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My
first skateboard - Twobuy4 with Steel
wheel.
Back in the day, roller skates were steel adjustable skate,
that clipped on to the bottom of your shoes.
Take one roller skates clip-on apart and nail it to both ends
of a twobuy4. Skateboarding!
I cant remember where I got the idea to make a skateboard. The
twobuy4 skateboard sucked.
I tried making one with a piece of plywood later. It sucked
also, so I didn’t get into real skateboarding until much
later.
No Photos found |
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My
first real skateboard
GT skateboards / GT Grentec
24” Poly. It was the Bomb!!!!
I love my GT so much, I would fall a sleep looking at it. It
was super cool! (To a skinny kid?)
No Photos found, but I will
keep looking. |
I
sold most of my old skate stuff on eBay recently, but I kept
three damaged Skateboarder mags.
Good thing because I found the ad for my GT Grentec. |
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Before
the first skateboard parks show up, we would have skateboard
contest in own neighborhood.
Maybe 10 to 15 black kid.
The reason for telling you about the skateboard contest with
black kids.
In Dallas TX at this time, it was segregated. Every kid in my
neighborhood skateboarded and was very good.
I thought we were the only kids that skateboarded in Dallas,
TX. I had know idea other kids skateboarded.
I found that, most of my white friend think, black family talk
about stuff like segregation all the time.
Own parents just didn’t tell us. When you think about it,
how do you explain segregation to a kid.
I thought we were the only skateboarders in Dallas TX.
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| When
my parents took us to the skateboard park for the first time.
I was blown away! It was so many kid
skateboarding like us. haha |
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The
time between my first GT and my R.O.C.O. skateboard, Tons
of concrete skateboard parks popped up.
USA, MidCity and Freeflit.
I think there were a few more, I just cant remember.
It was a long drive to the skate parks of own parents. So we
had to do chores at home to get them to talk us. For the most
part, I didn’t go to the skate parks a lot.
One time at USA skate park,
remember this white kid skating the
bowl up near the front of the skate park.
He was good and skated fast, doing inverts and airs. I think
that kid was Jeff Phillips.
I did say anything to him because he was good.
( Note: I was just a kid ) |
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had know idea I save this USA skate
park flyer.
1987 Very cool! |
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Then
all of the skate parks disappear?
I kept skateboarding because skating was one thing I could do
really good. I couldn’t read good in school, I was to skinny,
I didn’t look cool
in school and every A-hole wanted to start a fight with me.
But! When I hopped on my skateboard, I felt like the bomb! know
body could put me down. |
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Now!
One more time! My first real skateboard,
hahaha
R.O.C.O. fiberglass skateboard
deck, ACS 430 trucks and
Pure Juice wheels.
This skateboard was bad ass! It had real sealed bearing. It
was fast and smooth.
It look so cool with the Pure Juice red
wheels. DAM!
I had this R.O.C.O. fiberglass skateboard for years. One bad
thing about this board. The fiberglass would separate into fibers
when you crashed it.
I would itch for days. I crack the trucks a few times and when
throw a few sets of wheels.
Yes! that’s me skating the R.O.C.O.
getting ready to do a one foot wheelie.
See the guy on the right. That’s
Al Coker the owner of guapo, a private skate park near down
town Dallas.
I found out Al owned a skateboard shop at Valley
View Mall in the 70s.
That where I got my R.O.C.O. skateboard from. And Al Coker skateboards
to this very day. Cool! |
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There's
a big gap between me skating the R.O.C.O. in that driveway and
my first time at Skatetime.
When I got my driver license, I would drive the highways looking
for long ditch's to skate.
DFW airport was one of the best places to skate. The Police
didn’t mind, DFW airport was a ghost town back in the day.
I skated down town Dallas late at night. Dallas was a ghost
town at night also.
I think I was a depress kid at this time and would skateboarder
throw the nights looking for something new to skate.
I spent a lot of time by myself skateboarding for years.
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| Now!
Comes Skatetime.
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Everything Changed for me in the 80’s
Before Skatetime I most likely was good enough to be a AM skateboarder
in the late 70’s
The tricks were slalom, freestyle, 360’s high jump, long
jump different types of wheelies.
When I show up on the scene at Skatetime in the 80’s skateboarding
had changed.
I had to start over skateboarding to learn the new style of
skateboarding.
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My
first time at Skatetime Pro Shop. I
was in shock!
