{"id":7927,"date":"2010-05-01T14:06:04","date_gmt":"2010-05-01T14:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=7927"},"modified":"2022-06-07T22:22:21","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T05:22:21","slug":"dave-tobin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/dave-tobin\/","title":{"rendered":"DAVE TOBIN"},"content":{"rendered":"

INTERVIEW BY JIM MURPHY<\/strong>
\nINTRODUCTION BY JIM MURPHY<\/strong>
\nPHOTOS BY DAVE HUPP<\/strong><\/p>\n

The word \u201csketchy\u201d can be defined in many ways. There\u2019s good sketchy and bad sketchy. There is Duane Peters sketchy, which is by far the best sketchy. Tobin is in that Duane Peters realm, and when you watch him skate, he will make you very nervous! To say he skates on edge is an understatement! Over the years of watching Tobin ride and the fact that he doesn\u2019t appear to realize the precarious situation he constantly puts himself in makes it even better! He\u2019s got such a good sense of humor and such a\u00a0gnarly East Coast and West Coast history, we felt this interview was long overdue at Juice, so here\u2019s Dave Tobin!<\/p>\n

\n

“MY GOAL WAS TO ONE DAY HAVE MY OWN BOWL. NOW I\u2019M STANDING AT THE COPING LOOKING DOWN. MY GOAL WASN\u2019T TO GO PRO. MY GOAL WAS TO HAVE PEOPLE AROUND AND ENJOY IT AND SHARE. I THINK THEY\u2019VE ENJOYED IT AS MUCH AS I DO.”<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Let\u2019s start at the beginning. Where were you born and raised?<\/strong>
\nI was born in La Jolla, California, in 1962.<\/p>\n

What were you doing out in La Jolla?<\/strong>
\nMy parents ended up out there after cruising around. My dad was a military guy. He was a WWII hero. I actually turned my garage into a room for him. I\u2019m helping him out right now because he needed a some care. He\u2019s got these pictures of WWII bombers. He was a navigator on the B-24s.<\/p>\n

Was he in Europe or in the Pacific Ocean?<\/strong>
\nEurope. Air Force. In fact, I got this cool tat on my neck. It\u2019s the Air Core tat. It\u2019s an eagle flying with these bolts. My first tattoo was from Fred Smith, and you can\u2019t beat that.<\/p>\n

What was it like growing up in La Jolla?<\/strong>
\nWell, I was born there, but I grew up in Santa Monica. When I was nine or ten, I moved to Maryland, when my parents moved there for their jobs.<\/p>\n

What year did you move to Maryland?<\/strong>
\nThat was \u201871 or \u201872. A few years later, I got kicked off all of these sports teams for not being serious. It turned me off to team sports.<\/p>\n

Were you skateboarding at the time?<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s when I started skating. I started on clay wheels. My first board was a Cowabunga. I remember that. I was going down the hill on this clay wheel board. Then I wanted to be on this team so bad, so I snuck into this team meeting inside a cardboard box in the sixth grade and the principal caught me. He grabbed me by the ears and kicked me out. I said, \u201cScrew it.\u201d I found skateboarding right there. My friend Brian Martenson and I were skating from day one. I remember buying my first real skateboard from Henry Garfield. That name may mean something to some people. He used to work at Bethesda Surf Shop. His real name is Henry Rollins from Black Flag. I bought my first good board from him. That\u2019s when bearings started coming out, and then urethane wheels came out.<\/p>\n

Henry Rollins was working at a surf shop?<\/strong>
\nYeah. When I knew him, his name was Henry Garfield. The surf shop he worked at was right there on Bethesda Avenue. My mom worked on the Ave also. I guess his mom lived in DC. Maybe the other part of his family is from California. Q Man just showed up. Pat Quark. He\u2019s a Northwest legend.<\/p>\n

