O.D.G.

No complies (or as Ray calls them "Step-Hops") and shoes with toe caps are all the rage these days, but Ray brought both to the spotlight a looong time ago..  Talk about a life in skateboarding! What hasn't Ray done? And still does. Have yet to see the Vans Propeller video, but I assume he has some tricks? As an aside, how come he's never had his own shoe? Hm..... 

This page randomly fell out of a magazine from my collection recently and I picked it up, looked at it and thought "this is great!". I was going to scan it and put it up with some other random scans, but saw it again today and knew it had to be now. It's from a tour article that took place in Australia.  I followed in Terry's footsteps and did the sober thing this weekend. First time in a long time. Felt pretty good really. Was up early and skated Saturday, and also today. Who knows, could be a trend..  Will continue with a look at African American skaters for Black History Month.

In honor of Black History Month, I figured I would spotlight some African American (trying to be PC here, but if you're from France are you African-American?) skaters who have made an impact in skateboarding one way or another. To be honest, I never knew that Stephane rode for 23 skateboards until I copped this magazine from 1997 a couple years ago. It just adds to my admiration for the dude. This part back in the day really stood out to me at the time it came out.  Not sure why he faded out of the spotlight (at least in the U.S.), but I found him on Instagram and apparently still skates!