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DANNY BEARER

DANNY BEARER

DANNY BEARER
INTERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION BY STEVE OLSON
PHOTO COURTESY OF DANNY BEARER

’65 World Champion Hobie Super Surfer Vitapack Team Manager… If you don’t understand what that means, look it up, stupid. Learn a little history about this so-called thing you love so much called skateboarding.

How does it feel to be the first championship skateboarder in the world?
I feel lucky. It all started with roller-skating in 1963 at Pacific Palisades Park. Roller-skating on Friday nights was so much fun. Everyone would skate in a circle around the auditorium. My parents were athletes, so they introduced me to all of the different sports.

“It just so happened that there was the ultimate skateboard sidewalk coming out of the Palisades Park that went into the rest of the neighborhood. It was fantastic. Skateboarding was so much fun that I ended up pissing off my dad because I didn’t go home any more. I got on that skateboard and things would just get too wild sometimes. I didn’t like pissing off my dad but I kept doing it. After school, I’d skate with my buddy George Trafton, who lived down the street.”

Which ones did you take to?
I skated, surfed and played football.

What position did you play?
I was quarterback. I can remember the first time I played football. I learned what it was to be a competitor. It’s part of human nature. Everybody’s competitive at some level or another.

How did you start skating?
One time, I was playing tennis against my brother. I was trying really hard to win the match; it got to be a really heated event because I didn’t agree with some of his calls. At the end of the match, I gave him my tennis racquet and I took his skateboard, which is how he got to the court that day.

You traded your racquet for the skateboard after the tennis match?
No, I just stole it. It just so happened that there was the ultimate skateboard sidewalk coming out of the Palisades Park that went into the rest of the neighborhood. It was fantastic. Skateboarding was so much fun that I ended up pissing off my dad because I didn’t go home any more. I got on that skateboard and things would just get too wild sometimes. I didn’t like pissing off my dad but I kept doing it. After school, I’d skate with my buddy George Trafton, who lived down the street.

Who else were you skating with back then?
I ended up running into Dave Rochlan, who was the manager for Makaha Skateboard Company. He was skating with John Fries. They ended up picking me up, and I got to skate with them for the day. Then Dave said, “John, do you think we should put him on the team?” And John said, “Yeah!” So that was how I got on the Makaha Skateboard team.

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, ORDER ISSUE #57 BY CLICKING HERE…

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