In another of Jeff Tatum's series of articles, he takes a look back at the "rivalry" between the Los Angeles-area skaters and the "Down South Boys" of San Diego.  In the 1970's and '80's, Skateboarder Mag devoted ink to discussion of the conflicts and competition between the two regions... it turns out reality may have been somewhat different:

The S.D. v. L.A. Myth

By Jeff Tatum

As we all know, skateboarding was born in So Cal, but those that don’t know their sk8 history in full often think that the Dogtown dudes invented skating in the ‘70’s.  In fact, skateboarding was conceived in the late 1950’s and had its first boom in the early ‘60’s as a toy for young children.  It had all the energy and lifespan of similar fads of that era, like the hula hoop, and aficionados that went all out with what was available at the time.  The Hobie skateboard team’s early 60’s surf-style skating is something you can see in Bruce Brown’s old “extras loops”.

In the early 1970’s, skateboarding experienced a rebirth, conceived mostly by teenage surfers because the motion of sk8ing goes hand-in-hand with surfing.  Skateboarding was still viewed by most as a toy activity, though.  It was then that a few groups of subcultured surf teens started taking on skateboarding as a lifestyle, and not just “fun with a toy”.  The mainstream story of sk8ing’s history often overlooks that there were two main groups to this new subculture, one in Los Angeles and the other in coastal San Diego.  The San Diego sk8 scene really started up before the LA scene did, with homemade boards.  But that’s another story…what I’m writing about today is the myth of a bitter rivalry between the San Diego boys and the LA dudes.   It was never true.

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.

Continuing now with a series of scene reports by Jeff "JT" Tatum that range from the 1970's to present, the original longboarder has another gem for us regarding the legendary Ameron Pipes.   These massive concrete pipes are now submerged as the intake and exhaust for seawater used to cool the San Onofre nuclear power plant, but for a magic time in the late 1970's, they were a private playground for a very few skaters and photographers.  This time, JT gives us a tale about one such shooter, Joel Broida...    [UPDATE:  Joel Broida gave us a call:  one of skateboarding's earliest photographers went on to become a highly-respected professor of mathmatics and physics.  Professor Broida is faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of California, San Diego.  He and JT are back in touch, and JT's got more photos dug from Joel's archives that will be uploaded to his gallery.  In the meantime, let's take another look at: ]

Nukeland Part 2:  The Tale of Crazy Joel Broida 

Sonny Miller, Art “Rat” Mingeaud and I had taken Joel Broida and his camera to the Ameron Pipes a few times and he got some killer photos!  Joel was a very eccentric guy we’d met at the Del Mar Skate Ranch when he’d approached and asked if he could take some sk8 photos of us.  He became one of our regular shooters when we saw how his photos came out!

Joel was good enough to get recognized by Skateboarder Magazine, and he got some photos of me published.  This story is about an adventure that led to some of those shots, including some that have never been published before either or my previous article on Silverfish about the Amerons.

If you're looking for a park to hit in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area, then you're going to want to read this.  After 10 years of planning and blueprints set forth and turned down, and planning some more, a skate park set in the beautiful landscape of the McDowell Mountains has finally been built.    It's called McDowell Mountain Ranch.

When you first enter this park you notice the great amount of kids here. Not teenagers, I mean kids around 10+. But the thing is, these kids can rip! I was watching them 50-50 rails, clearing 6 stairs, and ollieing up 3 foot boxes. Then there are all these banks and stairs that create a tremendous amount of lines and gaps to clear. I am not that kind of skater tough, but for one who is, this would be an excellent place. Gaps ranging from 3 to 6 feet and lines that can carry you all the way around the park. Plus there’s a whole mecca of hills ranging from the mellowest to the fastest around right around the corner.