If you know who Pat Brennen is, you’ll know that he actually died about ten years ago around 1995 or so. So why is this news? Isn’t news supposed to be “new”? Well, it’s news because it’s news to me. That is, I just found out about this yesterday. I read it at http://www.skateboardrumors.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=1976 and then confirmed it by emailing a friend of mine who knew Pat personally.
I didn’t know Pat well at all, but I figured in light of this recent (to me) discovery, I’d write a little about what I remember about him and my interactions with him.
I first heard about Pat Brennen from Guy Hartley. Guy and I went to high school together and by our senior year we were the only skaters in the school, so we hung out a bit. We lived in Arcadia and Pat lived in Pasadena which is just next door.
I think the first time I met Pat was at First Avenue Junior High when we were skating some benches there. This is around ‘91-’92 I think. He came by and was doing fakie ollie fakie nosegrinds, chink-chink grinds, or whatever they’re called. It blew us away at the time, because while everyone was doing them on curbs I had never seen someone do it on a bench except in the New Deal video or something.
Pat was a big guy and very white. Kind of gray, actually. He looked like he needed more sun. He seemed pretty quiet and wasn’t the life of the party or anything, as far as I could tell. He just skated, and he skated pretty well. To this day I think if he was still around he could be one of the best tech skaters around. After Rodney Mullen he was the first person I ever saw do a 360 heelflip.
When I was in high school I had a four foot mini ramp in my backyard. One day Pat came over with some other guys to skate it. He was doing frontside noseblunts and a bunch of tech tricks on it that I had only seen in videos and magazines. As I was doing a backside ollie my board zinged and I fell backwards and my right arm whiplashed the ramp and snapped right where I had broken it a year earlier. It was totally bent. I went inside to get my dad to take me to the hospital and everyone else went out front, and they were planning on saying bye to me as I left.
The thing is, my dad had just spent a few weeks sanding down our old wood floor in the house and about 15 minutes before I broke my arm he had started putting finish on it. If you know anything about applying finish to something, you’ll know that once you start you can’t stop because when you restart you’ll have a line wherever you stopped and it dried.
So as I’m holding my broken arm, my dad say “Well, you’ll just have to wait because I’ve got to finish this or there will be a line.” Now you might think this was hopelessly cruel, but this was the third broken arm I had, and this was the least serious. I once had a compound fracture where I shattered both bones in my left arm and one came through the skin. Even with that one they didn’t take me into surgery for about six hours, so my dad knew I could wait an hour before he took me in with this one.
It wasn’t a big deal to me, but I didn’t realize Pat and everyone else were waiting in front of the house. They waited for about 45 minutes, and then they finally gave up and left.
About a year later I saw Pat at Park’s skateshop in Pasadena and I said “Hey, remember me, you were at my house when I broke my arm.” He looked at me and said “Oh yeah, and your parents are part of some religion where you don’t believe in going to the hospital, right?”
I was just like “What?” That’s when I found out that they had waited for me to go to the hospital but since my dad was varnishing the floor and took an hour before we left Pat and everyone else had figured I was part of some weird religion that didn’t believe in medical treatment. He actually thought I never went to the hospital or something. I clarified that no, it wasn’t anything like that, my dad just had to finish varnishing our floor. He still looked at my strangely. I’m not sure I convinced him my parents were any less weird than he thought before.
I think that was the last time I saw Pat. During all that time he was on Powell, but he went to skate for Lance Mountain and the Firm when Lance started that, and he had a brief part in the first video. After that I thought someone told me that Pat had sort of quit skateboarding, was smoking weed, and tricking out his Toyota or Honda or something. I have no idea if that’s true at all, but hearing now that he died in a street racing accident, apparently of head injuries, it seems like it might fit.
I can’t say much about the guy on a personal level. He seemed cool, but I probably never traded more than 20 words with him. I definitely never heard anything about him being a jerk to anyone.
As for his skating, it was amazing. The guy could rip on tech street stuff, rails, ramps–everything. He had some true natural talent and could have gone far. I wonder how many other stories are out there about skaters who could have been where Koston is today but for one reason or another just didn’t make it.
