This is a picture I shot of pro skateboarder John Cardiel, at a demo at Livingston concrete park in 1992.

According to my notes he was sponsored by Black Label at this time. He skated at the demo with American pros Salman Agah, Mark Gonzales, Karma Tsocheff and Ron Chatman. Cardiel was was not the best-know guy amongst the crowd but he was by far the best skater that day.

He fearlessly ripped up the park with huge airs and high speed, and revisiting my diary entry for the day recalls some impressive manouvres:

John Cardiel did totally tweaked indys and a frontside noseslide IN THE POOL [sic].

Sadly I don’t have any shots of those, but he does one in this video at about 4:30. It’s bootleg footage of a skate film called Notts Landing, taken from a demo session at a ramp in Leigh-on-Sea.
the vid has been taken down, must have been ripped from a skate video, sadly I don’t know which one.

Above is the only shot I have of him in Livingston’s concrete vert pool, but sadly, I don’t have any of the nose slide or ‘totally tweaked indys’. The pool shot conveys a little bit of the speed, as he whips around the transition, but it doesn’t really show you how steep or deep it is. If you stand on the lip, or in the flat bottom, the 8ft-ish height of the thing is scary. And Cardiel tore around it without any pads or helmet.

The pic above kind of illustrates John Cardiel’s carefree attitude- experienced local boy Jamie Blair did a solid session in the pool, getting air several feet above the lip, carving around the coping and generally ripping it up. But in a helmet and full knee, elbow and wrist pads (no disrespect Jamie!).

John, however, launched himself into a pool he had never ridden before and mastered it in no time, to uproarious cheers from the crowd. These are the types of people that make really great pro skateboarders, snowboarders and surfers. The kind that aren’t afraid to take risks and conquer huge ramps, jumps and gaps.

After posting the photos, I did a bit of web searching to find out what the skaters I pictured were up to now. I discovered that John Cardiel had a major fall in Australia in 2007 and was paralysed for several months. It’s documented here on the website of Skateboarder magazine. They describe him as one of skateboarding’s greats. He was the sort of person that didn’t pay too much heed to risk, and was a much more exciting rider for it. But a freak accident has caused him a lot of damage.

He is back on his feet again, as can be seen in this VBS.tv interview (warning strong language). Although he’s not skating as he was, it’s a miracle that he’s even walking at all. It sounds like he hopes to skate again one day- good luck John.

PS- he’s a reggae fan- sweet!

I recently dug out some photos I took of a pro skate demo that came to Livingston in August 1992. One of the images that has attracted most attention is of the legendary skater Mark Gonzales.

It’s not my best capture from that day, but I scanned it and posted to flickr because he was a legendary skateboarder. Although he is seen here in a concrete park, his reputation was built by innovating and pushing the boundaries of street skating- riding handrails, steps, gaps and other elements of the urban landscape.

The demo took place on Friday, 31st July 1992, at Livingston skatepark. It is a large concrete park that opened in 1981, and has played a part in UK skateboarding history.

I was 15 at the time, and traveled through from Edinburgh to see the demo. I remember a buzz amongst the crowd due to the fact that Mark Gonzales was there. The other skaters were impressive, but there was a special vibe about the place because of ‘the Gonz’.

Everyone was talking about his Nike low top shoes. It seemed a bit weird at the time that a pro would wear non-skate shoes. But a year later, ever skateboarder in Edinburgh was wearing Puma State, Addidas Gazzelle or Addidas Super Star. The Gonz was always ahead of his time. The scruffy afro, shorts and no socks just added to his air of nonchalance.

He didn’t skate as much as the other riders- he only needed to drop in and do a few smooth tricks, and he’d done his job. The core of the entertainment came from Salman Agah, Karma Tsocheff, Ron Chatman and John Cardiel.

Since putting the photo on flickr, and starting this blog post, I discovered I diary entry. My writing was always pretty mundane, generally just a record of what I did on the day and often amusingly banal, e.g. “Got up and had breakfast…” The entry for 31/08/92 is not particularly insightful, but hints at pride in my local skate scene:

Wee Joe from Edinburgh was there – rad mellies over the hip.

Multiple uses of the word ‘rad’ convey a feeling of excitement and I seem to have been particularly impressed that

John Cardiel did totally tweaked indys a frontside noseslide IN THE POOL [sic].

There is a hint of disappointment though:

apparently they had a flatland sesson which would have been so rad.

According to my diary Gonzales was sponsored by Milk at this time, but I think this is wrong. Milk was a new company that apparently didn’t last long. I scoured the web for more info on Milk, and all I could find was some vague memories in a blog by Travis Jensen. I might be wrong- Wikipedia says Gonz rode for Real Skateboards. If anyone can remember more about Milk skateboards, please post a comment. I remember the demo as being organised by Real, although riders from other sponsors were there too (Black Label, Consolidated).

The camera I used was a Canon Sureshot 35mm compact- the second camera I owned. It had autofocus, but very few manual functions. The photos came out pretty well considering. I must have been using 400ASA film.