I know Q. I\u2019ve seen the video. I know the deal.<\/strong>
\nHell, yeah. He\u2019s a Skate Army guy. We melted together in the skate scene. We both traveled up and down the East Coast. I have to tell you one thing though. When I first started seeing skateboarding in the magazines, it was all of these guys from California. I remember seeing Gregg Weaver doing a 7 o\u2019clock kickturn at Baldy. I was like, \u201cDid I just miss out? I just left California. If I was still living there I could be doing that shit.\u201d We started trying to mimic all of the skaters in the magazines. When the Z Boys movie came out, they talked about Franklin Elementary and Brentwood Elementary. Those are the schools I went to. I was like, \u201cFuck. Holy shit!\u201d<\/p>\n

What were you guys riding in Bethesda?<\/strong>
\nI started riding ditches right next to my junior high school. There was this thing called the Drop. It was a long ditch that went downhill, and then we saw in the magazines that they had ditches all over. They\u2019d always show Tony Alva riding ditches, so we found our own stuff. We thought we had more stuff then they did though. The only coverage we ever saw was California. I was kind of pissed because we were doing it on the East Coast, too. We were going big time.<\/p>\n

When did you get your first concrete down there?<\/strong>
\nWaldorf was the first one. We made trips up to Cascades in Baltimore all the time.<\/p>\n

What about Lansdowne?<\/strong>
\nLansdowne was sick. That\u2019s when half pipes started coming in. Crofton was the first capsule pool, that I know of, on the East Coast.<\/p>\n

What was your first trip to an East Coast skatepark like?<\/strong>
\nWe got rides to Ocean City where a bunch of surfers were riding barefoot on an asphalt bowl. We got hooked. Then when we were old enough to drive, it was a bunch of people in a big giant gas-guzzler car. Basically, our first long road trip was to Cherry Hill. I took, John Hargadon, Henry Rollins\u2019 roommate back in the day, up to Cherry Hill with a car packed full of people. We opened the door, and they took your picture, and you got your ID. I still have my ID. It\u2019s killer. That park was huge. They had this guy named MotoMan who rode a motorized skateboard around the egg bowl. I\u2019d see Jamie Godfrey there. Then 20 years later, he showed up at Cedar Crest skating. It was crazy. I was like, \u201cDo you remember me?\u201d He did. I\u2019ll never forget the time Dave Andrecht showed up at Cherry Hill. He was the first real pro that I met. He was wearing a Sims hat. I was like, \u201cDo an Andrecht.\u201d Fred Blood was there on roller skates going across the keyhole. That was pretty sick.<\/p>\n

I remember seeing Bowman doing backside ollies over the keyhole channel. Do you remember that?<\/strong>
\nYeah, I was there. I saw most of those dudes that were there skate that thing. What about that dude, Jesilowski? That dude was crazy.<\/p>\n

He was doing slides through the egg bowl.<\/strong>
\nHe went all the way across. I used to meet Marc Emond from Ocean City up there. He showed me the line in the 3\/4 pipe, backside to frontside thrust. I was going frontside, frontside, frontside and he showed me how to do a backside thrust to frontside. That was it, man. The hottest thing I saw was when someone rock n\u2019 rolled the 3\/4 pipe. I couldn\u2019t see how they could keep their wheels on there.<\/p>\n

That was Victor Perez, probably.<\/strong>
\nYeah, it was Victor Perez. I moved to Florida in the early \u201890s and went to school there. Dave Ellis was there and he told me I had to meet this guy that used to skate Cherry Hill all the time. I was like, \u201cWho?\u201d He said, \u201cVictor Perez.\u201d I was like, \u201cI know Victor Perez.\u201d It was weird seeing that guy.<\/p>\n