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His part in Powell Video 8 was the first part I really got into
I did list him on your “most wanted comeback” thread as a comeback from the ashes, with Keenan on #1and you did reply with your youthfull magic moments with Pat.
But yeah i too just found that out a couple o’ years back on a TWS mag with section called Missed.
Pat was a cool guy, I used to skate glendale high all the time and met him there. That guy really tried to hook me up with powell at the time but he quit because of Todd Hastings is what he told me.
Amazing talent, he was doing long switch crooks at glendale high in 91!!!!!
Interesting read. I know Guy Hartley too =). Pat was probably my best friend at the time your story happened. If you didn’t know Pat personally, he would come off as a bit intimidating. He’s missed dearly in our friend circle. Pat got into weight lifting once his sk8 life began to die off. He was pretty cut up too. His tradegy happened at about 4am on Feb.1 1997…two days before my birthday in fact. Ah yea, Glendale high brings back some memories. Being that I know the Brennen’s, I’m in the process of making “A tribute to Pat” dvd which will contain all of his ameteur and pro skate life, some home video footy, and photos…
I forgot to mention that Pat’s last name is correctly spelled BRENNEN. What’s funny is everyone misspelled his last name in the skate media, usually how it was spelled in the title of this article… =)
i was a very close friend of pat we were always around pat katman erick,derrick and i lamar we stayed at his house and were like family i really miss him
lamar
I first met Pat when he first started skating. He lived near my friend, Bryant (near Cal Tech in Pasadena). He was three years younger than us and use to tag-a-long on our skate sessions at cal tech (1985?). A short time later, he was pulling off ollies over park benches. He was amazing then and just got better while we slowly improved. I remember we used to go to his house and skate his quarter pipe that he built. I went to high school with Pat (Pasadena High) and that was about the time when skaters started hitting handrails(1987). PHS was full of skate terrain.
I lost track of Pat when I graduated in ‘89 but I had heard that Pat went pro. By that time I was out of the skate scene. I had heard though friends that Pat died in a car accident on New York Dr. in Pasadena (I lost two friends to that same strech of road).
I just recently got back into skating (old school boards) because of my kids. I was checking out Powell’s website and saw that Pat was in the famed “Bones Brigade” (something I always wanted to be since I was a kid). I was proud to see his name there. I did a Google search found Pat’s videos and this site.
The videos that Katman posted on google were very good. It great to see how good he got and it was very cool to see all the old skate spots (PHS, Cal Tech, and PCC). Thanks for posting the videos katman. Let me know about the DVD. I would be interested in buying one.
ALL HAIL THE SKATEBOARD KING OF PASADENA !!!
ten years too long,i sure do miss you big homie! R.I.P.
hey to all,
i’m writing a one page history article for tws on pat and have talked to lance mountain and keith gruber about it. wanted to clear up a couple more facts just to get all this accurate. can somebody tell me how old pat was when he passed away? anybody know exactly why he got bored with skating? any other tidbits would be a huge help. i was a big fan back in the day. especially the celebrity tropical fish part. thanks, -m
hey mackenzie in response to info on pat,hit me up my cell no. is 360 610 9814 home 360 4245452- jaime diaz ps do you know seu? ronnie bertino has some info,too.
pat was 23 years old when he passed.born march 8,1973,died feburary 1 ,1997.he was never bored w/ skating ,he was just not feeling the industry side.he was a leader not a follower.he didnt take !@$# from know one,and was never afraid to speak his mind.a proper article on pat is way overdue.if you can contact the following ronnie b.,kareem c.,guy m.,gino perez,gruber bros.,weston correa,&stevie w.,they would kindly retrospect on pats’ life.if not hit me up avd i can help you get the ball rolling…
pat was really one the great skaters in our nieghborhood and in skateboarding.i remember him well and his talents were very respected.he inspired all us kids when we were kids,all these comments everyone is leaving are a great respect to him.gino
thank you pat. miss you bro.
I remember the green VW bus. Streetfighter was just yesterday.
