Tony Alva - Skatopia - Buena Park, Ca.

 I saw TA this past weekend in San Diego. I asked him to do a Guest Post on Blue Tile. He agreed but wasn't sure what image we'd be using. I contacted Glen E. Friedman. I asked- "Do you have an image of TA that we could use for a Guest Post?"  He answered- "Duh!". He sent us six & TA chose this one. Today, I spoke with Tony about it. The following is what he remembered. Thanks to Glen E. Friedman for the image & TA for the memories. Skate- Ozzie Tony Alva "Skatopia. It was one of the first vertical parks. First was the Concrete Wave, then came Skatopia. On the opening day, Jay Adams, Paul Constantineau and myself were pulling frontside tailtaps on the lip. The concrete hadn't really cured yet. David Hackett and his brother Paul, were doing 'Skyhook' wallrides up on the bricks. There was a little lip at the top of the U-shaped halfpipe between the pipe and the brick extension. They would fly up over it with the 'Skyhooks'. Finally they took them off & un-weighed and went right over the lip. It was a pretty good half pipe but had no flat. It was a total U-shape. I was riding Powerflex wheels at the time. I think I had made my own board back then. We would do that. My old friend - Bob Ballou started Powerflex. All the Lakewood rippers rode for him: Darrell Miller, Bobby Valdez to name a few. It was crazy back then. The concrete was dark gray. We just showed up and rode. We had no patience and no respect. If it was skateable, we'd ride it! At Pipeline it was the same. We went there on opening day and Bob Biniak and I left wheel marks up high on the walls. We would do a run and when we looked up, we could see tracks in the concrete! We went to the parks the day before they opened and barged. Skatemaster Tate was the manager of Skatopia. There were some insane locals there. It was all such a crazy time." - Tony Alva