Kent Senatore / Guest Post

Kent Senatore

One afternoon, while I was surfing Rocky Point, Jay Adams gave skateboarding back to me… he, along with Tony and Stacy had already given it to me once before, many years earlier, but this second time was much more special. Jay reconnected me to something very, very, important that I had been neglecting for several years.

I was out at Rocky rights on a typical North Shore day. The waves were nothing out of the ordinary, but it had that sparkle. You know it if you surf… Then, I see a familiar face, and that big grin of his that at times was so elusive. It’s Jay Adams and he’s talking to me but I can’t quite hear him. He’s too far away and there’s still water in my ears from falling on my last wave. We were both living on the North Shore at the same time, and although we didn’t hang out day and night, we saw each other often, and would always stop to speak to each other. The last few times, he’d been telling me about a book he had with some pictures of me in it, and how he wanted me to come see it. I’m such a hermit that he’d been asking for a few years, and I still hadn’t made it over there… just a block or so from my house. The book turned out to be - Fuck You Heroes.

Jay paddles closer, and I clear my ears… then he says, “What are you doing after you surf? Let’s go skate Cholo’s ramp.” Cholo was a guy named Steve Ellis, you may have heard of him. Steve had been trying to get me to come over and skate for a while too, but for whatever reason, I just hadn’t made it up there, and I have to say, if anyone else had asked me to go skate that afternoon, I would have said no… but because it was Jay asking me this time, I said yes… so, after we surfed, Jay and I went to Steve’s. Steve had a six foot mini ramp with metal coping in his yard. They were doing grinds and 50-50’s and I was tripping. I’d never seen a 50-50 done before. It looked fun, and they kept offering me their skates to take a run, but I kept refusing. I just sat there, head bobbing back and forth in a mock pump watching them trade runs.

That night as a slept, something funny happened. I had a dream I was skating. Back in the day, I had skateboarding dreams all of the time, but it had been years since I remembered having a full blown skate dream. Apparently, there was one tiny ember buried underneath all those burnt out coals in my belly, and seeing those dudes doing this thing called skateboarding that we all love so much must have reignited that ember. The very next afternoon, I went straight up to Steve’s, bought a set-up from him, and never looked back. For several years I spent almost every afternoon at his house riding his wooden half pipe. Steve and Nancy must have been sick of my face at times.

In reflection, I love how it was Jay, and it was something that happened while surfing, which returned me to skating, because surfing and guys like Jay are what brought me to skating in the first place… it all makes a nice little circle. I’ve always had such love for Jay, but after what he did for me that day, I also have gratitude, I always will… and now when I look back on that one afternoon out at Rocky Point when Jay came paddling towards me, smiling a big smile… It takes on an even greater significance. Thank you Jay Adams for asking me to come skate again. You gave me back something I cherish. It was the best gift a friend could ever give another. - Kent Senatore

Thank you to Kent Senatore for the memories and thank you to Peter King for the image. Skate- Ozzie