Tony Alva (born September 2, 1957, in Santa Monica, California, United States) is one of the original Z-Boys and is considered to be one of the most influential skateboarders of all time.
The level of aggression with which Alva skated was in stark contrast to the traditional style of the era which was still based around tricks formulated in the 1960s . Alva and the other Z-Boys were among the first to bring skating empty pools into the mainstream. In these early days, it was noted that Alva was hitting the lip so hard that he was actually taking off, hence Alva is often credited for the first recorded aerials, a frontside air, although Alva himself claimed that George Orton was the first to perform aerials (Skateboarder magazine, July, 1978).
In 1977, at age nineteen, Alva shunned the major skate companies to form his own skateboard company, Alva Skates. Alva's company was the first company ever run and owned by a skateboarder as well as being one of the first to use layered maple plywood for the skate decks. The same year he was voted 'skateboarder of the year' in Skateboarder Magazine's readers' poll and he set the Guinness World Record for barrel jumping [1].
Alva is featured in the documentary on Venice Beach skate culture Dogtown and Z-Boys which was fictionalized into the 2005 feature film Lords of Dogtown. He also played the role of Tony Bluetile in the 1978 film, Skateboard: The Movie.
Tony Alva recently signed a three year deal with Vans shoes and his new pro model high top was released in 2006. He is also sponsored by Independent Trucks and Vestal Watches.
Tony also played bass in the band The Skoundrelz, which featured ex-Suicidal Tendencies members Mike Dunnigan and Mike Ball as well as ex-member of Wasted Youth Dave Hurricane.
Tony Alva was recently featured in the video game, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland.
In December 2005, Tony Alva opened two stores in Southern California locations. The Alva Shop stores are located in Oceanside near San Diego, California and, the other Alva Shop was opened in Los Angles on Fairfax Ave. In December of 2006, he celebrated the one year anniversary of the stores with a party at the Los Angeles Alva Shop attended by some of the old Z-boys, current Alva Team members, MySpace friends, skate fans, some minor celebrities including “Ryno” Ryan Opray of Survivor, and members of the general public. Tony signed autographs and served as DJ for the catered event. The evergreen bad boy image of the legendary Z-Boy was present in the publicity post card invitation for the Alva Shop 1 Year Anniversary Party which featured a drawing of a hand flipping the bird with a lit wick coming off of the end of the middle finger as if it were a birthday candle.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Who is Lyn-Z Adams?
Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins (born September 21, 1989) is a professional skateboarder from Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California. Adams Hawkins is one of a very small group of professional female skaters. Due to a broken arm in 2005 and leg surgery in 2006, Lyn-Z has missed out on many recent competitions. She was the on-camera host for the girls competition at the West 49 Canadian Open in Hamilton in September 2006. She is also featured skater in the video game Tony Hawk's Project 8.
Lyn-Z got into skateboarding after her brother, Tyler, bought her a membership at the Encinitas YMCA when she was six years old. Her mother often travels with her. Adams Hawkins' skateboards bear her trademark, a message to her late father.
She is sponsored by DC Shoes, Roxy, Mechanical Grip Tape, RVCA, and Pro-Tec Helmets. She is also featured on a number of skate DVDs including Getting Nowhere Faster and the Groms series.
Lyn-Z got into skateboarding after her brother, Tyler, bought her a membership at the Encinitas YMCA when she was six years old. Her mother often travels with her. Adams Hawkins' skateboards bear her trademark, a message to her late father.
She is sponsored by DC Shoes, Roxy, Mechanical Grip Tape, RVCA, and Pro-Tec Helmets. She is also featured on a number of skate DVDs including Getting Nowhere Faster and the Groms series.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Who is Terry Kennedy?
Terry Kennedy (born March 27, 1985) is a professional skateboarder sponsored by Baker Skateboards, Ice Cream Footwear, Boost Mobile, Venture Trucks and KR3W Clothing. His previous board sponsor was Element Skateboards, where he met Bam Margera. He is from Long Beach, California.
Kennedy is known as "Compton Ass Terry" on Bam Margera's MTV television show, Viva La Bam, although Terry is from Long Beach, not Compton. The nickname comes from a fictitious backstory that Kennedy and Margera met after Margera took a wrong turn and ended up in Compton.
