Aside from being a living skateboard legend, Tom “Wally” Inouye is one hell of a chef. You don’t have to live in the area to taste his work, you can pick up some Wally’s Pepper Sauce. More hot sauce and a bonus reprint of Tom Inouye’s Who’s Hot! feature from the June 1977 issue of Skateboarder Magazine.
In the wild, in the Wy’East Cafe at Timberline Lodge.
Here’s Tom Inouye’s Who’s Hot! feature in the volume 3, number 5 issue of Skateboarder Magazine, from June of 1977.
Here’s the text version of the article.
TOM INOUYE
18 years old, rides for Time Tunnel Ent.
Take 5’2″ of fluid spring action, add to that the experience gained from skating with Dogtown’s finest, and you have Tom lnouye. Tom, known to his friends as “Wally,” started skating on the hills around his house in 1972, at the end of the clay-wheel era. During the early urethane days, he continued to skate the excellent blacktop hills in Monterey Park, his hometown. Then two days after seeing the footage of Jay Adams in “Super Session” he went to Dogtown. For two years he skated the banks at “Revere” at night. His only transportation was a friend who worked during the day, so they were only able to skate by moonlight.
In early spring, 1975. Wally met Dale Smith through friends of his sister. Dale, who lived in Long Beach, began teaching Wally freestyle. By summer, when contests were beginning to be held, he began to compete. The first contest he entered was Steve’s South Bay. where he competed in freestyle and slalom. He drew underground attention at this early date by having reputedly gone 55 mph. He says, “The Santa Monica boys came up to me and asked. ‘Did you really go 55?’ “
More contests were to follow: Orange County. San Diego. Balboa (where he took second in freestyle). The Hang Ten at the LA. Sparts Arena, and Ventura ’76.
During this time, he started to skate Santa Monica during the day. and one by one he saw and skated with all the Dogtown boys. Wally. reputedly. is one of the only skaters that the Dogtown boys consider to be really hot.
As the contests faded, pools, banks, pipes, and other man-made terrain attracted his attention. As publicity began shedding light on the more visible contest skaters. Wally and his friends were skating places like Mt. Baldy.
One day at the Long Beach pool, he met Waldo Aulry. This was to be a fruitful meeting for both ol them. Waldo began to show Wally some hot lines. and in trade Wally turned Waldo on to some hot spots. Waldo made Wally a board. put him on the Vialdo pool riding team. and took him to Anaheim when Warren Bolster was there. Warren only had to look once to realize that here was a major talent who was totally unknown outside of his small circle of friends.
Things began to move very last. Less than live minutes away from his house. Skatepark Montebello was being built. Wally and friend Brad Stradland (one of the hottest longboarders around) started hanging out watching construction. When it came time for the park to open, they were the lirst locals hired as instructors. Now Wally works a full schedule at the park, in addition to finishing up his senior year in high school.
Wally lists his favorite riders as being: Jay Adams, Waldo, Tony Alva, and Bob Biniak. He says that high points in his skating career have been getting the centerspread in SKATEBOARDER. getting on the Logan team, and staying with Jim Freeman in Ventura. He says that one of his more interesting skating experiences was going to the Keyhole recently, and getting only four rides before getting busted. Since there was a $250 fine lor that episode, that works out to about $62.50 per ride — skateparks are a lot cheaper!
CURTIS HESSELGRAVE
The cover of Skateboarder V3 N5, June 1977.
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