VISION STREET WEAR FAGS by Geoff Koboldt
It was my freshman year of high school in 1989 in St. Charles, Michigan; a quiet village outside of Saginaw – 1.5 hours north of Detroit. During this first month, I slowly learned that anything out of the norm of mullets, leather jackets and being a jock would be challenged.
While our freshman class was tight as friends, my smaller inner circle consisted of freestyle bike riders, such as myself and skateboarders. We all were quite rebels and very anti-establishment. One thing we had in common was wearing clothes by Vision Street Wear. I had been riding freestyle bikes since I was in 5th grade and competing since 7th grade, so I was a big fan of the clothes, as well as my jean jacket adored with hundreds of pins and a Stormtroopers of Death back-patch.
In fact, it was this jacket that led my middle school principal to contact my parents because they thought I was worshipping the devil. My dad being a rocker hippie dude said, “Yeah, he is – big deal. He gets all A grades.” During this time, I was also a straight-edge punk rocker slash break dancer slash metal fan. In fact, I can still remember my speech about anarchy to the class, which terrified my teacher who later would tell me I would never amount to anything in life. If he only knew now!
Anyhow, one day we were on break standing in the hallway and this kid Jason, a senior walks by with his girlfriend and looks at us and says, “Vision Street Wear fags.” Without blinking, my buddy John, and fellow freestyle bike rider grabs this guy and just slams him into the lockers across the hall. Everyone’s faces and jaws just drop but they laugh! It takes Jason a few seconds to gather his composure and he says, “I’ll see you after school.” We all thought – oh no, John’s dead. I’m dead. We’re all dead.
Later that day after school, I unfortunately had to take the bus home to get on my bike to ride back to John’s house 7 miles away where the fight would take place. By the time I got home and called - the fight was over. Not that I really could have helped, I was less than 100 lbs and smaller than 5’ but I wanted to be there to make a stand. From what I can recall from those that were there, the fight basically went like this: Jason and John stand face to face, throwing a few jabs back and forth before Jason lands a punch in John’s eye.
The problem is that Jason is wearing a class ring, which we all know adds a great deal of pain to the mix. John shook it off but can’t see that well but continues to use the psychological power over Jason by not backing down and continuing to fight. This causes Jason to realize – John is going to whip his butt and the only advantage he has right now is still wearing this class ring. The crowd starts saying, “Take off your ring.” The fight continues a little bit longer but Jason eventually surrenders and says, “I don’t want to fight anymore or something to that affect.” The result was that Jason never messed with any of us ever again. Unfortunately, there were others that continued their ignorance and picked on us that year but it never really affected us ever again to the level it had.
I can’t imagine how much more I would have dreaded my freshman year of high school if John hadn’t done what he did that day for us. When I say us, I mean you and me reading this. You see… In my high school of 400 students, only about 7 of us were bikers/skaters…so we were definitely outcasts. We didn’t have skateparks to go hang out at…like you do now. We didn’t have big sponsors and tv shows…like you have now. We didn’t have parents who supported us…like you do now.
You see – there were people all over the country like John who went against the grain per se and collectively sprouted the foundation of action sports that you have today. We just rode our bikes because we loved it. We rode our skateboards because we loved it. It was raw. It was rad. It was passionate. It had nothing to do with being cool or fitting in. It’s funny now to think that skateboarding over the past 10 years has grown to become the fastest growing sport with over 12 million participants in the US, 18 million globally. I hate to think about what group is out there right now taking a punch with a class ring.
Whoever they are, they are going to make a huge difference in the world someday so stand with them. Later in life after high school, we all had drinks with Jason at the bar and we all laughed it off. High school is stupid! Even in college, those other “turkeys” or “goof balls” (names they use to call us) who had picked on us wanted to get into our parties, so we let them…but they had to wait at the end of the line. Forgiveness is an amazing quality. Anyhow, the point of my story is the lessons I learned from John sticking up for us that day.
First and foremost, I learned what it meant to be a loyal friend; a genuine friend. John and I are still great friends to this day and I have always trusted that he has my back as I have his. Next I learned what it meant to be different and stand for something – even if it’s going to be a little painful. This makes me think about the road our company BambooSK8 is going down today and the challenges we face in getting the industry to really be sustainable and skate bamboo instead of maple.
It’s going to happen and 20 years from now I will have another great story. It’s amazing how life comes around full circle and here I am still being a rebel. I forgot to mention, later in high school I had created a group called the National Rebel Society (NRS) whose members might have been kicked out once or twice but all of which who are now model citizens. Oh, and I still ride an orange 20” freestyle bike and still listen to Stormtroopers of Death but no longer worship the devil! Thank you St. Charles, Michigan! Now give me your damn lunch money! Just kidding!
