OLD MAN ARMY article for AMP Mag.
OLD MAN ARMY
by Jason K. Walsh
Dedicated to Richard Alfrey Sr., Christian Walsh, and anyone else who inspired someone to drop in…
Every skater has a story of where it started, and in many cases, where it ended. For me, skateboarding began at a young age in the 70s, when my
grandfather cut out a plank of lumber, bolted on some roller skate undercarriage, and took me atop a hill in Glendale, California. My christening was
a push and the helpful advice, “hold on.” I crashed, got up, and climbed back up the hill. That’s what separates skaters from the rest of the world.
They get back up again and climb the hill.
In my small world, skateboarding wasn’t a hobby or just something I liked to do. It was a lifelong obsession and part of who I was and what defined
me. I was never good enough to consider it a profession, nor did I care. It was just something I did without thought, like eating, drinking,
breathing. As time passed on and life became more demanding, as it does, I skated less and less, until one fateful night when a miscalculated
frontside air spun my knee 270 degrees and tore my ACL beyond repair. In 1999, at 29 and now barely able to walk, skateboarding left my life. Loss…a
part of me died. For a decade, I struggled to find myself without that void ever being filled.
It was my son’s 15th birthday, shoveling snow and breaking ice at a concrete public skatepark in the ghettos of Kalamazoo that skateboarding refound
me. Showing my boy, who had now taken an interest in boardriding, how to carve on wet and treacherous transitions, I took a backside kickturn high on
the slippery cement quarter pipe. That long forgotten feeling of momentum and motion was back, and in the dark, reckless corners of my brain, I
thought, “I can grind that.” A couple runs later in the frigid Michigan conditions, I did. I’ve been hitting metal on metal ever since. I am the OLD
MAN ARMY.
“We are a skater owned and operated business whose focus is on the older skater. We don’t claim to know dozens of professional skaters, nor do we care
to. OLD MAN ARMY could care less about the name on the bottom of a deck. We have more respect for the old guys and underground rippers that are true
to the roots of real skateboarding. Our goal is to unite the older skate crowd, the one’s who grew up when skateboarding and punk rock walked hand in
hand. If you’ve had to spend an hour cleaning out a ditch or pool to skate for fifteen minutes before getting kicked out, or better yet, arrested,
then the OLD MAN ARMY is for you. If you were skating parking blocks and park benches for hours on end and never got bored, you’re already a soldier.
If you can’t stand the sight of a swimming pool full of crystal, clear water, then get off you ass and “join the army.” Our mission is to unite the
lifers and soldiers of skateboarding. Other companies pour money into their designs with hopes of luring younger skaters into buying their products.
Let’s face it, that’s where the money is. Chances are, if you’re 30 or older, you didn’t start skating last week. Let’s join forces and take back what
belongs to us. We are the few, the proud; we are the OLD MAN ARMY! 30 TO LIFE.”
-Mission Statement/ Company Profile, OLD MAN ARMY
During the 90s, with the fall of the corporate giants in the skate industry and the rise of the “independent” company, anyone had the opportunity to
start their own line of boards. However, as time continued to pass and skateboarding progression evolved technically, the boards got smaller and the
“DIY” companies became corporate again. Skateboarding is now a billion-dollar entity, a far cry from the early days when some hooligans from Venice
were first charging backyard pools. Now, the new designs shooting out of assembly lines and warehouses are tiny, freestyle-sized decks, which does
absolutely no good for the bigger, more aged rider.
Enter OLD MAN ARMY. Long time session friends from Arizona, Brian Bullis and Mike Furst, decided to turn their crew’s nickname, derived from the
derisions by younger groms at their favorite local spots, into their own company. Catering towards the more antiquated shredders, their board designs
are bigger, their products more appropriate and functional, and their message of soul is on point. OLD MAN ARMY is for the 30+ crew. I had a chance to
talk with OMA veteran, co-owner, and founder Bullis about how the Army was formed.
I’m going to start at the beginning. When did you get into skateboarding? When did you find skateboarding, or when did skateboarding find you?
