I lived in Haddon Township, then Wilmington, before my family settled in CT in 1977. I got a purple banzai from a shop in Collingswood, a Sims 27” oak kick and then a 30 taperkick from Peddlers in Haddonfield, a 36” Taperkick from Van Carlucci at Webers Wave, Jamie Godfrey gave me a thrashed Ray Bones, and then I bought a Chris Strople Caster 33x11 from T&C in Philly.

I rode Ocean City, NJ [Wonder Wave] as my first, then Weber’s Wave, Somers Point, Vineland, LBI, Ocean City Maryland, Rehoboth, Wilmington, and I’m sure there are other parks I can’t remember due to extensive hops and barley research. I traveled via train or plane from CT to NJ about twice a month when school was on and then for extended periods during the summer and holidays. I skated Cherry Hill on every one of these trips. I skated it hot and skated it cold. I remember skating so hard that I couldn’t breathe and my head would spin, but then my turn would come and boom, you’d have to roll in regardless.

I’ve got two stories from Cherry Hill:

As previously mentioned, living in CT my time at Cherry Hill was precious. I had a warm up ritual. First I’d cruise some figure eights in the slalom bowl. Then, over to the deep end of the freestyle bowl for some frontside grinds, some backside grinds, rock n rolls, blah blah blah. And finally over to one of the pools where I’d cruise up to the tile, do some kickturns, try a trick, bail, repeat. This one day I go in and this little Asian guy will not get out of the freestyle bowl and I’ve got my ritual, right? I waited about 5 minutes and dropped in on him. He cursed me out and split. One of the kids I knew that was skating nearby came over and said. Do you know who that is? Duh, no. Shugo Kubo. Wow. Thank God for the Z-Boys movie because now I can tell that story to the little children that gather around me and ask how long I’ve been old school.

Another time over at the slalom bowl, Stacey shows up to warm up just like I am. He signs my board and flows me a sticker and allows me the right of way. Then Stacey drops in and does a couple slow laps around my line. We are both standing on top of that mound again and I asked Stacey if I can follow him in (we used to skate 2-3 guys at a time in a train). Stacey says sure and takes off like a shot. I caught up to him on the first lap, lost him on the second, and by the third he had lapped me.

There is some hidden footage on the Dogtown dvd of Stacey and the film makers at Kenter. My wife watched it and laughed saying Stacey skates just like me. I just smiled and told her I’ve spent the past 25 years trying to skate just like Stacey.

Joe Iacovelli

Editors Note: "Wonder Wave" and "Webers Wave' were also my first parks. If anyone have Photo's or Video of these two parks please contact me.

Thanks
Brian