About

Phil Chiocchio, George McClellan, Tim Mott and Ed Womble

Co-hosts Al Porterfield will be back soon to review more of his huge photo database.

David Adams will be joining us as we transition to the 80’s and beyond!

George McClellan:

Born August 1960 in Gainesville Florida.  Started skating in 1973 with the advent of the new urethane wheel.  First board was purchased at Suncoast Surf Shop in Treasure Island; 28” Bahne with loose ball Cadillac Dakines and Chicago trucks, no grip tape.  Did a lot of street rolling and found some hills and parking lots for the next few years.  First skatepark was Skateboard City in Daytona Beach Fla probably 1975.  First contest was at The Pier in St Pete (1976?).   Got to see how big the sport was in Fla. 

We discovered transition, and started hitting Tampa Skatewave and local drainage ditches as much as we could.  Some crude DIY ramps were built as well.  Other parks were popping up and we did some travel to Sarasota Surferdrome, Longwood Pipeline, Surf n Turf in St Pete, Rollin’ Waves in Pinellas Park, Tomoka Moonforest, Kona, And Solid Surf.  Clearwater Skatepark came on line in 1978 and I pretty much lived there when I wasn’t working.  Skating with Ed Womble, Steve Fischer, Dave Adams, my brother John, and a host of enthusiast.  I also met up with a six year old grom named Jimmy Marcus there.  I graduated early from Clearwater High and was working in the day (construction) and skating at night.  Rainbow Wave popped up shortly after and the area (Clearwater/Tampa/St Pete) had a pretty cool little scene going.  We found a few pools and I cultivated my lifetime love of blue tile.  I did well in local contests and was a member of the Clearwater Skatepark team.

I liked skating new stuff and travelling, so I made a plan to head to California to skate the cool new parks we saw in Skateboarder Magazine.  My homeboy Dave Adams used to live in Cali, so we decided to road trip it in the Spring of ‘78.  We hit epic spots all the way across the US including some legendary pools in Atlanta and Vegas.  Once we got to California we skated everything from Spring Valley to the Lake Berryessa Pipe, including stops at the Hester Series contest at Big O, Upland 1.0, and a week or so at a new park in Winchester where they had just opened their new pool.  At the time I was riding a Z-Woody with midtracks and some dreadful wheels from Cadillac called “hotlips”.

Back in Florida in 1979 the market was really growing, so skatepark and surf shop sponsorship dropped off and manufacturers started sponsoring skaters in Florida.  Powell Peralta snapped up Gelfand and McGill, Walker had rippers on the East Coast (including Mark Lake and Shawn Peddie, and a young stud curiously nicknamed “the Rude Boy”), Clyde and Kelly left their home at Markel to strap on the red and yellow jerseys of Gordon and Smith (along with Monty Nolder), and Sims built a powerhouse team down south around Folmer/Lagana/West.  I was picked up by Kryptonics and Gullwing, along with Steve Fisher and Ray Diez locally, and Dan Murray and Steve Anderson down south.  Vert skating started really taking off and the level of skating went off the charts.  I did well in regional contests but the fields were pretty stacked.  Traveled to Cali again and got to skate some great new parks at Lakewood, Del Mar, Pipeline 2.0 (gnarly pool!), Marina del Rey, and made the cut at the Hester Series contest in Whitter. 

I skated competitively for a few more years, but it was clear that the new guard groms were going to own the sport.  In 1983 I hung it up with my sponsors, but thankfully had plenty of friends who could hook a brother up with flow.  I spent the next 10 years getting older but still skating.  Seven years in Europe allowed me to skate in some exotic locations, but mostly janky first generation skateparks.  While I was gone the whole miniramp thing started and street skating was blowing up.  I had no desire to learn chink-chinks, slappys or huck myself down a flight of stairs.  I made it back to Florida in the early 90s and skated whatever vert I could find, but with my engineering career taking off, marriage and a kid, I didn’t have a whole lot of time for the magic rolling board.  

I moved to Albuquerque in ’94 and bounced around the southwest skateparks for a while.  Around 2000 I fell in with the local heads and started skating a lot again.  The crew there was strong and everybody skated it all.  We had vert ramps, parks, pools, downhill, and those awesome ditches.  My homeboy Palmer got picked up by Sector 9, so we started going to slalom and downhill contests across the southwest, more as an excuse to ride new pools, but we both ended up on the podium from time to time.  After the first HoF event at Kona I remembered how much of a blast it was skating with the old crew, so I put together a reunion/gnarfest event in Albuquerque in 2002.  The Skate Legends Desert Tour brought 13 of Florida’s finest out to Albuquerque to ride the parks, pools and ditches.  I think Gelfand actually loosened his trucks a turn to be able to carve in the ditches.  The desert tour ran every year for the next 6 years and expanded into Colorado for some epic parks and pipes.  We put together the first race (outlaw) at Indian School in ‘06 and it was an amazing success.  It ran for two more years and was attended by racers from all over the US.  These races remain a highwater mark for the hybrid discipline of ditch racing, which requires skills in transition, slalom, and downhill, all while playing a “cat and mouse” game with the law, similar to barging a backyard pool.  I started a B2B skateboard product info mag with Mofo, Olson, Stubbs and Blair Watson around this time, but it never reached critical mass.  In 2005 I was inducted into the Florida Skateboarder Hall of Fame, going in with my friends Chris Baucom and Peggy Turner. 