This was the first haft pipe I've ever seen in person. I saw
a guy warming up on the Clown Ramp, doing wall slides. It looked
supernatural to me, it was cool!
Then he did a back side air near the top. What
the F_ck!
The guys skateboarding were so much better than me, it was like
being a caveman with a stone skateboard. More guys showed up
to skate. They were BAD ASS also.
Now! Most guys would have looked
at those good skateboarder and went home, never to return.
I’m skateboarding the wrong type setup (out of date! haha
). What was I thinking?
I’ve got to learn that trick!
Wall slides and back side air!
Wall slides and back side air!
One Track Mind!
I tried skating with the R.O.C.O. fiberglass skateboard ACS
trucks and Pure Juice wheels.
That setup wouldn't cut it, I needed a whole new setup. But
I could only afford to get a board.
YES!
That’s me skating The Clown Ramp at Skatetime Pro Shop.
I’m riding the new board with the old setup ACS trucks
and Pure Juice wheels.
The thing I remember most about my first days at Skatetime.
There were 4 guys that would pop there skateboards out on the
Clown Ramp deck and stop guys from skating and tell me to hop
on the Clown Ramp and take a run.
If they didn’t do that for me, I would never get a chance
to skate.
The guys were?
Jeff
Phillips, Dan Wilkes and
Craig Johnson.
The 80s were the best.
The best skateboarder in Dallas TX were nice to a nobodies like
me. |
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The
big spark!
Sims Kamikaze, Gullwing
Trucks, purple Kryptonics wheels, purple riser pads,
yellow side rail, red nose guard and black tail guard.
That color setup was sweet!
I finally got a full ramp setup. After that my skateboarding
took off.
The thing that probably made my skateboarding take off the most
was the people I skated with like
Jeff Phillips, Dan Wilkes, Craig Johnson and there friend. They
were making up new tricks all the time. When they came back
from contest, they had more new tricks.
It was cool being there watching everything happen. |
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Back
in the day Jeff Phillips would rip his grip tape to make designs
on his skateboards.
When Jeff Phillips did something, we all did it. Then I started
making my own grip tape design. |
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James
Johnson, a buddy of mine that skateboarded with me in the 80s,
daughter found this picture cleaning out a box.
This picture is a treasure because I was doing a old-school
handstand that was cool in the 70s. I actually remember
asking James to take this pictures at Skatetime Pro Shop. It
was the only cool street trick I could do at the time.
James found this picture, November 24, 2016
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The first Pro contest I attended at Skatetime Pro Shop
WAS BAD ASS!
SUAS - Shut Up
and Skate 1984
Jeff Phillips was own best skateboarder in Dallas TX. Jeff Phillips
was a machine that did wall to wall hard tricks.
The Pro's from California, blow me away! Several Pro’s
doing wall to wall hard trick's that I never seen before doing
big airs. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
I felt like I was going to pass out. They were out of control
good! I had fun!
When the Pro’s stop warming up for the contest. I jump
on The Clown Ramp and took a few runs.
I got my friend to take a pictures of me doing a backside grind,
I just learn that week.
If you look at my face, you can see how scary that trick was
to me at first. haha
PS: Look at that pictures on the right. That’s Melvin
and that little store was Skatetime Pro Shop where every
thing skateboarding happen in Dallas TX in the 80's.
Melvin was a cool dude, but you did want to make him mad. That
the reason I don’t have a lot of pictures of Melvin.
Later on I started working for Melvin at Skatetime in Dallas
then at Plano.
I skated a lot of contest and demo, it helped a ton working
for Melvin at Skatetime because of all the deck and sk8 gear
I was destroying.
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Side
story
When I met Tony Hawk at Shut
Up and Skate, its wasn’t good. I think Tony
could here me say, he’s just a kid are something.
Tony gave me a mad look. I though about it later. I was 21 year
old at the time but I look 12 are 13.
All my life, I look 10 to 15 years younger than I was. Tony
Hawk probably though I was a 13 year old kid calling him a little
kid. haha
I did talk to Tony at other contest and demo later. Tony was
always a cool guy to hangout with.
Later on I felt bad for Tony because he couldn’t hangout
much because a crowd would appear out
of no where. That gets old quick.
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I
thought about this photo over and over. I think this was my
fast time skateboarding
a vert
contest at Skatetime Pro
Shop on The Clown Ramp.
