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The tricks of the day borrowed heavily from surfing leading to a moniker of "Sidewalk Surfing" and later included jumping and spinning maneuvers. Things that sound, and relate more to Yo-yo tricks than those performed on skateboards today.

At the start of the the 70s the urethane wheel revolutionised skateboarding. The increased grip and smoother ride took skateboarding into different terrain and allowed skateboards to further emulate their surfing heroes of the day. The most notable of the new terrains explored at the time were empty swimming pools, each one being unique accelerated the development of new tricks and techniques. Skateboarding started producing its own stars, the most prominent from this era were those from "Dogtown" (Venice beach., CA) who after dominating locally travelled world-wide, taking skateboarding with them.

The side effect of this was that by the late 70s a rash of substandard equipment was on the market. By 1979 public interest was waning. Spiralling insurance costs combined with decreasing number of skaters closed many parks which compounded the problem further.

Although people had always skated in the streets, the introduction of "street style" really brought skateboarding to people. All you needed was a street or a kerb. Eventually it changed the face of skateboarding forever.

Taunton's history goes back much further but this covers the material we have so far.

Skateboarders protesting outside the TDBC offices shortly after Christmas 1988.

Simon Cottrell who previously held the position of Events Co-ordinator is the leftmost of the 3 olleing down the steps outside TDBCs offices, middle is Nick Jones who organised the protest.

Pictured above are:

??, Matt Watch, Simon Cottrell, ??, ??, Mark Grimm, Jason Johns, Gary Sully
??, Adrian Stevens, Nick Jones, ?? ,??, ??, and at the bottom right Rob Linegar

Clippings of the original news stories can be viewed here and here.

In 1988 the surfing shop Wave Games opened near County Hall. They also sold skateboards, and had some portable ramps which local skateboarders used. A skateboarding competition was held in the new car park (known amongst local skateboarders then as "the smoothy") near the former TYCC building at Tangier.

1995 brought the first X-Games which helped revive interest in the "dead" discipline of Vert skateboarding and by the end of the decade things were more than getting back to normal. Popular interest in the sport grew even more when the revolutionary Tony Hawks Pro Skater computer game was released in 1999 bringing in what is now referred to as "The Tony Hawk's Generation".

Skateboarding in Taunton has always revolved around a meeting place. At the start of the 90s the week day and evening "spot" of choice was the TDBC offices themselves. Focus moved between the steps at the front and at the rear a small flat bank, some gaps and drop-off, These accompanied by the locked upper car park level at the rear provided a wide open safe area to skate in. Taunton Swimming Pool (adjacent to the TDBC offices) itself boasted a foot high ledge to the rear with a low wall and a set of steps at the front. Skateboarders were in regular contention with drunken homeless people who lived in the bushes the very front of the council offices near Flook House. Mostly for disturbing their sleep or unsettling their dogs.

Summer 1991. A group shot of local skateboarders on scaffolding above TDBCs main entrance.

Back. Chris Wilson, Ian Merchant, Mike Hunt
Middle. Lee Chenoweth and John Proctor
and at the front Rob Linegar.

Summer 1991. John Proctor. Finger flip on the small flat blank at the rear of TDBC.

Summer 1991. Rob Linegar board-sliding the wall at Taunton Swimming Pool. (This wall now has rail on it)

In early 1992 Skateboard! magazine visited Taunton and did a profile.

Full size scans here Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4.

Skateboard! then let us know that the following month they'd be visiting a wooden spine ramp in Weston-Super-Mare. So we tagged along.

Shortly after this the ramp was sadly burned down. The same fate also befell a wooden mini ramp on the Hamilton skate park site.

1993, News Clippings from the opening of  Staplegrove (Hudson Way) mini ramp. Click the pictures for the full scans including news stories.

Over ten years later Staplegrove mini ramp is still well maintained by the council, and heavily used by local skateboarders, including Lee Chenoweth the skateboarder featured in both articles above.

1994. The following year, Hamilton skatepark got metal ramps. Click the image below for the full article.

Another meeting place of the era was the the Taunton Bus Station on a sunday afternoon. It was a favourite destination because of the wide open smooth floor, kerbs and benches. Friends would bus in from out of town and local skateboarders could bus to reach other places to skate. Proximity to the town centre made it an ideal place to reach local spots.

The Sunday Trading Act (1994) changed all this. After that the Bus Station became too busy to be a viable meeting place. It was still skated for a while in quite times and on sundays the previously empty town centre was now to busy to skate in.

Coming soon: Video stills of skateboarding at the Taunton Bus Station.

Another meeting place that remained a staple right throughout the 90's and beyond was the rear of MFI (affectionately referred to as "muffy").This was popular because the area was used infrequently by the public at large. The attraction was smooth wide open concrete area that had high kerbs. The furniture stores skips regularly contained broken pieces of furniture which were then appropriated and configured to be unique skateboarding obstacles. MFI was demolished as part of the redevelopment of Priory Fields Retail Park in 2004.

Coming soon: Video stills of skateboarding at the old MFI.

Local skateboarders Jon Vallance and Ed Brown began documenting the local skateboarding community on film. These "Skateboard Videos" are dubbed The SV series.

In the days before YouTube sv1, sv2 and sv3 were made available on  a website owned by Ed called "generic" (and later 26h after his address at the time). It also housed a discussion forum for local skateboarders.

In those days video premieres were held at Ed's or Jon's. Ed stopped skateboarding for a while. But Jon's technical competence, and the length of the productions grew. For sv4 and beyond a pricey broadcast quality "3 chip" video camera was added to his arsenal.

We'd meet at Morrissons at every sunday lunchtime, cram into cars and travel to film for the videos..

By sv5 the premieres were being held on a big screen in local nightclub Aura. sv5 and sv6 were sold on VHS in Wave Games.

sv7, the first production to appear on DVD was sold in the new (skateboarder owned) shop in town, Ape Skates.

The next two videos in the series didn't follow the previous naming scheme.

The first was "Odds & Sodds" a promo video for Ape Skates that premiered in The VAT Bar in 2006 on the shop's first birthday.

Jon's swan song before leaving town (to be a Graphic Designer in London) was the official Ape Skates video. This, more than any before brought the talents of Taunton skateboarders to a national audience. The half hour video entitled "A Dirty Marketing Trick" (also known as SV-Ape) premiered in October 2007 in the Brewhouse Theatres Studio and had to be shown 3 times so all who turned up got to see it.

Coming soon : Sidewalk Magazine review of  "A Dirty Marketing Trick"

The tradition of local skateboard film making continues. Members of the community produced a not-so flashy DVD, perhaps tellingly entitled "Scraping The Barrel" in Summer 2008. They're already filming a follow up.

In particular.

We're looking for any information on a wooden mini ramp that was situated in Hamilton park before the current metal park was built. We know it was burned down, but don't have pictures or know when.

We're looking for information and if possible pictures from the skateboard contest held by Wave Games near TYCC around 1988 or 1989.