The Amazing NHS Warehouse of Skate

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1 Sonoma Old School Skate Shop owner Bob Wilson.

2 An overview of the fairly new San Rafael skatepark. The park is very beautiful, with some unusual terrain. It was at this park that Michael realized he had left his prized SMA board with experimental Oust wheels at another skatepark down the road. He returned to the other park, only to find it had vanished.

3 Marcus Rietema on the streets of Petaluma.
 
4 Located in San Francisco, this park proved a little bit difficult to find. We got there to find some locals setting off fireworks (it was almost the 4th of July!) along with some friendly skaters.

5 The Menlo Park skatepark is actually pretty damn good, but is now overshadowed by the new San Jose park (a.k.a. Lake Cunningham).

6 Jonathan up a tree at Stanford University in Palo Alto.

7 We had a blast hanging out with this group. All can pretty much skate everything!

8 Cat Young runs through cones in an early morning slalom session.

9 Menlo Bill gets into the groove.

10/11 The San Jose skatepark is massive – 68,000 square feet of pure skate stoke. It’s completely overwhelming. Obviously, one of the highlights of our trip.

12 We found the Google offices via Google maps. The sprawling campus is located in Mountain View.

13 The graffitiridden Palo Alto skatepark. It’s slippery and awkward. Perhaps the folks at Google can throw some money and build a new one?

14 Gary Holl, our very gracious host in Palo Alto, carves over Jonathan’s head.

15 Gary organized a Sunday morning freestyle session, complete with music.

16 An overview of the Scott’s Valley (Tim Brauch) Skatepark. It’s located just outside of Santa Cruz and is a lot of fun to ride.

17 The folks from Population Destroyed – a rad little skate shop in Santa Cruz. Pictured are John R. Love, Amber R. Love and Jeff Monser. Not pictured: Aaron Clark and Birdo.

18 The peanut pool at the fairly new Santa Cruz Skatepark.

19 This kid wasn’t from Santa Cruz but he charged the park like he owned it!

20/21 Bill’s Wheels skate shop in Santa Cruz. One of the most incredible skate shops in the world. If these walls could talk…!

22/23/24/25/26 Santa Cruz opened up their own store in the city that bears their name. It’s absolutely fascinating looking at the skate treasures they’ve put in the store. Yes, those are original Indy skate trucks with independent suspension!

27 The absolutely amazing interior of the Santa Cruz/NHS warehouse. You could spend days there just staring at the walls.
 
28 Buddy Carr and his rad little son, Blaize. Not pictured are Buddy’s wife, Traci, and their younger son, Tosh.
 
29 Scott Starr has done a tremendous amount for Concrete Wave. His photo of Roger Muller (from the cover of the CW book) is the most reproduced skate image in the world. Scott is working on a new book covering the 1960s skate scene. It’s incredible what he’s tracked down.

30 Wynette and Ken Shofstall of Kewy Longboards. They drove all the way out from Las Vegas to meet with us in Venice!

31 We had a wonderful visit with Jim and Jimbo Phillips. They were very hospitable, and we discussed skateboarding, cars and, of course, art.

32 George Powell stands amongst the thousands of laminates at his factory in Santa Barbara. We spent four hours with George and marketing manager Michael Furukowa. They were extremely generous hosts and took us on a very comprehensive tour of the facility.
33 George takes Jon through the finer points of creating the perfect skate deck.

34/35/36 You could spend hours at Simi Valley’s Skatelab and still feel completely overwhelmed. Todd Huber has spent years collecting skate stuff, and it is mind-blowing what he’s created. Here are just a few of the dozens of shots we took. The cups are from a Slurpee collection that came out in the late ’70s.

37 This is deep inside the Bones Wheels production area. Bones Bushings are also made here. In terms of the chemistry of wheel manufacturing, it appeared that Jon understood the concepts more than Michael. We’d like to tell you more, but we were sworn to secrecy.
 
38 The Northridge Longboarders were founded in January 2009. Five longboarders from all walks of life came together to celebrate the grand opening of the G3 Parking Structure at California State University, Northridge. Since then, they’ve been meeting on Wednesdays at 10 p.m., and as you can see by this photo, attendance is growing! The group recently became recognized by the university and now has access to funding. The group takes pride in their campus by performing campus beautification projects (mostly longboarding & picking up trash in the structures), and hosts races at the end of semesters.

39 Mike Mahoney of Honey Skateboards. Mike is building a pretty amazing manufacturing set-up at his house. He’s a master craftsman and one of the nicest guys in the business.

40 John Ravitch (blue shirt), Greg Foy and Judi Oyama. Greg and Judi’s kids are on the left and right. We had a delicious meal at their home in Aptos.

41 Mike and Brian Salmon of Soul Ryde. They have a very cool store and production facility in San Diego. Their laser-etched decks are truly works of art.

42 We met up with Cory Juneau at the Clairemont Skatepark. He is 10 years old and absolutely unbelievable to watch!

43 We threw axes with Malakai Kingston of silverfishlongboarding.com. He has a whole setup behind his home. He only throws axes when he’s not out skating or doing the website!

44 We traveled deep into Rancho Santa Margarita to meet up with our new Japanese distributor – Allvision. Pictured are Masayuki and Anna Endo.

45 Scott Lembach of Muir Surf and Skate. The store is filled to the brim with product. There are a ton of demo boards to try as well.

46/47 They say that by October the new Venice skatepark will be completed. We can only hope. The park looks very good indeed, including a killer snake run.

48 Cheryl Johnson of Maui and Sons. This shop is brimming with product and is right in the thick of things at Venice Beach. It is one busy place!

49 Damon Mills of Watson Laminates. Damon was gracious enough to take us on a major tour of the facilities. Talk about production – this place is mindblowing!

50 Andrew Jacobson (left) and Tucker Hopkins at the Arbor store right in the heart of Venice.

51 Chaput has some very unique toys – this gas-powered vehicle is a blast to drive.

52 Mike Freed and Solomon Antonelli of Riviera. These guys have come up with a very creative way to spread the message on the back of pedi-cabs.

53 Linda Prettyman and Larry Balma of Tracker Trucks. We had an opportunity to see how the trucks were made.

54 This shot was taken at Chris Chaput’s house in Huntington Beach. Chris hosted another great party, and we took over the street with electric Hamboards. The neighbors don’t seem to mind.

55 The Hamborg family less one family member, who I believe was out surfing or skating. We had a great day of surfing with the Hamborgs. Thank you, guys!

56 The Carmel Valley skatepark recently opened and is 10 minutes from the original Carlsbad Skatepark. It’s also right next to a police station.

57 Ryan Connors in the Carmel Valley street area.

58 The gang from Gravity Skateboards located in San Marcos. 2009 marks their 15th anniversary in business.

59 Don Tashman of Loaded Skateboards. Don was a very kind host, and we had a blast just hanging out. On Friday night, we had dinner with Adam Colton. Although Adam tried to destroy himself with an exercise ball, he did not succeed.

60 Dave and Nic of Miramar Longboards. The guys joined us at the Maui and Sons and proudly showed off their decks.

61 Jerry Madrid is one busy guy these days. He is making a ton of skateboards and enjoying every minute.

CalStreets presents Concrete Wave’s Summer Trip to California 2009 BYRFX