The duo released its own studio EP a few years ago entitled New Definition. Eldridge is also a founding member of internationally acclaimed vocal group, New York Voices. New York Voices just released its first studio album in a decade under its own name entitled Reminiscing in Tempo. He is regularly in demand for workshops and masterclasses both domestically and internationally, in topics ranging from song interpretation to vocal technique to songwriting and arranging and improvisation.
I took his board back in the day—he got a board for Christmas and I traded all of my Christmas presents for his skateboard. What presents did you trade? I got a Tony Hawk mini from him though. I took the cheese off the tail—the big plastic thing—and the nose guard, but left the rails on there and then shredded that board. Your dad used to be in the army and then the police—was he cool with you skating?
Yeah, he was cool. He used to train operatives too, right? Did he ever train you? What, to get a job?! No, he taught me some moves though. He told me that if I was out in the streets in the city, always run from rookie cops because they always put the rookies on the beat. So what did your dad think about you burning around the neighborhood on a dirt bike? Well, I was probably about ten or eleven. I started out on a little 50 and moved up.
We were far enough out of the city that we had a lot of woods around the house. I was a little kid doing jumps and sh-t. So why would the police be chasing you?
Did you ever get caught? Well, no. Because my dad was a cop he knew some of the cops in town, so they would show up at the house, but I would never be there. So at what point did Uptown skates come into the equation? That was probably like when I was fourteen or fifteen. It was different back then—it was around the time that the Sub Zero video came out. I mean, a little after that, but it was all about shredding the whole city, pushing everywhere, skating everything: stairs, ledges, cruising down the sidewalks, and hitting curb cuts and all that sh-t.
Go fast and skate through the city. You never stopped and skated one spot, you just kept going and going. Did you skate with Ricky Oyola back then? Just ripping. How did Stereo occur? I was still in high school, but I would go out to S. Who were you skating with back then? With JR Neves a lot—he was on Stereo too. What is he doing now? I see him once in a while out and about skating.
He lays flooring, tiling, I think. Is that when you first hooked up with the Newell crew? Yeah, one of the first times that I went out to San Francisco I went over to the Newell house because Dustin [Dollin] was living there and he was on Stereo at the time, so I went out and stayed there and met Frank Gerwer and all those dudes. There was so much funny sh-t happening back then. Pastras was out somewhere, I was seventeen and we were sitting there getting wasted like usual and we were leaving because we were being too loud or something and next thing you know, this, that, and the other happens and the front window of the building gets smashed—Frank just went flying through it!
Did you meet Elissa Steamer back then too? Yeah, I knew Elissa back then. Handrails that many struggled to get on, Eldridge annihilated switch his switch down a 16 stair rail on the June cover of Slap Magazine instantly comes to mind.
Eldridge will go down in the skateboarding hall of fame as a game-changer for New Jersey. Lock Down Skateboards' Brian Wenning is nowhere near where he was physically or talent-wise 10 years ago, when his video part in the DC Video knocked the socks off the skate world.
But it would be unfair to ignore how revolutionary of a technical street skater he was at the turn of the century. Salman Agah might be credited with being the Godfather of switch-stance skating, but for his brief stint in the limelight, no one pushed the limits of switch skating like Wenning. Perhaps Traffic Skateboards' Bobby Puleo's absurd views on others skating "his" spots in New York are laughable, but they should not taint the legacy he has created for himself. At the very least, when skating "his" spots, skaters should leave some change in a tin cup for ole Puleo as thanks.
Because without him, they might not have looked at cellar doors and loading docks quite the same way. Primarily regarded as a Philadelphia guy, Ricky Oyola was the de facto face of the '90s East Coast skate scene. Oyola championed big boards and fast wheels while the rest of the world were riding toothpicks and bearing covers.
Make no mistake, Traffic Skateboards owner and ripper Ricky Oyola is a south Jersey native and, like Vallely, one of the baddest dudes to ever step on a board. Oyola was also known as an outspoken and blunt voice in skating, something that is tragically being lost as skateboarding grows in global popularity. Rodney Smith is considered by most the Godfather of East Coast skateboarding.
Shut Skateboards, founded by Smith in , became the pivotal board company that moved the marker away from the surf vibe of California to the urban, street-savvy attitude reflecting the environment and ethos of the East Coast.
Skateboarding is forever indebted to Rodney Smith. Pastras, along with '90s skater turned actor, Jason Lee, founded Stereo Skateboards in , creating one of the most revered and copied skateboard companies of all time.
Stereo's use of jazz imagery, mixed with Pastras' unique artwork and super-8 skate footage made Stereo stand out among the rest. Pastras and Stereo remain a beacon for those who choose the road less traveled. Sayreville, N.
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