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Steve Cathey defying gravity (sometime in the late 1970s) [1022x722] (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by IndieAtheist

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[–]skibble 37 points38 points ago

This picture was in a book I got from The Scholastic Bookclub in second grade(? 1979/80?) "The Skateboard Book," IIRC. So cool to see it again.

[–]five_argyle_sox 37 points38 points ago

Scholastic Bookclub ruled!!!

[–]JalapenoCheese 15 points16 points ago

It still does! It's still around and kids love it. :)

[–]idrink211 9 points10 points ago

Yup, my 9 year old daughter orders stuff from that whenever the new order form comes out. And when I was her age, I'd order all the choose-your-own-adventures that I could. I loved the hell out of those!

[–]five_argyle_sox 4 points5 points ago

I too loved the hell out of those books. In fact, years later when I was in comp sci class and learned what a depth-first search was, I was immediately reminded of how I'd read a choose-your-own-adventure book in order to make sure I didn't miss any pages :)

[–]L8rMr 7 points8 points ago

I know you remember this!

[–]indefort 7 points8 points ago

Less magical when it's not printed on tissue paper.

[–]kimmydkill -1 points0 points ago

Is it wrong that I'm 15, and seeing these, I kinda want a few of them.. :)

[–]noise_shaper 91 points92 points ago

I love pictures of late 1970's/early to mid 1980's where you see California open spaces which were being prepped for mass track home development. Kind of like the scenes in ET where you had all this awesome tarmacs for kids to ride around on / get a little bit into trouble. I for one miss the days of open hills in my old California community.

[–]ciscomd 31 points32 points ago

Dude I'm so nostalgic for that same stuff although I never really saw it. My parents grew up in southern California in the '60s and '70s and they talk about skipping school to go to the beach and being the only ones there, and how Orange County was just completely rural, etc etc. I saw a little bit of it when I would visit there as a kid in the '80s and '90s but it was pretty built up by then. All the suburbs east of LA just look like oceans of track homes now.

[–]zach84 2 points3 points ago

Ugh. What I'd do to grow up in Southern California, especially in the 60's and 70's haha.

I live in Long Island, New York so I'm never more than 10 or 15 minutes from a beach. In school sometimes kids just throw clothes over their bathing suits and put towels and beach things in their locker, then later in the day (seniors can get early release, where we are let out an hour and 45 minutes early every day) and people jsut go straight to the beach after school. It's pretty great, but I'd definitely prefer to live in Southern CA. Winters are cold here :(

[–]sirilluminator 7 points8 points ago

I'd love to see more of them...know of any good ones?

[–]nongoloza 44 points45 points ago

This one is awesome.

[–]whine_and_cheese 10 points11 points ago

Wow. Great picture.

[–]theamazingkort 9 points10 points ago

I just looked at every picture on that site, and wound up reading almost everything about skating in the 1970s on wikipedia because of it. Thank you so much for posting that link.

[–]IceK1ng 10 points11 points ago

Ever seen Dog town and Z-Boys? Great documentary.

[–]theamazingkort 1 point2 points ago

Not yet, I discovered its existence tonight. I will soon, though. Thanks for the suggestion!

[–]IceK1ng 0 points1 point ago

No problem! Randomly found it in the library and watched it out of boredom. Do NOT regret, at all.

[–]wakawakaflame 0 points1 point ago

yeah, good stuff is this the guy who is in prison ? i forget

[–]bootbox 3 points4 points ago

Check out the Surfstyley4 YouTube channel, tons of great videos from the early California surf/skate scene. It's honestly amazing.

Make sure to check out the Frisbee stuff too, it's priceless.

[–]skithehoop 4 points5 points ago

Probably should have posted it in reply to your comment, but the photographer has over 100 more photos on this site I posted below, all from that time period. Enjoy!

[–]wadall 0 points1 point ago

I live in Chula Vista. We got plenty of that here. It's literally like here is a developed modern town with walmart, a shopping mall, and everything on one side, then exactly on the other side its desert hills and mountains.

[–]MadMau5 18 points19 points ago

How?!

[–]five_argyle_sox 30 points31 points ago

that was probably a rhetorical question, but just in case it wasn't...he's on an incline and is carving hard (so his center of gravity is totally different than if he was standing still)

[–]MadMau5 22 points23 points ago

Nope, thank you for explaining, trying to wrap my head around it. :/

[–]skithehoop 18 points19 points ago

Source The photographer has a bunch of awesome stuff. Also, this particular photo is from 1975.

