My first skate board was a roller skate and a Beano album, at the age of 8 we didnt even realise we were skateboarding. A bunch of mates and myself used to hack down a narrow alley trying to knock each other off.

 When i was 11 (1976) the first proper skates where out, surf flyers complete with a brake under the tail. There was a major heat wave that year and skateboarding exploded. U.S.A skate boards where available, metal decks, Chicargo trucks, and loose bearing Hamaco wheels that where more like clay.

 The next year saw the first wheels made of urathane, Scudda and Grentic this was great time. Boards where so small and short it was hard to get both feet on. I had a grentec set up at the time, plastic deck, die cast trucks, and loose bearing wheels 

 Then came the the real stuff, Alligator wheels,Trackers and Bennet trucks and the first G&S decks.

 Around this time came the first skate teams. Teams where shop sponsered and would compete against each other. I was fortunate enough to get in to Dave Magees skate team. Comps where in schools and  the events would be Slalom, Freestyle, & team shunt (thats a relay race). The T.V programme Nationwide got involed to hold  the first british comp, local heats had to be won and the final was televised.

 The place to skate in Brighton then was the seafront slopes, slalom cones where always there and people would stand and watch. The set up i had at the time, Roadrider 4s, Bennet pro turcks, G&S Fibreflex deck.

 The wall of death at the rear of Churchill square is one spot that always had a good session going on. This was a concrete  curved bank about 8ft high, kind of like a speed bank. You could push along the pavement and turn to cut into it or roll in from the top. Imagine rolling into a bowl and before you hit the bottom turn along the wall and carve. Road Rider 2`s were the wheels to have for this you could almost stop and not slide out.

 Churchill Square was the place to hangout at night with lots of 360s and hang tens. The scean got so big at the sqaure the police would come by and try to split up the group. This just added to the evernings entertainment and cat & mouse games would see the night away. At one point they started convicating boards and tryed there best to stop the gatherings. All that happened was skaters explored more and more out the way spots were found. Like the Market roof bank, Cannon St car parks. All these runnings with the police gave Brighton the name, Pig City.