For about one entire school year in 1987, if you were a skateboarder, you were one of the coolest dudes in school. The previous year if you were a skater, you were public enemy number one. But thankfully the number of skaters then was still pretty small and you could fly under the radar. In 1987, the skateboard suddenly became the coolest accessory you could own. Jocks skated, preps skated, headbangers skated, everyone skated. And chicks even thought you were cool. It was a crazy time in Lockport.

At the end of the school year in 1987, a bunch of skaters, myself included, descended upon downtown Lockport during the lunch hour between our final exams for the day. Hell was raised everywhere we went and it wasn’t long before one of the Johnny-come-latelies broke their ankle and the first ever 911 call involving skateboarding was placed. Thus began Lockport’s war with the cops and city council.

By the time 1988 rolled around, most of the trendy skaters ditched their skateboards as they already discovered a new trend to latch onto but the war with the cops was raging as hard as ever. Cops were confiscating skateboards right out from under kids feet and it was gathering a lot of media attention from the Lockport and Buffalo newspapers.

Channel 7 News even made it to town to cover the action. Not sure where they found the little kids in the street but the footage from the Torrey family’s backyard is pure gold. Steve Delahunt, Kevin Marriott and Wayne Muirhead get a few quick skate clips but my main man Eric Shugats steals the show with his interview clip.

I used a portion of this clip in my documentary film, Salad Days, in 2002 but this is the full clip. It drops a few frames here and there but what to you expect when capturing footage from a 25 year old VHS tape?

Come hang out with people you haven’t seen in 20 years and pick up a copy of issue #10 of Pure Fun Skate Zine.

- Zines and t-shirts for sale
- Over 25 photographs on display
- Food and drinks
- Crucial music will be blasting
- Giveaways from Elephant Brand Skateboards and Nike SB

Thursday, July 26, 2012
7 to 10 PM

@ Lockport Locks and Erie Canal Cruises
210 Market St
Lockport, NY 14094

See you there!

http://larryransom.com/purefun10
http://www.facebook.com/purefunskatezine

Indian Wig is Hagop Nijarian, Neil Blender and Lance Mountain.

April 5, 2012
@ AR4T
Laguna Beach, CA

It’s hard to drive on the 5 South and not take a photo of the Nuclear Tits.

We arrived in Encinitas a bit early. Enough time to get some dinner and…

…Check out McGill’s Skateshop.

Some classic and rare boards inside of McGill’s. Look at that Cab prototype!!!

Autographed Gleaming The Cube photo.

After dinner we headed to the theatre in time to see them finishing up the marquee for the screening.

Big thanks to Miki Vuckovich for hooking up the passes.

Inside the La Paloma.

Tony introduced the movie.

He explained since he was in Australia and unable to attend the Sundance Film Fest and the premiere in Santa Barbara he want to set up his own special event.

After Tony’s quick introduction, the movie started. Here’s Cab on the big screen.

After the movie, Tony invited the Bones Brigade and Stacy Peralta up to the stage for a Q&A session.

Left to right: Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Mike McGill, Steve Caballero, Stacy Peralta and Lance Mountain.

Tommy and Tony.

Cab and Lance enjoying Stacy telling a story.

Rodney, Mike and Cab.

The Bones Brigade.

Goodnight Encinitas.

Check out the photos from the Santa Barbara premiere.

When the Mouthpiece discography was getting to close to going into production I wasn’t working there but I pitched the idea to Jordan that we should film the production process and make a web clip out of it. He was into the idea and he agreed that people would probably enjoy seeing the steps in how a record was made.

Jordan emailed all the companies he uses for vinyl production and everyone agreed to let us film and we scheduled the days they had opening in their production schedule for us to hand deliver the recording.

A couple of weeks later Jordan had the master recording and completed artwork files from Mouthpiece and things happened pretty quick. The artwork files for the LP jackets, inserts and labels were sent off to the printers and it’s one of the only steps of the process we didn’t get to see in person.

A few days later Jordan and I met at Rev and left Orange County at 8am and drove up to North Hollywood to Dorado Press. We got there around 10am and the jackets and inserts were already printed so all we got to see and film was the folding and gluing of the covers which you see in the video. It was really cool to see and I got to take an unfolded, unglued cover for a souvenir. We stayed for the entire run of covers being folded and boxed up and we took them with us to deliver to Rainbo Records were the record was going to be pressed.

We left Dorado Press and headed to the mastering studio (with master recording in hand) which was called AcousTech Mastering Camarillo, CA. I shot video as Jordan asked Kevin Grey questions on the mastering process and you get the basic outline of how the music gets onto the lacquer and how they decided on the space and depth of the grooves in the record during the extended credits section. I think this was by far the most interesting part of the process and could have pretty much been a video in it’s own right. A couple of hours later the lacquers for both sides were finished and we were off to Rainbo Records.

