Z-Flex

I'm dating myself here - but I lived in the outlying parts of K.C. and nice decks (or the cash for them) were not widely available during my childishness. My friend Morgan had this Z-Flex - it was a great deck, one of the first dual kick styled decks. Jay Adams is pictured. It's similar but not quite the same.

California Free-Former

Check out this blue light special. My first deck. I think I stole it from somebody. Or maybe i got it at a garage sale. Either way it was a luxury and I rode the hell out of this thing. I took it to the absolute limit. I did things on this board that you should not do, including nearly killing myself. I was indoctrinated.

My first real setup. This deck with some Indys and slimeballs. Why Primo? Why was everyone skating Psycho Sticks? Where I lived, Skateland was pretty much the only place to buy a real deck and everybody had a Psycho Stick. I liked this deck cause it wasn't quite as Psycho, although somewhat Psycho and honestly, it had a better shape. Primo was a freestyle and street skater, so this deck was built more for function, not to show off for your friends as you pose for neighborhood photo ops.

I think I won this in a bet. I know I needed it, because I had just cracked my Santa Cruz collage deck, which was a nice deck, but a total boat. It was so big and lofty that I cracked it on a missed 50/50 grind! Tragic, yes - only group therapy has eased the pain.

Who didn't have this deck? I loved it, rode it for a short time, I think my friend Casey and I traded it for something. Not sure what, if i could remember, i probably wouldn't want to tell anyone anyway... This deck always seemed really thick to me. I think it was eventually involved in the tragic crushing of a yard gnome.

I *loved* this deck, although it always seemed heavy. It never broke, though, I don't remember what happened to it. It was like a foreign exhange student - it smelled kind of funny and i liked to stare at it. I liked the Joker theme a lot. Now that I think about it, I think I sunk this one in Lake of the forest in Kansas City. We used to put our 4 foot launch ramp at the end of the dock and well, you can imagine the rest. There is no trick you cannot do landing in the water. In fact, I'm going to propose to the X-Games kids that they use my revolutionary system to train for 2007...

Best. Deck. Ever. This Vallely Deck was sick. There were no two ways about it. I rode the hell out of this thing and I ended up finally breaking it in half (I was heavy into rails and huge launch ramps at the time) it ended up in my friend Derek's trunk and I never saw it again.

I can't remember if it was this vallely deck or this other Santa Monica Airlines deck I had, but one of them had full on collage vinyl stickers you could move around and restick on the deck. Obviously they were ground to a pulp in a matter of minutes. But it was a nice touch..

Needless to say Vallely is one of my few heroes, the guy is truly mad for it.