South Florida was a fun place to be a skater in the last half of the 1970’s. We had 4 skateboard parks within 25 minutes of each other. Skateboard USA, Skateboard Heaven, Solid Surf and Cadillac Wheels Skateboard Concourse. There were quite a few factions of skaters, but everyone skated everywhere and knew everybody for the most part. I was lucky enough to be a resident pro at Solid Surf in Ft. Lauderdale. There were quite a few skaters that killed it there everyday. From time to time we would go to other parks to skate different terrain, and of course try and see what the locals there were doing. I had heard of this little guy named Alan Gelfand from Hollywood who was doing a no handed aerial. What? Bullshit, right!? No really, a no handed aerial. He calls it an Ollie. Little did I know at the time, that I was privileged to witness the most important skateboard trick of all time. What follows is my conversation with Alan; his take on those days, and what he sees going on in skating today.
KH: How did you get into skating in the first place?
AG: I moved to Florida, around 1972, from New York. There were a bunch of kids around my house that skated. I guess around 1974 my dad bought me a Powerflex board.
Were your parents into your skateboarding?
Not at first. My brother was into bowling, and my sister was into ballet. My parents kind of backed them. They never really paid much attention to my skating career until Stacey flew me to California and I was in all the magazines. I really kind of kept skating to myself, and actually used to steal skateboarding magazines from the school library. I guess I didn’t really want people to know that I skated.
In what year, and how did the whole process of creating the Ollie come about?
It was like 1976 or 1977 when I was skating at Skateboard USA. The park was kind of kinky, like most of the early parks they weren’t very good. I would go down the ramp into this big bowl and pump off the first wall into this oververt wall and kind of transfer. After a while I would try and get my knees to compress into my chest and not hold onto the board. Those were the first “Ollie Pops”.
Did you know that you were changing the whole history of skateboarding with that one trick?
I never had any idea that a 70 pound kid from Hollywood Florida would ever become such a big deal!
How do you remember the skate scene in Florida in those days?
We didn’t have much communication with the rest of the skate world in those days. We saw stuff in magazines, but as far as we knew what we were doing was just skating and having fun. The Florida scene really was unknown to the rest of the world. All that time I was doing “Ollies” here in Florida. Then when Stacey Peralta came to Florida, he said to me that if I could perfect the “Ollie” that he would fly me to California. The fact is no one was doing “Ollies” in California for months after my first photo shoot at the Lakewood half pipe.
When you first traveled to California, were you well received by everyone?
Yea, everyone treated me cool. We were ripping, so our actions kind of spoke louder than words. We just did our thing. I could hold my own, and, believe me, the skate parks in Florida were the worst. Skating the parks in California was easy cause they were so much better.
Of all the skaters you met in California, who were you most stoked to skate with or meet?
In California it was Eddie Elguera, the Alba’s, Cab, Duane Peters, Olson, Hackett and there were many more. In Florida, Bob and Boomer Bentley were insane. Everything they did was kind of crazy in every respect. They did airs higher than anyone that were nuts. But, everything they did was fast. They even drove cars that same way. Crazy!
I will just add that your buddies Kevin Peterson and Jeff Duerr were kind of your crew right? What were they like?
Definitely, and Rick Furness too. But we were all kind of the quiet, keep to yourself kind of kids. I remember one time Duerr rented a plane and he flew over South Florida searching for empty swimming pools to skate. That was pretty rad, cause we found a bunch.
Did you make any money back in those days considering your contribution to skateboarding?
We didn’t make any money at first. Stacy (Peralta) kept us amateur for as long as he could. Eventually I got like $1.00 for every board that sold. The only way you really made money is if you made the magazines and got paid incentive money for that. But, we didn’t care. The way we really made money is in the fact that we got to travel a lot, and that seemed like a lot to me. I eventually did buy my first car in 1984 with skate money. It was a brand new Toyota Corolla.
How was it to ride for Powell-Peralta?
If you rode for Powell you couldn’t curse or anything like that. You had to be professional all the time. I guess those were different days, and a different scene back then.
The Ollie is the basis of pretty much every street maneuver. When did it really hit you that you had created a true game changer for skateboarding eternal? I mean think about it, there are kids that can’t even really skate, but they know how to do an Ollie!
Honestly, I was out of skating for a lot of years racing cars. I didn’t know it was such a big deal. Every once in a while people would mention to me what was going on, but not till the 90’s did I say “wow” this is real. Mike McGill used to always compliment me on it though.
What do you think of skateboarding these days?
I’m not really sure, but it seems like everyone only cares about being sponsored. The kids don’t seem to skate for the same reasons we did, they seem like they want to prove something to someone. We skated for ourselves.
Have you ever done much downhill or sliding?
We road ditches and underpasses like Haulover and the ditch in front of I-95. We also used to go up to Palm Beach and ride down bridges. We would do cess slides and little berts. Oh, and in 2004 I went on a legends trip to skate this place they called “The Bear” in New Mexico with Reggie Barnes, George McCallum, Ed Womble, Paul Schmitt and others. We skated down these ditches like 30 mph on regular trucks. Guys there were riding these reverse kingpin trucks, but Reggie and I still blew by those guys. At one point we came up to a tunnel with all kinds of junk in it and slid out. I grinded right threw my pads. We did skate straight down “The Bear” even though we didn’t know what we were doing at the time. It was super fun.
Are you familiar with what is going on in the downhill/longboard world?
It’s unbelievable, and I really didn’t know it was this big. I definitely want to do some downhill and get slideways at 40mph. Those videos are crazy, and there’s no bailing out when it comes to how close you get to those guard rails.
Are you a believer in having a quiver of boards, and riding all terrain?
Hell yea! I’ve got all kinds of boards, and I love having them. I seriously have like 10 or 15 boards for any terrain. In bowls though I only ride one, the one I’m used to.
How much do you skate these days?
It depends on what’s going on in my life. Some weeks I can skate a couple of times, and then sometimes I can go a few weeks or months between skating.
How does being “Ollie” affect your life as a whole?
It’s pretty funny but it does give you credibility. I have a little shrine in my office of paraphernalia relating to it, and over the years I have sold some stuff. Once I sold a Federal Judge a car and he paid me sight unseen. He knew all about me and trusted he could find me if needed. But honestly, many people have said that they think I’m one of the most famous skateboarders nobody knows! My wife’s mother was a teacher, and she used to ask her kids, what is an Ollie, and who invented it? They all knew the answer.