TONY ALVA
18 years old Rides for Makaha/Logan Earth Ski
SkateBoarder Magazine June 1976
There are few people in the world of skateboarding who have the balance, the timing, the speed or the versatility of Tony Alva. He is amazingly limber, and will admittedly “go for anything,” which makes him a standout in any crowd. The original Gumby man of skateboarding, Tony uses his body weight to aid speed, traction, flow or direction in all his riding. His body does indeed work constantly, and the use of his knees and ankles in whip or snap turns gives him an extra level of fine tuning that few other riders have yet discovered. At the recent opening of the Carlsbad Skate Park near Carlsbad Raceway, with the madly plunging and pitching motocross bikes in the background, Tony stood out as strangely similar to those racers as he climbed and dropped on the banks and bowls, thrusting his body for extra speed in the turns, or bending at the knees or ankles to stay atop his sometimes horizontal, sometimes vertical board, all the while keeping both feet flatly attached.
Unlike the majority of riders who can be classified as specialists in one field or another (flatland, banks, slalom, etc.), Tony specializes in versatility. On banks and pools, his rubbery reflexes and "I’ll try anything" attitude combine to make him perhaps the best bank rider going. In slalom, his perfected sense of rhythm and timing are apparent as he gyrates his body as rhythmically as a slow-motion belly dancer, snapping around the cones with ankle action, while still drawing as straight a line as possible. And in freestyle, his natural coordination shines through as he effortlessly cranks his body into multiple 360’s or casual nose wheelies on the side of a bank. These are the qualities that put Tony Alva among the top riders in any area he chooses.
During a session at Hawaii’s famed Uluwatu, Tony had the spectators both hypnotized and terrorized. Starting at the far end of the bowl with several powerful pumps, he would fire down the bank, across the bowl, and up the other side toward the spectators who sat lined on the edge of the bowl All the time you’re thinking, "I wonder if this guy’s got it in control," and right when you decide that maybe he doesn’t, and maybe he’s going to lose it, and your adrenalin gets to pumping and your head starts flashing panic cuz the nose of that board is aimed right between your eyes, he pulls off a casual kick turn off the lip, about six inches from your nose, heads back down the bank, maybe throws in a 360 or two on the way down, and rides back across the bowl to do it again. No doubt about it-the guy’s got control.
He is amazingly limber, and will admittedly “go for anything,” which makes him a standout in any crowd. The original Gumby man of skateboarding, Tony uses his body weight to aid speed, traction, flow or direction in all his riding. His body does indeed work constantly, and the use of his knees and ankles in whip or snap turns gives him an extra level of fine tuning that few other riders have yet discovered. At the recent opening of the Carlsbad Skate Park near Carlsbad Raceway, with the madly plunging and pitching motocross bikes in the background, Tony stood out as strangely similar to those racers as he climbed and dropped on the banks and bowls, thrusting his body for extra speed in the turns, or bending at the knees or ankles to stay atop his sometimes horizontal, sometimes vertical board, all the while keeping both feet flatly attached.
Unlike the majority of riders who can be classified as specialists in one field or another (flatland, banks, slalom, etc.), Tony specializes in versatility. On banks and pools, his rubbery reflexes and "I’ll try anything" attitude combine to make him perhaps the best bank rider going. In slalom, his perfected sense of rhythm and timing are apparent as he gyrates his body as rhythmically as a slow-motion belly dancer, snapping around the cones with ankle action, while still drawing as straight a line as possible. And in freestyle, his natural coordination shines through as he effortlessly cranks his body into multiple 360’s or casual nose wheelies on the side of a bank. These are the qualities that put Tony Alva among the top riders in any area he chooses.
