 Standing in the Cow Palace...the Northern California Skateboard Championships are feverishly taking place. Thunderous applause shatters through the arena...down on the floor...in the spotlight...an orange spinning blur of merged arms, legs and skateboard calmly executes the definitive one-footed nose 360...10-11-12-13, the announcer counts out. Stunned observers inquire about the name of the spinning wonder...Oh, that's Paul Hoffman. Later Hoffman places first in teh amateur division, and collects a trophy bigger than he is. Hoffman has arrived, but how did he get here? The origins lay one year and a half ago somewhere in West L.A., where Paul was busily crafting all balsa, freeflight gliders with 9' wingspans. Around then, he purchased a homemade 21" wood skate, with Sure Grip 99-P clay composition wheels from Stuart Mintskoff for the price of $7.00 There was a lot of setup time in between the gluing of the glider parts, and Hoffman explains that he needed something to do to pass the time, so "I either rode my bicycle or skateboard. Since my bike was usually broken, I ended up skating most of the time. Eventually I skated so much I didn't have time to build any more models. |