In June 2005, Terry was shot twice, once in the jaw and once in the forearm, while leaving a party in Long Beach.[1] He made a full recovery. Terry has also been featured on ABC Family's show, Switched.
Kennedy is known as "Compton Ass Terry" on Bam Margera's MTV television show, Viva La Bam, although Terry is from Long Beach, not Compton. The nickname comes from a fictitious backstory that Kennedy and Margera met after Margera took a wrong turn and ended up in Compton.
In June 2005, Terry was shot twice, once in the jaw and once in the forearm, while leaving a party in Long Beach.[1] He made a full recovery. Terry has also been featured on ABC Family's show, Switched.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Who is Josh Kalis?
Josh Kalis (born April 27, 1976 in Grand Rapids, Michigan) is a professional street skateboarder. He currently resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is known in the Philadelphia skate scene, once stating that he spent half his life in Love Park. He is known to be very good friends with another Philadelphia skateboarder, Stevie Williams. When Williams was younger, Josh had invited him to live in Kalis' aprtment rent free as long as Stevie promised to keep skateboarding.
He is sponsored by DC Shoes, Alien Workshop Skateboards, Reflex bearings, Silver Trucks, and West 49 skateshop.
He is sponsored by DC Shoes, Alien Workshop Skateboards, Reflex bearings, Silver Trucks, and West 49 skateshop.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Who was Warren Bolster?
Warren Edward Bolster (born 11 June 1947, Arlington, Virginia - died 6 September 2006, Mokuleia, Hawaii) was arguably the most influential skateboard photographer during the mid-1970s rebirth of skateboarding.
He was responsible for reviving Skateboarder Magazine, considered "the bible" of skate magazines, and his skateboarding photojournalism helped popularize and define the wheeled sport during its explosive rebirth in the 1970s. Later in his career, he became an accomplished surfboard photographer in Hawaii.
His father was a U.S. foreign service officer and traveled extensively as a diplomat. Bolster moved with his parents and sister to Sydney, Australia in 1963. It was here that he learned to surfboard and skateboard for the first time, in 1965.
Bolster had been interested in cameras and photography from an early age. This was especially nurtured by his parents' regular slide-shows of family holidays and the many hand-down cameras they gave to him.
In 1967, he moved to Cocoa Beach, Florida, attended Brevard Community College and earned a reputation as one of the state's top surfers. He also began photographing surfing while in Florida.
By 1970, Bolster had migrated to San Diego and made skateboards out of old water skis to ensure there was "a surfboard-like alternative for the few days lacking surf," he later recalled.
In 1972, he started to be published in and became associate editor at Surfer Magazine, from 1976-77. During his time at Surfer Magazine, he was given the task of resurrecting Skateboarder Magazine by Steve Pezman, at the time publisher and editor of Surfer. Skateboarder Magazine had released only four quarterly issues in 1964-65, and then ceased publication. When the skateboard craze subsided, the magazine was dropped due to low sales.
In 1976, with the advent of the the Urethane wheel revolution in skateboarding, which provided greater traction and speed, Bolster had six months to get Skateboarder Magazine running again. As an associate editor, he teamed up with Kurt Ledterman, the other associate editor at Surfer Magazine. Secretary Chris Maxwell (nicknamed Max Criswell by Kurt) made the final member of a trio that would become the re-creators of Skateboarder Magazine.
Photographically, Bolster was among the first to use fish-eye lenses, motor-drive sequences and strobes while documenting California's skateboarding culture. Pioneer professional skateboarder Tony Hawk said the magazine was the only one worth reading at the time. "The pictures were always dreamy and left me full of disbelief…. If it weren't for SkateBoarder, I would have never realized what was really possible on my four-wheeled plank," Hawk said in the book The Legacy of Warren Bolster: Master of Skateboard Photography.
Bolster remained a staff photographer for Surfer Magazine until 1992.
He moved to Hawaii in 1978, where he established himself as an accomplished and widely published free-lance surf photographer. Bolster was constantly on the lookout for new angles, shooting from helicopters and often using a deck-mounted camera to get spectacular photos from behind the surfer, or photos from in front of the surfer’s board.
