Their leader was a big, bald, scary-looking guy with a duct-taped arm cast who asked if he could try my friend’s brand new Rick Howard Plan B board. That’s how I remember it) that distorted this group approaching us and it felt like I was in a Western and we were about to die. There were heat waves (In December? I dunno. We were at Leland High School in San Jose when a group of guys started skating towards us from across the parking lot. The day after Christmas ’92 was me and my friend’s first day on a skateboard. I’m pretty sure the first six years we knew each other we skated together maybe twice. “Eating Taco Bell is like eating farts,” is the best thing I ever heard the Donger say. He also had a photo album in his car with Polaroids of spots way before iPhones or anything.
He pioneered using Bondo and literally cutting down trees to get a trick. I remember always trying to do my best when Gabe came down to San Jose to shoot. The night I met Ako we had to sleep in the same bed together and to break the tension I said, “Hey, Ako, what should we talk about?” Now we have conversations on the phone like an old couple where he doesn’t know what to have for lunch and I suggest different restaurants for 30 minutes. Before I destroyed Atiba’s marriage, I hung out with Ako all the time. It’s all water under the bridge now and we can always have a laugh about how I destroyed his entire life temporarily. He was partying so much that, as a joke, I sent his wife flowers with a note apologizing for teaching him the shotgun trick. He loved it so much he would buy 12 packs and practice in the shower.
I showed Atiba how to put your thumb through a beer to shotgun it. I was checking it out and he said to me, “You know, Jerry, if you skated vert maybe you could drive a car like this.” On the infamous Osiris paint-balling day, Mathias drove up in his brand new Audi. We did it all in about three straight days watching 411’s and laughing our brains out. I’ll just say that one time when we lived together he came home with a $500 bag of ’shrooms. There is way too much too say about how much Marc has meant to me. We were in Arizona filming for Bag of Suck and I think we had been giving Tony a hard time for a couple days, just zinging him a lot, but maybe we were being worse than I remember? Anyway, it reached a point where at a random stoplight he just opened the door to the van, got out and said, “I quit.” I didn’t see him for years after that day. We ended up getting an apartment out there and I didn’t go home for nine months, which was just what I needed. When it was getting bad Kenny happened to call me and asked if I felt like skating in Barcelona for a couple weeks. I was really going through it once with a girl-just young and dumb with no emotional tools to deal with what was happening. I don’t believe in angels but maybe I do.
Ray was my camp counselor at Visalia skate camp AND came to my wedding. Thanks for taking care of me all those years, Ed. Ed really showed me how partying and doing a good job can be finely balanced. He somehow convinced my parents to let me go on a month-long US tour when I was 15 (which in my situation was basically performing a miracle). We all know they are Osiris!”Įd was my first team manager at Maple.
Stevie and I have the same birthday and every time we run into each other he greets me by saying, “Wassup, birthday boy!” which is seriously the gift that keeps on giving. I don’t really know Ben, but we ran into each other once and he exclaimed, “I’m so happy to see you!” When I asked him why he said, “I thought you were dead!” Here are his quick impressions of those people who have added to a lifetime of memories.
Throughout two decades of pro skating, Jerry has encountered a wide cast of characters.