Steve
Douglas
Steve Douglas (born 1967) is a retired professional skateboarder,
company owner and industry mogul from London, England, now living in
California, USA.
Born in North London, Douglas began skating aged 10 at various
skateparks in the city such as Uxbridge, Skate City, Rolling Thunder
skate park, Crystal Palace vert ramp and Harrow Skate Park, which he
skated from opening day, alongside such luminaries as Rodga Harvey,
John Sablosky, Jeremy Henderson and, later, the infamous H-Boyz of
which he was one of the original 7 founding members.
From
early on Douglas showed a talent for lip-tricks and would go on to
invent some of his own, like the fakie to layback tail-slide,
frontside hurricane, and several Caballerial-based variations.
At the insistence of skate-photographer Tim Leighton-Boyce, he
began entering English Skateboard Association contests in 1981 and
won every under-16 event he entered. This success attracted the
attention of American sponsors such as Madrid Skateboards,[3] Vans
Shoes and Independent Trucks (and later Quiksilver Surfwear). At the
end of 1984 the ESA managed to convince their US counterparts, the
NSA, to label their contest series as a "world championship", thus
enabling the ESA to obtain government grants to send a GB team to
take part, a team that was to include Douglas, Lucian Hendrix, Sean
Goff and Rodga Harvey.[4] It was the first of many transatlantic
excursions for Douglas that by the decade's end, lead him to become
a permanent resident of California-in those days the only way to
make a living riding a skateboard.
Throughout the early 1980s
Douglas wrote and published a skate fanzine called Go For It! (named
after a Stiff Little Fingers record), covering the UK skate scene,
in the absence of any more official periodicals, over 16 issues-the
last three in glossy, printed form although the penultimate issue
was entitled the "Swindle Issue" as only the cover was glossy;
inside saw a return to the rough, photocopied pages of old. Come
1986 and, following the release of a Go For It! calendar, Douglas's
overseas work commitments had to take precedence and GFI ceased
publication, its subject matter now being covered by Tim
Leighton-Boyce's R.A.D., and later Shane Rouse's Skate Action and
Steve Kane's revived 1970s tome Skateboard.
Douglas had by
now changed board sponsor to Schmitt Stix, turning pro in 1987 and
later releasing a signature model deck, the graphics of which paid
tribute to his heritage in the form of a spoofed beer bottle label,
proudly stating, "Imported from Crystal Palace, London, England".
In 1988 a "lip tricks only" competition was arranged at the
legendary "Boomeramp" at the Raging Waters park in San Jose, CA. No
aerial manoeuvres were permitted unless culminating in some contact
with the ramp's lip-e.g. a tail slap, grind, board slide or
disaster. Some competitors protested this restrictiveness, such as
Dan Wilkes who only did aerials and sub-coping slides, avoiding the
lip altogether. However, the vast majority of entrants
enthusiastically embraced the premise, relieved that the usually
overlooked aspect of vert skating was being validated at last. Along
with skaters like Tom Groholski, Douglas was frequently cited as
responsible for the surge in interest in lip tricks and was expected
to triumph, but in the end first place was snatched by rookie Ben
Schroeder. Douglas ended in 4th place, but was later quoted as
enthusiastic about the contest and cited it as a highlight of his
limited pro contest career.
One more signature model was
released by Schmitt Stix before Douglas, sensing a sea-change
looming for the skateboard industry, convinced Paul Schmitt to
dissolve Schmitt Stix and relaunch with a new team, new product line
and renewed focus under a new name, New Deal Skateboards. Paul
Schmitt was a master woodworker and made among the best skateboards
in the world, but in the skateboarding world of the day, marketing
and image were taking hold of the industry, and Douglas had the
foresight to see the change coming. New Deal went on to become one
of the most important skateboard brands of the early 1990s.
This name Douglas also used to co-found a skateshop back in London,
originally in a retail unit in Harrow and Wealdstone shopping mall,
but later relocated down the road in Douglas's old stomping ground
of Harrow Solid Surf Skatepark,[1] later expanding into distribution
too.
Along with Tony Magnusson's H-Street and Steve Rocco's
World Industries, New Deal was one of the first of the new breed of
companies that fully tapped into the emerging street-skating
revolution that would eventually depose the "vert-heroes" of
Douglas' own generation in favour of upcoming whippersnappers such
as Ed Templeton,the undoubted star of New Deal's first promo video,
1990's Useless Wooden Toys.
At the start of the 1990s, with
New Deal's success on the rise, Douglas helped found Giant
Skateboard Distribution, and by 1996 had risen to the position of
company president. Over the next six years the company grew by 700%,
until Douglas stepped down in favour of his old friend Hugh "Bod"
Boyle who had joined the company in 1999. Like Douglas, Bod was an
ex-pat Brit whose pro-skating career had begun in 1987 and curtailed
in the early 1990s by a debilitating knee injury. Douglas was now
free to spend more time with his growing family and to pursue his
many other business concerns.
In 1992 New Deal's graphic designer, respected team-rider, and
innovator of both the nollie kickflip and the ollie noseblunt, Andy
Howell decided to branch out on his own, and so Douglas assisted him
in setting up Underworld Element, later shortened to just Element
Skateboards, which still thrives today.
In 1988 Douglas's teammate (first at Madrid, then at Schmitt Stix)
John Lucero had flown the coup to start up on his own, initially as
Lucero Skateboards, later renamed Black Label Skateboards. After
some early success, growth stalled, morale withered, and by the
mid-1990s, Black Label Skateboards was still being run, to all
intents and purposes, from a lock-up garage. Under the combined
guidance and motivation of both Douglas and Mike Vallely, Black
Label Skateboards became and remains one of the giants of the skate
industry.
Douglas also co-founded both 411 video magazine
411VM and later the On Video series, both crucial to skateboarding's
development through the 1990s and the new millennium. He also
founded a new truck company, Destructo Trucks, in the late 1990s
with the usual success, and took over production of Bam Margera's
notorious CKY video series way before Bam's TV fame came calling.
In 2004 Douglas accepted an offer from Burton Snowboards to be
general manager at their clothing subsidiary, Analog. A year later
Douglas was reunited with his old friend 'Bod' Boyle when they both
came to work at Giant's rival Dwindle Distribution, Boyle as
president and Douglas in an advisory position.
Aside from the business side of skateboarding, Douglas is also a
committee member of both the IASC and USA Skateboarding, the
National Governing Body of American skateboarding.
Any contributions to this item will be
gratefully accepted
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