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I've been a skateboarder since Sept, '77 (that'll be 30 years this year!!!) and apart from a lull during the BMX era of the early '80s I've skated anything from once every couple of weeks to up to six hours a day!
My style is pretty loose and leans toward easy-going terrain: flatland, simple street, miniramps, etc. I like to do freestyle: railflips, caspers, etc. although I don't ride a proper freestyle board any more - just a regular street board with trucks too loose to ride proper freestyle on!
I skate Arnold skatepark (google map here), usually on Sunday mornings. Get in touch if you want to go skating with me.
I can be found on the legendary Middle Age Shred website and forums. Here's my MAS short bio...
Name: Mick Erskine / mick@tecspy.com
Age: 37
Town/Area: Nottingham (originally Manchester)
Started skating: Sept, 77
Total years skating: it'll be 30 years this year! I never stopped but I never got any better either!
Fave terrain: freestyle flatland, banks, curbs, tiny minis
Fave park ever: well, Crown Square was the place in the late 80s but Stoke Plaza is a lot of fun
Least fave park ever: hmm, not sure, Miles Platting?
Fave board ever owned: dayglo Christian Hosoi Street Mini or Per Welinder freestyle
Most memorable skate moment: Holeshot event in 87 with Gonz, Hosoi, etc.
Brief comments: I get out for an hour or so every couple of weeks and skate the Arnold bowl in Nottingham.
Age: 37
Town/Area: Nottingham (originally Manchester)
Started skating: Sept, 77
Total years skating: it'll be 30 years this year! I never stopped but I never got any better either!
Fave terrain: freestyle flatland, banks, curbs, tiny minis
Fave park ever: well, Crown Square was the place in the late 80s but Stoke Plaza is a lot of fun
Least fave park ever: hmm, not sure, Miles Platting?
Fave board ever owned: dayglo Christian Hosoi Street Mini or Per Welinder freestyle
Most memorable skate moment: Holeshot event in 87 with Gonz, Hosoi, etc.
Brief comments: I get out for an hour or so every couple of weeks and skate the Arnold bowl in Nottingham.
Here's some home vids of me skating thanks to Pete Rose, Ruby, Julian Bray, etc....
http://middle-age-shred.com/histories/peter_rose/
Here's my MAS bio in full...
Hello people!
My name's Mick Erskine and I live in Nottingham. I was at the Arnold bowl on Sunday morning and I met a trio of cool geezers who pointed me in this direction.
A bit about myself: I'm 37 right now and I've lived in Nottingham the past 20 years but I'm originally from Radcliffe in Manchester. I've been skating since September '77 when I visited Croydon to visit my cousins who both had skateboards and the craze was really kicking off. Quite regularly kids ask me how long I've been skating and I have to think about it -- in September it's going to have been thirty years! Jeeeeezus! When the craze died down in the late 70's I didn't stop when most other kids did: I skated driveways with my mate Dave and we skated to school. I rode BMX flatland more in the early '80s and breakdancing dominated the mid '80s but I still had the same fiberglass board with red wheels that I rode around the block.
In about '86 some youths I knew had Variflex boards and started tic-tacing around the school yard where I rode my bike in the evenings. A lot of the Bolton BMX freestylers were starting to skate more and modern boards started to get more available.
I fell in with a cool bunch of Radcliffe/Bury skaters, Haydn, Vinny, Bez, Crav, Ross, Matt (R.I.P.) and Rick, got myself a shoddy second-hand board of the 10" wide variety ("why so wide?" Smile ) but quickly trashed it mostly at Chapplefield, Crown Square and Bolton. After saving up for ages I got myself a Christian Hosoi mini, sent off for a pair of Indy 169's, got a set second hand 85a Sims Street Snakes(?) and I skated all the hours available.
We skated Manchester (Crown SQ, Oxford Rd, etc.) at the weekends and Chapplefield or Bury in the evenings. We watched Future Primitive endlessly! Crav and I took the National Express down to London for the Holeshot event of '87 and saw Gonz and Hosoi skate. I got to skate freestyle with Shane Rouse too! We discovered the Ardwick ramp and learned to drop in and made bus trips to Warington (where I bought a complete Per Werlinder freestyle) and London (Meanwhile 1 & 2, South Bank).
We skated with the Bolton guys (Tudge, Haysey, Dennis etc.), the Prestwich guys (Paul D, Harry, Ged and Sean) and the Manchester usuals (Femi, Animal, Chopper, Gooey and Team Manic, and so many guys who's names I can't remember). The thing at Castle Leisure in Bury came and went and in no time I had to up roots and move to Nottingham to go to Trent Poly.
On my first night in Nottingham instead of going to the Irish I went down to slab square and the Broadmarsh and met Pete Helicar and the Nottingham crowd. A day or so later I was at someone's flat after a party and got talking to a crusty youth about the Butthole Surfers and he turns out to be a skater - this was Rich Holland from Worcester. Me, Rich and two other good mates moved into a rented slum and skated all the time - the Broadmarsh!!! the Park run!!! We became good mates with Pete Rose and Julian Bray (still skate with 'em when they're healthy!). The Rollesnakes ramp was built, the Chilwell ramp was built, Kenny Sambo move to Nottingham and lived on our floor far a while.
