramp?

Speaker 4 (05:16):
A little.
I think we had some assistancefrom Recy's back veranda.
Some of the timber went missingfrom the veranda, got put into
the ramp, but we made it happen.
Yeah, it wasn't the prettieststructure to skate, but I do
remember Sean at Bar Beachbecause he had his skate.
Shorts were cut-off, pyjamapants.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
I've heard about this .
He wore a nappy on his head.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
Jim.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Turvey used to call him nappy head.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
Undie head, undie head, undie head.
Yes, he's a bandana.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
You look rad.
You look like a Tony Alvawannabe.
Thanks no.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
You are, yes, and in that demo that Cos mentioned
there was a Meriwether Beachwith the Wesnell team and I'm
trying to think, maybe ChrisBriggs.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
Chris Briggs, sam Lightfoot, that's right Biff.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
Murdoch, sam Lightfoot, biff Murdoch, yeah,
some big names.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Legendary, yeah, and I think it got sessioned.
It was that popular.
While they left it there, carheadlights were shot on it and
it got skated until it wasremoved.
We were so hungry for it.
Yeah yeah, it was a yellow too.
From memory it was a yellowramp and the installed ramp was
like an aqua green Wow.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, so what drew you to skateboarding Coz
originally in that era when itwasn't the darn thing, Okay.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Well, I started skating in 1975, like, I guess,
what people would call the RussHowell era.
He came to Australia.
I didn't have firsthandexperience of seeing him skate,
but through television, seeinghim on TV segments.
So that was my starting point.
Going like many kids inNewcastle did, went to Ray

(06:56):
Richards Surf Shop, bought theBain Superflex or the Chicago
Trucks and Wheels and went fromthere.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Just enamored by it.
What about you, John?
What got you to it?

Speaker 4 (07:07):
Yeah, just, my first skateboard was a Surface Sam
with the rubber wheels and thebig red thick timber deck and
yeah, just started with that andwas just talked around the
streets and, um, yeah, Idistinctly remember, uh, the

(07:27):
first competition newcastle hadover at garden city it was yeah,
yeah, which was 70 75, 75 justwhen color television was
starting up in australiadescribe that competition,
though what was involved was it?

Speaker 2 (07:42):
was it in and out of cones type of vibe, or Well,
that was part of it.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
The big part of it was just it was on a loading
dock at the rear of the shoppingcentre 75, and just involved
getting down the runway of theloading dock, basically onto the
flat area, and it was televisedby MBN television back in the
day 75.
There was people everywhere wascrazy good times.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, we had you been surfing before.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
That like surfing yeah, a little bit.
No, skating was first, surfingcome second, yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
So yeah just wow, man , there's some magic in the
water in that area and it's sucha deep history and some of the
names you mentioned, like BiffMurdoch and Sam Whitefoot, you
know being drawn to the area.
Yes, why do you think that wasso?

Speaker 4 (08:32):
Oh look, I think Newcastle's just a good place.
You know geographically a goodpart of the world.
We've got some nice beaches,everything's pretty easy going.
You don't have to travel toofar to get to where you've got
the some nice beaches.
Uh, everything's pretty easygoing.
You don't have to travel toofar to get to where you got to
go.
As you've probably experienced,yeah, it's quite compact yeah,
yeah yeah, so cool, yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
So what about you, sean?
Like I know I've had you on theshow before and you know when
you first met these two, was itan immediate like hey, we're
going to be friends for life.
Or was it a slow evolution?

Speaker 5 (09:05):
yeah, it's funny when you said that today I think you
, when you get along with peopleimmediately through
skateboarding, you have, you do,you have like we you know we
basically come from very similarbackgrounds got into
skateboarding about the sametime, did the same sort of
skateboarding.
But the thing that I cherishabout our group of skaters these

(09:26):
guys in particular and a coupleof other very close friends is
that I didn't have that in CoffsHarbour.
It was my brother and I, acouple of other guys when I was
in middle high school but reallyby the time I left Coffs
Harbour I was the onlyskateboarder in Coffs Harbour.
And then this guy just comes upto me at the skate park who

(09:49):
just is so excited aboutskateboarding and that I'm there
skateboarding and he didn'tknow who I was and we copped
each other's story and nextthing, you know, we're 40 years
later sitting in a studiotalking about skateboarding.
But for me it was just thisimmediate brotherhood that I
never had as a skateboarder.
I didn't have a community thatI came from and that became my

(10:11):
community and then it went.
It travelled very, very quicklyfrom there.
Like very soon after we were,you know, within 12 months, we
were building Ridge Street outof Cozz's dad's factory.
Yeah, so it was, for me it was.
That was what I missed, that Ididn't realise I missed until I
had it.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah right, fast forward 40 years.
I don't care who answers this.
Do you feel like the samebrotherhood and sense of
community still exists inskateboarding?
Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
You think it does For sure, yeah, you think it does
For sure, yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
How has it changed though?

Speaker 4 (10:48):
Oh well, obviously, look, I think things have become
bigger and obviously a lot morefacilities.
Whether people like it or not,I guess having it in the
Olympics has sort of opened upthe door for more funding for
facilities For the purest.

(11:09):
It mightn't be everyone's cupof tea, but I guess it's got us
some good facilities and youknow, if people want to head
down that path of the Olympicssort of things, you know they
can go that way and they canalways come back.
You know, get back to thegrassroots.
I think that's the beauty of it, you know.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, totally.
I asked Adrian Jones this andwhen he was on the show we
actually watched Keegan Palmer'srun in the recent Olympics just
to get his thoughts and whetheror not he thought he'd ever see
skateboarding in the Olympics.
So I'm going to ask you now howdo you feel when you see
skateboarding in the Olympics?
So I'm going to ask you now,how do you feel when you see
skateboarding?

Speaker 4 (11:46):
in the Olympics.
Yeah, I love it.
You do, I think it's fantastic.
Yeah, like I said, you too Cos.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, well, some of those guys that we see in the
Olympics now we had involvementwith when we were younger.
So when they were younger sorryI had a succession of years
where I judged the ABC skatecomp and I can remember judging
a young Keegan Palmer, and hehad back then he had that

(12:10):
ability to put a run together.
He knew how much he had to doto qualify, then he knew how
much he had to do in the finalsand then he knew how to put the
icing on just right.
And he's been doing that.
What he did at the Olympicshe's been doing since he was a
little one, you know, and weused to see that at Bar Beach
and in those bowl comps.
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
That's so crazy.
Yeah, listen, you're lovelythrough the week Yourself and
your lovely wife have been, youknow, digging up all these
archival images and videodigging.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Yeah, your wife joe has been emailing some stuff and
I'm I'm sure you two have beenthrough some stuff, so I might
get jock to get our first imageup.
We'll have a chat.
Yeah, so we've got this one up.
Uh, can you see that on themonitor there?

Speaker 4 (12:59):
oh yes, that's um peppermint park, paul Macquarie.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Peppermint Park, port Macquarie, yeah, so tell us
about the board you're riding,like that frontside turn you're
doing.
Yeah, I don't know if it's afrontside air.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
Yeah, start of a frontside air.
I wouldn't say it was off theextension, but we're building on
it, you know.
So that was a Sims, bert Lamar.
It was the very first of theconcave series.
Oh, really yes yes, andindependent 151 trucks, stage
one, independent 151 trucks.

(13:32):
Oh wow, dude.
Yeah, and maybe purple minicubes, I think.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
All right.
So how old were you there?
You think, oh geez.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
Maybe around 14, 13.
14, 13.
14, 13.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, yeah, all right , and you do regular trips up to
Peppermint Park from Newcastle.
Yes, yeah, so the other onewhere you're doing the backside
turn.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
Yep, that's 79 at Bar Beach Quarter Pipe, the Wesson
Quarter Pipe, yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
That's the quarter pipe you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
Yes, that's from the back, that's from the back.
That's John, the grommet of ourscene.
He was the youngest by far andhe was the little dude out of
the whole crew.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
So that's how you see , that's how you, you know,
recognise John as the grom ofthe crew.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Well, I guess in some ways I still do, because that's
when I met John.
That's what John looked like,that's what he wore, that's his
set up and, yeah, there's alwaysgoing to be a part of John that
looks like that to me.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
I think that was the.
It was a Sims skateboard, itwas a oh geez.
It was the first of the Chicagosealed bearing trucks where,
chicago, they had that littlevery narrow open bearing truck
that the open bearing wheelswent on and that was the first

(14:50):
of the sealed bearing trucks.
It had like a Chicago logo, butin a semicircle across the
hangar.
Remember that?
Yeah, yeah, and maybe Sims PureJuice wheels, I think From Ray
Richards Surf Shop, from RayRichards yeah, from Ray Richards
.
Yeah, out the back.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
The only place to buy skateboards in the area.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
Well, pretty much at that time.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yeah, there was another shop in the place called
the Hunter Village.
It was a ski and skate shop andthey also sold martial arts
clothing.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
from memory, that's right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
I bought my first Simss concave series deck from
there.
I bought the andrect.
John had the belt, lamar, I hadthe andrect at one stage.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
So yeah, that's right .
I think I got the lamar thatmight have been from skateboard
world.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, like the hand plant yeah what actually, just
just off, a tangent, an andrectthe hand plant.
How's that different?

Speaker 4 (15:42):
it's where you're behind.
You're behind your leg.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah, that's right, yeah and an eggplant is front
hand inverts, isn't?
It yes, yeah, okay.
Yes, sorry, just triggered.

Speaker 5 (15:51):
I've always wondered what the difference was between
an android and an eggplant yeah,I'm thinking the eggplant's
easier in my world, particularlyif you're uh, if you're doing
an android, the way they endedup being developed, where you
basically pulled your board sofar over it was basically
touching the back of your helmet, like you know, phillips and

(16:14):
blender and losi that's, theywere flapping those things over,
obviously, till they were, yeah, basically folded in half.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
Folded in half.
Okay, Were your parentssupportive of your skateboarding
at that age?

Speaker 4 (16:27):
Yes, they were, yeah, very supportive.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
How would you describe your relationship with
them in general in that era?

Speaker 4 (16:34):
Yeah, really, really yeah.
Fond memories.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
They used to lug me around everywhere.
I remember doing trips up toQueensland and skating all those
places out the back of, oh, thetwo bowls.
What was that place?
Ashmore, ashmore, that's it,with that mad rolling.
I remember the first day theytook me out there, I skated the

(16:58):
little bowl.
The big bowl had this monster.
It was a vertical drop.
It was just like I'm not goingdown there.
So I skated the little bowl thefirst day.
We went back the next day and,uh, yeah, I nailed the.
Uh, the big bowl.
It was all right and it had the.
It had this transition.
I distinctly remember it hadthis sort of a decent, sort of a
nice curve, but then, justbefore it got to vertical, it

(17:21):
just kinked.
There was a kink in the wall,so the vertical was actually
sort of felt like it was oververtical, but there's this kink
that you hit and then you got uponto it so crazy.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
At what point did you realize, hey, getting pretty
good at this.
And sponsors such as bonzabecame interested in you.
How old were?

