We love the desert!

P*Lander for Life

Tony Elfering's P*Land tattoo. Tony was a true P*Lander for life and we will really miss him. It's hard to believe we have lost one of our gang. (For those who don't know, P*Land was our skate crew growing up in Phelan, Calif. Click the "label" below to see more P*Land pics.)

For Tony: Duane Peters Black out

I'm thinking a lot about Tony Elfering (R.I.P.) and our P*Land skating adventures back in the day. This Duane Peters video shows the radical P*Land style of skating in my opinion, which totally argo and quite different from the "gymnastics on wheels" style of pro skaters today. Glad to see Duane Peters has still got it, even at 40+ years of age, though he looks a lot worse for the wear-and-tear. He spits into the camera at the end (1:35), which is probably unnecessary, in case you want to skip that part :-) Still, great stuff!

Tony Elfering

{early '80s}

Rest in peace my brother. Shred on. We will miss you so much.

{More P*Land skate pics and videos here.}

I Like It Like This

Jay Adams, Dogtown. Mid-1970s.

"There were many good skaters who contributed positively to the sport and somehow Skateboarder magazine chose to promote a gang of kids who only sought to destroy the sport on an organized level." -Russ Howell

[Yes!]

Phelan, California. Spring 1973

High Desert Snow Storm

My nephew and niece rolling in the frsh snow with their Czech puppy. Snow like this is so awesome in the desert. Click to make the picture big and check my Mom's blog for more of these photos!

El Mirage

View Larger Map

Google maps is so cool. Here is a 360 degree street-level view of El Mirage, California. Out in the desert where I grew up. You can also drag the street view icon along any blue-outlined road to see what you can see. Rad.

Now Listening... Led Zeppelin I

I haven't listened to this album in many years and it's fantastic. It's always been my favourite Zeppelin work. I can't hear this album without being instantly transported back to the first time I heard it in the early 70s, laying on my bed at our house on Valle Vista in Phelan, Calif.

Led Zeppelin I will always be about the groovy feelings of early 70s California to me (especially "Good Times Bad Times" and "Your Time is Gonna Come") and the start of the P*Land skate radicals building our own ramps and shredding the local schools (especially "Communication Breakdown" and "How Many More Times").

Happy Birthday Sol!

Definitely the coolest brother around. Above, laying it back on the P*Land ramp back in the day. Dude...

Radical

Here's a nice P*Land Skate picture I recently uncovered. That's me catching some nice air out of Skater Crater's main bowl back in 1979. Skater Crater was a decent skatepark in San Bernardino, California that we P*Landers shredded regularly.

I don't remember who took this photo, but it might have been Sharon Nemer, since it was developed in our high school darkroom and Sharon and I did a lot of stuff there if I remember correctly.

The Adelanto Bowl

These are the pictures I've been hoping for! Tony Elfering sent me these amazing pics of the P*Land Boyz shredding an amazing pool at an abandoned motel on old Route 66 in Adelanto in 1983 or 1984. Here's his note:

Little P*LAND history for you. This was a couple of years after high school graduation. Some of the few remaining P*BOYS would get together and shred the Adelanto bowl. This bowl was one of the P*LANDERS favorite spot to shred. I can't remember if you ripped this bowl. I think you did. It was next to the Roadway truck depot and Maverick stadium. At one time we were skating this bowl and a few of the Dogtown boys showed and shredded it with us.

From the top:

Devin Mills - extreme backside wheeler

Tony Elfering - frontside edger carve (or is that AIR?)

Tony Elfering - wicked frontside grind

Robb Perry - pure backside tile

Tony, I did skate this pool once with you guys, but I would hardly call what I did "ripping." By 83-84 I was well beyond my skate years. I was reduced to doing baby carves around it. You guys however (Sol was there too) killed it: frontside and backside air, frontside and backside roll ins on pure vert, vertical laybacks, grinders, extreme wheelers, etc., etc.

I remain amazed to this day about how hard you youngins shredded the Adelanto Bowl! Thanks for sending these to me. Hang in there man!