Back in the day at Cherry Hill, I used to watch Perez and Godfrey. Those guys ruled that place. That park was such an epic park. When you see the skateparks they\u2019re building today, how do you think they compare to Cherry Hill with four pools, a 3\/4 pipe and a half pipe?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s definitely different. It was the feeling that you get from traveling to get there and picking people up along the way. It would take an hour or two to get there in the car, and then you\u2019re stopping on the Jersey Turnpike. Halfway up there, you\u2019re still far as shit away. It was a full on trip. You were going on a skate trip because you loved skateboarding. It\u2019s definitely a different experience. One time, on the way back from Cherry Hill, we all stopped at a Jersey Turnpike rest stop, and I was taking pictures with my camera. I came back from the pisser and there were these dudes in my car. I was like, \u201cWhat the hell?\u201d So I ran up to the car and kicked the door and pushed them. I turned around and Blair was like, \u201cDude. What are you doing? That\u2019s not even your car, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Laughs]<\/strong>
\nI was like, \u201cOh, sorry, man.\u201d I said I was sorry to them like a million times, but they couldn\u2019t speak any English. They were just wondering what had happened. I thought they were stealing my camera, but it wasn\u2019t even my car. It was funny. I\u2019ll never forget that. On that same trip, someone hit us while we were driving and we chased them down at 100mph in this old \u201998. We finally cut them off and got them to stop. I said, \u201cHey, man. I\u2019ve got insurance. Let\u2019s deal with this.\u201d I\u2019d been chasing them forever. Then someone in the back of our car goes, \u201cWhat the fuck!\u201d It was Blair. He\u2019s got this blaring voice, so they ended up spinning off again. I was like, \u201cScrew it. I\u2019m not going down the Turnpike anymore at 110mph.\u201d All of this weird shit happened on the way back from the skatepark. One time we went up there and the place was closed down. We\u2019d heard rumors it was closing, but we got there and the sign on the door said, \u201cFor Lease.\u201d I was like, \u201cThis can\u2019t be true. This is a legendary epic thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you saw that sign and realized it was gone, what was going through your head?<\/strong>
\nI couldn\u2019t believe it. That park was so big and epic. We were going all the way to Jersey to skate this epic world-class park. It was like a dreamland. People skated there from all over. All the pros knew about it and would come through and skate there, and then it just ended. It ended too fast.<\/p>\n

When did the Toke Team start to form?<\/strong>
\nThat was in the late \u201870s. A lot of the Toke Team guys are older than I am, by a couple of years. They built this huge ramp with an extension on it at the end of this dead end road. That was \u201879 or \u201880. After I met those dudes, we all stuck together. There weren\u2019t a whole lot of skaters, but there were a few small groups of skaters here and there. After that first ramp got turned down, we headed across the river into Northern Virginia. That was Micro\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n

Who was on the Toke team at that point?<\/strong>
\nWe were all from Maryland, and most of us were from Potomac. We all skated and had the same kind of deal. It was a little ritzy over there and there were a lot of stuck up people, and we were trying to get away from that, so we all hung out. It was John Aires, Dan Heyman, Bob Umbel, Tim \u201cPuker\u201d Whistler and Richard \u201cWiggy\u201d Austin. Puker rode a board that said PPP for park, pool and pipe. We called him PPP \u2013 poor, pissing puker. The Puker name came from the fact that he did some super sick tricks. You could almost puke watching him, because it made you sick. It was like, \u201cThat\u2019s sick, hombre! I can\u2019t believe you pulled that.\u201d They called me Sketchy back then.<\/p>\n

[Laughs] I wonder why.<\/strong>
\nWhen Cedar Crest got made, we were pumping some big airs. That thing was so solid compared to all of the splintery ramps that we rode.<\/p>\n

Tell us about the evolution of Cedar Crest.<\/strong>
\nWell, we had a ramp back in Gaithersburg, and then we heard that Micro\u2019s buddy owned this million-dollar golf course, and the guy\u2019s dad said, \u201cBuild whatever you want to skate.\u201d So they started building the ramp. We wanted to be part of it because we heard it was going to be mega. Then we heard it was metal. I\u2019d never heard of a metal ramp. I\u2019d heard of aluminum ramps, but not metal. There was this ramp called the Sign ramp made out of a bunch of highway signs, but it was dented. They were planning to build this huge mega steel ramp. We were like, \u201cNo way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Micro was the man that was managing to have that thing fabricated and built. Was he on the cutting edge of building ramps back then?<\/strong>
\nI think that\u2019s when he started. He had a ramp or two before that though. He was on the Annandale crew. We skated there weekly. He built that with another guy that has dreadlocks and lives in California. He was ripping. That was Micro\u2019s best buddy, Mike Kresky. That was the Annandale crew. It was this guy named Mark Hooper whose family owned the country club. They built that ramp and we started going there. You would not believe how much better we got just by riding that thing. Since it was metal, you knew when you slammed, you weren\u2019t going to mess your knees up on splinters, so you could try all these new tricks. Your pads would just slide.<\/p>\n