Speaker 4 (17:42):
you?
Oh, that would have been in myearly 20s, I suppose.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Early 20s.
Yeah, wow, was there a moment?

Speaker 4 (17:50):
No, I don't think so.
I think we just sort of gonethrough having Ridge Street and
then Ridge Street wasn't thereanymore and we were spending a
lot of time skating in Sydney,like going to Mona Vale every
Sunday for years.
You know Mona Vale, vert Rampyeah, it was unreal good times
Nice.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Nice.
What else we got up there, jock, can we get the next one up?
We'll have a chat about it,because there's some gold in
there.
We've got a fair few to getthrough, so now can I just guess
the one on the right is thatWoden vert ramp in.

Speaker 4 (18:24):
Canberra.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, hey, hey.
That's a pangy photo yeah, yeah, david Pang photo how insane,
yeah.
But let's talk about the one onthe left first, because that
invert is definitely under thecoping.

Speaker 4 (18:38):
Sure is Old school.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
So where was that?

Speaker 4 (18:40):
That's Bar Beach.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
That's the quarters.
That's the quarter pipe Withthe wooden coping.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
Yep, no way, dude.
Yeah, that's got to be 79,because I've got the imitation
Norcon knee pads on there.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Imitation.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
We used to call them bubbles, didn't we?
Bubble pads, bubbles?
Yeah, they were the bubbles.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Actually let's talk about knee pads.
Are they Rector knee pads atWoden there?

Speaker 4 (19:05):
Yes, see.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, rectors, interesting Yep, nice.
So traveling to oh, that's epic, we'll talk about that.
Traveling to places likeCanberra to skate a vert ramp
how regular is that?

Speaker 4 (19:17):
Oh, not very often.
We just did a few trips, yeah.
I think, we were down therejust before the Bones Brigade
did a demo one year.
We did that and then, yeah, weactually went down and skated
the bowl there.
The bowl was still pretty, allright.
You know, interesting, nice one.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Far out, and so getting on Bonsai was pretty
significant because they turnedyou pro.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
And, as you can see up on the screen, if you go back
to that last one, we've got agraphic that I feel is iconic
because I remember it as a kid.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
Yes, yeah, yes.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
So how did that come?

Speaker 4 (19:56):
about.
Well, you can thank Sean forthat.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Can I hold up the T-shirt?
Sean, yeah, so your first everboard graphic designed by Gravel
.

Speaker 4 (20:06):
Gravel Burns the man Sean.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Mussett, that's it.
So you asked Sean to do it foryou.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
I did, because I'm not real good when it comes to
art.
Sean was all over it, so Ithought he's the man for the job
.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Well, tell us what's going on in the picture.
I mean it's on the screen aswell, but tell us what's going
on in that picture like that'snewcastle I guess I can see the
steelworks.
Yeah, that's the bhp.

Speaker 4 (20:27):
Yeah and um yeah we've got, um, yeah, the
industry, uh and um, yeah, apool.
Yeah, we used to get around andskate a few pools and yeah,
just to incorporate everythinginto it.
You know, make it as newcastleas what we can yeah, and he's
got the O.
Yeah, kiddie bowl.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
Yeah, is there a skater or anyone in particular?
It looks like Jim Gray.

Speaker 5 (20:49):
Yeah, it's actually been nicked.
The original picture I had inthere was John doing an invert
and I'd photocopied it off aphoto I took it was actually an
invert of you on another wesnellramp, over at um stopton, no,
the uh one, ataman, ataman, andwe went, john and I skated there

(21:10):
one day and I took a couple of,because I was at art school and
I was doing, you know, photostuff for art school and taking
photos of skateboarding was goodand easy and I had a really
nice photo of john doing aninvert on the coping there.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Nice.

Speaker 5 (21:23):
And I don't.
I gave them like all of thelettering was hand drawn and the
steelworks and stuff wasoriginally hand drawn.
That's been composed for thegraphic.
But the photo with John, Idon't know, just Just worked.

(21:43):
Yeah, just I don't whether theycouldn't work with the image.
It wasn't the resolution, itwasn't good enough, it was a
photocopy and it looked like.
I was sort of disappointedbecause that's what I was going
for was that tone dropout thing.
And then, yeah, this guy comesout of nowhere, who's not John.
It just made me think it was abit Veriflex-y to me, like that.

(22:06):
Once Veriflex went to Kmart itjust made me think of that.
I was disappointed.
I like the textures and stuff.
But I've recently redone thegraphic and I have got the, not
the invert.
I've got the invert picturethat Jim used for that
exhibition of John doing theone-foot invert.
I've got that in there.

Speaker 3 (22:23):
Yeah, on the cockroach ramp, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (22:25):
Yeah right.
But yeah, it literally happenedon mine and Koza's kitchen
table.
John said, hey, I need agraphic, just the same as Al
Tindall did with SkateboardAustralia.
I need a logo.
It just got done on the kitchentable in Cameron Street Done.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
And now it's timeless .
Yep, wow, yeah, so cool.
I think it's sort of stood thetest of time.
People still like it.
A few young people, um, yeah,still approaching me saying how
cool is that graphic, you know?

Speaker 2 (22:54):
do you think it goes in cycles like you've seen,
cycles now over the years, likeit's sort of re-emerges,
disappears, re-emerges yeah,yeah, for sure yeah, interesting
outside of skateboarding inthose teen years from, like you
know, when you're skatingthrough your teens, like what
other things were you?

Speaker 4 (23:12):
into oh, surfing yeah yeah, surfing surfing working
working.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, okay, what was your first job?
Uh electrician so did youfinish school early or?

Speaker 4 (23:23):
yeah, year 10.
Okay, finished in year 10 and,um, yeah, got myself a trade,
like a lot of people do, overthe bhp at newcastle and yeah,
did my four-year apprenticeshipover there and then, uh, when we
finished up there, we left withsim and went to torquay for
about six months, went and liveddown there.
Yeah, just to skate and surfjust to skate and surf because

(23:44):
the rip curl, the big uh rampbehind the rip curl factory, was
there.
So we went and based ourselvesdown there for six months.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
It was good and is that where they're having, like,
the legendary ramp right?

Speaker 4 (23:55):
yes, skate demos and comps yes, yeah, yeah, yeah and
you were going in that uh, oh,we, we saw the demo, like they
had the big demo down there andfamous, infamous demo.
Yep with tony hawk, yeah, jeffphillips and all that yeah yeah,
and the lead up was goodbecause, uh, you know skating

(24:16):
simon, I skated with markgonzalez and, um, he was a
really good vert skater.
He was and chris pain, yeah anduh, gregor, and Gregor Rankin
was skating back then From.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
New.
Zealand.

Speaker 4 (24:28):
Yeah, yeah, lee, ralph Lee wasn't there.
Well, lee was there Pre-Lee, no, in the lead up.
I don't remember skating withLee, but he was there.
I think he was there for thedemo, yeah.
But yeah lots of Simon SackReynolds to simon sack reynolds.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, he was like he was living down there as well,
sack.
So yeah, good times, good time,best memories 100.
Then what happened from there?
So you had a nice stint?

Speaker 4 (24:53):
yeah, came back to we had to come back and I I ended
up going to the states skating acouple of times and, yeah,
skated raging waters and uplandand that.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
That famous vert ramp .

Speaker 4 (25:04):
Yeah, the boomerang ramp.
I remember the first one, SantaCruz movie with Wheels of Fire.
Yes.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
That's the one in that one isn't it.

Speaker 4 (25:12):
Yes, I don't know why you skated that.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was in San Jose.
Yeah, raging Waters, the bigwater park there, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Wow, like did you notice, coming from Australia, a
big change in the standard ofskateboarding.
Did you go with him, klaus?

Speaker 3 (25:31):
No, I went separately .
I went in March 1987 and Ispent some time at Del Mar Skate
Park.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
North of.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
San.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Diego and the depth of even the amateur ranks.
It was like tenfold.
Yeah, the depth, like thepeople that you'd session with
in the keyhole were like you'djust stand back and take it all
in.
And there were people you'dnever heard of at the time but
we were talking about, like theReece Simpsons and et cetera,
who emerged as pros not longafter.

(26:01):
But, yeah, real depth overthere.
And it's just because they hadthat, they had more facilities
that you know, their skate parkshad those big square meters and
the kids had grown up in theparks, yeah, from those that
late 70s era of all those iconicparks, so you could just see
and feel it.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, and you skated the legendary delmar skate park
yeah, bowl, yeah, I felt veryfortunate yeah, did you see any
like some of those legends, likedid you see hawk and cab?

Speaker 3 (26:29):
and I I at delmar itself.
Um, I saw adrian domain skateum reese simpson, as I said, but
I went to a demo, um a weekenddemo I was actually.
I went to mike mcgill's skateshop and adrian domain was
working behind the counter andhe told me that there was going
to be this demo at wits surfshop at oceanside.

(26:50):
So I caught the bus thissaturday morning up there and
got all these amazing photos andit was lester and jim gray,
chris miller who was ripping, uh, tony hawk, um even paul
schmidt he was on the ramp sinpaul sin sin iglesia from I'm
not sure if I can say his lastname right, but from sydney.

(27:11):
He was over there doing airwalkat the time.
He was hanging out at the ramp,so was lester there yeah

Speaker 2 (27:16):
lester was there.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Yeah, yeah yeah, this is some pretty like it's just
like moments in history.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
It's just amazing.
You know so.
When you were, your eyes openedas well, john, did it elevate
your skateboarding personally.

Speaker 4 (27:29):
Oh, yes, yes.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
In what way mainly?

Speaker 4 (27:32):
I just exposed to what could be achieved, you know
.
So the standard was really high.
We just touched upon it beforewhen we were talking I think 86
in Newcastle, when we had thatcompetition at Ridge Street on
our ramp we had Lee Ralph.
Yeah, lee ended up winning it.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
He went to Newcastle for.

Speaker 4 (27:57):
No, he lived there for a while In Newcastle.
Yeah, no, way.
Yeah, just prior to going tothe States he lived there.
Lee and Greg would have beenthere six months Six months, I
reckon yeah, yeah, just prior togoing to the States he lived
there.

Speaker 5 (28:06):
Lee and Gregor would have been there six months, six
months, I reckon.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:08):
Yeah, so I think Gregor had just come back from
the States and he was like areally good Santa Cruz amateur,
you know what I mean really goodfor back in the day and he'd
had a back injury and he wasn'tskating, for back in the day and
he'd had a back injury and hewasn't skating.
So, yeah, Lee was charging andhe was just sort of light years

(28:30):
ahead of everyone else at thetime.
And, yeah, we had this comp atRidge Street and it was a bit of
a defining moment, I thought,because it was 86.
I think Darren Burford's ramp onthe Gold Coast that had been
pulled down, Hully's ramp inSydney it wasn't around that had

(28:53):
been pulled down as well.
And it was like I don't thinkthere was anything happening too
much in Melbourne because I'mpretty sure we just had the only
ramp that was up and running atthe time.
Because, yeah, all the ChrisPayne and a few of the guys from
Melbourne, they'd driven upthere overnight, Like I remember

(29:14):
it was in a mini-minor, They'dripped the front seats out,
They'd driven it from Melbournefrom the back seat, only three
cylinders running, People justdoing what they had to do to get
there.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
And the righteous guys, why'd they rip this front
seat out?
Yeah, why I?