Geoff Koboldt
A Kick Flip, Cherry Picker, and Murder by Ron Stebenne
None of us really know what’s down the road for us. We can certainly look back however. Since I was asked to do just that, here’s a bit of a ‘look-back’ at a small piece of action sports from the 80’s you won’t hear about from many.
I remember, I was not too happy with Don Hoffman of Unreal Productions, the video company with Vision Streetwear. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a friend but his timing was not too convenient. His company had done a segment for a TV show that I was part of. He needed me to do some voiceover for the piece. He was on deadline so scheduled the studio for late that night – the night just before I was to go to Paris and was leaving at 4 AM! This meant a drive from Oceanside to LA, then back home with a couple hours of sleep to get charged up for a week in France doing a tour with my Mountain Dew Freestyle Bike Team.
The flight was pretty full with many action sports guys like Chris Miller, Rob Roskoff, Mark ‘Gator’ Rogowski, Tony Hawk, Mark Gonzales, the Vans skate and bike teams, RL Osborne, Pierre Andre’ Senizerques, my Mountain Dew Team, and some others. Media folks from the skate and bike mags were also along to document the trip. I thought I might be able to sleep on the trip but this was a party group. Some of the skaters helped themselves to the booze in the galley and got plastered. They upset one French guy so much, the flight attendants had to separate him and the party boys by giving the French guy a free seat in first class.
We were guests of a French magazine, BiCross, and French jeans company. They must have had bucks because they put us all up in a 5- Star hotel in downtown Paris. We had our own tour bus, had helicopter rides over Paris, boat rides on the Saine River, and lots of great food. We were treated to a 5 course meal at an old castle turned into a restaurant. Fine China, flatware, crystal, and huge art masterpieces made this an elegant setting, a perfect setting for some of our group to start a food fight. MacDonald’s might have been a better choice.
Our event was in Bercy at a large event center. The French TV was there and lots of fans of our American action sports heroes. The show was fun and everyone had a great time. After the event, we were treated to a night at the historic and fabulous Moulin Rouge for dinner and a show. The Champaign was a real hit with Gonzales (me too). He got plastered and was taunting a ventriloquist act on stage so was promptly invited up on stage to ‘assist’. This guy was good and managed to make a fun time with Gonzales in such a way as to be in control of what could have gotten out of control.
I don’t know what got into me. I am not usually the gallant one in the crowd but Gator pissed me off. He had been a really arrogant smart ass the whole trip and was getting on my nerves. He wanted to have a ‘new lady friend’ join him in the back of the tour bus. Our sweet 90 lb French guide said “no, no, monsieur!” Gator did not want to hear the word ‘NO’ in French or any language. HE was NOT going to be told NO by anyone. So…what could I do? I stepped in between Gator and the guide and got into his face. He did not like that at all. He told me to go forth and procreate. Nose to nose, more words were exchanged until someone from Vision Steatwear separated us. Little did I know how time would change this situation for both Gator and I.
The next time I would see Gator would be at a skate event in LA some months later. I was talking to the Vision marketing manager, Brad, when Gator sat next to me on the other side. He looked at me and said, “Don’t I know you?” I said “Yes – I am the one you almost fought in Paris by the tour bus.” You told me to go ‘F’ myself. He got quiet then moved off. I don’t think he wanted his boss to hear the rest of the story. I had no clue that the next time I would see Gator would be at Donovan State Prison.
Putting action sports on the back burner, I turned to youth ministry to pay the bills and do something meaningful. Through ministry, I met the founders of a non-profit called From the Inside Out. They took kids to visit prisons to hear firsthand from the inmates why people get locked up. It is kind of a mild ‘Scared Straight’ type program. Hopefully, kids will not fall into the same pits that got the inmates in prison.
As a youth minister, I thought it would be cool to take my youth group. It was during this first visit that I once again met Gator. I had known about his conviction for murder, but did not know I would see him ever again. After his excellent talk and words of warning and advice to the kids, I went up to him. This time, he remembered me. He hugged me with tears in his eyes. We both knew a lot of time and many events had changed each of our lives. He was sorry for all the things he had done and said to me. He asked for forgiveness. I could feel this young man was now broken as so many others lives are now broken by his act.
Since that day, I had seen him about 2 other times. He has written articles for my youth newsletters he wants me to share with other skater kids. I am still able to be in touch with him. Perhaps you’ll see his words of warning and wisdom here in the future. I know his attitude has changed about me. So has mine about him.
Ron Stebenne
Bamboo Sk8 News