We drove to Rainbo Records in Commerce, CA with the lacquers, jackets and inserts and delivered them ourselves. We were escorted to the back where the lacquers were washed and sprayed with a variety of chemicals and then set in a nickel bath for 24 hours. We faked the part of the video where the lacquers come out of the bath 24 hours later. We were only there for the one day and what I filmed was some other record coming out of the bath and being cracked open to reveal the two sides. That’s called movie magic folks.

Jordan and I said our goodbyes and split to Beverly Hills for some pizza. The next day your lacquers came out of the nickel bath and set up to press up the test pressings. Those were mailed to Rev and then to you guys for approval. After you guys approved them, Rainbo was notified and the pressing job was put into their production schedule. When they knew the date of pressing Jordan and I drove back up to film it. We got to see the labels come out of the baking oven that removes the moisture so there aren’t any air bubbles under the labels once they are pressed onto the record. Something I had no idea was done. After that it was straight over to the pressing machine to see the black vinyl being pressed.

Before the entire pressing was completed, we took about 25 copies over the the assembly area of Rainbo. The vinyl and inserts were assembled by hand which kind caught me by surprise. I figured some type of machine would do that. Then the fully assembled copies were taken over the the shrink wrap machine and thats what you see in the video. The white vinyl copies were pressed on a different machine that we didn’t get to see. The white vinyl and full black vinyl pressing were assembled and shrink wrapped when they were completed and then shipped down to Revelation.

I thought this would be a quick and easy video to bang out. When loading the footage into the computer to edit I discovered most of the audio turned out really bad due to the loud background noise at these factories. Everyone explained the processes of manufacturing while they were working so I could have informative audio to go along with the visuals but most of it was so hard to hear it was getting frustrating to edit. I got a rough cut going of how I was originally envisioning the video but later abandoned the project out of audio frustration and just got busy with other stuff.

Jordan later enlisted the help of an intern, Vincent C. Garcia, to work on the video and he helped get an edit going. I later reviewed the video and the audio was still a mojor concern. Recently, I’ve been going into Rev to help with some ideas and do a bit of behind the scenes work for the upcoming Revelation Records 25th Anniversary shows and I figured I better start with finishing this video because it’s been hanging over my head for 2 years. I started from scratch with a “music video” styled edit. Just visuals and music. That’s pretty much what you get in the video and then Jordan suggested we add in a bit more of footage at the end with some of the clips which has good audio to make it a bit more informative to the whole process. So I created the extended credits idea to include with the extra footage at the end.

So there you have it. Hope you guys like it and I’m sorry it took two years.

Thanks for being one of my favorite bands and I’m still so stoked you guys ended up on Revelation after all these years.

Here are a few photos from the day…

Jammin’ up the 405 North.

All the action is on the other side of the mall.

Once in Santa Barbara we headed straight to the Arlington Theatre to pick up our tickets.

Four person pass.

Cages lined up for the press.

After getting our tickets and checking out the theatre we walked down a few blocks to the Powell Peralta Skateshop.

Deck wall.

Autographed Kevin Harris, Mike V, Lance and Jordan Hoffart decks on display.

The board Aldrin Garcia rode when he set the world’s record for the highest ollie.

Autographed Cab board and his artwork from the Rip The Ripper show.

After a quick dinner we headed back to the theatre and there was already a line forming.

Powell hooked me up with a press pass.

After party postcard.

The stars and VIPs started to arrive.

Alva picking up his credentials.

The red carpet was a media frenzy.

Rodney and Per share a moment on the red carpet.

Rodney doing on interview.

Lance on the red carpet.

Lance doing an interview.

Stacy’s turn for an interview.

Lance Mountain, Alan Gelfand, Mike McGill, Craig Stecyk, Tommy Guerrero and Steve Caballero.

Mike McGill, Alan Gelfand, Tommy Guerreo, Rodney Mullen, Stacy Peralta, Steve Caballero, Craig Stecyk, Lance Mountain.

Lance Jr and his wife Kellie.

Theatre is filling up.

Stacy introduced the film.

90 minutes later the movie ended and received a standing ovation.

All the guys were introduced and came out on stage for a q&a session.

Someone from the audience asked Stacy how he would feel if someone from the Bones Brigade died… And just then Lance died!

Rodney talking about how much pressure was lifted off of him when he no longer competed.

George Powell, editor Josh Altman, Rodney Mullen, Lance Mountain, Stacy Peralta, Mike McGill, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Craig Stecyk and q&a moderator.

And then it broke out into a product toss.

Sharon and Alan Gelfand.

And then it was over.

Souvenirs.

Band: Saints Of Low with Ben Harper
Song: Low Road
Venue: Detroit Bar, Costa Mesa, CA
Date: 11/19/11

Crude video I filmed with my Canon pocket cam.

This Art Of Powell Peralta show was held at the Duke Art Gallery at Azusa Pacific University from September 7th to September 29th.

To view photos from the show go HERE.