Speaker 5 (29:31):
don't know, Because Chris was so tall.
I guess he just didn't fit inotherwise.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
He's a big lanky guy.
So yeah, they'd driven up.
Oh, so yeah, they'd driven up.
Oh, they're sitting in the backseat, driving in the back seat,
driving it from the back seatyeah, love that so anyway, they
got the job done and TobyMaloney and all the righteous
guys from Brisbane were thereand I think it was the only ramp
around at the time.
Pretty, much on the east coastyeah.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
That's so insane.
Describe Lee Ralph'spersonality of the era.
He's a character man.
Oh, Lee Ralph's personality ofthe era.
He's a.

Speaker 4 (30:04):
He's a character man, oh yeah yeah, in that time was
he just wild, like what was helike to be around?
I think he was pretty humble atthe time.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Yeah, very much, uh, though he was in a teetotaling
phase, so it was very much aboutif they weren't skating, they
were drinking cups of tea,herbal tea, and learning how to
play guitar like these.
I remember going around totheir place Gregor and Lee were
living with Colin Brown allthese guys from New Zealand and
going around to their house andLee and Gregor were doing all

(30:31):
this finger-tapping guitar andthey were really applying
themselves to it.
So they were like, if anythingrequired technical prowess
whether it was their skating orguitar playing everything had to
be done just right.
And yeah, so they were veryfocused they seemed very, very
focused and they seemed likethey'd been operating that way

(30:53):
for some time, but it was kindof like their modus operandi was
to it's got to be done this way.
You know, we're applyingourselves to this.
Yeah, very, it's all.
It was all about mastery, yeah,and they they're kind of they
were.

Speaker 5 (31:07):
they were interesting guys, they they kept to
themselves but and they hadtheir sort of, had their own
sort of language, not I guess,but it was english it was but
they had this funny little kiwitwang and they just had in jokes
, you know, like even then Imean it's legend now they're in
jokes and they're sort of theway they were between each other
.
But, like I remember, becauseCos and I were in a band and Cos

(31:31):
was the only, basically theonly person I knew who could
play guitar, and they would comearound and sit and drink cups
of tea on our lounge room floorand watch skate videos and play
Koz's guitar, and I was justflabbergasted at what they were
doing.
Like you know, koz is a goodguitar player and he played
chords and, you know, made songsand stuff.
These guys I didn't know whatthey were doing, but they spoke

(31:52):
their language and played theguitar and rewound bits of
videos and, just like, stoppedtalking for a minute and then
Gregor would pause, rewind pointI was super focused.
Oh yeah, what Coz was saying isabsolutely, they were driven,
absolutely driven.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
It's interesting because that era is synonymous
with heavy partying and justsort of wild behavior and I
guess, as an outsider looking in, I always assumed that that's
what was going on Skate hard,party hard, drink, hard drink
hard, take drugs, probably smokeweed but you're saying sort of
the contrary to that oh no,they're pretty straight edge.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
Yeah, I think it's maybe I imagine, perhaps because
they'd come from relativeisolation, they'd come from
rural or maybe semi-rural newzealand that that's just how
things.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Maybe it was a cultural norm for them that, you
know, we've devoted ourselvesto skating, we, this is how
we're going to operate yeah sothat we do get good at it yeah,
it's really cool to hear becauseI mean, let's face it, those
two, gregor and and lee ralph,and they were just yeah, charges
, I think it was a real steppingstone.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
It was quite transitional from that point in
86 in Ridge Street to Lee goingto the States and I think that's
when it all started, from whenhe left Newcastle.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
As we get into the late 80s.
You know you're skating stillsponsored by Bonza.

Speaker 4 (33:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
And we start to transition into the 90s, like
can you make some observationsabout the change that you've
seen in skateboarding,especially vert skating, as we
hit the 90s, Obviously vertreally started to die off and
that's when we sort of yeah,things started to transition
into street skating.
How did you feel about that?

Speaker 4 (33:41):
Oh look, it was fine.
We used to do the Mona Valetrips every Sunday.
You know these guys Macca, geez, mick, jack, sim.
Big shout out to Macca and Sim.
They're a big part ofeverything.
Andrew Gordon, he was reallydriven good, wasn't he?

(34:01):
So yeah, every Sunday for yearswe go down and skate Mona.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Meet up with Sydney crew.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
Who are we talking?

Speaker 4 (34:10):
here Ted.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
Ted John Gray.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
John Gray, finn Errol , yep, biff.
Wow yeah, good Sunday sessionsdown there.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
What a crew.
Yeah, good Sunday sessions downthere.

Speaker 4 (34:20):
What a crew.
Yeah, it was a bit of a drive.
It was a good two and a halfhours to get from Newcastle to
Mona.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
What kind of car?
Were you rocking back then?

Speaker 4 (34:28):
Oh, I had a.
Well, actually, no, I had aFalcon.
Did you XD Falcon?
Yeah, yeah, it was all right.
Oh gee, sean used to getdoubled down sometimes on back
of Goog's bike.

Speaker 5 (34:41):
I said this to Shane weeks ago.
Yeah, andrew and I, when I wasin my last year of uni and he
was working in a servo, he'dhave days and days off and we'd
just go down two or three timesa week on the back of I'd be on
the back of his motorbike.
It was horrendous.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
I love that story.
I love that story.
Ty Just freezing your arse off,yeah.

Speaker 4 (34:59):
I think we're pretty nomadic, aren't we really?

Speaker 5 (35:03):
We had to be, and it's really difficult for people
Newcastle skaters now tounderstand that to be a
Newcastle skater you had to bepassionate, which they are still
, but you had to drive Like youcouldn't.
There was no skateboarding inNewcastle.
Once Ridge Street stopped, weactually thought the Velodrome

(35:23):
ramp was going to be a permanentfixture.
It lasted I don't even remember, but maybe two months or
something.
Yeah right.
But then you're back on theroad, and we did it for years
and years and years and yearsuntil.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
Bar Beach was built, I don't think you could question
our commitment, and all thetrips to Quakers Hill as well.
Yeah, no way.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
Qu and all the trips to Quakers Hill as well.
Yeah, no way, quakers Hill,quakers Hill has come up a lot
in other podcasts, you knowSounds like it was very
significant in terms of theprogression.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
Oh for sure.
And I remember going there onetime and Johnny Gray and John
Finlay thought it would be funnyto send me on a shortcut via
Peats Ridge.
We had to get the ferry acrossbut we were going forever.
Yeah, they told us it was ashortcut, but yeah, it was

(36:10):
anything but a shortcut.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
A slow ferry.
Yeah, the little ferry thatwent across the river there down
the bottom of Peats Ridge, sowe had to wait for the ferry.
Then it was slow.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
Yeah, and all these windy roads they set us up.
It took forever.
That had like another two hoursto the trip.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Oh, no way, that's crazy.
Let's get some more images out.
I want to get a picture up.
What have we got?
I love this.
It's so fun, wow, oh yeah, sowe'll fast forward it a little
bit here and we We'll go back tothe chronology of your life a
little bit.
But let's talk about thesepictures.
So the picture of you in BarBeach Bowl.
Let's talk about that first.

Speaker 4 (36:44):
Yeah, that's a layback, or it's about to be.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
About to be a layback About to be a layback, yeah.
Yeah, what year do you reckonthat was It'll?

Speaker 4 (36:53):
be more in recent times.
Oh, that'll be about eightyears ago, I think.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Eight years ago.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
I, I think so yeah, Okay.
Yeah, it's a black label boardfrom memory, but yeah, that'd be
.
Oh, I think Jeremy took thatphoto, did he?

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Jeremy Rowling Gembot .

Speaker 4 (37:07):
Yeah, I think Gembot took that one.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Nice, you look like you're really concentrating,
which is good.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
Well, you're trying to not take it to tail.
Okay so yeah, try and get it inwithout the tail scraping.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah, and like I mean , these are some things I've had
written down.
Actually, like I know we arefast-forwarding and we will go
back, but skateboarding is anolder person.
You know how has it evolved interms of not just physically but
mentally.
So, like I said, you'reconcentrating harder.
There has the fear developed inyou over the years?

(37:46):
What do you think it is?

Speaker 4 (37:50):
Yeah, I think.
Yeah, there's definitely a bitof fear, but that can be a good
thing.
You can make it work for youyeah, okay, no major injuries.
Yeah, broken both wrists in thelast decade.
I've got pins and plates andscrews and but you know that's
part of it bar, beach bowl, umvery significant to the

(38:15):
newcastle scene yes and I knowthat you've been integral in its
creation.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
So can you tell us the back story there?

Speaker 4 (38:26):
How did it come about ?
Well, I think, historicallyspeaking, we've been trying for
years to get a decent facilityand yeah, I think it was like a
bit of the last chance saloonsort of scenario.
I'd seen Bondi, I'd seenFrankston Bowl and I thought

(38:49):
surely we can get something atNewcastle along these lines.
And I met a bloke called DaveBoatswain in my travels and Dave
gave us a real big hand withgetting everything together.
He was a big part of it too.
And yeah, I think it's one ofthose when the planets align

(39:12):
scenarios, because as far ascouncil went in Newcastle, we
didn't ever have a realprogressive council.
And on this occasion we gotthis pretty big submission.
It was almost like a brief ofevidence together and we
submitted it to the council.
Just fortunately we had someprogressive, forward-thinking

(39:33):
councillors on board and it allmarried up with when Kevin Rudd
put out all that stimulus money,the stimulus package.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
I remember that I've got $900 in my account for just
appeared money, the stimuluspackage.
I remember that I got $900 inmy account for just appeared in
my account.

Speaker 4 (39:46):
Yeah, I forget that.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
Wow, free money.

Speaker 4 (39:49):
So we had the good submission, we had an
understanding and progressivecounsel, we had Kevin 07
throwing all the stimuluspackage money around to get
things stimulated.
And yeah, we had Bar Beach,which was the prime location,
and we went with an upgradebecause, as far as getting skate
paths go, it's easier to do anupgrade than to try and put it

(40:12):
in a new location less hoops tojump through.
So, yeah, like I said, it waslike the perfect scenario.
Wow, man, yeah, planets aligned.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
And since then it's been just the focal point of so
much progressive bowl skatingand were you one of the founders
of the abc?

Speaker 4 (40:32):
uh, yeah, well, that was chad and sasha.
Yeah, chad ford and sashasignerhurst um, they sort of so
it's the Australian Bowl RidingChampionships.
Yep, yeah, they had Bola Rama inBondi was pretty well
established.
And then Bar Beach come alongand council were like we're keen
to do a Bola Rama stylecompetition in Newcastle.

