The Story of the UFO Saucer Kona Bowl Ad

By Jeff Tatum

In 1978, I got hooked up with the guys that were making UFO Sk8 wheels, Gary Beacher and “UFO Seth”.  “UFO”, if you don’t know it, stands for “Unlimited Freighting Objects”.  UFO Seth was a mellow guy and Gary was a crazy mofo.  Gary’s still in San Diego, shaping surfboards from what I hear, but I don’t know what became of Seth.  Anyway, they came out with a wheel called the Saucer and it had run of popularity.  In 1980, they had a great idea for an ad to run in Skateboarder Mag.  They decided to have Brian Schroder paint the Saucer logo on the face wall of the by-then famous Kona Bowl, in Escondido, Calif.  The plan was that UFO Team skater, Jim Sigerson was to air over the logo for the ad shot.

Brian Schroder was a very different type of guy at the time, and a way cool artist.  I called him “Devo”, because he was the one to turn me on to the band of the same name.  He was also the one that designed the “Del Mar Skate Ranch” logo.  So, Brian and a few of the UFO owners went out to the Kona Bowl early in the morning, so Brian could paint the Saucer logo.  He started early so that nobody else would see it before his work was finished.  Jim Sigerson, a few other skaters and I showed up much later in the day and started skating.  It quickly turned into quite a party scene.

Jon Hansen was chosen to shoot the photos.  Jon was a local amateur photog that was kind of a “personal photographer” to Art “Rat” Mingeaud and me at the time.  Since Jon took killer photos, I turned him on to the UFO guys, so there we all were:  the company owners, a photog and a nice, new logo on the wall.  With all the scene and people watching, Jim Sigerson was under some pressure to perform, but seemed to be having an off-day.  He just couldn’t deliver the airs that were expected of him.

Now, the Kona Bowl was my favorite playground at the time and I knew that bowl like the back of my hand.  So, when the photo session wasn’t turning out as planned, I was asked to blast air over the Saucer logo, too.  Jon stood in the bottom of the bowl and I easily shot some killer backside airs over the fresh paint.  It only took four or five photos to get what was needed, and we were done.  It turned out that Jim got bumped and I got the ad!

Soon after the ad was published, the controversy began.  Big air wasn’t that common in those days, so people were saying the shots were fake or that it had to have been manipulated in a photo-lab or something.  I think a lot of people that weren’t there at the photo shoot never really believed it was real, but the shots still created a foundation for my aerial legend as a skater.  

The Kona Bowl is long gone, of course.  It fell to development and the replica at Del Mar got bulldozed for a place that sells outdoor gazebos these days.  Brian Schroder went on to become a well-known artist and I haven’t seen him in years.  The UFO company went on for another year or so, and then seemed to fizzle out.  I hear that John Hughes has recently come out with some UFO speed wheels, but I haven’t seen those.  I know that a set of Saucer wheels will now go for hundreds of dollars on eBay. I sure wish I’d saved a pair!

When I first met Mike Early, the owner of Pool King Skateboards, he told me that his friend Kit Shigur from Detroit had been a UFO Team skater at the same time all this went down, and that he’d been promised a feature shot in the Saucer ad.  Kit was bummed that he got bumped for the Kona shot, of course, but I’ve talked with him since and he’s gotten over it (Hi, Kit!).

Hey, Jon Hanson, Jim Sigerson and Brian Schroder, I would love to see you guys again.  If you’re out there on the internet reading this article, please get a hold of me through EBasil at Silverfish Longboarding.  We have some sk8ing to do!   --JT