When you were riding metal, how blown away were you when you first started dropping in?<\/strong>
\nWhen you dropped in the first time, it had pipe coping and then we realized we needed coping, so we butted the coping together and bolted it down. It was good for six months and then it got super chunky and you had to power over that shit or replace it. Now we\u2019re back to why they called me Sketchy. I used to pump big airs at Cedar Crest and I used to come in and hit my back wheels, and sometimes my trucks, and pull it off. They\u2019d say, \u201cOh man, that was sketchy.\u201d Later on, The Toke Team would go to see Fred Smith and get tattoos. We\u2019d go up to Providence and skate and see Fred in his little office. After my first Toke Team tat, I wanted to get my initials for some reason on my lips. He was like, \u201cOkay, I\u2019ll write your name.\u201d It seemed to take longer than it should have, so I was like, \u201cWhat the hell are you doing?\u201d He was like, \u201cOh, instead of writing your initials, I\u2019m writing your name.\u201d I was like, \u201cOkay.\u201d I was halfway passed out from drinking from some bottle of something. Then I looked in the mirror and he had written \u201cSketchy.\u201d I was like, \u201cWhat the fuck? I didn\u2019t ask you to write that.\u201d He said, \u201cYou told me it was okay to write your name.\u201d That was my second tattoo. It\u2019s still there on my lip. It\u2019s super sketchy too because the \u201cy\u201d is faded out. It\u2019s a sketchy tattoo. It\u2019s like Losi. That was the only other guy that I saw hanging up on really big tricks and making it. All of those guys used to come visit that ramp. It was so sturdy and you could pump airs. Magnusson and Blender came out there too.<\/p>\n

Tell us about the pros and the sessions you saw at that place. You had Reese Simpson, Chris Miller\u2026<\/strong>
\nChris Miller came out a couple of times. Reese Simpson was there with the Losi team. We had this house that we owned out there in the middle of nowhere, but it was the closest place to live if you wanted to skate the ramp. I used to live out there. That\u2019s where all the guys from California would come because they had heard about the ramp. They\u2019d drive all the way across the country to skate that ramp. Blender was the funniest dude. He would scribble on this piece of paper. I\u2019d be there just rolling in and rolling out all the time. He would say, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you? You\u2019re really hyper today.\u201d I\u2019d say, \u201cYeah, I am. I\u2019m having a good day. I\u2019m just rolling in and out.\u201d I\u2019d be standing on the deck and then just roll in and surprise people.<\/p>\n

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, ORDER ISSUE #67 BY CLICKING HERE…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INTERVIEW BY JIM MURPHY INTRODUCTION BY JIM MURPHY PHOTOS BY DAVE HUPP The word \u201csketchy\u201d can be defined in many ways. There\u2019s good sketchy and bad sketchy. There is Duane Peters sketchy, which is by far the best sketchy. Tobin is in that Duane Peters realm, and when you watch him skate, he will make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4028,4041],"tags":[3924,4177,4431,4412,4421,4325,14454,4430,4151,4427,4361,4409,4072,4132,4414,3773,4422,3818,4429,4419,14255,6176,4424,4437,4435,14453,4415,4322,4413,4438,4428,4425],"class_list":["post-7927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-skate-2","tag-allen-losi","tag-black-flag","tag-bob-umble","tag-brian-martenson","tag-cedar-crest","tag-cherry-hill","tag-chris-miller","tag-dan-heyman","tag-dave-andrecht","tag-dave-ellis","tag-dave-hupp","tag-dave-tobin","tag-fred-smith","tag-gregg-weaver","tag-henry-garfield","tag-henry-rollins","tag-jamie-godfrey","tag-jim-murphy","tag-john-aires","tag-john-hargadon","tag-juice-magazine","tag-juice-magazine-67","tag-mark-emand","tag-mark-hooper","tag-mike-cresky","tag-neil-blender","tag-pat-quark","tag-pool-skating","tag-q-man","tag-reese-simpson","tag-toke-team","tag-victor-perez"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/tobin1-2.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7927"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89616,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927\/revisions\/89616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}