This past weekend Woody’s was host to two very special guests…
- Boe’s mom, Susie – Who is our number 1 fan!
- An old original Mark Gonzales Vision board aka “The Gonz” – Mint condition – almost 30 years old!!!
Mr. Mark P. the owner of the board, sent it down for the weekend (with Mrs Susie) so we could skate it and get a feel for that goo’ol-skool skating machine…
Here is a bit of a background on the whole thing:
The skateboard deck is a original “Mark Gonzales”… aka “The Gonz”, who was one of the pioneers in the 80’s of the rebirth of skating. It’s a 30×10 with kicktail…. big, heavy, mean…. just what the doctor ordered. He rode several years for Vision, before starting several his own companies through the years. The trucks and wheels are the big story. I was able to get the trucks…. one of 200 prototype sets that were hand machined and forged by Tracker as test pieces. Needless to say, they rock. Again, big trucks for a big board. I have had those about 15 years I think…. hardly been ridden, as you can tell. The wheels, 70mm Kryptonics, red compound, soft…. are real fast, and were intended for mainly road, because they were soft and absorbed a lot of shock. Bought those new in the late 70’s and just put all of that together when I found the trucks. I had intended to put the board up on a shelf…. as dressing… you know…. but, couldn’t stand it, and had to take it for a spin…. well, it’s been ridden a few times now… you know skaters….. can’t leave THAT alone! The fastest wheels I’ve ever been on….. I’ve had several sets of those through the years, but, all but this set have been thrashed and trashed. In the late 70’s, I rode Sims boards…. nice, big old skool decks, too. Sims Taperkicks…. sweet. Wish I had those back. Just saw one on ebay for a grand! Damn. Anyway… that’s some of the junk about the board. I hope you guys have a blast on it….. ride it….. ride it…. don’t worry about it….. it’s in a much better place this weekend!
Mark, aka, old skool.
Whew! check out some pictures of the weekend and expect some more to pop-up once we round up everyone that had a camera with them this weekend.
Boe also has some videos to share… We’ll post it here as soon as I get it freed from Boe’s facebook page…
What a treat! Thanks Mark for thinking of us! Thank you Susie for the visit!
Word!