As a free-lance photographer, he often struggled financially between assignments. He was known for putting himself dangerously close to the action he was photographing, often colliding with his subjects or their speeding platforms. He had endured at least a dozen surgeries and many broken bones participating in and documenting surfing activities. As a result, Bolster battled chronic pain and addiction to a painkiller.
"I almost destroyed myself to give a larger life to the sport," he wrote in The Legacy of Warren Bolster: Master of Skateboard Photography, a 2004 book.
He also suffered from long bouts of depression. Nonetheless, despite his health issues, Bolster remained on the cutting edge of surf photography.
Nine days before his death, Bolster was injured when his car was rear-ended in a serious collision. He died at the age of 59 on September 6, 2006, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Stacy Peralta, a filmmaker, featured Bolster's work in Riding Giants (2004) and Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001).
Bolster's sister, Janet Barnes Tramonte, was the administrative assistant to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist for many years.
He was responsible for reviving Skateboarder Magazine, considered "the bible" of skate magazines, and his skateboarding photojournalism helped popularize and define the wheeled sport during its explosive rebirth in the 1970s. Later in his career, he became an accomplished surfboard photographer in Hawaii.
His father was a U.S. foreign service officer and traveled extensively as a diplomat. Bolster moved with his parents and sister to Sydney, Australia in 1963. It was here that he learned to surfboard and skateboard for the first time, in 1965.
Bolster had been interested in cameras and photography from an early age. This was especially nurtured by his parents' regular slide-shows of family holidays and the many hand-down cameras they gave to him.
In 1967, he moved to Cocoa Beach, Florida, attended Brevard Community College and earned a reputation as one of the state's top surfers. He also began photographing surfing while in Florida.
By 1970, Bolster had migrated to San Diego and made skateboards out of old water skis to ensure there was "a surfboard-like alternative for the few days lacking surf," he later recalled.
In 1972, he started to be published in and became associate editor at Surfer Magazine, from 1976-77. During his time at Surfer Magazine, he was given the task of resurrecting Skateboarder Magazine by Steve Pezman, at the time publisher and editor of Surfer. Skateboarder Magazine had released only four quarterly issues in 1964-65, and then ceased publication. When the skateboard craze subsided, the magazine was dropped due to low sales.
In 1976, with the advent of the the Urethane wheel revolution in skateboarding, which provided greater traction and speed, Bolster had six months to get Skateboarder Magazine running again. As an associate editor, he teamed up with Kurt Ledterman, the other associate editor at Surfer Magazine. Secretary Chris Maxwell (nicknamed Max Criswell by Kurt) made the final member of a trio that would become the re-creators of Skateboarder Magazine.
Photographically, Bolster was among the first to use fish-eye lenses, motor-drive sequences and strobes while documenting California's skateboarding culture. Pioneer professional skateboarder Tony Hawk said the magazine was the only one worth reading at the time. "The pictures were always dreamy and left me full of disbelief…. If it weren't for SkateBoarder, I would have never realized what was really possible on my four-wheeled plank," Hawk said in the book The Legacy of Warren Bolster: Master of Skateboard Photography.
Bolster remained a staff photographer for Surfer Magazine until 1992.
He moved to Hawaii in 1978, where he established himself as an accomplished and widely published free-lance surf photographer. Bolster was constantly on the lookout for new angles, shooting from helicopters and often using a deck-mounted camera to get spectacular photos from behind the surfer, or photos from in front of the surfer’s board.
As a free-lance photographer, he often struggled financially between assignments. He was known for putting himself dangerously close to the action he was photographing, often colliding with his subjects or their speeding platforms. He had endured at least a dozen surgeries and many broken bones participating in and documenting surfing activities. As a result, Bolster battled chronic pain and addiction to a painkiller.
"I almost destroyed myself to give a larger life to the sport," he wrote in The Legacy of Warren Bolster: Master of Skateboard Photography, a 2004 book.
He also suffered from long bouts of depression. Nonetheless, despite his health issues, Bolster remained on the cutting edge of surf photography.
Nine days before his death, Bolster was injured when his car was rear-ended in a serious collision. He died at the age of 59 on September 6, 2006, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Stacy Peralta, a filmmaker, featured Bolster's work in Riding Giants (2004) and Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001).
Bolster's sister, Janet Barnes Tramonte, was the administrative assistant to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist for many years.
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