photo: Christian Griffith, your humble narrator
Jimmy O. doesn’t remember me, but he, along with others of a group of top skaters in the 80’s, had a huge influence on my skating and my skater lifestyle back in 1986. {…at least, I think it was 1986}
The scene was the summer of ‘86 at Washington University Campus in St. Louis, Missouri. I was headed out to my first “skate camp”, actually one of the first ever “skate camps”, at the ripe old age of 16 years old. I was flying alone and had no idea what to expect, but was super stoked at getting the opportunity to skate with some of the Pros and Ams from all over the country.
Upon my arrival, the first person I met, besides the crazy-looking, black-haired, black goatee dude that picked me up at the airport, was Christian Hosoi. He was actually on his way out that day as he had apparently been there for the prior week’s session. Still, I was stoked just to get a nod out of him as he blabbed to some skate betty on the pay phone.
Things about that week are a little fuzzy, but I remember tons of skating all day long. There was a street area, and a monstrous ramp area with a 12 x 40 ft. vert ramp, a 8 x 24 foot halfpipe, and a super fun 40-foot wide, 4 foot tall, mini-half all slicked-up with Masonite and fat steel coping. Every day was filled with session after session of skating on all the terrain. I think there was supposed to be a line item, day-to-day structure, but the dudes were cool about just letting you skate whatever you wanted to skate, and whenever you wanted too.
Even better, there were lots of little skate betties hanging around too which made for some interesting activity back at the dorms. As a resident of Myrtle Beach, and local life guard and surfer, my lady skills were on-point and confidence around girls was never really a problem.
About halfway through the week, I was getting a little reputation for developing quite a few ‘quickie’ female relationships; but there was this one particularly hot, hot girl that was digging on me, and it just so happened that Monty Nolder, a lesser known vert pro at the time, had been “hanging out with her”, but was apparently not treating her as she wanted to be treated, or was just sick of her, or whatever… all the pros had been hanging out with her, her group of friends and lots of other girls, but this type of activity did not usually include ANY of us “campers”.
I got lucky. I sort of befriended Steve Caballero, whom I idolized at the time, and Monty Nolder and an up-and-coming amateur named Reese Simpson (who eventually turned pro shortly thereafter). Those guys nicknamed me, “home wrecker” as my female antics were causing all kinds of tensions for the boys whose girls I was picking off.
Now this is where Jimmy comes in, although he’ll probably never remember — Due to the fact that this unbelievable chick was scoping me, Reese, Cab and Monty were going to take me out to some local, girlie house party one night, I suppose since I had established myself as a worthy wingman. On our way to “gather the troops”, we headed up to a room where Jimmy, another Atlanta skater named Lenny Byrd, and Reese Simpson were chilling out, flipping through mags and listening to the weirdest reggae I had ever heard.
That weird reggae turned out to be “Eek-a-mouse” and Reese gave me a tape titled “Wa Do Dem” that would end up, to this day, one of my all time favorite reggae records.
Not sure why, but I ended up spending a lot of time with Jimmy, Lenny and Reese and they were simply the coolest dudes I had ever met. We ended up going to those parties that night, and I was so stoked that these guys were letting me hang with them - the only “camper” allowed in the “their club”.
Throughout the rest of the week, I got extra special attention from those guys and while they appreciated my street skating, they busted my balls constantly about learning to skate better vert. They spent time with me, one-on-one, to help me improve in this area, and by the end of the week, I was nailing frontside, backside, and mute-grab airs about a foot over coping — nothing like these guys’ chest and head-high airs, but quite an improvement for me at the time.
I left that camp a little more grown up. I learned from the big boys. I partied with the big boys. I spent a solid week skating and chilling with skate idols I already knew about like Steve Cabellero and Monte Nolder, and met new rising skaters like Jimmy, Lenny and Reese. The experience played a large part in molding my skating lifestyle for many years after that.
So, now Brook Run Skate Park is complete, and I am once again inspired by watching the old school. My life has changed and while I still appreciate skateboarding, I have a new passion in ultrarunning. This tremendous amount of running takes away from my free time and my ability to get out there and skate as much as I’d like - so I photograph it when I can.
The photo I took of Jimmy above was during the Brook Run Opening Day and like I said, I’m inspired.
Happy birthday Jimmy O. - once again, 21 years later, you’re still a skating inspiration.
Much respect.
*** by the way, since then I have become quite the reggae connoissuour, If you like that genre of music, here are some lesser known must-have’s:
- Satta Massagana, by Abyssinians
- Who Say Jah No Dread, by Jacob Miller
- Never Give In, by Pato Banton
- True Democracy, by Steel Pulse
- Screaming Target, by Big Youth
- Since I Throw the Comb Away, by Twinkle Brothers {live}
Pick up these collections and you’ll be well on your way to listening bliss.