I also found this Skatetime contest
flyer that I was saving for some reason. |
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I
remember this trick. You skate up the ramp backward, grab
the deck with your hand and
pop your tail like an ollic. Look
at me dude. I was the bomb!
Sometimes the local Pro’s would show us easy trick like
this all the time. Then we could work own way up to harder
tricks. After Jeff Phillips
skated the Clown Ramp. kids would say, I could never do that
and stop skating. Jeff Phillips would show kid easy trick
to start with.
Then kids would get stoked again.
I think Dan Wilkes show me the pop the tail trick. Because
invert
were to scary for me.
No Way!
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By
this time, I was skateboarding 24-7 and going through a lot
of skateboard deck, most deck had the same shape in the mid
80s.
I had my grip tape designs ready to stick on. As you can see
I put a lot of time into my grip tape designs. |
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In
this picture I finally got Rector Knee Pads.
And I got backside-airs over the deck.
I was super Stoked! |
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The X-Mas Jam - Bike and Skate Pro/Am contest was the first
Pro skateboard contest I drove to In Houston Texas. The vert
ramp was a monster! It had
over 2 feet of vert, I think. The Clown Ramp in Dallas had maybe
a foot of vert. The pictures of me doing a backside air in Houston
is the same height as the
pictures above, with me skating the Clown Ramp in Dallas. Man
that Houston vert ramp was scary, I couldn’t do a grind
on that ramp.
But! The Pro’s were flying
on that monster vert. The pictures to the right of the flyer
is Christian Hosoi doing a 540. Christian was flying dude!
If I remember this right, Mike Crum was with me at this contest.
I do remember Mike Crum skating this vert ramp. Mike Crum's
parents would let Mike go every where
with me to skateboard contest on road trips. Back then, Mike
was very little, maybe 12 are 13 I think? That kid had on fear
and skated that ramp. That little kid walked
up the vert ramps stair. Note: It was a snake session!
Mike Crum popped his skateboard out and dropped in!
After looking at Mike drop in on that ramp. I got scared!
Mike was so little. I was thinking, Mike’s parents were
going to kill me if he gets injured on this road trip.
Fortunately Mike didn’t slam a lot and I got over my fears.
haha
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I overlaid the Houston ramp over the Clown Ramp to show the
deferent’s in height.
When I looked at that Houston ramp. I was thinking there is
no way own Dallas Pro’s could skate that thing.
The picture to the right is Dan Wilkes. The Dallas Pro’s
adjusted to that monster ramp with on problems. |
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I
skated street as much as I skated vert.
Kids would always tell me to do a boneless. I would say ok,
wondering, that trick?
I was looking through my skate pictures and found this picture
of me doing a boneless.
The reason people wanted to see me do a boneless was I could
cover more distant than launching off a launch ramp with a lot
of height.
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The
funny thing about this 2 ½ foot air. I couldn’t
drop in. I would start at the bottom and pump up to a air. At
the time dropping in scared me to death!
I Could Not Drop In!
Around the same time, a lot of us started skating two skateboards.
One for vert and one for street.
The smaller street board made more since for the type of tricks
we were doing.
The picture in the middle is me doing a boneless to wall ride.
Melvin wanted to kill us some time
because we skated on everything.
Melvin would show up for work and some kid was already there
trying to skate on Skatetime’s side wall, the work bench,
the roof and
some nut like me trying to bring down The Clown Ramp deck support.
Now that I’m older, I know reason Melvin
would get so angry! haha
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Yes! that’s Anthony Armstrong dropping in baby!
I got a friend to take my pictures, this was my 6th time dropping
in. Look at my body and face, I was scared the entire time.
It took me a week to get use to dropping in.
The reason I had a hard time dropping in? I was 20 something
at the time. Most teenager would drop in with no problem because
they
don’t think about slamming. If you remember, I was skateboarding
old school 70s style when I show up at Skatetime and skated
a vert ramp for the first time.
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I don’t have any pictures from the Wip
N Dip contest, but I found this flyer I have been
saving forever. The reason? I broke
my hand before the contest
doing nothing. All those years of skateboarding, I had both
feet on the back of my skateboard on the Wip N Dip bank, my
board slipped forward with my
feet on edge, I put my hand back.
Broke Hand Doing Nothing!
There were hundreds of kids at that contest. I had to drive
myself to the hospital because everybody was so hyped up, nobody
wanted to leave. I didn’t skate
Wip N Dip a lot, but a lot of people
love that skate spot. I would listen to a friend
T Mo talk about Wip N Dip.
