* President of National Skateboarders Association of Australia (1997 - present)
* Former National Skateboard Committee Member - Skate Australia
* Consulted to over 57 Australian councils on the design/development of skate parks
* Judged more than 60 skate events spanning 17 years including the Brisbane & Chinese X-Games
* Organizer/Project Manager of over 50 Australian national and regional events including the Mountain Dew Series, Van's Warped Tour , Globe Australian Skateboard series & the famous Old School Skate Jams
* Certified Australian Government Skateboard Coach
* 27 years working in the skateboard industry
* 1986 Australian Coke Skate Out champion
* Actively skateboarding for 37 years
A brief glimpse at his skateboarding life.
I first started riding my brother's Surfer Sam around my driveway, and neighbour's driveway in about 1972. I think I started on my knees at first, and then got to stand up and go straight. That's about all there was back then.
In 1974 or 75 when the Bahne Superflexes came out and the craze hit, my dad bought me a neighbour's old skateboard that had Chicago trucks, Rollersport wheels and a wooden deck. Every teenager in the country, I think, skated then. The tricks were 360's, tick-tacks, end-overs and handstands. There were no skateparks then, we only had hills and car parks to skate. Heroes at the time were Rob Bain, Shane Horan and Chris Elliot.
But then in 1978, I picked up a US skate magazine and was blown away by photos of guys at skateparks carving, one wheelers, and even pulling aerials. So I went to Skateboard World in Burwood and got a plastic deck, Edwards trucks and wheels. Next I was skating Eastwood car park with a school friend. It had a bank about 3 feet high. That's where I met Steve Sargent, he was from Eastwood. He blew me away, doing 360's, 2-board daffies and nose wheelies.
The next place I skated was Harris Park bowl. It was a 4 feet high type banked bowl. The locals there were Danny Van and older guys like Ming and Bones. Later came the Greenwich Boat Ramp, which was joined to Sydney Harbour, so if you lost your board, it was gone! The Pupburgers were the main locals there, guys like Doug and Tony Lake, Lopez, Bill Shaffer, Nicki Martin and Tony Mann. But John Tesiriro ruled the place with the Tony Alva look and moves. It was after that that I started building a 5 foot quarter pipe under my carport at home which got sessioned every day. (Pictured above is Duane Hecketa at Ryde skatepark, circa 1980) and below Biff at Mona 1998.
In October 1978 I heard about a pool centre in Pymble that had closed down and had some empty pools to Skate. After I went there with a school friend, we discovered around 4 Pools at this place, but only 2 looked skateable The larger pool was full of water, with the smaller one having about 2 feet of water in it. So we started bailing the water out of the smaller one, and about 2 hours later when we had finished, the Skateboard World Team showed up. So we watched David "Victor" Mock , Errol and others rule the place. We were blown away and too embarrassed to skate. A couple of weeks later the bigger lower pool was pumped out by the guys from OZI Skate (Lyndsay, Bob, Matt and Tim Dawe from Cortech). So this was the place to skate an 8' - 6" bowl with 3 feet of true vert. This was real skateboarding! Grinds, carves and aerials. This is where vert started. Adrian Jones ruled this place! Smooth airs and grinds, very consistent. Wedge from Melbourne also skated well with power and speed.
At this time, Tim Winton and Trevor King were making regular pilgrimages from Canberra to display the style and grace that is uniquely ACT. Other locals included: John Fox, Lopez, Bill Schaffer, Briggs ,Ted ,Grant Murdoch, Peter Aitkin, John Finlay , Russell Jones , Bob Hastie and Kelvin the Borf. Roseville pipes were also being sessioned during this time. They measured around 10 feet high by about 150 metres long, and were way fun when dry! (pictured above is Bill Schaffer at Roseville Pipes )
In May 1979 Manly SK8 City opened (Brad pictured abovet at Manly Sk8 City, circa 1980). It had two 6 feet quarter pipes, an 8 foot high by 40 foot long halfpipe and about a 10 feet deep bowl, all made of fibreglass. I broke my arm there once. This place was cool, right by the ocean with pinball machines and a pro shop! The guys who absolutely ruled this place were Biff Murdoch (who still skates hard!) with big ollies and long tail slides with style, and Chris Briggs (another standout there but not so well known any more) who could do just about any trick including frontside inverts, elguerials and frontside disasters. Johnny McGrath was also a regular ripper at this park, as were Johnny Gray and the Blacktown crew. Other regular rippers included: Duane Hecketa, Dale Halpin, Sin, Matt Davis, The Peds and Tony Hallam. I came 5th in the Australian Titles there.