(40:54):
And I just went and spoke toChad and Sasha and yeah, come up
with the ABC, and sort of theywent hand in hand together.
They complimented each otherand it was the pros are coming
over for a week to skate Bondi,they may as well stay two weeks
and skate Bar Beach as well.
So yeah, it gained, yeah, afair bit of momentum.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
So why did it stop then?
Like was it just because Boramastopped as well?

Speaker 4 (41:23):
I think it was a combination of funding.
Uh, we went through all thecovid business and, um, yeah,
it's all tragically seemed todie a natural death.
It was a shame, because it justbrought everyone together.
It was more than just acompetition.
They had the art shows, therewas all the lead up to it.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
Yeah, was there art shows for the ABC as well?

Speaker 4 (41:49):
Oh, I don't think we had an art show for ABC.
There was Love and Guts for.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Bola Rama.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
That was quite good.
That went for ages.
So it wasn't just a skatecompetition, there was more to
it.
Ages so it wasn't just a skatecompetition, there was more to
it.
But uh, I've mentioned thecause before that.
Uh, it was good how chad andsasha they just had this ability
to make everyone feel sowelcome you know, chad ford,
yeah, yeah, sasha, sasha,steinherst, yeah so, um, yeah,

(42:16):
good times, but maybe we need toget something else up and
running I think, think a key toit was that that was a time when
there was a lot of corporatesponsorship.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
You know you had Hyundai the first year the ABC
ran.
One of the major sponsors wasHyundai and Hurley, yeah, and
corporate yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
Why do you think that dropped off then?
Because actually Sean and Iwere talking about like
corporate brands not getting asinvolved.
What do you think that droppedoff then?
Because actually Sean and Iwere talking about like
corporate brands not getting asinvolved.
What do you think it is?

Speaker 4 (42:47):
I'm not too sure if everyone's feeling the pinch
with the cost of living.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Or they don't see value in it for their brand.
I don't know Possibly.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
I know Destination New South Wales.
There's still funding available.
I guess it's just a matter ofthe right people with the
motivation.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
So you've skated in every single Balarama.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
No, I missed the first couple.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
Okay, but you've skated in every other one.
Yes, in the Masters Division.
Yes, wow, yeah Against.
Tell me who some of the peoplewere in your division.
Let's rattle off the names.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
Yes, wow, yeah Against.
Tell me who some of the peoplewere in your division.
Let's rattle off the names.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
Go, come on, there's Lester, love Lester, he's the
best guy ever.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
Come on, let's go.
Yeah, tony Hawk, tony Hawk,I've heard of him.

Speaker 4 (43:31):
Yeah, kevin, stab Steve Caballero.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Heard of him.

Speaker 4 (43:36):
Gravel Burns, burns, johnny Gray, adrian James,
scotty Spring Wedge, francis,adam Luxor, you name it.
As I said, good times broughteveryone together, you know.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
Yeah, competitively, though did you still want to
beat them?
No, no, no, oh, no chance.
You were just stoked to bethere.

Speaker 4 (43:58):
I was just happy to be there.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
How did you find skating in front of that many
people?

Speaker 4 (44:07):
Yeah, it was a bit overwhelming, you know um yeah
but you sort of learn to embraceit.
I think, yeah, just lookforward to it every year.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, again like I'm a bit out of the loop in terms
of why balorama dropped off.
Was it maybe a funding thing,or because I mean it must have
been good for the areafinancially.

Speaker 4 (44:21):
The amount of money that would have brought to to
bondi I think um I'm not toosure if um you're dealing with
council was getting toodifficult, you know council
being difficult yeah, more hoopsto jump through you know, so,
uh, not not too sure exactlyyeah, interesting, and sometimes
I think event event contractscan run their course as well.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
But thinking of um, when we had the abc in newcastle
, I know events contracts mightrun for, say, you get like a
five-year tenure.
We had supercars, for example,in newcastle for a number of
years but but that was only evergoing to go for five years max
and then be up for review.
So it might have been that thatside of things as well.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Because that's stopped now, hasn't it?
It's pretty loud.
Yeah, you reckon.
It was on when I first moved toNewcastle.
It was like one of my firstnights in Newcastle and I was
like what's that fucking noise?

Speaker 4 (45:17):
I don't know if.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
I can swear Actually we can swear, it's my podcast.
But I was like what's thatnoise?
It's so loud.
Newcastle sucks, it's so loud.
Someone's like oh, there's abig race car event on.

Speaker 4 (45:33):
Yeah, it was pretty popular, but I guess it's not
for everyone.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
you know, yeah, it's fair enough.
Wow, man, I want to go back tothat era.
We're talking about early 90sthe infamous slow degradation of
skating and you know theinfamous slump in skateboarding
where a lot of people stopped,and you know where did you go
from there.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
Were you still just trying to keep the dream alive,
or did you start to?

Speaker 2 (45:57):
move out of it a little bit.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
Mid-90s we were still skating a fair bit.
I think it still would haveonly been the old Sunday
sessions at Mona Vale, yeah.
And then I think come 97, Ijoined the police 97?
.
Yeah, 97,.
Joined the cops and then neverstopped skating the skateboard

(46:20):
always come away with us onholidays.
But definitely sort of took abackseat to relationship,
marriage, kids, a career, rakaraka, you know.
But then never gave up.
Still skate every now and then,but not like we were obsessed

(46:42):
before.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Why the police force?

Speaker 4 (46:48):
Probably a myriad of reasons.
It was something that I guess Ialways envisioned doing Gotcha,
yeah, and I think I rememberone day putting in a heap of
ceiling fans.
As an electrician I'd beencrawling through the roof all
day and I was covered ininsulation probably lost about

(47:09):
five kilos crawling around theroof running cables doing
everything.
And I come out and I walked upthis driveway and my mate was
driving past in the police car,this nice air-conditioned police
car.
He's just put the window down,he's looking at me.
I'm all disheveled and coveredin sweat and insulation and I'm
thinking, oh jeez, what you'redoing looks a bit easier than

(47:30):
what I'm doing.
Might give it a go, you know.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Easier.
Yeah, I want to talk about itbecause it's very unique.
You know, I don't know manyskateboarders, especially pro
skateboarders, that did becomelaw enforcers.
Yes, you know, andskateboarding has a bit of a, I
guess, a juxtaposition to theculture of skateboarding as
being I guess it's always hadthat underlying rebellious vibe

(48:09):
vibe.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
So what?
What did you sort of noticeabout it in the force?
Mentally challenging, oh, oh,look, yeah, look, I guess um
presented its challengesconstantly, constantly, um, I
guess you could say um, you,yeah, you are.
You do tend to be exposed totraumatic and distressing
incidents, so, um, it can overtime, buddy, uh, wear you down a
bit, yeah how are you managingthat?

(48:32):
Yeah, look, I think having goodfriends, having a good wife,
kids, uh I think there's a lotto it, yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
Because I just know that, yeah, like some of the
stuff I've got so muchadmiration and respect for
people on the front line likethat who, can you know, deal
with traumatic situations day in, day out.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
Really, what would you say would be one of the
highlights of your career in thepolice force?

Speaker 4 (49:05):
you say would be one of the highlights of your career
in the police force?
Um, oh, I think.
Um, when I left after 26 years,I still got nominated as the
finalist for police officer ofthe year, did you?
Yeah, so, even though I waspretty worn out, um, I was still
trying.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
Why were you a nominee?

Speaker 4 (49:22):
Oh, just consistently operating at a high standard.
Yeah, that was the award.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Yeah, I mean, aside from helping people, where do
you feel like you're reallymaking a difference in that
profession?

Speaker 4 (49:36):
Oh look, I think obviously victim support, going
through the process of goinginto court, being there for the
victims I think that was very.
Some of the victims have beenthrough some horrendous things.
You're not necessarily going tomend these people, but you're

(49:58):
steering them in the rightdirection and I guess hopefully,
in result, you can give them abit of closure on certain things
, especially the more seriousoffences.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
Yeah, yeah, but were you able to just separate
yourself emotionally from them?

Speaker 4 (50:15):
Not always.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
Near, impossible sometimes.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
It goes hand in hand with someone that is passionate
about their job and does care,yeah, you know.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
So I think it's really challenging yeah, but I
think if you've got that,probably giving me the 26 years
of longevity um having a goodcircle of friends and family is
probably there was probably theonly reason that I could go for
so long, you know.
So yeah, no very happy Left ongood terms, so yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
You left on good terms.
Yeah, that's a big one, yeah itdoesn't always happen.
It doesn't, because people whodon't can then hold this
resentment and grudge for therest of their life right,
exactly, yeah, you don't havethat.
No, congratulations.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
I didn't throw a computer out the window or
anything like that, I just leftgracefully.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Didn't try and get your monitor and rip it out and
then put it in the photocopier.

Speaker 4 (51:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
It's been done.
I get that one when technologybreaks down.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
Yeah, yeah, oh man, no, left on good terms and, yeah
, been enjoying retirement for acouple years.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
It's been yeah every time and wow, like I'm jealous.
But also I know, recently evenon an amazing trip around
Australia yeah, 25,000 K's afull loop of Australia.

Speaker 4 (51:37):
Yeah, yeah, keep her right, drag the very caravan
across here.
They call it the Caravan Killer.
But we got out the other side,no dramas, yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
How do you feel about the term grey nomad?

Speaker 4 (51:49):
Yeah, that's fine.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
You're okay with it.

Speaker 4 (51:51):
Yeah, but there's lots of young people doing it.
You know, I think people'smindset's different these days.
There's young people notwaiting until they retire in
their early 30s, early 40s,selling the house, buying a
caravan, buying a car to tow itwith, and just doing it while

(52:12):
they can well, if you had yourtime again, would you do it
differently?
Um, no, look, I probablywouldn't, because it's not.
I think I've been brainwashedto just keep working until you
nearly, you know, drop it's anew way, mate.
Yeah, just keep working.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
Is there a respect to that though?

Speaker 4 (52:33):
I'm not too sure.
Things have changed a bit.
Like I said, people's, people'smindsets a bit different, which
isn't a bad thing.
I think they want to get outand do things, while they can
not leave it until you knowthey're not so physically able
to.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
Yeah, do it in reverse, yeah, when your body
still works.

Speaker 4 (52:50):
Yeah, I guess you can always work a bit longer if you
have to.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
There's also the fact that young people can't afford
to buy houses anymore.

Speaker 4 (53:04):
Yeah, that's a real, real sticking point, that's a
real thing.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah, man life, that's nothing wrong with that.
I don't reckon.
Hey, joe, can we go back tothat last picture, because I was
john was with someone.
Yeah, who's that you're with in?
That photo simon sack reynolds,he's a bloody champion yeah,
why did you pick that photo?

Speaker 4 (53:17):
uh, oh, because he's known him forever and yeah,
sack's always been the life ofthe party, you know.
So I caught up with him insouth australia.
It was good, him and fiona yeah, nice yeah we come around and,
uh, I don't know we've oneminute, we're having morning tea
, cups of tea, coffee before you.

(53:38):
Before we knew it was, we'dbeen talking for hours and yeah,
we're having beers.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
So really good.
Yeah, nice man, yeah, love it.
Just one last thing on thepolice career.
You know, can you share like ofa significant moment in that
profession?
Sure where?

