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Doug De Montmorency :
exclusive interview 2014
CONTINUED FROM PART
1
What about the localism back then ?
I was too young to really be a part of that, it was more the older surfer dudes who felt it. I think most of the times it was pretty cool, except when some assholes from LA showed up and threw their trash around or had some attitude problems. There probably were some fights but I don’t remember them as I was probably a little bit naive about the whole thing.
Did you go through the backyard pool stage before the skateparks were going ? How did you progress from the tea bowl to vert ?
That’s interesting, I need to ask Marc about it. In 77, there was the Sycamore fire which came after the drought and hit some of the richer areas in the neighborhood. That fire was accidental because I know who started it. It was a neighboring lady who set fire to some cables when she made a cake. So we found the Char bowl, Marc Hollander took me there and this is where I met Chris Strople and Wally Inouye for the first time. He was already well known, so it means the skateparks were open already. I don’t remember if I had already been to one or not. Remember that "skatepads" ad with Marc Hollander going up backside on this wooden extension ? It was in several issues of the mags, and I’m in the background. The bowl got its name from what was left after the fire. It was square with not much transition, lots of vert. We would just ride the main face wall, and after a while, hit the coping and bail. Marc was the best one by far, he was already doing wheelers.
I was officially riding for Sims at that point. Sims would be showing up at the bowl with a bunch of boards and Marc would be the first guy on the team. At some point Strople and Inouye showed up. Chris Strople dropped down the main wall and started gyrating and pumping the side walls. He told me how to do it. Apart from Marc and Tom Sims, Strople was one of my main early influences.
How did you get sponsored by Tom Sims ?
I had known him for a while. I think I was still riding my Zephyr when he said "Here try this one" and gave me a skinny 36’ taperkick to ride. I remember Marc Hollander coming up, while we were waiting in line to drop in and going "Hey I need that board !". I was too timid to say anything. He was starting to have this jealous thing with me.
Did you know Srople was the first to get a Thrasher cover in 1981?
Really ? I’d like to see that. I heard from Steve Olson a couple years ago that he wanted to interview me. Does he work for Juice magazine ?
He does most of the interviews.
I’m just getting back into that. Anyway, we had another pool that we could carve and I remember seeing my shadow at the bottom of the pool when I hit the top and I thought "Wow, that looks like Alva !". (laughs) I was doing this backside railgrab seeing my shadow. I had been to one park at that point which was Reseda Skatercross. It was really weird riding this big snakerun. And then I went to Oxnard skatepark on opening day. I got my first picture in the magazine doing frontside grinds when Jim Cassimus shot me. We had our little Sims team with me, Marc, Scott Hanson and David Hyde. Marc would drive us in his car and it would be Led Zeppelin and doobies. He would take us everywhere in his little blue Fiat.
Were you still in school ?
I was still in school. At this time, I met Jay Adams at Oxnard at the opening day. The only thing I could say was "rad". He still had the most impact on me. It was my first time really knowing who these guys were, like "Oh that’s Tony Alva". He had a lot of attitude. When these guys skated I wasn’t that impressed. But Jay Adams had this way of attacking, he was just snapping the lip really fast, always riding fast. Jerry Valdez did hand on the ground tail taps. I was doing frontside grinds. I learned tail taps at this homemade quarterpipe at my friend’s house. I saw Kent Senatore too. But I was just fourteen back then, like Bert Lamar, Ray Bones, and Cab later. Bowman and those guys were at least three years older so that made a big difference.
What about the attitudes you were exposed to ?
Jay Adams was cool but intimidating in the way he rode, not like Alva. I remember some were assholes. If Alva dropped in, everybody kind of stood back. It was lame because within a month I went higher than him on frontside airs, I could do backside airs too.
What did Tom Sims tell you to do ? Did he coach you ?
I think I learned too fast for him to coach me. There was one ad we did in the Oxnard snakerun with me doing this "Adams" flyaway invert. I think I was riding Trackers at that point. When we started to ride pools, Sims would approach it like an artist, checking the sun for pictures and all that. He influenced all the ads. He told me to not keep my knees together too much. We had this thing about frontside airs, we would call grabbing between the legs "jorg style".
Did the Santa Barbara park open before Reseda ?
