Living in Nor Cal,  I don’t really get to hang out with the old So Cal, La Costa crew. Thank you Glen for dusting off this old photo. I don’t think I’ve seen it before. The Phoenix team shirt and narrow board definitely makes it early 1976. What most people never realized was during those early years, I was already twenty five years old, with two kids and a mortgage, all while trying to run Gullwing and skate professionally. Now at sixty five, I wonder why I didn’t skate more back then? Everyone else during those times were teenagers and skating all day. Trying to compete with them was a bitch. Especially slalom. The little suckers were always nipping at my heels. I really liked vert riding. It was more like surfing, which is something I always did and maybe that’s why I had a natural aptitude for it. My greatest contribution to skateboarding were the Gullwing trucks and the right angled king pin. I was looking for something that turned more like a surfboard. Every time I see a new adjustable slalom truck or a longboard cruise by,  I think, “I invented that.” My little joke. But, modern skaters have taken things to a level we could have never imagined. It feels good to have left something behind other than old photos, memories and stories. Thanks for noticing.

In appreciation, Michael Williams

Thank you to Mike Williams for the words and Glen E. Friedman for the previously unpublished image. Skate - Ozzie

For more of Glen E. Friedman’s work - BURNING FLAGS PRESS