80’s Zine Archives: Skate Punk #2
April 23rd, 2008 by Kilwag
Published in January of 1982, (!) Skate Punk #2 is from the collection of John Drummond and the then 17 year old mind of Steve Caballero. It looks like it was produced on a fancy copying machine with some sort of photo enhancing technology, and the paper is heavier too. Not too surprising since Robert Caballero is listed as the publisher with One Way Press (also in an advert) so I’m guessing his father (brother?) owned a print shop. There are the prerequisite adverts for Powell and Thrasher, and a lot of photos. There’s an interview with Steve Caballero - how did he get that? When asked who he thought would be his main competition, Steve replied Billy Ruff! Also amusing in hindsight is Steve’s answer to when he thought he was in his prime, as if he had peaked already. Answer: Right after the Gold Cup series. What else? Gig reviews at Briner Hall where fights break out and the cops shut it down. A contest on Steve’s ramp, Corey O’Brien am spotlight and the 9th street Punk Pool. Also of interest: A mention of an entity called “The Pool Exchange”, Caballero riding on Tracker Trucks and Sio (?) shorts. Who does he like to skate with in 1982? Rodney Mullen, Neil Blender, Tony Hawk and Lance Mountain in that order. Who does he thank? His sponsors and “especially Stacy Peralta.” This might be the earliest skate zine I have ever seen. It’s great read, especially considering the scene and the players involved, and what they would become shortly.
Other Contributors: Corey O’Brien, Neil Blender, Lance Mountain, Howard, Rick Bosch, Grant, Gavin O’Brien
Check out Skate Punk #2 (Thanks again to John Drummond)
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:37 am
But Billy Ruff was his main competition right then, he was ripping in the contests at that point and Hawk, Mtn, Hosoi, Blender, etc. were all still ams.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:40 am
I skated a version of that park @ the old Vans in san jose, the washboard wall was so sick… now it is covered with The GAP…….
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 am
Randy, I’m happy to share, and glad you like them. Thanks for posting.
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 am
Cab’s brother once interviewed me for a job at a print shop. I didn’t get the job.
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:50 pm
My brothers and I sent off for an issue of that ‘zine. Instead of getting a copy of it, we got a letter from Cab saying that he hasn’t been able to work on the ‘zine but has been playing in a band and included a copy of the Faction’s ‘Yesterday Is Gone’ 7-inch.
So that was a pretty decent trade-off.
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:28 pm
i played golf once with cab’s brother. nice guy but i forgot his name.
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
He’s skating in the washboard run at Winchester Skatepark located in Campbell California. What a park that was! That was before they built the famous Pink Pool.
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
…seems like he loved doing sweepers at the end of the washboard, i’ve seen similar pics and video of the same shot…
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:33 pm
…man Ribsy was fucking hot! and nobody ever mentions them…
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:40 pm
why doesn’t anyone want to know about Ribsy? what the hell kind of site has this become? is there anybody interesting out there at all? (…Neil gets a pass)
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Brad - is your wife out of town again?
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Do you mean “Ribzy” with a “z”?
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:24 pm
You mean the book by Beverly Cleary, Henry and Ribsy? Statue in Grant Park? Ramona the Pest? She’s in Portland too you know.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Checkout the grab, I guess thats how you do a sweeper on a snubnose. By modern standards the Winchester Washboard was a serious waste of 5000+ SQ FT of crete but was fun as hell. Another 1′ of vert and pool coping and it might have been the finest one hit save KFalls Catchers mItt (haven’t hit LC 4 yet)….
Earliest skatezine ever??? Rob Court’s Northwest Skateboarder takes the title for this neck of the woods (78 or so…), though it was closer to a proper skate periodical than a zine…. Funny thing about that is that the next big NW thing was probably MC’s BodySlam which seemed more a retaliation to the main stream (ie. Action Now). It also rebuffs Mark’s recent attempts at feigning non-vertical non-prowess as patently false—a full streetstyle wallride years before it showed up in Thrasher (Bodyslam 3???).
April 24th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Cusick, WA has “washboards” they are a bit smaller but a lot of fun. http://northwestskater.com/cusick.html
I’m really enjoying the zines on the site. Nice going.
Speaking of Bodyslam… I got a kick out of looking at the archives and seeing letters from Steve Coucher. He was super cool for dragging us all over the place to skate when we were kids. I haven’t seen him around lately but I hope he’s doing well…
Whew.. where did that go?
April 24th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Cab’s trick is a Lien Plant, not a sweeper, thus the grab.
That washboard at Winchester originally had coping, but for some reason it was later removed (around the time they built the keyhole). The sister park to Winch (Skatepark Victoria in Milpitas) had two washboards… one with a round bowl and coping instead of flatwall. Way fun. Check the viddy link of a young TG skating Milpitas and Campbell (there goes Tommy’s monthly bandwidth quota);
http://www.tommyguerrero.com/public/transmitter/upload/SkateOut.mov
April 24th, 2008 at 10:34 am
MC- yes. They were a hardcore band from the valley inspired by that dog’s name, they played with everybody for awhile. They have a logo with a paw print that was spray painted all over LA, on pool walls, etc. The singer was fucking nuts and had a seemingly permanent plaster arm cast from skating. I love those statues in Grant Park, she lived real close to there on Klickitat St., which my sister and I thought was a fictional street until I moved here. The Hollywood Library has a killer map/shrine to Beverly Cleary as you likely know.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
The washboard started without coping and they added it about the time the pink pool was built. Don’t know what happened near the end of it’s existence though.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Milpitas was the shit!My favorite crete I came on during the bygone years. It seemed like Kiwi pretty much owned the place.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:13 am
Man did this bring back memories,I still have a copy of a different issue,and an unpealed skatepunk sticker 2 boot.I skated the punk pool,and steves way back when.I met Cab when Russ Wright joined the faction,and was there 4 many of their 1st practice sessions.I was good friends with Corey ,Gavin,the Bosches,Gary Boodt.I had a band called Aftermath,with Craig Bosch on drums,he eventually left 2join the faction.