No, Reseda was way before. I didn’t go there too often. I went to Concrete Wave once, which was another early park, but it was with a friend’s dad. Then it was riding at home, ramps or pools, and Oxnard. That park was really good, huge. No tiles under the pool coping like at Marina, but it was cool. I met Lonnie Toft there, because I’ve never meet him yet before.
Why so late ?
I was younger, living at Santa Barbara and he was with a surfing group from Ventura. I had close friend surfing, like Tom Curren, but I didn’t knew Lonnie.
What kind of trick did you do in Oxnard ?
I learned frontside airs there, and backside airs. Strople helped me ate, I dug his riding, his alley-oop handplants.
Did you have to pay to ride ?
I don’t really remember. We didn’t really travel outside that much when Sparks opened. In that case it would be in a van with photographer Craig Fineman to go shoot somewhere for an opening day or a demo in LA.
Did you do some Pepsi demos ?
I rode that ramp once, it was so slippery, narrow. It was suicidal ! Really high on both sides, there was so much vert you couldn’t do wheelers !
When did you enter your first Hester Serie ?
We went to the Big O for the Hester contest. I was riding a 33 inch board and I was little. It was like a longboard for me. When I think about that today, it seems strange… But it helped me in a way ! I got third place in the one-wheeler event. I didn’t enter Spring Valley or Newark. I got a pick of me doing an edger at Big O. That was my first real pro event. I heard D. David Morin from Kryptonics or whoever was announcing going "And here’s Doug de Montmorency" and Van Halen was playing. It was intense ! Craig Fineman and Kirk Putnam, another Sims dude put us up in a hotel. They gave 20 bucks for food and I thought "Wow, great ! That’s what it means to be a pro". I hung out with Ray Bones, he was cool. He even came out and rode with us at Golf’n’fun in Santa Barbara. Anyway I was riding that 33 inch board, and I had to go faster, carve more and made better lines. I think I got in the finals and placed tenth.
Who else did you see at that contest ?
I remember Tim Marting introducing the first rock’n’roll, and Bobby Valdez doing the invert. A lot of us hadn’t seen it yet. I think that’s where he got the centerfold in Skateboarder with his arm in a cast. It was so cool. I was too young to participate in the post contest festivities.
Was there a lot of snaking going on ?
I think they controlled the practice sessions a little bit, but snaking was bad for me. I remember Mike Folmer jumping the channel and getting the sequence but this local named Steve Schneer did it higher. He never got much coverage, but that guy was good, he rode fast. The next contest was at Winchester and I was already a little known when I showed up. I had met Bryan Buck and a few others like Tim Marting at Big O. I was too young to hang around Blackhart and Olson. I met George Orton at Paramount and he didn’t have any style, but he had huge balls and was built like a football player. He would do huge airs that would stop traffic and Sims got him on the team immediately, he wasn’t going to let him go. He would slam all the time !
Jimmy Plummer was all about speed and attack. Salba impressed me because he was so mecanical. He pulled so many things off, and he would just keep going. I thought his style was ugly, but Micke was different. He was my generation, like Ray Bones.
It seems like you're the missing link between the style era and the trick era.
I wanted to go fast, but Strople was also such a big influence. Like i told you, he explained to me how to do alley-oops and alley-oop handplants. The way he would do them was so rad, that's what made me do them later at Sparks skatepark in Santa Barbara.
Okay. So then came the Winchester contest.
Yeah, but I think there was another one in Milpitas before, a pro-am where Marc got second and got a pic in the magazine. I didn't even make the finals. I was riding a 33-inch board and got a pic in the mag, with the caption « D. De Montmorency showed flashes of brilliance yet failed to make the cut for the finals ». I was riding those Gullwing Phoenix trucks.
Did you ever grind those ?
I did. There's some pics of me going frontside in the « Who's Hot » article. I don't know why I was riding them. I was sponsored by Gullwing at that point and they paid me about 200 dollars a month or something so it was great. Mike Goldman was in charge of Gullwing, he was a skater from the Russ Howell, Skitch Hitchcock days.
