You had me at ,,,Hi...then I dozed off

Hi:

I'm newly registered to this site and just figured I'd introduce myself.

I'm about to turn 38 at the end of April, and have been hooked on skateboarding since 1987.

Around that time, I had a friend who had a skateboard that was quite a bit different than the Roller Derby yellow banana board that a cousin of mine had about 10 years (?) earlier. This one was waaaay wider and had GRAPHICS!!!! I think it was an Alva Bill Danforth Circle of Skulls if I remember correctly. Anyway, he also had a launch ramp that he pulled out onto the sidewalk and did an early grab backside 360 off it. I couldn't believe it, and with that..... I HAD to get a skateboard. My folks said they might get me one for my birthday which was forthcoming, but I really needed to have a skate. I grew up a farm-kid, and my pops had tools and some scrap lumber. I made my first plank. It was a piece of 1x12 with just wood blocks underneath where the trucks would normally be. That was IT! I would tic-tak and do boneless ones on it. My parents thought I was kinda nuts, and so for my birthday, we drove an hour and a half to the metro area of the Twin Cities and ended up at a Kay-Bee toy-store.... Yeah.... So I got to pick out what I liked best from the toy-store boards. It was an Action Sports complete with a Wizard graphic, black trucks, and big red wheels.

The next day I got to go see my skateboard-buddy in town and we met up with a couple of other skaters that had another launch ramp set up at a local church parking lot. I learned to launch ramp, but I also fractured my wrist on my last try! Parents were NOT happy when they came to pick me up!!! I had a cast on my left wrist for those first three months.

We had a concrete pad outside behind the house, about 12x12 in size, and that was where I learned to skate, besides the once-a-week my folks would let me go to see my friend in town. I had to beg them to let me go! Those trucks on that Kay-Bee board broke within the first two weeks that I had it. One was the base-plate, the other was the hanger. I think that's what they called 'pot-metal'. I saved up my chores-money and got a set of black ventures.

Then I met another kid that wanted to sell his used blue Schmitt Stix Jeff Grosso (blocks) with neon-green Gullwings and Slimeballs. That was my first 'real' board. At least, I thought it was what was cool because the other skate kids said it was a legit set-up.

I ended up getting a job at the local grocery store so I could afford skateboards. I talked my parents into letting me build some ramps as we had some farm buildings with some space that I figured I could skate in. First it was a slider-bar, then a bank ramp, quarter-pipe, grind ledge, and on up to a mini-ramp.

I eventually ended up building a lot of ramps and have been making a living doing it. It's not like I make a lot of dough, but I enjoy building stuff to skate and have about 7 wooden bowls under my belt now. I worked at the local indoor park for about 5 years building everything from street obstacles to bowl. We just put up a Vert ramp under an overpass last fall. I've been to the east coast to build a few mini ramps and built Pearl Jam's private ramp in their warehouse in Seattle. We have a sick indoor private ramp scene here in the Twin Cities now, too, that was featured in a recent issue of The Skateboard Mag.

I thought I'd join this site as I really like skating and skateboard art and you guys here really seem to have a ton of cool decks and seem to be as psyched about skating culture as I am. I dunno if I'm gonna end up being the type of dude who has to track down all the old boards I used to ride and start collecting 'em or not, but from what I've seen so far, this looks like a pretty cool place to be....

Thanks for letting me join the community!

-Jay (Vapors)

p.s. anybody looking to buy a 3/4 over-vert bank ramp?