Eric Costello, Pro skateboarder, 34
deb...@comcast.net
Associated Press
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. - A professional skateboarder died after he fell
while skating in one of the large bowls at a local park.
Eric Costello, 34, also a popular skateboarding instructor, was
demonstrating a maneuver to a class around noon Saturday when he fell
in the skating bowl, which is 10-to-12 feet deep, authorities said.
Costello, who was wearing a helmet at the time, either did not properly
secure the strap on his own helmet or was wearing one that did not fit,
said Scotts Valley Police Chief Steve Lind. The helmet came off during
the fall, causing massive head injury.
He lost consciousness shortly after the accident and was flown to
Regional Medical Center of San Jose, where he died Monday.
Robert Erwin, a local skate shop owner, said many of Costello's
students and peers in the skating community wanted to find a way to
memorialize him.
"He's definitely a large member of this community," Erwin said. "And if
I could tell you one thing about Eric, it's that he was all about the
kids, and he was pretty responsible for growing this sport in Scotts
Valley."
Mayor Paul Marigonda's two sons were among dozens of children who took
lessons from Costello. "He had such a great attitude and he was so good
with the kids," he said.
The accident is the first death at the 20,000-square-foot Skypark,
which opened last September.
de Fragile Warrior Sports Supplies
> Costello, who was wearing a helmet at the time, either did not properly
> secure the strap on his own helmet or was wearing one that did not fit,
> said Scotts Valley Police Chief Steve Lind. The helmet came off during
> the fall, causing massive head injury.
OR he had taking a few blows to the helmet and not replaced it. That's
something I learned with the riding helmets -- you fall and hit it, you
replace it. PERIOD. Even if it looks like it isn't damaged. That can be
expensive if the helmet company doesn't offer a replacement plan or if you
fall a lot but it's better than mushing up your haid.
E.
According to this site:
http://www.skateboarding.com/skate/news/article/0,23271,1122861,00.html
"As you might have heard, he was wearing a small kids helmet
unstrapped......it popped off the minute he hit the ground."
-E. (Gee, why bother even putting it on?)
de Fragile Warrior Sports Supplies
"E." <ebra...@hotmail.comcomcom> wrote in message
news:vvE7f.15758$Io4.6047@trnddc06...
For show, I guess. How silly.
I started using a riding helmet after reading about an instructor whose rule
was, "Everyone wears a helmet but me." Her horse tripped, threw her to the
ground. She died. The second time I wore my helmet I took a 6' header
landing right above my left brow. That helmet probably saved me some
serious, serious damage. I was able to walk home and all I had was a slight
concussion and sore body parts for a few days.
And, yes, it was replaced at half value by the helmet company, Troxel, who
take the old helmets back with a written accident report so they can study
how to make the helmets better. I did one better. I drew them a cartoon of
the whole thing. :)
Bob Feigel
proffered:
>Pro skateboarder dies after fall at skate park
Ironically, a skateboard that was couriered to me from the USA arrived
today and I've just unpacked it. It's a retro-remake of the original
Makaha Commander from 1964. A film company is making a documentary
about the originator of the modern skateboard, Larry Stevenson, and
since I worked for his company (Makaha) and managed the Makaha
exhibition team back then, they wanted me to have a skateboard while
I'm being interviewed for the film next weekend.
I won't be riding the it - it will probably find a place somewhere in
my studio - but in the highly unlikely event I did ride it, I'd want
to be wearing all the protective gear that's available now, but wasn't
back then.
As the "King of Modern Skateboarding," Woody Woodward says when asked
for his advice about wearing helmets, etc, "Remember, the ground
always wins." You'd have thought Eric could have figured this out for
himself. b
PS - When I was working for Makaha I gave my little sister a brand
new, top of the line Makaha skateboard as a present. She never used it
and kept it all these years in its original condition. I understand
that, to a collector, it's now worth around four thousand dollars -
possibly more! Can I have it back?
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
J. Eric Durbin
<b...@surfwriter.net.not> wrote:
>On 25 Oct 2005 15:36:06 -0700, deb...@comcast.net magnanimously
>proffered:
>
>>Pro skateboarder dies after fall at skate park
>
>Ironically, a skateboard that was couriered to me from the USA arrived
>today and I've just unpacked it. It's a retro-remake of the original
>Makaha Commander from 1964. A film company is making a documentary
>about the originator of the modern skateboard, Larry Stevenson, and
>since I worked for his company (Makaha) and managed the Makaha
>exhibition team back then, they wanted me to have a skateboard while
>I'm being interviewed for the film next weekend.
I have vague memories of friends nailing dismantled metal roller skate
frames and wheels to 2x4s and riding these rickety contraptions down
the nearest sidewalk or street with a bit on incline. One of those, if
any survive, would make quit a museum piece. I wonder when the first
proto-skateboard actually appeared, pre-1950s?
Bob Feigel
<zyz...@plenipotentiary.com.invalid> magnanimously proffered:
AFAIK what could loosely be described as skateboards have been around
since the 1920's. My dad talked about he and his brother making and
using similar contraptions in the 30's. I've also seen a couple of
examples of homemade skateboards, although I don't know if they've
made it into a museum collection. Didn't I see something similar being
used in one of the Our Gang comedies?
What Larry did was design a board that looked like a surfboard and
attach Chicago rollerskate wheels (clay), then worked with Chicago to
design a movable truck for composite wheels that allowed the kind of
manoeuvers that made skateboarding into an international craze in the
mid-sixties onwards. In other words, he designed the first
high-performance skateboard as well as refinements like the kicktail.
