G&S Fiebreflex Old School Boards

I started skateboarding when I was six years old.  This was when I was also riding BMX freestyle and riding motocross.  I’ve always wanted to live my life a little on the edge.  Now that I have kids and think about my passions from the past, I wonder how my parents slept at night, wondering if a trip to the ER was on the agenda for the next day. 

This morning Josie and I were digging through old photo albums to see if I could show her a photo of her dad doing handstands or a 360 on a half pipe when I was six.  We came up empty handed, but I’m still looking.

I had the coolest babysitter back in the 70s. His name was Mitchell Erickson.  When “Mitch” was sixteen he took me along with his friends and taught me to skateboard.  How many 16 year olds want a 6 year old tagging along?  Mitch didn’t mind, although now that I think about it maybe I was “bait” for the skateboarding girls?  There always were girls around.    We reallly had a great group of skaters in our pack.  In fact one the older kids in our pack was Canadian champion and went on to the participate in the world skateboarding championships of 1976.  If you’ve seen the movie Lords of Dogtown this event was actually shown near the end of the movie. These were fun times and I can clearly remember hanging out at the skateboard shop, watching tricks and of course attempting my own.

In the last couple of years I’ve had a couple of failed attempts to get back into skating but have resolve to get back into the sport.  My recent discovery of an old school skateboarders club at Microsoft has got me looking around for a board again with even greater resolve. 

My first board was a Fibreflex bowl rider, I found the original advertisement on the web for it and have placed it to the right of this post.  Turns out G&S has recently reissued their skateboards from the 70s and has got me thinking about picking up as a souvenir.  There is even a Stacy Peralta limited edition (only 300 made).  I can still remember the first ad I saw of the G&S boards in skateboarder magazine and wanting one in the worst way.  My brother and I used to fight over our subscription copy of that magazine whenever arrived, I could stare at it for hours dreaming about kryptonis wheels, trucks and the tricks that folks like Stacy Peralta would pull off.  Jumping a car was one thing I always wanted to do, but thankfully didn’t try.  One kid in our pack did attempt the stunt, trying to jump a Honda Civic from front to back and broke his right arm doing so.  If you are into boarding you need to check out the G&S site devoted to the Fibreflex series.

To be honest I’m a little intimidated to get back into the sport again, but the one thing that’s driving me is Josie.  Seattle magazine had a great piece on a father (same age as me) who connected with their son through skateboarding.  Josie has also taken on my early love for sports with an edge so I am hoping to get back in the pool again before she is ready to head to the skatepark on a regular basis.

I’ve gone into Zumiez to pick up a board a few times it is a little intimidating as I am not sure what questions to ask anymore.  If anyone can recommend a decent skateboard shop in the Seattle area with patience for an old fart like me, please let me know.  Ron Preston and I at work are actually talking about a trip to the original Zephyr shop in SoCal – that place is a landmark for sure.

So the long story short, I am buying a board again, I will suck, but who cares!  Seeing the revival of old school boards make it seem like you’ll be seeing more Dads like me are hanging out at the parks and we won’t be in the benches. 

Postscript: My wife adds her thoughts on me getting back into boarding again.