Embarcadero 1991...

So, waaaay B in the D mai friend Sam & I went on summer vaca to SF aka San Francisco, CA. One of the place we went to was the Embarcadero Plaza which, at the time, was pretty much the mecca of the skateboard world.
I'm the n00b in the red shirt and the hat backward in the picture above.
We wanted to hit up this spot because it's not only the home of the Gonz Gap, it also had a major stoke factor due to Ben Job's part in the Shackle Me Not video that had given us the fire to go skate our own town that way.

We didn't know anybody out there except mai Aunt who lived in Martinez, CA which is just across the bridge from Benicia, CA another skate spot we hit up that summer in mai Uncle's hooptie Cadillac that was soemthing right out of Video Days.
Anyway, we didn't know anybody there, at the time I couldn't even pick "famous" skaters out of the crowd there, all I had ever heard about that place was that how gnarly they were to outsiders and non locals. I heard they would sweat you, possibly beat you up, or at the least steal your board. Straight up gaffled.

One dude who I thought I knew or shall I say recognized was none other that of James Kelch, he was a fellow midwest boi. I can still see it to this dei in mai head. He was doing these HUGE big spins, but he would do moar of a backside 90 or 180 first and then do a late shuv-it, rather than just KNDA sweeping it around like most others were doing at the time.
Skating here was a trip, it made me realize how much ahead the Cali skaterz were than the rest of us. At least by a few months. By the time the these guys had tricks wired, we were just seeing them in Thrasher, Poweredge, or Transworld.
I studied everything these guys were doing and brought it back to Chicago in mai head, learned all the stuff that wasn't being done here yet. Tricks like "front board big-spin out" and "boardslide to fakie nosegrind switch 180 out" the latter of which I still do from time to time.
Don't get me wrong, we had Jesse Neuhaus and a few other dewdz who ruled, but they all had the ability to travel the world through sponsors. Back then all you had was mags and vids, no internet. No on demand skateboard trick tips. You had to wait to to see how much you had to catch up.
Either that or get creative and see waht can be done with one board, two trucks & four wheels.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "White Cell" by Clock DVA
 from the album "Thirst" released in 1981