Speaker 4 (54:00):
I think that probably one defining moment.
Um, oh, when was that?
Uh, old school skate chairmember ruba, what year was that?

Speaker 3 (54:11):
2006, something like that maybe yeah, a little bit
earlier.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
Yeah, I think I was probably a little bit beaten up
around that period and yeah, coshad sort of reached out and
said mate Fox has organised thisold-school skate jam at
Maroobra.
He said we should go down, youknow, yeah, so I was sort of
working on some complex casesinvolving kids not good stuff.

(54:40):
Yeah, a couple of murder.
I was a primary investigatorfor a couple of murders we had
and uh, yeah, I sort of fell inthe heat a little bit and
luckily cause reached out andyeah, sort of went, started
going to all the old schoolstuff and you feel like
skateboarding sort of helped youthrough that period yeah.

(55:00):
Yeah, I wouldn't go as far assaying skateboarding saved me,
but it certainly brought a bitof clarity to the situation, so
yeah.
Wow.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
And from there do you feel like that reignited your
passion and you got right backinto skateboarding.
A hundred percent yeah, wow,how long do you think the gap
was?
Because I know you didn't stopskating, but you said you really
dropped off with it.

Speaker 4 (55:22):
What was the gap?
Yeah, oh geez, probably from 97to 06, 07.
Yeah, nine or ten years.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
I feel like a lot of skaters have that.
Like I spoke to Chris Markovich, I don't know if you know him
pro skater and he said that hehad like, yeah, a solid ten
years of no skateboarding and noskateboarding.
Yeah, I mean he was significant, and then came back with a
vengeance and now he's 50 and Imean he's a street skater.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
And just ripping, yeah, so do you believe that
some skaters sort of give up tooearly and think they're done
sooner than they really are?

Speaker 4 (55:53):
Oh yeah, 100%.
I think I know I'm a betterperson when I've had a skate.
Yeah.
And surf and surf and surf, butI mean the facilities we've got
now.
It's incentive to look afteryourself, because look at what
you've got to ride these days.
It's nothing like when we usedto bloody, you know, have to

(56:14):
travel two or three hours toskate ride, skate park.
What about the trips to ManlySkate City?

Speaker 2 (56:24):
What about you, Cos?
Where are you at withskateboarding?

Speaker 3 (56:27):
I still skate.
I kind of call it skating on myown terms, but I live in the
city now, so in Newcastle in anapartment.
So skating for me is justgetting out on the street and
the pavement in the main streetof Newcastle is awesome, so it
just sort of go, sort of goneback to where it started for me,
like some more of a surfskating style and just going

(56:48):
from a to b.
Yeah, but um, it's, it's stillthat same.
The same kind of monologuegoing on in my head I'm still
mark richards on four wheels isthat what was in your head when
I was a kid yeah, because Ilived sort of out in the western
suburbs of newcastle.
I was out of catara yeah and,yeah, it was all driven by the,

(57:10):
the idea that if I'm too farfrom the beach, I want to
pretend I'm surfing.
But that's like the era that Icame through, like the paradigm
of skateboarding in the mid 70s.
It was all about just lightingbolts on your deck skateboard
deck and try and copy, pretendyou're surfing.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
What drew you to Mark Richards as a surfer?
Oh, it's just that local iconOkay icon.

Speaker 3 (57:30):
And the fact that when you did get to the beach at
that time, if you werefortunate, you'd see MR surfing
at Merriweather, yeah.
And so you'd go home and loosenyour back trucks off until they
were nearly about to fall apart, because you wanted that twin
fin feeling when you wereskating the driveways down your
street.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Have you got an MR twin fin yourself?

Speaker 3 (57:48):
I have had some MR twin fins over the years but
they don't really suit mysurfing style.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Do you know MR?
Do you guys know him?

Speaker 3 (57:57):
We have interacted with him over the years.
He had a fair bit to do withthe building of Bar Beach Bowl
in terms of endorsing it andwith some of our chaos jams.
I remember we visited his shopwith Wedge and who's the guy
from Melbourne that spraypainted up those MR Replicas
skate decks?

Speaker 4 (58:17):
Dazzer, Dazzer yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
So we have interacted with him over the years, but in
more recent years, wow, yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
So significant.
Yeah, his style whether you'reinto surfing or not was so
recognisable.
You know his bottom turns.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
Yeah, he's the king.
He's the king Again.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
Newcastle like you can rattle off so many greats
that come out of that city LikeI mean, silverchair is one and
they get thrown around a lot.
Amazing music, amazing artists.
I went and seen Machine GunFallatio the other night.
That band and apparently a lotof the band members are from
Newcastle.
I didn't even know that.

Speaker 5 (58:57):
No, neither did I Lower Hunter guys.
I think yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
I'm just trying to think of that other rock band
that came out of Newey,screaming Jets.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
Just going back to Machine Gun Flay Show, I went to
school with Marie Hawker, who'sin that group.
Yeah, she was in my year atschool.
Of course you did.

Speaker 5 (59:17):
That's Newcastle Slipping further back.
If anyone's ever seen Cos on askateboard on a footpath, he is
the embodiment of surf style inour scene.
Man, I just I can't do what Cosdoes in that flexible, surfy
way.
I just didn't have that.
But yeah, cos has mastered it.

Speaker 4 (59:31):
And the style.

Speaker 5 (59:32):
Yeah, that surf style .
I've seen Cos skate somethingthe size of this table and make
it look like a wave.
Like it's you, he has the stylethere's something to be said
about it.
And when, yeah, when you sayyou're pushing down the and
literally there's the pavementin Newcastle in that section
between sort of Union Street andthe beach now is just it's like

(59:53):
glass.
Like that blue tile.
Yeah, it's just so good.
When Cos said, oh yeah, pushingdown there, I just picture him
just like bottom turn, hittingoff the lip, Wind in his hair,
Tight turns.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That is that's.
It's an image that sticks in mymind from hundreds and hundreds
of sessions on footpaths inNewcastle.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Yeah, so rad.
Speaking of that stuff, I knowthat you skate and surf with
your son.

Speaker 4 (01:00:18):
True Sons.
Yeah, toby, with your son, truesons, uh, yeah, toby the the
little one, he, he does a littlebit of surfing as well.
Yeah, okay, little one, he's,uh he's, he's more of a
fisherman but jackson becamequite significant and skating
bowls as well yes you know umdescribe those feelings of
seeing jackson I don't know.

(01:00:40):
It's something about a big blokedoing a big invert that people
like I think I'm trying to think, dude, I could do comparisons
like neil blender, like, yeah,just something about a big guy
that can do a good invert, youknow, I think, uh, yeah, I think
that's the attraction.
Yeah, so I know I grew up tosurfed with Jackson the other
day.
It was fantastic, nice so, butyeah, love watching him surf, oh

(01:01:04):
, love watching him skate.
I should say yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
Yeah, because I'm more of a street skater.
I mean, there's a skater,jackson Foy, not Jackson Foy,
jamie Foy.
Yeah, excuse me.
And he's just a street skater,but he's kind of a bit more
round, you know, a bit solid, abit bigger guy yeah throws
himself down handrails and stairsets and yeah, it just catches
your attention straight away.

(01:01:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I see thatpicture there I want to talk
about that, so can you tell usabout the one?

Speaker 4 (01:01:36):
see the one on the right.
Yeah, you might know where itis.
That's, that's ala dala aladala years ago that's one of the
two.
I just remember it was down thesouth coast, I thought it was
ala dala not stewart muns rightno, no, no where are you doing
that india?

(01:01:56):
No, no, that's, that's, that'smanly oh, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
I was gonna say that looks like a park.
All right, okay, you're talking.
The one on the right withthat's Manly.
Oh, I was going to say thatlooks like a park.
Oh right, okay, you're talking.

Speaker 4 (01:02:03):
The one on the right, that's Jackson and me.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
Is that Aladala Skate Park?

Speaker 4 (01:02:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Oh, no way yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
Yeah, the Funbox Park .
Yeah, no way, there you go.
That's from a while back thereyou go Crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Yeah, I was at the opening of that skate park.
I skated in a bit of a demo atit, yeah yeah, adam luxford was
there.

Speaker 4 (01:02:25):
Yeah, yeah, it had no graffiti on it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Who else was there?
There was no like reallysignificant pros or anything at
the demo.
It was just like a pretty uh,the opening, it was just a
council opening.
Local skaters came out.
Adam luxford was kind of likethe, the pro that came down to
help open it and skated, and itwas a really significant day for
me personally because Iactually got a photo.
It was kind of like the prothat came down to help open it
and skate it.
It was a really significant dayfor me personally because I
actually got a photo in amagazine.

(01:02:46):
I don't get many photos, mikeO'Meally took it.
So that day sticks in my memoryand I cherish it, it was just a
very small moment in time.

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
Because that was a really good park for that time,
wasn't it?

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
For the era.
Yeah, it was attracting all thebest.
Whenever it was a pro tour inthe country, they all stopped at
all the dollar.
It was, just at the time, oneof the best designed skate parks
.
The transitions were perfect,the coping was perfect and uh,
yeah, it's become quitesignificant, I think yeah yeah
anyway, but I love that you putthat photo interview on viewing

(01:03:21):
jacks then.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
And then the other photo is at Curl Park correct.
Yes, that's right.
Yeah, Indy Air at Curl Park,nice.
What board is that Actually?
Is that an omni?
No, that's a Bonza, I think.
I think that's a Bonza, oneInteresting.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
Nice Cricket game in the background.

Speaker 4 (01:03:46):
So Cricket game in the background?

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Yeah, so was he, I'm pretty sure Dave Pang took that
photo.
That India yeah, dave Pangcomes up a lot, yeah.
So what else we got?
Jock, I want to keep.
Let's get through, becausethere's a bunch.
Let's talk about this picture,wow, okay.
So who have we got?
Give us a roll call.

Speaker 4 (01:03:59):
Oh jeez Too many.
That's it that.
So who have we got?
Give us a roll call?
Oh geez Too many.
That's one of the ABC ones, Ithink.

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
You can see the ABC platform, the bowl platform,
there.

Speaker 4 (01:04:09):
Yeah, that's just one of the masters comps.
There's Renton at the front,yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
Is that Wedge Francis ?

Speaker 4 (01:04:16):
Yeah, Wedge.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
I think Mick's in there.
Mick Marlowe, I see him,lester's in there.
Mick Marlowe, I see him,lester's in there somewhere I
can see AJ.

Speaker 4 (01:04:24):
Yeah, I think Kevin Moran's in there.
Oh, paulie Savos, there you go.
Is Al Miller in there?
Can you see Al?

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
Lovely, that's a great photo.

Speaker 4 (01:04:37):
Yeah, lots of legends in there.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
There really is you know what a brotherhood Like, it
feels like a brotherhood.
I love it With your son.
I want to go back to your sonJackson a little bit.
Did he really get into bowlskating because of Bar Beach
Bowl?

Speaker 4 (01:04:54):
Yes, okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
I think, so how does that feel?

