Here's another pic which I took and I'd say this is around 1980. It's at a skate park that was in Melbourne FL. As you can see from my first pic things have been progressing. Riders have protection and the bowls now all have edges built for grinding.
A lot of riders wore gloves as the big moves then were low sweeping slide turns and you used your hand to pivot. Up until then everyone was just doing kick turns off the banks and stuff and then somebody decided to take to the air.
This picture here is of some rider pushing the limits and taking to the air when most people were just seeing how high they could kick turn on the ramp. Getting air was just beginning then and NOBODY even dreamed that some day a skater would jump the great wall of China. I used to have slide show parties back then and this pic always got a big hoot. Now it's just a little piece of history.