I also went with all the Santa Barbara dudes to this Pro-Am contest at Atascadero north of Santa Barbara, and I fully ripped that one. I did stuff like side slides and frontside rock walks. That's where I met the Haut team, Scott Parsons, Kevin Reed and his partner Niccoli or something, and original Haut guy. Don't remember the name of the park. I just nailed it and took first overall.
I wanna know about Winchester.
So now I'm also hanging with Bowman more.
That pool was really good, one of the best. We had met little Caballero at Campbell skatepark before that, and Sims wanted him too. Winchester was fun, but Marc Hollander kept dunkin' me really hard while we were in the hotel pool and my natural reaction was to push up and I tweaked my neck. I couldn't skate any good because of that. I was crying and miserable the next day. I went to see Craig Fineman who was the team photographer and went crying : « I can't skate ». I think I still skated though, I placed second or third in the doubles event with Gary Atchinson, another Sims rider who didn't last very long. My contest results were never that good.
Marc Hollander was like the older, bullying brother.
Yeah, even though we'd go skating together. But even if he was really good and consistent he didn't get much coverage whereas I would get a lot of ads and pics. He only got a small one. This was Skateboarder, not Thrasher, right ? I had started to do backside airs at that point. Sims liked me because I was young and stylish and I was starting to get known.
Did you meet Duane Peters ?
Not yet. It was weird, he wasn't that known at that point. He came up by the time I started to fade out. Around august-september 1978, I was starting to get more ads and my name was building. I had already done some ads, like the one at Jane Fonda's pool, still with the 33-inch board. Then came the black and white flyer shot at Reseda snake run with me doing an invert and Lonnie Toft and Brad Bowman behind. We shot that one at night.
What’s the story behind Jane Fonda’s pool ? How did you involved with that ?
Jane Fonda had a ranch with animals and Tom Sims knew someone who took care of them. He told Tom the pool was going to be destroyed so Tom saw an opportunity to make some shots.
How was the pool ?
It was a square empty pool. Before the session, Chuck Barfoot painted the pool in red and white. I was skating with sunglasses because, it was so blinding with the sun !
The photo taken for the ad Sims is one of my favorite.
Did you actually like competing ?
Well, it was fun in the beginning until the pressure gets to you when you feel you have to learn new tricks. I felt that again when I was snowboarding and was the team captain for Barfoot.
Did Sims put pressure on you ?
Sims ? No. Craig Fineman was the team manager and he was super cool. Kirk Putnam was involved too with a little bit of everything. He and Fineman would be arguing about all kind of stuff. He was a good guy though.
What about the haut guys ?
Well there was this guy Bob Skinner who was running the Haut team for Doug Haut. He was up against the NHS guys. Who were they ?
Novak, Swenson, Shuirman, Fausto who passed away a few years ago.
Fausto's dead? He and Independent was cool. He reminded me of Mofo. He was a trip.
Well, he recruited him to shoot and write for Thrasher.
Oh, was he running Thrasher as well? Didn't know that. Anyway, I spent a lot of time with the Haut guys because they lived near me, especially Eric Halverson who was a hippie from my old school. His mom was a total hippie. He got into the Haut team which was cool because he was a Santa Barbara skater from Sparks. I think me and Bowman ended up staying at his house with the Haut team and both of us were ready to sign with Haut. Haut even made a board for me that I rode for a little while with a Sims sticker on it ! It never evolved, we kept skating, Brad went back to LA and I went back to Santa Barbara.
Did you feel loyalty towards Sims ?
Oh yeah. It was my life basically, I didn't even really think about other companies. I thought about different wheels and trucks though. Skatepads shorts sponsored us for a while, and Flyaway helmets.
What about the Robinak skatebags ads ?
I know all of Robbie Robinak's family. Now his brother is with my ex-girlfriend getting fucked up on crystal meth, unfortunately. He became a casualty. Robbie also grew up around Tom Sims and Chuck Barfoot from Mountain Drive. He started to make the skatebags in his garage. Don't know if he's still doing something with bags now…
You got ads for them with Bowman in every issue of Skateboarder. Did they pay you ?
Not really, except fo Gullwing which was pretty cool. I would get money from Sims if I had a pic in the mag, or if I made money in a competition, he would pay me double. But I didn't have my name on the board, so there was no salary yet.
So, after Winchester ?
