Jeff Phillips #9.

This was left in the comments last year by one of Jeff's friends named Ronny. I thought it was pretty cool and cleaned it up a bit.

Jeff was one of the best friends I have ever had and to this day, I still miss him dearly. I first met him in junior high and we were on the Wizard Skatepark team together. To say he was an amazing skateboarder is an understatement. I often tell people that yeah, he was great in many, many contests, but a few of us got to know what it was like to skate with Jeff on a Tuesday afternoon in some backyard mini-ramp or a local pool or something and he was always driven.

Like a lot of his Dallas friends, we lived vicariously through Jeff's life and his worldwide travels. Many of us were simply sponsored by Jeff himself. He took good care of us, floated us boards, trucks, wheels, clothes, etc. For a good long time, all I ever had was Jeff Phillips boards. If you go through the stack of old decks in my garage, it's just one Phillips deck after another. When Jeff was on Gullwing, we rode Gullwings, when he switched to Tracker, we all switched to Tracker. He took good care of all of us, but the fun we all shared with him is missed more than any free deck ever.

I don't know if the beating Hawk while on acid thing was true or not, but they were two different types of skaters altogether. You'd go to a contest and Hawk would be practicing and doing the same routine over and over. Perfectly, of course. Jeff on the other hand, was BURLY. Just freaking, balls to the wall, burly.

I remember one time, me, Jeff, our buddy Robert B. and Dirt went to a Houston contest in my car. We stopped just outside of Dallas for some drink for the road. It was the 80s, a different era. Jeff bought one of those boxes of wine and proceeded to drink the whole thing on the way to Houston. There might've been a joint or two passed around the car (wink wink). We got to the Skatepark of Houston and Jeff just rolled out of the car, grabbed his board from the back, went straight to the vert ramp, no pads, no practice and proceeded to tear it down. Freaking 8' straightleg frontside airs, Mctwist, those big ass foot plants that he was known for, those smooth inverts that he made look so easy, etc, just cranking them all out right there on the spot. That was the difference. I know Hawk is the best skater ever and he has marketed himself well and made a ton of money and has provided for his family quite well, but in my opinion (which is obviously skewed) there hasn't been another skater as burly and rad as my friend Jeff Phillips.

For those of you who never got to see him skate in person- damn, sorry for your loss. It was amazing and like I said before- yeah, he ruled a lot of contests, but you should've seen him on a Tuesday afternoon with no one around, no cameras, no crowds, no freaking fear.

Jeff, I love you my friend and we all miss you!!
-ronny

Yes, Mouse took the picture.

Transworld - August 1989 Volume 7 Number 4