Monday, August 2, 2010

..lee ralph..

when i was 14 i went
to a skate camp and
lee ralph was an instructor.
i think most of the campers thought
lee was going to eat them.
full beard and known to skate
bare foot or in boots lee did
not fit the cookie cutter image
of the 80's vert skater.
he is a hilarious human that
lives to skate.



17 comments:

Wrecked Metals said...

One of my favorites! Look at the back foot on that smith grind. GNARLY.

shiftace said...

it seems like that back then alot of vert skaters (well besides the bones brigade dudes) were just animals. lee ralph, grosso, duane peters, jeff phillips, JJ, Salba. every ad and video part those dudes just fucking dripped mean vibes. now everyone is all fashion models and lingering man hugs.

Matt Wes said...

aggression.

Mark Harris said...

This ad scares me today as much as it did when I was a kid. BEAST.

Miss Tayva said...

Weird, I was JUST thinking about him... and how fucking gnarly he is.

Skating aside, he scared the shit out of me when I first met him. He was shirtless, shoeless and had a MACHETE.

max schaaf said...

first time i saw him was in
91. munster germany... he had just pissed in his beer, then drank
it then smashed the mug on his head.... no jackass film crew.
pure insanity.

Miss Tayva said...

Scariness aside, he is a super nice guy.

Dan said...

lucky enough to give him a ride to jim's ramp from my house in s.f. once- had all of us shitting ourselves with laughter, unreal. you were at the ramp that day too max.

ezPz said...

¡gnar gnar!

Icky said...

Besides gnar-carving coping block, these days he also carves a mean Maori mask out of wood. I have a cool one on my mantle signed from him. Badass.

lifeisfuct-diekruzen HEAVY KLOTHING said...

love it!

Shrewgy said...

Lee is one of the spiritual advisors here at ACE TRUCKS.

max schaaf said...

...that's good.
i'm pretty stoked that a post
about lee ralph gets over ten
comments.

Unknown said...

This had to be the skate camp in San luis Obispo at Cal Poly? I grew up in San Luis Obispo and skated to that camp everyday that summer. remember meeting this dude and Jesse Martinez at the camp, and being so intimidated. But they were so nice and helpful. It was mindblowing.

So'full Garage said...

Love Lee Ralph!
About 10 years ago we had a Ramp & Camp Jam and we had put "Special Guest: Lee Ralph" on the flier, hahaha, of course it was a joke, just to see who would know who he was...and people dug it and got the reference...

One of the gnarliest for sure!

crow eater said...

met him at a globe 900 degrees party 10 years or so ago. i was so stoked. fucking legend.


http://chromeballincident.blogspot.com/search/label/lee%20ralph

pool shots are from the cappo scum pool in adelaide, south oz

Mr. Lentini said...

lee ralph is a fucking ruler