Back in manchester, Goshen was built and I got to skate it a few times when I was home. I only skated the Split ramp once though - I slammed so hard on that flat bottom laid straight onto the concrete! I moved into a place in Radford and hung out with the locals (Craig Smedley and all those kids!). As the 90's rolled on, Sheep opened in Manchester, Sean from Prestwich moved to Nottingham as did BMX flatlander Stef Evans and we hung out a lot. St Annes metal ramp - skating with Dom and the old punkers. I finally sold my BMX in '95 and my first daughter was born in '96 but still skated -- mostly freestyle and "junk" street, and when Derby Storm opened I used to go there Sunday nights in winter. On dry and light evenings I'd go to the miniramp at the Hook in Nottingham and roll about a bit.
Next thing I know it's two thousand and summat and the council builds a bowl in Arnold - we went through the fence and skated it before the platforms were dry (boy that cement ruined griptape!). And for the past few years I've been going up to Arnold once a fortnight or so to ride the bowl and the flat - to keep my oar in so to speak - sweeping out the bowl on a summer sunday morning before the chavs arrive.
I don't think I've ever gone more than three weeks without skating but it has been getting more and more like once every three weeks what with the kids and job and mortgage and DIY Smile
Anyhow, I mean to change all that now: Pete Rose is out of retirement and now look forward to using this forum to get some East Midlands fogies together for the odd trip to Epic or the Boardroom.
My name's Mick Erskine and I live in Nottingham. I was at the Arnold bowl on Sunday morning and I met a trio of cool geezers who pointed me in this direction.
A bit about myself: I'm 37 right now and I've lived in Nottingham the past 20 years but I'm originally from Radcliffe in Manchester. I've been skating since September '77 when I visited Croydon to visit my cousins who both had skateboards and the craze was really kicking off. Quite regularly kids ask me how long I've been skating and I have to think about it -- in September it's going to have been thirty years! Jeeeeezus! When the craze died down in the late 70's I didn't stop when most other kids did: I skated driveways with my mate Dave and we skated to school. I rode BMX flatland more in the early '80s and breakdancing dominated the mid '80s but I still had the same fiberglass board with red wheels that I rode around the block.
In about '86 some youths I knew had Variflex boards and started tic-tacing around the school yard where I rode my bike in the evenings. A lot of the Bolton BMX freestylers were starting to skate more and modern boards started to get more available.
I fell in with a cool bunch of Radcliffe/Bury skaters, Haydn, Vinny, Bez, Crav, Ross, Matt (R.I.P.) and Rick, got myself a shoddy second-hand board of the 10" wide variety ("why so wide?" Smile ) but quickly trashed it mostly at Chapplefield, Crown Square and Bolton. After saving up for ages I got myself a Christian Hosoi mini, sent off for a pair of Indy 169's, got a set second hand 85a Sims Street Snakes(?) and I skated all the hours available.
We skated Manchester (Crown SQ, Oxford Rd, etc.) at the weekends and Chapplefield or Bury in the evenings. We watched Future Primitive endlessly! Crav and I took the National Express down to London for the Holeshot event of '87 and saw Gonz and Hosoi skate. I got to skate freestyle with Shane Rouse too! We discovered the Ardwick ramp and learned to drop in and made bus trips to Warington (where I bought a complete Per Werlinder freestyle) and London (Meanwhile 1 & 2, South Bank).
We skated with the Bolton guys (Tudge, Haysey, Dennis etc.), the Prestwich guys (Paul D, Harry, Ged and Sean) and the Manchester usuals (Femi, Animal, Chopper, Gooey and Team Manic, and so many guys who's names I can't remember). The thing at Castle Leisure in Bury came and went and in no time I had to up roots and move to Nottingham to go to Trent Poly.
On my first night in Nottingham instead of going to the Irish I went down to slab square and the Broadmarsh and met Pete Helicar and the Nottingham crowd. A day or so later I was at someone's flat after a party and got talking to a crusty youth about the Butthole Surfers and he turns out to be a skater - this was Rich Holland from Worcester. Me, Rich and two other good mates moved into a rented slum and skated all the time - the Broadmarsh!!! the Park run!!! We became good mates with Pete Rose and Julian Bray (still skate with 'em when they're healthy!). The Rollesnakes ramp was built, the Chilwell ramp was built, Kenny Sambo move to Nottingham and lived on our floor far a while.
Back in manchester, Goshen was built and I got to skate it a few times when I was home. I only skated the Split ramp once though - I slammed so hard on that flat bottom laid straight onto the concrete! I moved into a place in Radford and hung out with the locals (Craig Smedley and all those kids!). As the 90's rolled on, Sheep opened in Manchester, Sean from Prestwich moved to Nottingham as did BMX flatlander Stef Evans and we hung out a lot. St Annes metal ramp - skating with Dom and the old punkers. I finally sold my BMX in '95 and my first daughter was born in '96 but still skated -- mostly freestyle and "junk" street, and when Derby Storm opened I used to go there Sunday nights in winter. On dry and light evenings I'd go to the miniramp at the Hook in Nottingham and roll about a bit.
Next thing I know it's two thousand and summat and the council builds a bowl in Arnold - we went through the fence and skated it before the platforms were dry (boy that cement ruined griptape!). And for the past few years I've been going up to Arnold once a fortnight or so to ride the bowl and the flat - to keep my oar in so to speak - sweeping out the bowl on a summer sunday morning before the chavs arrive.
I don't think I've ever gone more than three weeks without skating but it has been getting more and more like once every three weeks what with the kids and job and mortgage and DIY Smile
Anyhow, I mean to change all that now: Pete Rose is out of retirement and now look forward to using this forum to get some East Midlands fogies together for the odd trip to Epic or the Boardroom.
Catch you later,
Mick.