[–]noshoesnoshirt 7 points8 points ago

Dang. Crosspost to /r/AdrenalinePorn ?

[–]skithehoop 10 points11 points ago

Already been posted there about a year ago.

[–]cheetoh_socks 8 points9 points ago

This was taken in 1975 in La Costa.

[–]suggested_portion 5 points6 points ago

What an awesome pic!

[–]cky12qxz 15 points16 points ago

old school skating is the best skating

[–]iGotChubs4You 29 points30 points ago

Not even close.

The shit people do now is unbelievable. The two aren't even comparable.

[–]cky12qxz 5 points6 points ago

skating is about style, not who can do the best trick.

[–]iGotChubs4You 5 points6 points ago

Style is just as important as the trick...

[–]lherr 1 point2 points ago

What should I search for? I'm actually interested in seeing what you're talking about.

[–]Mistervodka 0 points1 point ago

I am by no means an expert. However, I assume we both ended up here around the same time for a reason, so I hope I can help.

My dad had a skateboard in the 70s. He was more interested in having fun and doing drugs than perfecting skateboarding, so it was mostly a method of transportation. When I got my first skateboard, I got really into becoming as bad-ass as possible. I wanted to be Tony Hawk. I was pretty terrible it, but my father thought I was the bee's knees.

Just do some searching on Youtube dude, there is some sick videos out there. My father saw me ollie and do a kickflip (Simple tricks), and nearly shit himself. He thought I was a prodigy. Then I showed him Tony Hawk. There are dudes out there who hit ramps going 30mph and do multiple frontflips before they land. Grinding? Unheard of back then, to my knowledge anyway. In the 70s, you were a bad motherfucker if you were able to hop off and back on again. Now-a-days a 360 is considered amateur material, and no less than a 900 (2 and a half body rotations...in midair) is competition caliber.

Watch some videos dude. There are some seriously talented people out there. Olympic level.

[–]iGotChubs4You 0 points1 point ago

Look up Chris Haslam, google Baker 3 and watch like any part but specifically Andrew Reynolds and Bryan Herman. Also, if you want to see just crazy shit then look up some of the shit thats gone down 'el toro'.

[–]seth11111 8 points9 points ago

Rad! Hang Ten!

[–]Selfbias 2 points3 points ago

Reminds me of the music video for Forever Young

[–]niewinski 2 points3 points ago

This made me smile. It's very inspiring. Thank you

[–]Ragnarocc 2 points3 points ago

Steve Cathey does not have a Wikipedia entry. Redditors, get shit done!

[–]free2me_ipad 1 point2 points ago

The arms of a gibbon!

[–]Smorfty -1 points0 points ago

Google "Steve Cathey" and it's one of the first images you see....

[–]energy4anarchy -2 points-1 points ago

Defying Gravity - or perhaps fully abiding by the laws of gravity and physics as we know it, hence making it possible?

[–]dudemansam4189 -2 points-1 points ago

Totally read that as Steve Carell. Kinda disappointed now :(

[–][deleted] ago

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[–]KrishnaS124 7 points8 points ago

Why wouldn't it? Last year had history too. Anything from the past is history. Lots of people haven't been around long enough to see this part of history yet

[–]redtheda 3 points4 points ago

I'm 40 and I was 3 when this picture was taken. I'd say it's history, but that's just me.

[–][deleted] ago

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[–]KrishnaS124 3 points4 points ago

Im not trolling I'm telling you my view...

Seeing as you'd have to be around 45 or older (37 year old phot plus you need to be of a decent age to remember it) to have experienced what's in this photo I think most people can find it interesting

[–]cantankerix 2 points3 points ago

"Classic" rock.

[–]skipperbob -2 points-1 points ago

Go ahead and down vote me but I don't think this belongs here. A kid on a skateboard = HistoryPorn? OldSchoolCool would be a good place but I don't get this as being a part of this reddit... let the down votes begin.

[–]smileyman 2 points3 points ago

Pop history isn't part of history?

[–]skipperbob -1 points0 points ago

No, I don't think a kid on a skateboard from a few years ago belongs on a reddit about real history, it belongs on something like OldSchoolCool but not here. Did he invent the skateboard? Did he do something special with it? Most posts here have some historical meaning or relevance from the past, not this.

[–]smileyman 1 point2 points ago

Funny, I thought the name of the sub-reddit was /r/historyporn, not /r/realhistoryporn.

Did he invent the skateboard? Did he do something special with it?

Steve Cathey is one of the pioneers of the skateboarding industry and one of the first people who did it professionally.