Perhaps Milpitas… Anyway, I did an invert in practice, but I didn't make the finals there either. I was so happy I made that invert that I didn't care about the competition. Neither Brad Bowman or Marc Hollander were doing them yet, and I was on my signature wide board. Tom Sims himself drew my signature on the deck, as the Brad one ! And I had a Strople sticker on it ! CS !
Did you know your model is one of the most sought after by collectors ? Some people pay up to 1500 $ for it.
I don't have one. My older brother who was real smart and not some 14-year old smoking pot should have saved one for me.
What about Upland ? Did you ever ride there ?
I only rode Upland two or three times, before the Combi-pool was built. I had a lot of respect for Tay Hunt. There's no history of Sims riders up there, except maybe Wally. I never rode Baldy either. Remember Harvey Hawks ? He just got released from prison and Marc Hollander knew him from Upland. He had glasses the first time I saw him there, when we still had skinny boards. I was impressed, he was really smooth.
What about the locals like Salba ?
It was before I was aware of all that so I didn't really notice. But the reason Harvey Hawks comes to mind is that not only was he good, but he got bitten by a rattlesnake at Mt Baldy and almost went blind, which is why he got these really thick glasses. But it was a bit far for us.
Okay, so now the first Hester series is over. You did good.
Well, I was well liked and was popular, but I never got huge competition results. I went with Bowman to one of the Skateboarder polls award cermonies. I really don't remember anything though. I think I was sitting next to Micke.
In 1978 and 1979, your name was on the list for the skaboarder of the year poll !
Yeah, I don’t even remember how I was dressed ! (laughs)
Then you went to Cherry Hill with Bowman. Tell us about that.
We would do demos together in places like Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I also did some stuff with the Losi family. Alan had a rad sister. Brad was hip-looking, Hollywood cool, really stylish good-looking personality. I remember I stayed at Brad's house in LA and ended up going to Strople's and I think we ended up riding Del Mar, where I got this centerfold doing a backside air. Strople picked up this album by The Tubes called « Remote control » and he went « Check this out » and after listening to it it affected the rest of my life. I even watch them on Youtube play a couple of songs !
Then we went on this trip around the US, I think it was paid for by the parks. So we're on the plane still at LAX, and Brad lights up a doobie in the toilets. I went lin after him. He was smart enough to blow his smoke down the sink, but I set off the fire alarm. There's a knock on the door and a stewardess going « you're in a lot of trouble, young man ». I was a hippy kid, had never flown before and I had this doobie in my hand. So I ran back to my seat telling Brad I had been busted. But I just got a talking to and that was it. (laughs) So anyway, we get to this demo at this really shitty slippery park, covered in dust. But the owners, some millionaires, put us up at their house. There were snowplows outside, and I hadn't seen so much snow before.
So what about Cherry Hill ?
I'm not sure if we went there once or twice.
You got some of your best shots there on your signature board.
Tom actually drew my own signature for me, and told me « learn that ». So when we got there for the big opening day, it was unreal. The park was unreal, people were screaming and I had never felt this before. They wanted autographs ! Brad was old enough to see that it would be profitable with the chicks, but I was too young. Fineman shot about ten pics of us doing these famous doubles. I don't think I was much of an influence on Brad so he doesn't mention me in his Juice interview (laughs). The main pool had big vert and big trannies, it was unreal. Wally Holliday designed it. Brad was gone with some chick. We went to the owner's house with Alva, Strople, Shogo, the Haut team and a bunch of others. Shogo actually stayed and lived there. We stayed there about a week. At the hotel, there was some really gnarly partying going on with Brad and Fineman, I was lying in bed grinding my teeth. Gnarly stuff ! (laughs)
Did Sims pay you a salary now that your board was out ?
Yeah, about 200 dollars a month. I got 75 cents on every board. I was at my peak at that point.
Tell us about the double handed frontside air.
I got a lot of credit for that, but I got the idea from seeing some unknown guy doing it in an old magazine. Then Scott Foss is doing them now and says I influenced him in the Gullwing ad shots.
Did you skate with Bert Lamar ?
Yeah, I would stay at his house sometimes I think I skated Reseda with him before he came up through the ranks. He was a spoiled little kid, his parents had money…
After Cherry Hill, I started to fade out.
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