Skateboarding kind of found me in like ‘79 or so. I went to a bowling tournament with my parents in Germany and there was a guy doing a demo on the
roof of the building and I just kind of discovered it by watching him. It was kind of like a barrel jumping type thing, you know, just stuff like
that. I got my parents to buy me a board that day and that was pretty much the birth of that for me.
Have you been riding ever since?
You know, I was riding like down the street to school and stuff but I wouldn’t say I was a skateboarder at that time. Until I moved to Arizona in ‘79,
and then I kind of started picking it up a little bit, like in the early 80s.
Very cool. But up until this point now, have you been riding pretty much continuously ever since ‘79?
Yeah, pretty much been riding ever since then. Once I got the feel of it here, you know. In Germany, it was a different situation, but here people
actually skated and kind of getting into it like that.
Tell me about how OLD MAN ARMY came about?
OLD MAN ARMY started as just a bunch of guys going out to the park, constantly being the oldest guys out there. All the kids would always call us the
“old guys” or “grandpas” or whatever and that was in like ‘99, so we weren’t really old, but as far skating goes, I think you’re getting old once you
get into the late 20s (laughs).
How did this turn from being the crew at the skate park, or wherever you guys were going to, to an actual company?
It was kind of like everybody was always interested in it, like, “oh, cool, OLD MAN ARMY.” Everybody wanted stickers and shirts and shit like that and
everybody wants it for free. My partner Mike (Furst) finally convinced me to just try to make a company out of it and put out more boards, put out
more stuff, create a website, and all that crap that goes along with it. So, it was pretty much Mike that kind of the only one who expressed an
interest and was willing to shell out a little bit of money to get this thing going.
When did you guys start it up?
Started about five years ago I’d say. 2005.
Now the thing about this company, myself being a 40-year-old guy whose son got me back into skating after a bad injury ten years ago, I’m out riding
with him, finding myself doing a kick turn, then a grind, then looking up skateparks and finding terrain to ride again, ditches on the side of the
road.
I see a lot of that.
So, the thing about this company that’s appealing to me and people like me is the fact that it’s geared towards the older skater. They’re not the
little toothpick decks that progressively the skate industry only puts out now. You guys put out stuff for the older guys. Tell me about that.
Yeah, we’re geared towards older guys. You know, we like to try and put a little bit of soul back into it. It seems like a lot of it got sucked out
when it all turned into “popsicles.” By no means are we limited to old guys. We got some younger guys that are into it as well. We just wanted to try
and get back into doing some little bit older style shapes that are still functionable, you know, with the nose and stuff like that. We’re just trying
to keep it fresh and a little bit kind of unique, as opposed to just the standard “popsicle” stuff. Trying to do some wider shapes, trying to bring
back good graphics, and we’re just trying to keep it going.
Five years down the road, has this been a fun project for you guys?
Oh, it’s been the best. It’s our passion. I still got to go to work and shit but I come home every day and look at my emails, check out the website,
and just try to keep in touch. Like I said, it’s my passion.
One of the things I did notice about the website is your forum section has a huge following. There’s tons and tons of people on there, corresponding
back and forth about skating, selling gear, whatever.
Yeah. It’s bringing a lot of people out of the woodwork. It’s kind of a community, you know. It’s more than just a company. Of course, not everybody
on our site rides our boards and everything, but the site brings a lot of people out.
Now you’ve been alive for four decades now, it’s 2010, in the next ten years, man, do you think you’re still going to be doing this?
I’m going to do it as long as I can walk, man. I want to continue to do it. I’ve blown both my knees, broke some ribs, fractured shit here and there,
rolled my ankle last weekend…still went skating this weekend. It’s just something that I’m going to do, you know, until the wheels fall off.
Anyone who remembers Tony Alva, Jay Adams, Stacy Peralta, and the Z-boys contribution to skateboarding is of the OLD MAN ARMY. Anyone who was stunned
the first time they watched videos of Tony Hawk and the Bones Brigade is of the OLD MAN ARMY. Anyone who’s swept a ditch, built a ramp, or scoped
parking lots, industrial complexes, and backyards while driving around is of the OLD MAN ARMY. Anybody who gets back up again and climbs the hill is
the OLD MAN ARMY.
www.oldmanarmy.com
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