I moved to Pismo Beach, CA in 2009 and started skating the local parks and travelling to Masters (old man) events across the state.  The central coast has some great skateparks and I get out every weekend (mostly to San Luis Obispo) skatepark, or one of the local DIYs.  Johnny Miller and Di Dootson run slalom events every few months out here so I keep my wigglestick tuned up as well.  I get back to Florida a couple of times a year and always make it a point to grab some turns at the St Pete park, or wherever I land.  

Tim Mott:

Phil Chiocchio:

Ed Womble:

Ed Womble – Born August 1960 in Winston-Salem.  Started skating in Charlotte, NC in 1967.  My first board had no insignia and was roughly the shape of today’s popsicle minis and completely flat with no grip tape.  On the bottom were Chicago single-bushing trucks and Chicago clay wheels with loose ball bearings.  We skated in the street a bit but mostly at a childhood friend’s home, The Messerschmitt’s. I was seven years old and loved it but I hadn’t quite caught the bug.

When we left North Carolina for Florida in November, 1971 somehow the skateboard didn’t make the trip. In 1974, I was at a new friend’s house in Clearwater’s Druid Hills.  Some tall lanky dude was riding a skateboard up his driveway sideways!  George McClellan had toes on the nose and tail walking his board.   I was blown away!  Who does that?

That Christmas a bright orange BAHNE skateboard with Cadillac Wheels and two-bushing Chicago trucks was under the tree.  Soon after I added a Wayne Brown kicktail.  First contest was The Pier in St. Petersburg.  That’s when I was exposed to how bad I was, Chris Moriarity was so good.  Who knew how big the sport was and how far across the state people would come?

We skated the Maas Brothers parking lot, it was the scene in Clearwater. Rough asphalt that rattled your teeth.  And then one day Howard Word went past me with sealed bearings in Road Riders.  I was blown away. The first ‘Skater Mom’ was Dorothy McClellan and she took us all over.  And anyone else we could get to take us to Tampa Skate Wave, Rollin’ Waves, Earthin’ Surf’n and Rainbow Wave.  Mrs. McClellan got the land surveying contract to layout the new Clearwater Skatepark.  We wound up losing the job, but we did make the park team.  By this time I was 17 and had never won, place or shown in any event.  I selected University of Florida because they had the best skateboard park in the SE.

In the early summer of 1978, I moved to UF campus approximately 5.5 miles from the skatepark.  Almost every day, I pushed up Highway 441 to the park, paid and skated all day, then pushed back home.  It was – for the record 57 blocks and took me over an hour. The Basin was the right setting for me.  It was big, very big. Unlike Clearwater, it had lots of space between walls.  I skate pretty fast, incorporated surf style and was learning tricks.  One night at the dorms I lie in bed awake thinking of skating and thought about a new trick where you go up and stop on the top, then kickturn back in.  Oh my, the commitment!  At this time I was still an outcast college kid, vibed by the locals.  The best place to learn this new idea was right where they stood in line to skate the Snake run. 

They watched me ‘learn’ the trick. Considerable blood and tissue was left on the whisk-broomed concrete. And eventually I got it. But it was never fluid like the rock-n-roll. I even showed the guys at Clearwater Skate Park on one weekend trip home.

We wound up calling it the WomPull for pulling it back in.  About 60 days later we saw the ‘rock-n-roll’ by Tim Marting in the magazine.  He gets the props.  And he deserves them.  This spontaneous invention was happening everywhere. 

A few months later at a contest in Tampa I was invited to be on the Sensation Basin Team.  I improved so much over the following year it is hard to imagine.  On my first visit to The Basin in ’77 I could barely ride the Snake Run.  By the time of the 1979 Pepsi Team Challenge, I was at the peak of my game.  All this time Phil Chiocchio had sponsored me, George McClellan had me on flow from Kryptonics and I managed to snag some Indy’s here and there.  My last contest, my last competitive board was a Competition Concave Kryptonics in white.  I’ve never seen another one.  And afraid of how much I might pay for a pristine OG copy.

In the contest I placed 1^st in Banked Slalom and 1^st in The Snake Run- funny I do not remember my pool bowl standing – but I do remember getting a ‘10’ from George Wilson in the Snake Run.  At UF my grades were failing and there was ‘no future’ for skateboarding.  Add to that, Monty Nolder moved to Gainesville and instantly I was, at best, #2.  He is a beast.  Great guy.  I had not taken the drastic step to move to Cal nor did I want to ride ramps.  I had to graduate.

Skip twenty years or so to 2006.  Paul Schmitt calls me to come skate the Bro Bowl with him and his daughter.  I take one of my daughters and meet up with them.  There was some SPoT guys there too.  And that day we decided to do something to get kids skateboards.  The next day we settled on the name, Boards for Bros.  And today we are in our 16^th year of spreading stoke!!!

Last year I was awarded the Bromander In Chief Award at the Tampa Pro.  I will continue to promote the sport and all that is good about it.  The Olympics?   Who knew? No future… Now, do you know of anyone with an OG Competition Concave in white???….

Thank you, skateboarding!!!