Jeff “JT” Tatum is a genuine, old-school, core skater.  Shredding out of the San Diego area in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s, he was part of the “Down South Boys” generation and a regular competitor in the skate competitions of our sport’s early heyday.  He’s known for first creating and completing the “JT Air”, a trick now known as a Backside Ollie, and was regularly featured in Skateboarder Magazine, mid-air on a longboard.  He’s called the Original Longboarder by many skaters that were there when it all happened.

JT, 1978

JT writes for Concrete Wave Magazine, and will be a featured author here on Silverfish Longboarding in the coming months.  Look for original articles, incredible photos and original artwork in the coming months.  But first, JT has a long-version of a Product Release from Pool Kings.  Readers know we featured his Pool Kings signature longboard in our “Best & Worst of ASR” coverage this season.  We asked JT to tell us about the board, and he sent in some specs and news about Pool King, but also the background behind the board.  Here it is:

In the late ‘60’s, I started building skateboards from wood found in my garage.  I’d nail metal roller skate truck/wheel setups onto them.  A lot of those old truck setups had the steel wheels riveted right onto the trucks.  Later, when I started surfing, I’d also skateboard if the waves sucked.  Those boards were also hand-shaped, made from planks of wood of any kind –whatever I could afford at the time from the local lumber company.  I made them “long” in the image of surfing, and they were about 38”, usually.

Soon, I became hooked on skating, more than surfing even, because it was more consistent.   No troubles with blown-out or dead water.  Riding drainage ditches, parking lots and driveways… anything with transition, cement-surfing became my main pastime.  As backyard pools and ramps came into play, I discovered that wood water skis made killer cement-surfboards.  After the birth of real trucks and urethane wheels, things really got better.  In the early 1970’s, I became very serious about skating and building skateboards.

Now, flash-forward more than 25 years and I’m still skating pools, parks, ramps and ditches whenever I can.  In 2004, I was lucky enough to meet Michael Early, the owner of Pool King Skateboards.  This turned out to be a great relationship.  Mike was thinking of producing a longboard-pool board, and I was in the market for someone to produce my “ultimate longskate” with.  I finally had the chance to put 35 years of my expertise into creating the best long deck I could, and someone that could skate it, understand it and spread the word about it.  With the backing of Pool King and the technologies to produce high-quality wood boards, I’ve done just that and you have to bear with me, because I know this is going to sound like a sales-pitch but I am genuinely stoked and proud to tell you about this skateboard.

The Pool King Jeff Tatum Resurrection Signature Deck is 9.25” wide and 42” long, with perfect camber and kick for extreme performance skating.  This board is for pipe, pool and parks, specifically.  If you want to throw some road wheels on it and skate it to the corner liquor store and back, it’s great for that, too.  I’ve researched every longboard I could find and I’m telling you:  there’s no longboard on the market quite like this one.  I did the graphics on it, myself, and I hope you dig those, too.  Since we released the JT board, it’s been well-received in the skate world, becoming the epitome of the new-age longboard for vert.  I’m stoked to be able to talk to Silverfish Longboarding readers about it, too!  I set mine up with our Pool King-edition Tracker 161’s (custom kingpin and bushing setup) with either Alva Gandie’s or Pool King 101a, 63mm D.S.B. wheels.

After creating the JT, Mike Early and I thought it would be a great addition to his line if we came up with a “longboard for the masses”.  So, Mike and I designed a killer board with a design coming out of our many years of skating expertise.  The result is the Pool King Power Tool deck, 8.5” wide and 37” long.  It’s also got the camber and kick setup for high-performance skating and graphics I came up with.

It’s taken 30 years, but I’m way stoked to see longskating coming to light.  Not only are you guys ripping it on speed boards and long-cruisers, but I see more and more longskaters ripping it in pools, parks and ramps.  Longboards are a facet of the new-age skate industry and are growing fast.  Soon, longboards will finally have their place in “mainstream skating”, just you wait and see!  The day of the pop-deck is waning.  Boards with shape and length are coming alive and we’re seeing more and more longboard style and presence in vert.

You’re going to see more from Pool King, too.  We’re into this longskate resurrection and in the process of designing two more decks for the line.  One will be a cruiser for street and sidewalk, with an old-school flair.  We’ve joined up with Bennett and Tunnel Rocks to spec out that board.  The other new deck will be a downhill/slalom style board, designed by skate-legend Chris Yandall.