Katman, Jamie, Lamar, Derick what up? Been to long, skating the streets of pasadena seem like yesterday. Gino my highland park hood hommie see you in a sec.
this is pat’s sister, and i just saw the article in tws. the family is unspeakably joyful that he is so remembered, hopefully not only for his dynamic talent but also for the huge person he was. from personal observation, i’d say he was doing the equivalent of 360s since the moment he was born. he was born may 9th, 1973. thanks to mackenzie for the article…kind of wild it comes on his bday month, exactly 10yrs after his accident.
Wow…good to see old friends have picked up on this article! Hi Kathy =) . So many memories of Pat; keep the replies comin! Thanks for the article Mackenzie!
Knew him since Jr. High and ended up at the same HS as him, Jaime, and the Bertino Bros… Great guy with a huge heart.. It’s true he may have come off as a bit intimidating to those who didn’t know him, but Pat was always extremely cool to me, and would do anything to help out or stand up for his friends.. He had a low tollerance for BS and was an individualist all the way, which is probably why we got along…. He also had a great sense of humor once you got to know him… I’ll never forget him…
Pat was a good friend as he treated me well when we had opportunity to spend time together. I was always sorry to have lost contact with him and then I heard of his accident and was of course grieved.
His mom showed me and my brother amazing hospitality and that is something that I reflect upon to this day. I have often thought of stopping to visit her to let her know that he is missed.
He was an inspiration to me when it came to skating; he was very talented. He was at the top level of skating; a level that I had to look up to see.
I no longer live in the area, but when I travel though the San Gabriel Valley I can’t help but think of him. His death was truly a tragedy.
A good friend- To be remembered always!
Keith Gruber
For those of you who aren’t in the know, Keith and his brother Joe Gruber were on Vision and then became part of the original team of The Firm when Lance left Powell in the early 90s. Both Keith and Joe had breakout parts in the first video and were probably the best brother skate team of all time. Well, on street anyway. Taz and Ben Pappas ruled vert, RIP Ben.
For those of us who grew up skating the Pasadena area in the early 90s all the talk was about Pat, Joe, and Keith. Those were the local guys who were breaking ground and inspiring the rest of us groms.
Skate history, kids. Use it to impress the old guys at the parks skating the bowls.
Those are nice comments about me and my brother, thank you. I am not reluctant at all to say that Pat was on another level. I can remember sitting back at times just to watch him skate and it was truly remarkable. It is good to see some of the names above, such as Jaime and Katman. I hope you guys are well.
None of us are ever too good not to consider ourselves “groms” in an absolute sense, at least we shouldn’t act as if our skill elevates us above others on a general human level. That is what I loved about skating: the community of friends that all shared a similar perspective regarding life. It’s hard to appreciate if you haven’t skated and experienced the comradery.
Thank you again for the comments.
Keith Gruber
Here’s some vintage Gruber footage.
That little fire hydrant by the big church in Pasadena was great, eh? That thing was about 8 inches tall but if you did a trick over it you could go tell your friends “Yeah, I did such and such over a fire hydrant.”
That’s too funny. I think your being generous with 8″, but you are right about the bragging rights. Thanks for posting that Firm video clip and the clip of Pat. You can see Pat’s shadow while filming some of my brother’s footage at the Gardena Hip. Also, when I was watching the footage of Pat above, I can recall trading off on some of the camera work with Joe.
Pasadena was great in those days…. I loved it.
Take care,
Keith
What was The Firm video that both you and Joe had full parts in? The one with a bunch of music from Buffalo Tom. I think it was the second Firm video or something.
I had really stopped skating at that level by the time the second Firm video was released, however I did have a small part in it. Joe and I both had full parts separate from the combined parts in La Buena Vida.
But, to answer your question, I really don’t remember the name of the second Firm video. I’ll ask and get back to you.
Read the last two posts… ran into the other room and just dusted off all the old vhs tapes and found the one with The Firm video you speak of. Seemed to be self titled. I remember that video among the favorites to watch before getting on a skateboard… I think I have the parts memorized still. So glad I still have a vhs. Always wanted to skate that garage rooftop looking thing with the steps up and that long ledge… then another set of steps. perfect. Maybe I can youtube this thing soon, I’ll let you all know. Pat Brennen was a definite favorite during this era. Always wanted to find more footage of him.
pasadena WAS great in those days , memories irreplacible…..