Jay Smith / Hester Series

Jay Smith

“To be quite honest, I never really liked contests, but the Whittier Hester contest was one of them where I did pretty well. I don’t really know why. I didn’t like the compulsory runs. They killed me. Compulsory runs just seemed to take away the freedom of skating to me. The only thing I did enjoy about contests, were the sessions in the days leading up to the event. The best skating always happened on the practice days. Heavy sessions. Everyone was pushing each other hard. On contest day, it was organized. We had to go in order and the waiting just took it out of me. The contest was structured and boring… we waited and waited and then had to take our turn. By then, our pads were dry, our muscles no longer ready, we were stiff, especially if we had slammed practicing… It just wasn’t for me. The fun was always present in the days before an event. The sessions, parties and everything. Compulsories killed that for me. I’m a pool skater, not a robot. I simply couldn’t do some of those tricks and I didn’t want to. I’m never going to learn a trick that I don’t want to do. The skateboarding of a contest just seemed to lack pizzazz.” - Jay Smith

Thank you to Jay Smith for his memories and Glen E. Friedman for the image. Skate- Ozzie