Speaker 4 (01:04:58):
Yeah, look, that's a really nice result.
We sort of nurtured a lot ofkids through there.
We've had Jed McKenzie come outof there, we've had George
Richards, we've had Marley Rayoh jeez, the list goes on,
doesn't it?

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
Yeah, and they're just the bowl skaters.
Yeah, exactly, yeah Got someother legendary street skaters
in the area.

Speaker 4 (01:05:25):
We do, yeah.
So now it's been a good littlestomping ground for everyone.
Yeah, but the new bowl in it,South Newcastle, is not too bad
either.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
Well, yeah, did you have any say in the development
of South Newcastle?

Speaker 4 (01:05:41):
Yeah, had a little bit.
I think my only contribution tothat was tiles on the extension
and the little clamshell in thecorner.
That was about it.
I think all the rest come backto George and Russell.
Russell Grundy.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
Russell Grundy, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:05:55):
Russell and Convict, who helped design it yeah, so
they didn't build it no theydesigned it.
Yeah, so't build it.
Yeah, they know they designedit.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Yeah, so um I think it's worked out all right glad
to see it out of the ground yeah, finally we won't go there I
had simon bogglo on here.
He was the lead designerconvict and I picked his brain
and you know these constructions.
I think a lot of people don'tunderstand really what goes into
them and the behind the scenesstuff and the negotiating and

(01:06:25):
the budgeting and thecontracting yeah and then a lot
of people wind.
Oh, where's our skate park?
This is bullshit yeah, I think.

Speaker 4 (01:06:33):
Look things that are out of your control too.
We had a lot of bad weather uh,like 18 months of pretty much
rain.
I think a lot of work that wentinto the ground works to just
shore up everything around thatarea, for starters, like the
skate park, was minimal comparedto all the earthworks that had

(01:06:54):
to be done to reinforce theshoreline path and that big
embankment.

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
Yeah, because they had to put like special fencing
for any land slippage.

Speaker 4 (01:07:05):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
Yeah.
And it's literally like I thinkit must be the closest skate
park to a beach ever built, Likeit's right on the beach.

Speaker 4 (01:07:13):
It's right there.
Yeah, so it doesn't project outany further than what the
original one did.
Yeah, so that sort of appeaseda fair few people.
But yeah, and I mean I thinkthe other little thing, I think
the people with the original mobthat were doing all the
earthworks they might have gonebust.

Speaker 3 (01:07:30):
Yeah, the job had to be finished off by a company
called Daracon.
So not so much the skate parkbuilding, but the civil works
had to be finished by Daraconbecause the original builder
they blew out by several milliondollars, I think, maybe at
least $4 million.

Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
Yeah, so sort of exponential things that are out
of your control you know, andthese things happen, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Yeah, and, like I said, it's built into the cliff
face and they've colour matchedwith the natural earth.

Speaker 4 (01:07:58):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
And it already has a feel like it's going to be
legendary and continue to belegendary and significant right.

Speaker 4 (01:08:06):
Oh, I think that's a real important part of our
history there, especially thetransition street area that
caters to so many people.
I think it was a long grind.
Excuse the pun, but we gotthere.

Speaker 2 (01:08:21):
I feel like it's really catering to George
Richards and Marley Ray.
I don't know if you've seenwhat they've been doing in that
place already.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Like Marley Ray, there's a 13 stair before the
bowl, which wasn't designed tobe skated at all.

Speaker 4 (01:08:32):
I've seen the footage , marley.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
Ray's only did.

Speaker 4 (01:08:34):
Straight into rolling into a backside 360 in the bowl
.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
George.
Richards has been likeback-deckering one of the vert
balls, the vert balls, aboutfour foot vertical Again.
I don't think it was meant tobe skated, it's just like it got
right up there and it's reallyhard to get an angle.

Speaker 4 (01:08:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:08:51):
Just pushing the boundaries.

Speaker 4 (01:08:53):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
It's really inspiring eh.

Speaker 4 (01:08:55):
That's a Newcastle thing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
I know it is.

Speaker 4 (01:08:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
Yeah, it's got a subtle competitive vibe.
I've noticed.
Yeah, I'm not saying it's a badthing.

Speaker 4 (01:09:05):
No, no, it just means .

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
I've got to get off my ass and try harder.

Speaker 4 (01:09:09):
Keep going.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
Is that your mantra in life?
I think so You've just got tokeep pushing through, pushing
through.

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
Everything, everything, yeah, keep going.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
Would you say you're in one of the easiest times of
your life, right now.

Speaker 4 (01:09:23):
Oh, definitely.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
Why.

Speaker 4 (01:09:28):
Oh well, I'm not doing shift work for starters,
that's a bonus.

Speaker 2 (01:09:33):
Not arresting criminals.

Speaker 4 (01:09:34):
No, no confrontation.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
That's a good thing, Dude did you get any like police
brawls or anything like that?

Speaker 4 (01:09:40):
Give me something juicy.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
You don't want to say .

Speaker 4 (01:09:42):
Nah, nah, it's all good, okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
Yeah, I don't want to stir that stuff up.

Speaker 4 (01:09:47):
Nah, nah, it's all good.
I try to, yeah, be fairly calmand composed.

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
You are, and that's why I find it hard to believe
that you're a cop, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:09:59):
Don't worry.
Some people within the forcesaid that I was too nice to be
there, so yes, yeah it's aconundrum.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
It's a conundrum, okay.
I know we've got some videosand some more images.
Here we go.
We've got some okay hand plans.
Now that is curl park curl park, but the actual, because I'm
not a vert skater.
It just looks like a hand plantto me.
But I know, is that and that'snot an andrek so that's a sad
plant, that's a sad plant.
Yeah, they're both a sad plant.
No, no, no, no, yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
The black and white one is a sad plant.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (01:10:31):
And the other one is a normal invert and that was at
Mick Jack's ramp in Adamstown.

Speaker 5 (01:10:38):
Which is flabbergasting, because what was
that like?
Seven foot high, kinked yeah.
To even be in that position onthat ramp, as stretched out as
you are and composed in aninvert, is just phenomenal.
Knowing that you're basicallycoming into something about as
budget as a backyard can be,it's pretty impressive Well.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
Mick Mulhall told me that they put the transitions on
the wrong way around.
On Kerr Park for a ramp theupside down.

Speaker 4 (01:11:02):
Did you know that?
Okay, I had heard a rumour,yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:11:05):
It definitely had.
When you looked at it side on,it definitely had that the flat
bottom kind of had like a slightrise profile.
As you came off the transition,you felt like you were sort of
going up onto the flat bottom.
Yeah, so there could besomething in there.

Speaker 5 (01:11:22):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:11:23):
There were no transitions.

Speaker 5 (01:11:24):
It was really banky as well, wasn't it?
It didn't really have propervert.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
In that black and white photo what was going on
that day?

Speaker 4 (01:11:31):
I think that might have been the lead up to one of
the Bones Brigade demos,possibly.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
Nice, tony Hawk.

Speaker 4 (01:11:39):
Yep Steve Steudam, Lance Lance Mountain who else
was there that day.

Speaker 3 (01:11:45):
I remember Lance.
Lance did a McTwist over thechannel.
Yeah, that was amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:11:50):
Lance Mountain yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:11:52):
I think he might have done a frontside hand plant
over it too, did he?
Yeah, that's gnarly.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
What's it like interacting with legends such as
Lance Mountain and Tony Hawk atthings like Bola, rama and
stuff like that?

Speaker 4 (01:12:05):
Oh look, I guess it's a bit surreal.
Okay.
Yeah, well, it's surreal.
I think the fact that we're allthere still skating is surreal
too at this stage in life, butyeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:19):
It's surreal, it's good, beautiful, it's beautiful.
All right, what have we gotnext?
Here we go.
I love this.

Speaker 4 (01:12:25):
It's another.
That's Pangey.
That's a photo that Pangey took.
That's an eggplant at Curl Park.
So okay for those that areunaware, eggplants are different
because You're planting yourhand with your front hand Front
hand which is significantly moredifficult, because you have
planning your hand with youryour front front, which is
significantly more difficultbecause you have to contort your

(01:12:46):
body more to get around is thatcorrect.
It's probably a bit harder thana standard in there.

Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
Yeah, okay am I right grub?
Is that you?

Speaker 5 (01:12:53):
got to push with your arm okay who said that mcgill
did he?
Yeah, who said it?
Mill said it on in the animaltune in yeah on, what's his name
?
Chris Bors.
Chris Bors, back out ramp.
Yeah, I can't remember the kid.
It might have been Danny Way.
Some kid's trying eggplants andhe can't get my eggplants
around.
Mike, mike goes, you gotta pushwith your arm that's so funny.

Speaker 2 (01:13:17):
See, sorry, that was, I just remember Yabble dabble
From yeah yeah, and Lance's head.

Speaker 5 (01:13:23):
Is that the same movie?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, lance's headsitting in the ground, so silly.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
Yeah, so legendary Now that photo of you On the
platform.
Sorry, can you go back, brother, the photo of you On the
platform.

Speaker 4 (01:13:36):
So that's a bowler, armor.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
With Tony Hawk, yeah, john Gray, who?
Else?

Speaker 4 (01:13:40):
we got.

Speaker 2 (01:13:41):
Sasha, that's a bowl of armour.

Speaker 4 (01:13:42):
With Tony Hawk.
Yeah, john Gray.

Speaker 2 (01:13:43):
Kevin, who else have you got Sasha?
Kevin Starr?
Oh sorry, kevin Starr, excuseme, and I think the other one's
Mike, isn't it?

Speaker 4 (01:13:47):
Mike from the?
Oh yeah, Mike Rogers, yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:13:50):
Mike.

Speaker 4 (01:13:51):
Rogers yeah, yeah, wow.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
Johnny Gray.

Speaker 4 (01:13:54):
The man.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
There we go.
Hey, look at him, the goat.
He's just got the goat aura,tony, doesn't he?
How much money Tony Hawk'sworth these days?
It?

Speaker 5 (01:14:05):
doesn't even matter, it's beyond money eh.
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
He's kept it pretty real, don't you reckon?
Despite all that?
Yeah, for sure, I know he'sdone a few McDonald's
commercials over the years, butwe won't hold that against him.

Speaker 5 (01:14:18):
No, according to him, he'd trade a lot of it in just
to be able to walk down thestreet and not get hassled Like
he doesn't love it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:25):
But didn't he still have to have a security guard at
Balarama when he was cruisingaround to get a drink and stuff?

Speaker 5 (01:14:31):
Damn dude.
Those other guys like Elguera,hazoy, cab, they're big pros.
They could just skate.
Like you'd wake up in themorning and you'd look out the
window and you'd see Cab andHazoy skating from their hotel
down the street, Like ChristianHazoy ripping out like power
slides on a hill with his bag onhis back at 8 in the morning

(01:14:54):
out your hotel window.
It was a sight to behold.
And they're just doing that.
And yeah, tony couldn't leavethe hotel without people with
him.
He couldn't go out forbreakfast.
He had to sit on his own.
I mean, not that he wouldn'thave hated sitting upstairs with
a roof over top of him lookingover the bowl, but I mean he
just couldn't just be one ofthose guys.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
Yeah, no, thanks man.

