The skatepark itself in Downtown, Honolulu was originally called the A‘ala International Skate Rink—that’s what the sign used to say anyway—and it’s been there since 1975; give or take. Big-time badasses from the mainland like Tony Alva used to mix it up at the park in those early days with locals like Milton Taira and even a young rat named Gary Owens. In the park’s infancy, the banks at both ends were not fenced off, and they were mellow. The banks used to be about half the height of what they are presently; their modern-day height and the over-vert aspect of the lip would come years later. Also, dudes would actually prop up pieces of plywood on the tops of the banks and do tricks like handplants and wallrides on them.

That was in the mid-to late-1970s. In the mid-1980s A‘ala Park was still the only skatepark in town, and it was then that I made my first appearance there, as a 16-year-old mongo-pushing kook, basically. I had only been skating for a few months and a couple of homies from school took me down there to see how the locals got busy. In those days there was a red line painted on the banks to mark where the transition went to vertical, and apparently, according to the rules posted on the sign out front, you weren’t supposed to ride above the red line. I just remember rolling around and trying to surf the banks while doing my best to stay out of people’s way. I couldn’t get anywhere near the red line, but there were some serious dudes there who made it look like candy. One of them was this punker/black metal type of dude that played in a band, and he was just fucking ripping everything. I think his name was Mike Silva, or it could have been Raymond Bala. Anyway, this dude was doing stuff like backside ollies off the lip and handplants where he was getting upside down with his hand right on the lip. Me and my buddies were blown away by this kind of skating because at that point we couldn’t even ollie or do much of anything. I was scared to even talk to anyone until one of those guys came up to me and said that my friend Dave looked just like James Hetfield from Metallica.

After that, we felt way more comfortable every time we went down there, and got to see more of the locals putting in work. Eugene Yambau was always there, crushing huge ollies off of the lip and then grabbing method and tweaking the fuck out of it. Eugene would always have on white pants or surf shorts and rocked white woven slip-on shoes. We never figured out how he killed it so hard in those things. Also, Eugene was sponsored by Alva back then, and at that time it was a pretty big deal for a local guy to be hooked up like that. In those days, even being sponsored by a shop was a huge deal, and here was this local braddah down at A‘ala Park riding for a heavy-hitting team like Alva. A young Kai Maioho was frequently seen doing stunts like saran wraps off the lip, and his buddy William Hightower, a.k.a. Chili (R.I.P.) was blasting backside ollies off of the lip and floating about two fence sections wide. There was so much crazy shit done there on a daily basis back then, it was mind-boggling.

Kai Maioho BS ollie off theovert-vert transition, back in the day

By about 1990, I had been hitting up the park regularly and started getting to know the little crew of Kai Maioho, Robert Jojo and Shane Rodrigues pretty well. These three were pretty much running shit down at the park then. Street skating was getting heavily influenced by companies like H-Street and World Industries, and a lot of kids down at the park were emulating the various styles of ripping of pro skaters such as Matt Hensley and Jeremy Klein. There were plenty of good skaters at A‘ala back then, but Shane, Kai and Jojo really stood out. They got sponsored pretty easily and they were always pulling the newest and most difficult shit out of their asses. Also, around this time, a lot of skaters from other parts of the island began to make the trek into Downtown more frequently. Many of the Hickam Hangar locals came down. A lot of them were from Salt Lake, Pearl City or Mililani. This is where I would run into guys like Rob Carlyon, Rene Matthyssen, Joe Hoff, Kenny Brimer, Chane Wilson, Ryan Toyama and Neal Nagata for the first time.

Rene Matthyssen was a serious shredder that basically owned the Hickam Hangar. Basically, he couldn’t be fucked with in those days. Not only was he sponsored locally, he was on New Deal, which at the time was one of the dopest companies in skateboarding. It was gnarly watching Rene at the park, he was not only tech, but crazy consistent. In fact, at one point in his video part in the New Deal video 1281, Rene does a 12-trick line at the park. Rene’s New Deal teammate and fellow Salt Lake homie Rob Carlyon was another local dude that brought A‘ala Park worldwide exposure. Both of these guys had a bunch of A‘ala Park coverage in magazines and videos throughout the early-to mid-1990s, and it made everyone who skated there on a daily basis extremely psyched to see their home spot getting global recognition. Also, rippers like Bo Ikeda and Robbie Gaskell from Hawaii Kai got some prime footage at the park in a couple of the early Acme videos and helped to make A‘ala even more recognizable to the skaters of the world.

The Boss loves cash, caviar and champagne

At this time, there was a crazy experiment that the City and County of Honolulu decided to try at A‘ala Park called Tent City. No, nothing like that Anti-Hero skate video, this was something where the mayor thought it would be a good idea to erect a temporary tent village for the homeless at A‘ala Park, right next to the skatepark. I mean this shit was wild. All the gnarliest street people and the dirtiest scumbags in town, all under one roof. Remember Freedom Town in the movie Scarface? Where Tony shanked Rebenga? It was like that, basically. Shit was going down on the daily. Huge brawls, beatings, stabbings, shootings, assaults, you name it. A lot of parents wouldn’t let their kids come anywhere near A‘ala Park, and many people wondered why anyone would want to skate down there, let alone set foot in the area in the first place. The city finally realized the error of their ways and shut down the entire fiasco in 1993, but as insane as the whole idea was, it spawned and nurtured many famous A‘ala Park supporting characters such as Urkel, King Hayes and The Champ. These and countless other colorful personalities provided hours upon hours of entertainment with their antics and stories, and one could always count on some type of fascinating ruckus or dust-up to serve as an intermission to the raw and grimy skating that was taking place down there.

