Jeff Tatum is "the original longboarder".  When the earliest of status quo in pools and vert were short decks, JT was building, skating and innovating skateboard moves on longboards.  He's still doing it, now as less of an "elder statesman" than a dude that just refuses to get out of the pool and stop shreddin'.  In his mellower moments, he scrawls out the art you can find in his galleries here, designs boards for Pool Kings and, occasionally, digs down into his files and piles from way, way back in the day.  This time, JT's got a challenge, all in fun: 

Tell me Who did the First Backside Tail Tap

&

Win a Longboard!

When I first did a backside tail tap on vert in the mid 70’s, I had never seen it done before. We had been doing it in ditches and on banks since 1970, but not in a pool or pipe. It was something that just evolved as I explored vert for the first few years. Some people tell me they think I was the first to do it on vert/coping.  Other people might have another view on the matter.  Tell me what you think, and I’ll send the best response a free longboard!

This Panther ad was shot in 75 by Jon Hansen on the extremely vert Kona Bowl hip.  There are plenty of us OG skaters with tales of when and by whom something got done first, and it’s just a fun diversion for me.  I did this before Jon took my photo, but let’s use this to set a date that we can verify to some degree.  So, do you think that’s the first one ever?  You see, those who get credit for “inventing moves” aren’t always the very first person that’s done it but were the first to refine, package and present it to the world. This puts them in the position to have their creation documented and printed by the media.  Now the media has changed, and it’s the internet.  Did someone beat me to it? 

I don’t really care who did the backside tail tap first, but it would be cool to get it clarified if possible.  Are there photos of somebody in a Florida pool we just haven’t seen yet because the magazines and manufacturers were West Coast?  OG skaters and photogs, dig out your prints and find what’s out there!  Please submit your response in the form of a legitimate photo and or published print. You can email them to Silverfish Longboarding for me, in care of ebasil@silverfishlongboarding.com.   Put “JT’s Board Contest” in the subject line and the ‘Fish guys will run your photo.  You can also just post them in the thread you'll find in Silverfish'es Forum (click here ).  Drop in, tell me what you think, check out what others do. 

The Silverfish editors and I will award, by our judgment of the most interesting response,  a signed JT 47” Pool King  Resurrection deck, with a personalized message to the lucky recipient. We will truly pick the best response without bias (in my favor or not)! This is a real challenge but please don’t take it too seriously:   it’s just for fun. Maybe it will drum up some unknown info about skate history by some real pioneers of vert.  Either way, it’s a fun move and I’m stoked to tell you I still do them, now.  I hope you do, too!  If not, get out there and hit it!

We’ll see!

Keep skatin,

Jeff (JT) Tatum

“The Original Longboarder”