Thursday, May 16, 2013

Blood Stains

I promise this will be my last Skateboard related Cycling post for awhile. I will admit this one has a rather good cycling connection. Like i have mentioned before, I was lucky enough to find skateboarding in my youth and it began to consume my life. I am still very much that person who was shaped by the images and words in Thrasher and the Punk Rock that came along with it. Okay... Okay.. I'll get to the point of this.
In 1986 my first official Pro Model skateboard was purchased as a Christmas present. I had spent hours in Future Sk8 looking at the mile long wall of decks over the months before December. Finally, i had made up my mind. I went with a Santa Cruz ~ Rob Roskopp III 


I'm not sure what sold me on it for sure. I did know Rob was from the mid west and at the time no other company had a better artist than Jim Phillips. I'm sure it was a combo of the two that sold me. I followed the 'Barn' as Rob was nicknamed, Jeff Kedall and Natas and in the later years Jason Jesse too. As the 80's wound down so did vert skating Rob's bread and butter, so he sort of fell off the radar so to speak. He became a pioneer in the newly emerging snowboard world and we even heard rumors of him ridding bikes.
Which to the 16 year old me seemed oh so wrong.

The 'Barn' in an ad for Local Motion
(this hung on my bedroom wall for years)

Once I began to take up mountain bikes and then started racing in the early 2000's. One of the many 'hot' bikes of the day was the Santa Cruz 'Superlight'. This got my old noggin thinking and after asking a few shop guys and reading some MTB mags... It was indeed that same brand and hero from my youth. Well sort of...
While not the same company as the skate guys, it stills share some of the pedigree. From then on I was pretty keen on the company. I still remember when j.rider got his 'Superlight' I was enamored by that bike. A few years later it was on my must have list, but as things go it never really became a reality.
Call me a fan boy or whatever. The fact is I'm stoked on what they do and the fact Rob is at the helm.


Roskopp is the shirtless dude


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