Jon Omine, Jerald Anzai, Paul Higa & Rob Carlyon

By around 1993-94 the scene at A‘ala Park was really strong. Tons of people came through and the posse got pretty big. It was at this point where I believe the official title for the crew, APB, was born. A‘ala Park Bastards. That was the clique! We were rolling pretty deep. All the older dudes plus youngsters like Aree Lamont, Jerald Anzai, Peter Nascimento, Paul Higa, Jon Omine, and even the best girl skater anyone had ever seen at that point, Jaime Reyes. Yep. Jaime was no doubt the princess of the park. In fact, her skills at the park got her noticed at a contest/demo that some of the Real and Stereo guys were in town for. That demo was amazing. Jason Lee, Paulo Diaz, Edward Devera, Julien Stranger, Jim Thiebuad and Tommy Guerrero were on hand for some demo shredding and also to help judge the contest. They were very impressed by the likes of Kai and Shane, and especially Jaime. The three of them immediately got put on the flow program with Real, and from there Jaime took it to the next level. Jaime really started to blow up when she got the cover of Thrasher. First of all, chicks never got photos in magazines, and if and when they did, they were always riding vert ramps or bowls. Jaime was skating A‘ala Park and doing a 360 flip to fakie on the bank. I remember beaming super hard with pride when that mag came out. Not only was A‘ala Park on the cover of one of the biggest skate mags in the world, it was our homegirl that was pictured getting busy! Jaime went on to blaze trails for girl skaters all over the world, and along with Elissa Steamer she helped usher in a whole new era for female skateboarders.

In the mid-to late-1990s, there was a lot of filming going on at A‘ala Park, and pretty much every local skate video that was put out at the time had a grip of A‘ala footage in it. Mililani local Darin Lee produced the sleeper hit Portfolio in 1997—which is still my favorite local video to date—and it featured a lot of A‘ala Park. Also, Chad Hiyakumoto from the APB crew was getting pretty comfortable with a camera and and eventually released the first APB video, Midnight Mauriders in 1999, and it showcased A‘ala Park quite prominently. The joint was jumping in those days. Chad would show up in his truck and bring a ledge box and a flatbar. It was like our own little training facility. We were there day and night. Then at around the turn of the millennium, the City and County decided to completely reconstruct A‘ala Park.

The APB Clique mid-to late-"90s

Neal Nagata FS air at twilight

Flash forward to now, 2009. The new version of the park has been open for seven years, and it’s still going pretty strong. Many of the top dogs in the O‘ahu skateboard community call A‘ala Park home, but it seems that everybody’s favorite at the moment is Danny Hamaguchi. Hands down this guy is straight up running shit at A‘ala Park right now. It’s a pretty crazy scene these days. A lot of kids still come down there and skate everyday, but at the same time a lot of people come down there to take up space and don’t do jack shit. I’m talking like serious lurkage. There have always been lurkers that didn’t even have skateboards down at the park, but nowadays this phenomenon has reached epic proportions, and it’s definitely something that needs to be addressed, because it’s fucking wack. They should either shit or get off the pot, there is no room for these types of donkeys at the park. It’s not an after-school clubhouse, it’s a fucking skateboard park. Oh yeah, that’s right! It’s a SKATEBOARD PARK in case you didn’t know. It’s not for BMX bikes, not for rollerbladers, and it’s definitely not for roller-derby wenches. It’s for skateboards. Look at the goddamned sign out front in case you’re confused.

So what does tomorrow hold for A‘ala Park? More of the same, probably. It’s always going to be the epicenter of skateboarding in Downtown, Honolulu; that’s not likely to change anytime in the near future. As much as I wish I could stay away from the area as I get older, I find it hard to be really comfortable anywhere else. Shit, even the guys that have been camped out down there bargain-hunting for stolen cases of Spam all these years aren’t going anywhere, not in this economy anyway. It may sound cheesy as fuck, but as far as A‘ala Park goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same, and that seems to suit pretty much everyone down there just fine.


アアラパーク
アアラパークはハワイのスケートの中心地。ハワイのベストスケーターたちが滑りに来る所だ。昔からThrasher Magazineのカバー撮影が行われたり、他の雑誌にもとりあげられたりした。また、プロスケーターのトニー・アルバやジェフ・ハートセルなどが実際に訪れた場所でもある。ハワイを出て活躍するプロスケーターたちは、このパークで練習を重ねている。昔はローラースケート場だった場所が、今ではハイレベルなスケートボードのパフォーマンスが行われる場所となっている。