Speaker 5 (01:15:17):
Yeah, and he says that like, wouldn't you know,
give him the chance, I'd swaphalf of it for being able to
just go and be a guy on thestreet.

Speaker 2 (01:15:28):
All right, what have we got next?
Jock, let's keep scrollingthrough.
There it is the layback at BarBeach.

Speaker 4 (01:15:32):
Yeah, that's the layback.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
Yeah, the bowl looks pretty like new still.

Speaker 4 (01:15:38):
Yeah, pretty pristine there isn't it yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
Did you ever just hang out at the bowl when you've
got nothing to do and just lookat it and go like did you help
design it?

Speaker 4 (01:15:48):
Yes, dave Boatswain and myself designed it.
Yeah, what?

Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
did you base it off mainly?

Speaker 4 (01:15:54):
Oh, I think I wanted to factor in the old-fashioned
vert ramp with the 10-foot curve.
A foot of vert, 14 feet of flatbottom.
So that was a big part of it.
And then I just sort of thought, after skating Frankston and
Bondi, I thought we could sortof just do the shallow end a

(01:16:19):
little bit mellow just to allowfor progression, because it's
just given the kids somewhere toease into it.
Instead of I guess the puristswould want to see the shallow
end go to vert, but notnecessarily the best thing for
everyone.
Like a Bondi, yeah, a Bondi isfine, but I think this bar is a

(01:16:41):
little bit more user-friendly,especially if you're starting
out, you know.
So, yeah, but it's worked, youknow it's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:16:49):
I think, john, you said at one point it had
something for everyone, which Ithink was a good way for you to
surmise it.
Yeah, you ended up with alittle something to keep
everyone happy.

Speaker 4 (01:16:57):
Yeah, I think um yeah , that shallow end's got like a
nine foot transition.
We cut it off at seven, so Ijust thought, as long as you can
lock in a smith grind, that'lldo.
You know, so um that means it'ssteep enough it's steep, it's
steep enough without being toosteep, you know.
So that was that was my theoryaround it anyway.

(01:17:18):
So and then we just sort ofconcentrated on getting the
right coping protrusion and justI think getting that solid foot
avert was a big thing, becausethere had been a few places that
you know people werecomplaining that there wasn't a
solid foot avert.
You need a solid foot avert.
So those were the two bigthings.

Speaker 2 (01:17:38):
Am I right in saying does that mean it's safer
because there's less chanceyou'll hang up then?

Speaker 4 (01:17:41):
Yeah, I think it's just easier for doing airs and
inverts and vert tricks.
Basically, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
Yeah, Over the years, like who are some skaters that
have skated Bar Beach Bowl thatreally stood out, destroyed the
place, Like for me, I kind offeel like people like Pedro
Barros have just destroyed thatplace Sandra Pedro Barros just
destroyed that place, sandro,sandro, sandro.
Hey man, that guy still rules.

Speaker 4 (01:18:03):
I don't know if you've ever seen the footage he
does a Naja in there, isn't itthe 540 to tail?
It was just next level.
It was amazing seeing him skateit.

Speaker 2 (01:18:14):
Okay, so he was like my man, oh for me.

Speaker 5 (01:18:24):
I know there's been a lot, but a couple of standouts
for you.
Oh yeah, any standouts.
I reckon the year charlie blaircame and skated with no pads on
, was doing six foot airs tofakie and ollie's to fakie and
like he'd slip off at theoccasional one, he'd be dropping
backwards off his board and hejust land like a cat and run out
backwards with no pads on and,yeah, and you like it, they were
six foot in your face.
Olly DeFakis, ben Hatchell,yeah.
Jed McKenzie, yeah, like whenhe got to be a bigger boy, like

(01:18:53):
they do high air comps, and he'dblast a seven foot.
I mean, it's his bowl, he hadthe line, but he would blast a
seven foot front side air in thesquare end Like it just makes
my skin tingle just thinkingabout him coming along from
being a little kid, literallynot being able to look out of
the bowl when he was skating tobeing a guy who's up at the

(01:19:14):
level of that shelter roof inthe air.
Perfect style, perfect timing,perfect landing yeah, what about
you Cos?

Speaker 3 (01:19:24):
I can't go past Alex Surgente and Clay Kreiner those
guys.
Clay Kreiner, I reckon he tookit to another level when he
turned up.
He was amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:19:33):
They're your modern day standouts.

Speaker 3 (01:19:36):
They're your modern day standouts, yes yeah, and I
guess I was looking at itthrough judges' eyes too.
So you're kind of like lookingfor you're really focusing on
the who's, taking it to anotherlevel and you're trying to
quantify that actually.
So, yeah, it gets reallyinteresting.
540 body variable.

(01:19:56):
Yeah, that was a moment.

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
Hard to judge.

Speaker 4 (01:20:01):
Oh, the Italian guy.
Ivan, Ivan Federico yeah geez,he used to rip in there.

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
That Clay Kreiner.
I feel like he's one of thosevert skaters.
He looks like a street skaterwho skates vert.
That's like the vibe.
A hundred percent, kind of likethat's how I used to see Danny
Way and Colin McKay.
They were like vert skaters,but they had such a street
influence yeah, like anall-terrain dude.
And I notice Jed McKenzie takesthat real no pads approach,

(01:20:31):
like he doesn't wear pads toevery comp.
Is that correct?
That's his thing, like he goespadless a lot.

Speaker 4 (01:20:38):
He does now.
Yeah, he didn't used to when hewas a little bit smaller.
He's a big unit now.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
Interesting.
All right, let's go Jock.
What have we got here we goyeah.

Speaker 4 (01:20:50):
A ball of Rama, inverted ball of Rama, a layback
.

Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
And another layback.
Yeah, Look at that crowd.
I'm a bit nervous.

Speaker 4 (01:20:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I remember Nick Mendesa.
When he first got into BolaRama, nick was just like he
didn't know which way to look.
It was all too much.
He did really well, but he gotthat first run out of the way
and, yeah, he got that under hisbelt and he was all good to go.
So, yeah, always good skatingwith Nick.

Speaker 3 (01:21:18):
Nice, John.
Did you ever did you skate atthe same Bola Rama as when Shane
Ayers skated?

Speaker 4 (01:21:25):
Yes, yes, that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:21:27):
There was another Newcastle skater that we should
mention, because he actually gota wild card to Bola Rama didn't
he?
That's right, yeah qualifiedthrough the ABC.
Shane's been one of ourstalwarts over the years.

Speaker 4 (01:21:38):
Yeah, Shane and Ant and all those guys.
Luke.

Speaker 2 (01:21:43):
I notice that stalwarts over the years yeah,
shane and ant and yeah for surethose guys luke.

Speaker 4 (01:21:45):
And yeah, I noticed that's a jeremy photo as well.
Yeah, yeah, thank you, jeremyrolling beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:21:49):
And can we go back to the other image, this one?
Where's that smith grind at?

Speaker 4 (01:21:53):
oh, that's at the globe factory.
Yeah, right in melbourne, inmelbourne, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:21:59):
Nice, let's keep going, it's a nice one.

Speaker 4 (01:22:03):
Yeah, that's just a frontside grind at Bondi.
There we go.
Oh Miller Flip, Now that.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
Where is it?

Speaker 4 (01:22:12):
That's a Miller Flip.
That was on the ramps that comefrom Canberra, that got
relocated up to Foster, remember.

Speaker 3 (01:22:18):
Like on the Tunkurry side.

Speaker 4 (01:22:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:22:21):
Why dude Was yeah like on the tongue curry side.
Yeah, yeah, was that he dude?
Was that?
What was that?
Like um had?
It was like a grass skiing.

Speaker 4 (01:22:26):
They had a grass facility there as well.
Yeah, and they had the oldwoden ramps here, but they had
that w ramp remember, with theuh, the two quarter pipes and
the, the platform in the middlewe skated that on the way up the
gold coast.

Speaker 5 (01:22:38):
That trip we skated coughs and we skated junction
hill and a few other places.
That ramp was terrifyingbecause it didn't have a
platform.

Speaker 4 (01:22:46):
No, no platform.

Speaker 5 (01:22:49):
It'd go up to.
You can see it's a big ramp.
It didn't have a platform.
So no one.
We didn't go anywhere near thecoping because you'd fall off
the back of that and you'd justdrop forward in.

Speaker 3 (01:22:57):
And it was thin.

Speaker 4 (01:22:58):
It didn't have a thin surface you felt like you were
going to go through it at anymoment.

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
Yeah, that's amazing.
That's amazing.
Wow, anyway, what else we got?
Here we go.
We've got some video footage toplay, is that right?
What's this?

Speaker 4 (01:23:13):
Oh, this is Ridge Street in 86.
This is a bit of footage fromthe comp Okay.
Now, when I spoke to you theother week, you said I've got
some video footage of Ridge.

Speaker 2 (01:23:29):
Street rampage of biblical importance.
Biblical yeah, that's me.
No way, yeah, has this ever?

Speaker 4 (01:23:32):
been seen this footage?
No, We've been meaning to getit up on Facebook.

Speaker 2 (01:23:43):
There's lots of old faces in it.

Speaker 4 (01:23:45):
Wow, there he is.
How old were you, john?
Oh geez, early 20s.

Speaker 2 (01:23:50):
I guess Little eggplant there, Dude, I want to
learn them.
Could you learn them on asix-foot mini, you reckon oh?

Speaker 3 (01:23:54):
yeah, I set myself a challenge.
You're skating on a JeffKendall deck.

Speaker 4 (01:23:58):
Yeah, jeff Kendall, there's Coz, that's mine.

Speaker 2 (01:24:03):
Yeah, Coz I love those helmets.
They're the OG helmets man.

Speaker 5 (01:24:09):
It's Coz.
It's the only guy that one ofthe few guys that made that ramp
look small.
That's sick, coz.

Speaker 2 (01:24:16):
So how big is it?
I mean, to me it looks likeit's under 10 foot.
What is it?

Speaker 3 (01:24:21):
16 foot wide.

Speaker 5 (01:24:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:24:22):
It was a nine foot curve with a foot of vert on
that side, the beach side.
It went to vert.
Unfortunately, on the otherside the vert settled back on
that side.
It kind of sunk into the grounda bit and settled back slightly
on that side.

Speaker 2 (01:24:37):
No way, dude.
That's crazy.
Who else we got?
I love this, so still RidgeStreet, right.

Speaker 4 (01:24:44):
Yeah, still Ridge Street.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
I love that you guys have filmed the TV for this.
I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:24:50):
We used to film almost every session up there.
I used to have this sharp VHSformat camera that I used to
film with.

Speaker 2 (01:24:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:24:58):
And one of our friends, wayne Chapman,
occasionally he would attach afisheye lens to it.
Yeah, and one of our friends,wayne Chapman, occasionally
would attach a fisheye lens toit.
Yeah, so we used to get allsorts of camera angles as well.

