Five Early-Era Street Skaters you should Not Overlook
Street skating clearly dominates over vert these days (as well as slalom and freestyle!), but there was a time when streetskate pioneers were a new breed. Between 1985 and 1990 there was an increasing number of skaters appearing in the mags and videos, who were predominantly street skaters. The obvious examples most modern skaters will be aware of are Tommy Guerrero, Gonz, and Natas.
Here are five more who might get overlooked but were rad “streetsters”…
Jim Gingery
Definitely a lesser known legend, but a firm favourite in our crew in the late 80s. I don’t even know much about Jim, except he was from San Diego (possibly) and is still filming and skating (presumably).
Jim pops up in various videos - H-Street etc, but the closest he got to a proper video part was this 1988 clip from “Skaters from Uranus”:
Danny Sargent
Originally an early street pro for Schmitt Stix, when Schmitt morphed into New Deal, Danny moved with them, appearing in the classic New Deal videos. He’s still revered as the definitive “Safeway Curb” skater. Watch his 1990 “Useless Wooden Toys” section below and see why Danny is renowned for curb skating.
He skated faster than most other street skaters of the era, and so became Thrasher mag’s default street skater during the era where they seemed slightly confused about whether to stick with the gnarliness of the 80s or move with the times for the tech skating of the 90s.
Danny also ripped ramps and all terrain and JFA wrote a song “Danny Sargent’s Trucks” - if you have the Indy book, there’s a photo of his ground down trucks in there.
Steve Ortega
Another skater from the incredibly explosive era of street progression. Steve was one of the very first to bring the 360 flip into skating, along with Ed Templeton and Jason Lee. That was a revolutionary time in skateboarding.
He has clips and cameos in most of the H-Street videos, but I think is best captured by this amazing photo by Micki Vuckovich. Bonus points for the Anarchic Adjustment t-shirt and the photo caption “zinging an amazing 360 varial* ollie kickflip” gives an idea of how hot this trick was! Check his board - it’s still in the fishtail and rails zone. (*It’s not a varial though!!)
Mike Archimedes
Arco appeared sporadically in Thrasher through the mid-80s (particularly in Concrete Jungle ads), ripping classic San Francisco spots like China Banks, but remained relatively unknown outside of SF.
The main exposure most had to Arco’s skating was through his clips on the seminal Sick Boys video from 88, although as an independent skate video, that was really a little-seen cult classic.
He’s now a mainstay of the Anti Hero crew, and even recently had a board out on Jalopi / Anti Hero.
Bryce Kanights photo from the Curbs article from the August 1988 issue of Thrasher:
Arco skating with Julien Stranger, Mic-E Reyes etc in Sick Boys:
Tom Knox (OG)
Not to be confused with the “new” Tom Knox, the original wasn’t too well known before his debut section on Santa Cruz’s classic “Speed Freaks” video. He could skate all terrain and is now a martial arts expert.
Starting off his section with a kickflip wallride in 1989, followed by a quick pool shralp and then a full-on curb attack, it’s a classic!
Here are five more who might get overlooked but were rad “streetsters”…
Jim Gingery
Definitely a lesser known legend, but a firm favourite in our crew in the late 80s. I don’t even know much about Jim, except he was from San Diego (possibly) and is still filming and skating (presumably).
Jim pops up in various videos - H-Street etc, but the closest he got to a proper video part was this 1988 clip from “Skaters from Uranus”:
Danny Sargent
Originally an early street pro for Schmitt Stix, when Schmitt morphed into New Deal, Danny moved with them, appearing in the classic New Deal videos. He’s still revered as the definitive “Safeway Curb” skater. Watch his 1990 “Useless Wooden Toys” section below and see why Danny is renowned for curb skating.
He skated faster than most other street skaters of the era, and so became Thrasher mag’s default street skater during the era where they seemed slightly confused about whether to stick with the gnarliness of the 80s or move with the times for the tech skating of the 90s.
Danny also ripped ramps and all terrain and JFA wrote a song “Danny Sargent’s Trucks” - if you have the Indy book, there’s a photo of his ground down trucks in there.
Steve Ortega
Another skater from the incredibly explosive era of street progression. Steve was one of the very first to bring the 360 flip into skating, along with Ed Templeton and Jason Lee. That was a revolutionary time in skateboarding.
He has clips and cameos in most of the H-Street videos, but I think is best captured by this amazing photo by Micki Vuckovich. Bonus points for the Anarchic Adjustment t-shirt and the photo caption “zinging an amazing 360 varial* ollie kickflip” gives an idea of how hot this trick was! Check his board - it’s still in the fishtail and rails zone. (*It’s not a varial though!!)
Mike Archimedes
Arco appeared sporadically in Thrasher through the mid-80s (particularly in Concrete Jungle ads), ripping classic San Francisco spots like China Banks, but remained relatively unknown outside of SF.
The main exposure most had to Arco’s skating was through his clips on the seminal Sick Boys video from 88, although as an independent skate video, that was really a little-seen cult classic.
He’s now a mainstay of the Anti Hero crew, and even recently had a board out on Jalopi / Anti Hero.
Bryce Kanights photo from the Curbs article from the August 1988 issue of Thrasher:
Arco skating with Julien Stranger, Mic-E Reyes etc in Sick Boys:
Tom Knox (OG)
Not to be confused with the “new” Tom Knox, the original wasn’t too well known before his debut section on Santa Cruz’s classic “Speed Freaks” video. He could skate all terrain and is now a martial arts expert.
Starting off his section with a kickflip wallride in 1989, followed by a quick pool shralp and then a full-on curb attack, it’s a classic!