Most of you reading this probably weren’t skating when Girl Skateboards was started. It was 1993 if I’m not mistaken. Everyone who was anyone in skateboarding went to San Francisco for the yearly contests they had in the fountains there back in the day, and most of the Plan B riders were riding blank decks or something, and they were telling people that they were riding for Girl, not Plan B anymore.
It would later come out that apparently it all started over a dispute between Rick Howard and Mike Ternasky over a wheel contract or something. But to make a long story shorter, it was a shock to everyone, but especially to Plan B. A short time later Mike Ternasky was hit by a car and killed, and Plan B more or less died with him.
When Plan B was started, it was the dream team. All the best skaters on this one team. Ok, not all of them, but there was no doubt in anyone’s mind as to what the best team out there was at the time. When Girl was formed it was the same thing all over again, only better, because Koston wasn’t on Plan B. Then again, Girl didn’t have Danny Way. Well, let’s just say that Girl had a pretty amazing lineup, and there was no doubt they were the company on top.
Personally, I don’t think anything like the forming of Girl Skateboards will ever happen again. I don’t think it can happen. There are too many good skaters, and not enough standouts. And skating is to diverse. I mean, bowl skaters are almost becoming popular nowadays, whereas Girl was 100% street skating, and that’s because that’s what was big back then and has continued to be up until they started building all these cement parks (I wonder if ten years from now bowl skaters will laugh at street skaters and think they’re old school).
To me, the Girl Mouse video was the pinnacle of what Girl was capable of. If any kid could copy Guy Mariano or Koston’s parts from that video they could get sponsored by their company of choice. In fact, if Guy just put that part in the next Girl video people would still be impressed. Talk about a flawless switch backside bigspin flip.
The point is, there was a certain feeling I got when I heard about the formation of Girl. It was exciting, and probably the last time I felt that feeling. Maybe it’s because skateboarding has changed. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up and skateboarding teams don’t mean as much to me anymore. I hope it’s the latter because I hope the kids can keep feeling what I felt when I heard the news in ‘93. Or was it ‘94? Oh well.
Either way, i was only like two years old, man.
Girl officially started in 1993. There were “10 Year Anniversary” decks released in late 2003.
Merry Christmas!
I probably didn’t know about the decks cause I was boycotting the ‘Tap in 2003. Wait, how long as the tap been around? I guess I’ll have to wait for the anniversay crailtap decks to find out. BTW - Do you believe that’s really Rickk commenting? I don’t. If it’s really you Rickk you can prove it to us by sending me a package of the silouhette series of Chocolate decks to decorate my office with. This place is looking kind of bare…
I broke my ankle in 1993 at EMB. I miss dem days.
Yeah, girl was started in 1993, and let me tell you that was a very exciting time in skateboarding. I had skated as a little kid, then stopped, then came back into it that same year. I lived overseas in Paris, France at the time and when Mouse finally got the skateshops over there, it influenced skating throughout continents. Kids in france were skating like Koston, and everything was goin off. I still have mouse on VHS