Speaker 2 (01:25:06):
No way that front sighted guys was so sick.
First one, there he goes.
Wait a second, so you finishedyour run and then just dropped
straight back in and snakedeveryone.
Is that how it went?
It's a comp.
It's during the comp.

Speaker 5 (01:25:22):
So you finished your run and then just dropped
straight back in and snakedeveryone.

Speaker 2 (01:25:23):
Is that how it was?
It's a comp, it's during a comp, so you had a 45-second run.
Sorry, I didn't remember.

Speaker 5 (01:25:28):
Sorry, Cos.

Speaker 2 (01:25:37):
This is Johnny.

Speaker 4 (01:25:37):
Yes.
Yep, it's a hipper, and thatwas me out.
I was done after that.

Speaker 5 (01:25:46):
That's a gooda, and that was me out.

Speaker 4 (01:25:47):
I was done after that , that's a good one, nice.

Speaker 2 (01:25:49):
Is that Mick?

Speaker 5 (01:25:49):
Yeah, that's Coz.
So Is that Coz Right?

Speaker 2 (01:25:51):
That's Coz.
Sorry, I got it wrong before,didn't I?

Speaker 4 (01:25:53):
Yeah, that's Coz.

Speaker 5 (01:25:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:26:01):
Ouch.
So watching this.
How do you guys feel watchingthis?

Speaker 3 (01:26:06):
like what does it stir?
Up, just take you back to you,know I haven't seen this footage
since about 1989 or 1990, soI'm not sure what to make of it.
Actually, I know it happened,it's I I don't know I don't feel
nostalgic about it does feellike it was just part of the
road we've traveled, I guess,like we're still, I think we're
still processing using palletsas a flat bottom was.

Speaker 4 (01:26:27):
Yeah, we're not over that.
The the the flat bottom.
That's toby maloney fromqueensland yeah yeah, um, we
built the flat bottom.
We thought it'd be a good ideato make it out of pallets got
you so, um, the problem weencountered was all the pallets
that we scavenged were alldifferent sizes, so it took us

(01:26:50):
forever to to pack everything up.
It would have essentially beenbetter just to build a proper
timber frame.

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
Oh yeah, yeah so this is on vhs, yes.
Yeah, so we got it convertedAbsolutely brilliant.

Speaker 4 (01:27:05):
So that was like I said, that was quite a
transitional time.
Yeah, probably the only ramparound back then.

Speaker 3 (01:27:14):
Yeah, it was after Darren Burford's.
Like you said earlier, darrenBurford's ramp was gone.
Harley's ramp wasn't there, hisfin.

Speaker 4 (01:27:20):
Yeah, that's John Finlay.

Speaker 2 (01:27:21):
This is John Finlay, is it?

Speaker 4 (01:27:22):
John.

Speaker 2 (01:27:22):
Finlay Yep.
Oh, this is amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:27:29):
That's.

Speaker 2 (01:27:29):
Finn, whoa, yeah Crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:27:33):
Nice legs, that's my legs.

Speaker 2 (01:27:37):
This is crazy because it's on VHS tape, which is just
really such a lost resource.

Speaker 4 (01:27:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:27:42):
I mean, I don't know if you could get that converted
to digital.
It's just crazy because it's onVHS tape which is just really
such a lost resource.

Speaker 4 (01:27:46):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you could get that
converted to digital, thatfootage.

Speaker 3 (01:27:48):
Well, it's on we got it converted to DVD.
Yeah, my brother did this forme several years ago.
He put this contest VHS acrossonto DVD for me and then I just
passed it on to John because itwas Wow.
Yeah, I think it was a blu-rayformat that I couldn't play at
home, so I thought I'll give itto john and it'll be in safe
hands and it's surfaced for now.

Speaker 4 (01:28:10):
Yeah, till now I hadn't seen it until you
contacted me and I thought, ohgeez, I really need to have a
look at this.

Speaker 2 (01:28:15):
It's been about what close to 30 years since you
looked at it.
No way.
Well, it's an honor to be ableto watch it and, um, yeah,
hasn't skateboarding come a longway?

Speaker 4 (01:28:27):
yeah kenny gibbons was there.
Yeah, back in the day, tim timdoor, dale halpin.
It was tim door, the founder ofcockroach wheels.

Speaker 2 (01:28:34):
That's it, and I'm going to take the opportunity to
shout out, and thanks tocockroach wheels for sponsoring
this episode, been verysupportive.

Speaker 4 (01:28:41):
Yeah, thanks, and I'm riding the 58s.
They're fantastic Cockroachesyeah.

Speaker 2 (01:28:45):
Yeah, I'm riding the 54 mil Jackson Pills.

Speaker 3 (01:28:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:28:50):
And I think Gravel's riding some Cockroach Wheels as
well at the moment too.
Yeah, all right, let's keepgoing.
Some police photos it's you andCoz.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:29:06):
Yeah, that was just after doing the law enforcement
torch run, where we run so manykilometres every day to raise
money for the Special Olympics.
Amazing, so I was on the roadfor a couple of weeks, running
so many kilometres every day and, yeah, it finished in Newcastle
.

Speaker 3 (01:29:19):
I remember yeah, I remember seeing you running onto
the infield there at thestadium Limping.
Yeah, and I remember you wereaccompanying a special needs
child.

Speaker 4 (01:29:32):
Yes, that's right, and ran on and yeah, that was a
really good moment.
Yes, a good cause.

Speaker 2 (01:29:37):
It's a nice contrast, like a skate photo, and then
you as a cop, yeah, and thenthere's as a cop.

Speaker 4 (01:29:42):
Yeah, and then there's some surf footage.
Yeah, let's go.
Yeah, that's Cactus in SouthAustralia Magic.
A well-known, pretty sort ofgnarly surf spot, notorious with
sharks.

Speaker 2 (01:29:56):
How long?

Speaker 4 (01:29:56):
ago was this footage?
Well, this was on our triparound Australia.
It was probably about sixmonths ago.
So, yeah, that's Cactus.
There is some significancethere, because the camp at
Cactus was built by Dwayne Akita, one of the old skaters.
Interesting, yeah, okay.
So that's me on the left hand.

Speaker 2 (01:30:17):
Uncrowded.

Speaker 4 (01:30:18):
It was uncrowded that day.

Speaker 2 (01:30:20):
Did you set the caravan up there?

Speaker 4 (01:30:23):
We stayed at Penong, which is like the start of the
Nullarbor it's only about halfan hour away, but that camp
there was built by Duane Akita.

Speaker 2 (01:30:31):
There you go.
Lovely, so nice around there.
I've heard it's remote and raw.

Speaker 4 (01:30:37):
Sharky.

Speaker 2 (01:30:38):
What have we got here ?

Speaker 4 (01:30:40):
Just a bit of a run at one of the ABCs.

Speaker 2 (01:30:42):
Nice.

Speaker 4 (01:30:46):
I'm not too sure what that one was, Sean.

Speaker 2 (01:30:50):
Masters Division.

Speaker 4 (01:30:51):
Yeah, not too sure what year that was.

Speaker 5 (01:30:55):
Yeah, it's one of the later ones.
It's got two grandstands, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:31:00):
They really I don't know.
It'd be great to see them backin action.
Yeah, for sure they're sopopular hey.

Speaker 4 (01:31:06):
Yeah, yeah, we'll make an effort.
There it is.
Backside tail slide.
Nice Sweep in a layback here.

Speaker 2 (01:31:15):
There you go yeah, john, only just Well, give us
some context.
How old were you in thatfootage?

Speaker 4 (01:31:23):
Oh, that was only what, maybe four years ago, do
you think?
Maybe 50, 53 or 54.

Speaker 5 (01:31:28):
You're 53, 54.
Yeah, maybe Is that Navrit justsitting there.
Yeah, navs, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:31:34):
And Mikey, was it Mikey Zeon, the other guy?
I can't remember one of theguys.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:31:41):
You remember he had like a funky mustache.
Yeah, yeah, that's it.

Speaker 4 (01:31:43):
He did some really amazing, quite unique tricks.
Yeah, I'm sure it was Mikey's.
Yeah, it's inspiring man.
Yeah, so I think that was agood sort of.
The comps went hand in hand.
This was a precursor to, and aqualifier before Balarama, so,
yeah, they served each otherwell.

Speaker 2 (01:32:02):
Did.
Yeah, exciting.
But again, I just think it'sinspiring for older guys who
have maybe let it go.

Speaker 5 (01:32:11):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:32:12):
And think that they can't do it anymore.
For sure, I think.

Speaker 4 (01:32:16):
Yeah, like I said, always pretty happy after a
skate.

Speaker 2 (01:32:21):
It's a fountain of youth.
I think it's the fountain ofyouth, Like yeah.
Yeah, Grav we talked about thatin the car.

Speaker 4 (01:32:26):
Yeah, for sure?

Speaker 2 (01:32:27):
All right, let's keep going through.
Is that it Okay?
We've checked it all out, butit's been one of those things
with the podcast.
I never expected the podcast togo on a trajectory of
unearthing some of the historyof Australian skateboarding,
like now that we've had peoplesuch as Scrabble yourself, john

(01:32:49):
Gray, adrian Jones and a fewothers.
I think it's so significant andimportant to the next
generation.
So if you are listening andwatching this and you love
skateboarding, maybe find outwhere we've been so you know
where you're going maybe.

Speaker 4 (01:33:07):
And push on through, push on through.

Speaker 2 (01:33:09):
Yeah, push on through , don't slow down.

Speaker 4 (01:33:11):
Oh, I've got something for you too.

Speaker 2 (01:33:13):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:33:15):
Yes, you did mention the other day you were thinking
about riding a nine-inch board.
So I've got this one, I've gotthat one in storage.
Thank you so much.
That's an Omni.
No way, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:33:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:33:26):
So that's nine.

Speaker 2 (01:33:27):
So is that from the original one of your pro model
shapes?

Speaker 4 (01:33:31):
No, no, that was just one carry from Omni.
Knocked me up, dude.
Thank you, bro, that's allright.

Speaker 2 (01:33:36):
Thank you, I'm so stoked I'll definitely ride it.
I'm actually like planning onlike getting some knee pads and
going to start giving the bowl abit of a go.

Speaker 4 (01:33:46):
It's got a 15-inch wheelbase, so it's nice and
stable.
What does that mean again?

Speaker 2 (01:33:50):
Oh, it's just more stable.

Speaker 4 (01:33:51):
Yeah, yeah, you've got a bit of distance.
Thank you, man.

Speaker 2 (01:33:54):
And shout out Omni and Carrie Pogson.
If you haven't listened to theCarrie Pogson episode, I suggest
you do so, because again,there's a lot of history there
that is really really good toknow.
Man, this means the world to me, so thanks, John.

Speaker 4 (01:34:06):
No, all good, Not a problem.

Speaker 2 (01:34:08):
So, yeah, so, Mr John Bogarts, everyone Thanks for
watching and shout out Grav, andthank you Coz as well.
Cheers, we'll see you next time.

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#242 - John Bogaerts: Bonzer. Newcastle. Family. Friendships. The Force.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#242 - John Bogaerts: Bonzer. Newcastle. Family. Friendships. The Force.