It sound like the coolest skate spot on the plant,
he loved that Wip N Dip skate spot like a lot of guys in Dallas
did.
PS: Here’s the reason I know where to place this flyer
on the page. Pictures above, not wearing a rector wrist guard.
Pictures below wearing rector wrist guard! Haha
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This was about the time street skateboarding was taking off,
Big Time.
Grinding, board slides and doing blunts on curves, street plants.
Skateboarder today will laugh about what I am going to say about
picture 3 with me doing a ollie grab.
Ollie’s were so new at this time, people would only do
ollie’s with freestyle board. That what I was riding. Haha
Then I would get my street board and skate street
leaving the ollie behind.
Dam that’s
funny to day in 2000.
I
remember when ollie’s took off in Texas!
I was at a Skate Park of Houston Pro contest, Orange Grove St,
1980s something.
Around the block and down the street a bit was a hotel where
most of the Pro skater were staying. I was hanging out by the
pool with some friends. The pool was
kidney shape. Some guy told me to look out, move over. Mark
Gonzales was skating down the sidewalk and ollied the kidney
neck of that pool.
It was out of control! That gap was big! Some of the guys
were flipping out and I couldn’t talk. If I didn’t
see it with my see. I would not believed it.
After that night, the ollie was the number 1 street trick. Now
you need an ollie for almost every trick today. The ollie killed
my number 1 trick the boneless.
In skateboarding trick go and come in cycles, thank god for
that, because the boneless came back as a new trick with Pro’s
later on.
There were a ton of good skater in Dallas and Houston that could
do ollie at the time.
Mark Gonzales ollied that night in a was we could see
passed (freestyle skateboarding!) |
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This
is about the time I started ADX
I love skateboarding. The only thing I loved more then skateboarding
was drawing, and designing
thing.
I had a one color T shirt screen printer, and put one of my
drawings on a T shirt. One kid liked the drawing.
Thats how I started ADX Skateboarding. I had no idea
what I was doing, and getting into.
This
is the first ADX Skateboarding T shirt clothing line flyer
I found looking through some old artwork that I kept over
the years.
An original
1988 ADX Skateboarding flyer.
It’s the only one a have left. You can see I used a typewriter
on the flyer, haha. That was a long time ago.
PS: Everything was hand drawn back then.
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_____ I cleaned up the flyers artwork
(In Photoshop. I’m old not
stupid) to create the original ADX Skateboard T shirt
artwork.
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Here’s
the first repop ADX shirt you can find at Redbubble
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These
Two photos show the Clown Ramp with different setups.
Melvin would remove some of the Clown Ramp parts for repairs.
After that the Clown Ramp got the name, The Blue Ramp. That’s
Jeff Phillips on the right. |
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This photo, flyer, and T shirt is from the first skateboard
contest The City of Dallas put
on in Dallas, Texas.
Melvin from Skatetime
PRO shop sponsored the contest, and I did
an ADX demo with a skateboard team I sponsored.
I designed the street ramps, and the City of Dallas made them.
They were made super good by the city.
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I created ADX flyers to put into skateboard shops.
You can see how I improved the artwork. My art got a lot better
in one year. I made the skater more
hardcore than the skater on the first ADX flyer. |
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Anthony
D. Armstrong /ADX 1980s collection
The
last of Anthony's 1980s ADX skateboarding stuff / Skatetime
Clown Ramp memorabilia
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Here’s a flyer I made with different style art for a contest.
This was near the end of ADX. I was trying out a new skateboard
company called Tribe. |
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The
Beginning of
Suny Skateboarding
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Fast
forward to 2015
52 years old.
Anthony skateboarding at Vandergriff Skate Park in Arlington
Texas
with BMX friend, Mark Galvan from Elm street tattoo’s and
Kellie Wilson
Video
on YouTube.
I
wrecked my body, trying Nollie Kickflips. I didn’t pull
it.
I tried, for over an hour at Vandergriff Skate Park.
Nollie
Kickflip video on YouTube.
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Old
Man Bowl Jam BBQ Music Festival April 1, 2017
I
bummed a ride to the Old Man Bowl Jam BBQ Music Festival,
with Chaiken and Jimmy.
Here’s
the photos
and video
from the trip.
The best part about the trip was I didn’t
get hurt skateboarding 54 years old. haha
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