ISSA - International Slalom Skateboarding Association

1983 was a great year..Paul Price and I got (legal, J1 visa program!) jobs with Vans for the Summer, working from Memorial day to Labor day in Anaheim.

We made 500 shoes a morning in a production line. We worked the fairgrounds on the Vans stands. We atended a few comps. We snagged gear from GandS and Tracker...we met our heros.

Working in the US that summer widened my own horizons, and I think Pauls...we both ended up travelling the world extensively. I got my first real job abroad on the strength of being the only applicant who had worked abroad.

And if you look VERY carefully in the background of the TSW cover you might even see me.

Since this is Memorial Day weekend, I thought I'd put up some stuff I remember from ancient history.

Before I hit the road this weekend I had looked for something in my stash and inadvertantly came across some interesting stuff. I got it scanned in and uploaded it but saved it for the weekend before posting. For those if you who may never have seen it, this is how the monstrous and all-pervading TRANSWORLD SKATEBOARDING got it's start:



It was put out by some nonsense called the "United Skateboard Front" and listed Larry Balma, Neil Blender and a few others as original investors.

This cover banner only lasted two issues when the HNIC decided something snappier and a little more hip was necessary. So they did this:



Unfortunately, their notion something snappier and a little more hip failed miserably. If I remember correctly this cover design only lasted two or three more issues.

Anyway, what's really remarkable about this fourth issue in the fall of 1983 is TRANSWORLD SKATEBOARDING HAD SLALOM COVERAGE!

I kid you not.

I know. Who's gonna believe it? Just to prove it, though, I scanned in the two-1/2 pages of race coverage from the summer of 1983. Notice some familiar names? My boy Rick Howell was rockin' the house, Jim Korten was sober and blazing and some skinny kid from England named Paul Price was consistently getting 3rd places. Check out the coverage from the September 3rd race: Rick recorded faster times than Korten but lost on cone penalties. The final time had Howell 1/10th slower than JK. There's a few more on there you might recognize:





So, just remember kids: even Transworld Skateboarding has provided serious space and ink to slalom. No matter how snooty and obnoxious they might be today on the subject, they know where their roots are deepest.