I rode professionally for H-Street from 1987 til 1989. I had a few signature decks - one had a turtle graphic on it, it is one of the re issue decks coming out on H-Street. The other shape is a more modern shape with a new graphic I drew. It comes with 2 different drillings for the front truck to change the wheel base from 15" to 15.5". I rode for H-Street after several bad runs with companies which were not quite honest... receiving checks for $4.00 for one month of board sales, companies who didn't want to be a part of competitive skateboarding, some who lacked any experience in how to treat professionals who rode for them. The list goes on.
Art Godoy - Toronto NSA contest 1988
I was stoked that I was given a chance. It was difficult in that time, to find companies who were willing to take us on. We (Steve and I) were not trendy like the rest of the skaters on the circuit. Being a tattooed professional in the middle of 72 other pros who had that "gay" 80's INXS look, we stuck out like a sore punk rock thumb. The queer fluorescent colored clothing, the dyed / bleached bangs was something we could not tolerate!. In our opinion, though a lot of the products were innovative, the fashion was the worst.
In that time, my twin did tons of graphics for H-Street. some are pictured below. It was all hand done color separations and camera work, all decks were silkscreened. Now it's all sublimated transfers... the work took hours and hours to do. There is a book available by Sean Cliver called "Disposable Skateboard Bible". It is full of skateboard graphics from the 60's to today's decks. We have our own pages in it as well, where lots of other decks that we've done can be seen. There is also a story.
There were several other H-Street model decks that we drew: John Schultes large and mini models, Eddie Elguera vert deck, Danny Way's first pro deck, Ron Allen... Some of the decks were pulled from distribution because H-Street heard that there were hidden messages in the artwork... ha ha ha, there may have been!! At the time, we were also doing work for Hobie, Bees Wax, No Fear, Pirate Surf, O'neill, Andy McDonald, Ben Pappas... and tons of other companies and professionals. We were also tattooing part time to supplement our incomes since some of the royalty checks were not so great. When a skateboard career ends, and you don't have a skill to fall back on, life can sure get tough real quick. We were lucky that we had tattooing... some others weren't so lucky. Take a look at "Rising Son"- the story of Christian Hosoi or "Stoked" - the rise and fall of Mark "Gator" Rogowski. These were both TOP professionals from my era who prospered when they were on top and fell hard when it was all done. Christian is back, skating as good as ever.. Gator, still in prison.
IT wasn't the most glamorous life as it is now to be a pro skateboarder, but we traveled all over the world, doing what we loved to do. Skating, surfing, seeing the world. We were very fortunate to have had such a cool experience.
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