In December of 1979, Ryde Skatepark opened. This was a concrete park built by Tim Dawe and partners. This place featured an 11 foot deep bowl with 4 foot of pure vertical, a 4 foot deep mini-bowl, a large banked freestyle area, and a halfpipe that ranged from 5 - 11 feet high and was around 100 metres long. It was fairly 'kinked' in some areas but was always a lot of fun! This place quickly became my local park, after all, I lived just up the road from it. Many fun night sessions were had at this park with the likes of Steve Sargent, David Clancy, Danny Van, Sin (pictured above in the eleven foot bowl, circa 1982), David and Pete McEnroy, Cary Pogson Andrew Hulley and Shane Deering on a regular basis. Ryde was bulldozed Jan 87.,
SK8 City unfortunately closed in January of 1981. After that, there was a quarter pipe at Artarmon that became a regular sessioning ground for a while. It was a 6 foot high by 12 foot wide ramp at the end of a rickety footpath that guys like Chad Ford and Colin Brown could be found sessioning together. This ramp too was eventually met with destruction.
In 1981 I got my first job in a real life skateshop - Skateboard World at Burwood.
At this time Keirle Park in Manly had an 8 foot high masonite quarter pipe, opposite a 6 1/2 foot high fibre glass quarter pipe that was given new life after SK8 City closed. This park was 'home ground' for skaters like Duane Hecketa, Dale Halpin (picturedabove at Keirle Park, circa 1983), Sin Egelja, Ces, Sac and many other local talents.
In the early 1980's Ryde Skatepark was really the only skatepark that was open. Skating was quiet from around 1981 left through to about 1984. At that time I lived in Cronulla, surfing and street skating with other grommets like Ken Gibbons, Neil Davies and Matt Hoffman.
In 1983, I went to California for a month with David V. Mock and Sue Corps. We skated at places like Upland, Del Mar, Colton, and even the Palmdale Ramp.
In 1984, Andrew Hulley’s ramp was built in his Ermington backyard. Originally 8 foot high, it was then rebuilt to 11 feet. The biggest ramp in Australia! This ramp was sessioned by Andrew Hulley (of course), Errol, Sin, Johnny Gray (pictured abovet at Hulley's ramp, circa 1984), John Finlay, Shane Deering and Mike Mulhall. This amazing ramp unfortunately only lasted about a year (Ed: Not so surprising when you consider it was built next to an old persons home).
In 1986 I won the Coke Skateout at Australia’s Wonderland.
Then Dave Clancy built a half pipe in his backyard about 7 foot high and 30 foot long that was sessioned for about a year with guys like Bill Danforth and Ted. At that time I was also going on regular skate trips to Port Macquarie skate park with guys like Gary Nolan, Darren Burford and Riceball. It was without doubt, one of the smoothest parks ever! After that, Mitch Newell built a 10 foot high by 16 foot half pipe in his backyard that was fun. It was sessioned by a number of skaters including pros like Alan Los and local Matt Magersi. And then about 1987 Quakers Hill opened (Ed: Which was actually Hulley's ramp relocated to Quakers), then Keirle Park opened, and then Mona Vale opened.
After that, I moved to San Diego for a few years skating, surfing and working at Tracker Trucks and Transworld Skateboarding. I moved back to Australia in about 1992 and mostly worked for Airwalk over the next few years. And then in 1998, I decided to set up the National Skateboarders Association of Australia (N.S.A.A.).
Recently have been designing and building skateparks in China as well as managing the big SMP skatepark in Shanghai. More to come.
Keep skateboarding.
Ryde skatepark big bowl 1980
