Please note: Most of the items in the collection are not for trade or sale, I generally only trade and do not sell, email me with any trade proposals. My current trade list is at the bottom of each page.
The collection comprises over 800 skateboards and tons of skateboard related memorabilia which includes clothes, shoes, stickers, music and other skate-related stuff, some of it dating back as far as the 1950's. I have one of the biggest late 70's/early 80's collections in the world, to me this era presented the greatest change in skateboarding and it was the "Golden years" when skateparks covered the globe and skateboarders were everywhere riding the raddest equipment. This era '77-'79 was when production boards went from 7" wide - 12 wide, the trucks and wheels followed suit and became wider to accommodate the rapid change in deck width.
Once the boards became wider, the manufacturers had to battle with the weight issue behind the 12" monsters they had created, so they started to experiment with different kinds of materials to combat this problem. They used carbon fibre, foam/fibreglass, thinner plywood constructions with beams for reinforcing, routing out sections under the deck to reduce dead weight, etc. These boards were mainly experimental and not on the market very long, hence their rarity.
Amassing the collection which is on this website was no easy task, I guess I have been unconsciously collecting since the 70's, since I never threw any of my boards away, although I have given many away to friends. Some of the boards were a little harder to track down, hearing via a friend of a friend, or remembering that this guy had this board in the skatepark in the 70's and it is a matter of tracking him, or his cousin or nephew that he passed it onto and they repainted it or it ended up at the dump or left in the rain. In some cases I have searched for over 20 years to finally own a particular board.
A few years ago, I chased a guy down a suburban street to ask him about a board he was riding which turned out to be the first issue Powell Peralta Ollie, he was telling me that he had a whole bunch of boards hanging in his dad's shed, he listed Sims Bowmans, Andrechts, Powell Beamers and other 70's rarities, it turned out that his dad had a cleanout months before and the only one that remained was the DT Bigfoot because he liked the picture, he donated it to the collection. Other people have contacted me to just donate their old skate gear, just last week (28/03/04) after appearing on TV talking about skateboarding history, I received an email from a viewer that wished to donate their Midgett Farrelly to the collection. I have put these stories and the actual history of each board together and display them with the board in each exhibition space where they are shown, I have boards that were ridden at Marina Del Ray, Cherry Hill, Del Mar skate ranch, Apple, Upland and so many other famous US skateparks and personal boards of some famous US pros from days gone by. The stories compliment each board and give the board in my opinion, due respect.
Please browse through the next few pages and a glimpse into skateboarding's past, if you have any feedback or comments please get in touch.