This is going to be Vision week. No real reason behind it, other than I have a couple of Vision scans that I haven't used and decided to fill out the other three days. I was never big on the company and it is interesting how time has treated their pros. Gonz and Lee Ralph are regarded as legends while guys like Ken Park and Johnny Kopp are the butt of jokes. The team as a whole certainly ripped, but I think the full on 1980s fashion/MTV style hurt things. For somebody like Gator, this was perfect. Not so much for Tom Groholski.
The photo is by Chip Morton.
Transworld - April 1989 Volume 7 Number 2
17 comments:
That is how you do a boneless. Wow!
And why does he have a "TM" next to his name?
Good ol' Krap Nek. That's gotta be one of the worst nicknames in skateboarding. Furby, Trainwreck, Ragdoll, Lizard King and all these dudes going around today have nothing on him. That is a sick boneless, though.
I want to hazard a guess that Ken Park was involved with 1 More Skateboard company, in which you paid something like $60 and got two skateboards. That was the company's whole gimmick, and they even had Jason Carney as a pro. I only saw a few ads for them in TWS in the early '90s before they folded up shop.
-- Rikku Markka
Ken did run 1 More Skateboard company. They would split a page of ads in Transworld with Matt Hensley's Phat Clown clothing company.
That movie of his is too sexual. I mean, there's a limit. And he just crossed right over it without any regard for convention or conservatism.
He's going to Hell for it. There's no eggplants in Hell, Ken. Sorry, bud. Just a lot of whipping and the pointless carrying of heavy things.
Was it worth it?
I never owned a Vision deck back in their hey day, but I rode and set a couple up for friends and always found their wood to be cheap. That was a big disappointment, because I thought they had some great, innovative shapes back then (I was a big fish shaped deck guy---always found it functional for my skating--which was an amalgamation of street/hill bombing, ditches/curb/bank fun and half pipes) like the long-since classic OG Gonz deck. I set an old Agent Orange deck up for a college buddy---wonder if he still has it, considering what it supposedly goes for in the old deck after market these days---stooopit money!
It surprises me that Ken Park never filed a defamation of character lawsuit against Harmony Korine and Larry Clark for the movie that bears his name that he had nothing to do with.
I had a couple of Vision decks back in the Day. They didn't really break but they seemed to get soft and loose their pop pretty quickly.
anon---the same peoblems I saw friends had with their Vision decks---the wood was just assed out. The boards were sturdy, which was weird for how quick they delam'ed and got badly dinged when you lost it and it hit a curb or anything else with an edge to it.
Concerned Parent
uhhh that movie had nothing to do with Ken Park the former pro skateboarder.
Wow. So much to defend here. Well can't argue the butt of Jokes thing, but I will let my competition record stand on it's own. I will also say that I got more out of skating than U ever gave it. It taught me everything I know about creativity, artistry and grassroots marketing. I use it all to this day. I had nothing to do with Larry Clark's rendition of Harmony korine's script. Although I did sign a release in exchange for a cameo that ended up on the cutting room floor. Gonzalez was ways a legend and rightly so. Lee Ralph...not so sure. But I sure had some memorable times with him ontour. Visions wood was the same used on about six other companies in fact Paul Scmidt is the skater equivelant of Warren Buffet for realizing the value of
making boards not marketing them. And yes,visionis the absolute best example of selling out. Matt Hensley, the other legend mentioned in theposts, and I started Phat Klown and yes I started 1more Skate ,
co. But if youdont get the joke I won't wadtemy time explaining it. But two boards for such a low price was an attempt at giving more value, not a scam. What can I say, neither Phat Klown nor 1more worked out. 100% my bad.
Hope that clears some things up
Ken Park - not the one that kills himself at the beginning of the movie.
"Gonz and Lee Ralph are regarded as legends while guys like Ken Park and Johnny Kopp are the butt of jokes."
This statement is pretty in-accurate, unless you like making fun of guys that can pull off 6-7 foot airs with relative ease. Ken Park was plenty of pictorials & feature articles in Transworld in '88, and he'll go down in history as being one of the more notable (and some would say) under-rated vert skaters of the late 80's, along with Jeff Kendall, Neil Blender, Caballero, McGill, Mountain, Roskopp, etc. Guys like Hawk, Jeff Phillips & Hosoi & Gator were top of the heap, but there only about 80 "Top" vert skaters in the whole country, let alone on Vision(!) Ken Park was definitely one of them. Some education on skateboard history would help you out immensely. I'd recommend watching Gator & Ken Park demoing in Helsinki. It's on Youtube. Also, Groholski gets pretty of respect from guys like Mike Vallely who learned how to more or less skate vert on his ramp. Again, read up on the stake history pal. It's obvious you need it. -Billy
Hey Billy, maybe you should re-read my original post and then catch up on skateboarding history since 1992. Nowhere do I personally say anything bad about any of the Vision riders in terms of skateboarding ability. I'm simply pointing out a brief summary of the opinions of Vision that have made it into print over the last fifteen years. Time hasn't exactly been kind to a few of the top pros of the 1980s. Whether the criticism is warranted or not is one thing, but the fact is that the negative opinions are out there. I try to keep things on the positive side here, but you can't deny that Vision is a company that catches a lot of flack.
Old School Sammy is an idiot. Another kook in the bunch.. I have a vision deck in front of me. Has wear and tear on it. 30 years old ken Park. You can still slap a set of wheels on it and it will ride fine.
BITD I had all the vision Ken Park models as a kid And thought the dude was a GOD!
I still have my Ken Park that I had shipped to me in 85 when I lived in Italy. Must be a million miles on it all over Italy, Austria, France, and Germany. Still ride it. F'ing love it. Still as strong as it was the day it arrived.
Ken did license his name to Larry Clark, btw. He just didn't bother to look into what kinds of movies Clark makes.
Ken-You and your wife treated me so well at Lake Owen skateboard camp in Wisconsin! When I arrived I knew of you and admired your skating but didn't think I would be start stuck. Then I got to see you skate! Man, what a privilege it was to see you easily pull big airs and transfers like it was nothing. You motivated me and your wife was so nice to is on the boat when we went tubing. You were so nice you even gave me your business phone number, an 8th grade kid. I called you couple times at Planet Earth and you took my call and told me when and where you were going to do demos in Chicago. You are a genuinely great person and thank you for giving me the time and lessons. Hope you are doing well! Your friend,
Chet Fornell
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