Brigid Nelson
<b...@surfwriter.net.not> wrote:
>On 25 Oct 2005 15:36:06 -0700, deb...@comcast.net magnanimously
>proffered:
>
>>Pro skateboarder dies after fall at skate park
>
>Ironically, a skateboard that was couriered to me from the USA arrived
>today and I've just unpacked it. It's a retro-remake of the original
>Makaha Commander from 1964. A film company is making a documentary
>about the originator of the modern skateboard, Larry Stevenson, and
>since I worked for his company (Makaha) and managed the Makaha
>exhibition team back then, they wanted me to have a skateboard while
>I'm being interviewed for the film next weekend.
I saw a short movie about "sidewalk surfing" on my teevee a few years
ago. I cannot remember which satellite channel it was on, but from
the clothing and the crew cuts, it must have been made in the 1960's.
Skateboarding was represented as being a relatively new sport and a
few tricks were demonstrated, tame stuff like 360's. Do you have any
idea what this was?
brigid
The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look
things in the face and know them for what they are - Marcus Aurelius
Bob Feigel
<irja...@comcast.net> magnanimously proffered:
>On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 13:22:40 +1300, Bob Feigel
><b...@surfwriter.net.not> wrote:
>
>>On 25 Oct 2005 15:36:06 -0700, deb...@comcast.net magnanimously
>>proffered:
>>
>>>Pro skateboarder dies after fall at skate park
>>
>>Ironically, a skateboard that was couriered to me from the USA arrived
>>today and I've just unpacked it. It's a retro-remake of the original
>>Makaha Commander from 1964. A film company is making a documentary
>>about the originator of the modern skateboard, Larry Stevenson, and
>>since I worked for his company (Makaha) and managed the Makaha
>>exhibition team back then, they wanted me to have a skateboard while
>>I'm being interviewed for the film next weekend.
>
>I saw a short movie about "sidewalk surfing" on my teevee a few years
>ago. I cannot remember which satellite channel it was on, but from
>the clothing and the crew cuts, it must have been made in the 1960's.
>Skateboarding was represented as being a relatively new sport and a
>few tricks were demonstrated, tame stuff like 360's. Do you have any
>idea what this was?
>
>brigid
"Sidewalk surfing" was another term for skateboarding back in the
mid-sixties. Larry Stevenson established an exhibition team to promote
Makaha skateboards and the first competitions. You can see a brief
description by following this link:
<http://www.surfwriter.net/makahaskateboards.htm>. Surfboard maker,
Hobie Alter (also of Hobie Cat fame) decided to cash in on Larry's
success and started his own skateboard company backed by VitaPak Juice
(Barron Hilton - whose sons, Stevie and Davey were on the newly formed
Hobie skateboard team). Within a very short time a large number of
manufacturers entered the market, but Makaha and Hobie remained at the
top until the surfboard craze dwindled into mere madness.
A 1965 film titled Skaterdater (or Skater Dater) was nominated for an
academy award in Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects category
and won the Golden Palm for Best Short Film at the 1966 Cannes Film
Festival.
It was the first film to document what was by then a worldwide
phenoneum that dovetailed nicely with surfing's post-Gidget popularity
and was being touted as "surfing for the landlocked."
When I managed the Makaha Exhibition Team we'd go to places like the
parking lot at a May Company department store or a Robinsons, set up a
course with things like limbo bars to jump over and the kids would do
things like the 360's you saw on television.
In real life, these kids were maniacs who defied gravity in empty
swimming pools and culverts ... and raced down hills at speed. There
was no safety equipment at first, but after some company connected to
Bell Helicopters tried to introduce helmets into surfing competitions
(and failed after the 1964 or 65 US Surfing Championships at
Huntington Beach), safety helmets started being used by some
skateboarders and in some skateboard competitions. Kneepads and
elbowpads soon followed, an so on. Strangely, except for the
occasional broken arm, most of the injuries were minor. So where the
injured. b
Brigid Nelson
<b...@surfwriter.net.not> wrote:
>
>"Sidewalk surfing" was another term for skateboarding back in the
>mid-sixties. Larry Stevenson established an exhibition team to promote
>Makaha skateboards and the first competitions. You can see a brief
>description by following this link:
><http://www.surfwriter.net/makahaskateboards.htm>. Surfboard maker,
>Hobie Alter (also of Hobie Cat fame) decided to cash in on Larry's
>success and started his own skateboard company backed by VitaPak Juice
>(Barron Hilton - whose sons, Stevie and Davey were on the newly formed
>Hobie skateboard team). Within a very short time a large number of
>manufacturers entered the market, but Makaha and Hobie remained at the
>top until the surfboard craze dwindled into mere madness.
>
>A 1965 film titled Skaterdater (or Skater Dater) was nominated for an
>academy award in Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects category
>and won the Golden Palm for Best Short Film at the 1966 Cannes Film
>Festival.
This was not the film I saw - but from the description on imdb it does
sound entertaining. The one I saw was more of a documentary complete
with narration.
>It was the first film to document what was by then a worldwide
>phenoneum that dovetailed nicely with surfing's post-Gidget popularity
>and was being touted as "surfing for the landlocked."
>
>When I managed the Makaha Exhibition Team we'd go to places like the
>parking lot at a May Company department store or a Robinsons, set up a
>course with things like limbo bars to jump over and the kids would do
>things like the 360's you saw on television.
>
>In real life, these kids were maniacs who defied gravity in empty
>swimming pools and culverts ... and raced down hills at speed. There
>was no safety equipment at first, but after some company connected to
>Bell Helicopters tried to introduce helmets into surfing competitions
>(and failed after the 1964 or 65 US Surfing Championships at
>Huntington Beach), safety helmets started being used by some
>skateboarders and in some skateboard competitions. Kneepads and
>elbowpads soon followed, an so on. Strangely, except for the
>occasional broken arm, most of the injuries were minor. So where the
>injured. b
It is amazing what kids get away with. Thanks for all of the
interesting backstory.