Phelan by Satellite

Here's the Google satellite photo of Phelan, California. It's almost a piece of art itself. Click to make big.

By the way, the dark "V" in the middle is what is left of "The Slide" that took half the mountainside down above Wrightwood in 1969. Down in the desert, it hardened into the infamous mudbeds where us P*Landers congregated on certain summer evenings.

Pearblossom Highway

Speaking of P*Land, I came across this David Hockney piece, "Pearblossom Highway" which was taken a few miles west of Phelan, where I grew up in the 1970s. Yup, this is pretty much what it looked like.

Anatomy of a P*Land Layback

My brother Sol laying down a perfect layback at the top of the P*Land ramp. Laybacks are one of the hardest vertical moves, but he is totally shredding it.

I believe these pictures were taken by one of Nadalin brothers for the Mountaineer, which ran a highly damaging expose on the P*Land Boyz in 1981 or 1982.

Totally Surfed Out Dude!

Ron Cestari cutting one off the lip (Serrano High School, Phelan, Calif., 1979).


Ron, great to hear from you man! Welcome to Alma's Soulfood. Click on "P*Land Blazes" to see more P*Land photos and video.


Peace Man!

Claude Owens

Each year around this time I am reminded of Claude Owens who died in a motorcycle wreck at the top of Sheep Creek Road in Phelan on the day of the All Star Game in 1984. I shouldn't say died---rather, he was killed by a drunk driver. It was a tragic loss the left me stunned for years.

Claude was the big brother of Calvin, one of my best friends growing up in Phelan. He was about four or five years older than us and we really looked up to him. He was big, tough, and intimidating (to me at least), but we also had a lot of fun with hunting, swimming in the aqueduct, wrestling, shooting, and doing all that desert stuff.

Claude was always involved in things that seemed mysterious to me.

He lived in Hawaii with his mom for a long time doing who knows what.

He ran with a biker gang in the desert for a while and got in a big shoot out at the abandoned house down the road from us.

He rolled a water truck at a mine in Boron, or Trona, or some god-forsaken place like that.

He drove a nail right through his hand with a nail gun.

He showed up unexpectedly and saved us the night we saw a ghost at the Snowbird.

I drove Ron, Claude and Calvin's dad, to Claude's funeral. It was at Memorial Lawns or Forest Hills or one of those huge industrial graveyards outside of LA. The funeral was a strange mix of desert folk, stiff in their fancy clothes, and Claude's relatives from Tonga sitting under the trees on woven mats (Claude and Calvin are half Tongan).

Driving home, I tried to avoid the turn where Claude was killed when we arrived in Phelan, but it's almost impossible to do since there is only one road into town. Plus, I was following Calvin and didn't want him to think we veered off the side of the road or something.

As we got to the top of Sheep Creek where Claude died, everyone in the car got silent and I snuck a sideways glance at Ron with me in the front seat. Ron was a pretty tough guy too, but as we rounded the corner where he lost his eldest son, I saw one big tear slowly rolling down his cheek.

To me, it was the biggest tear in the world.

Mega-Super Ramp

Pro skater Bob Burnquist's mega-super ramp in San Diego is 360' long x 75' tall. Skaters on it reach speeds of 55 miles per hour and hit air more than 70' high. Who could compete with that?

P*Land. That's who.

Radness

Two pictures of me from the 1979 Serrano High School skate contest. Please note the toned Chicano physique with that High Desert '70s edge.

Serrano Skate Contest 1979

I've been sick with some kind of flu bug so I haven't felt like blogging or doing much of anything. But here are some totally sick pictures from Serrano High School's first (perhaps only) skate contest back in 1979.

Three cool dudes laying down some cool berts, from top to bottom: Sol Gallegos, Vince Demaio, Tony Elfering.

Among the spectators in the background I recognize Estherly, Tyneka, and in the bottom picture maybe that's Cecelia on the right. Not sure who the guy with the skate and long blond hair is though. Anybody want to make a guess? Bosworth?