So you might 
remember Al Harrison from Skateboarder Mag back in the late 70s from when the summer championships of 1979 took place at Seylynn skatepark. Al shredded that day with Tony Alva, and Steve Olson. Skateboarder Magazine had sent up their photographer Jim Goodrich and sure enough Al was caught on the other side of the lens in his magnificent form.
Al has been around Vancouver skateboarding forever! From the mid 70s to early 80s he could be caught on the Granville Street bank, Davie Street Ramp, East Van Ramp, Kilmer Bowl, Kevin Harris’s ramp and the Burnaby indoor Skateboard Palace.
Al Harrison was part of what was known as the Ripping Squad with other great skaters such as Simon Addington. They rolled around towns doing demos with their portable half pipe and even in front of huge crowds at sporting events such as the Vancouver Whitecaps games!
Being able to impress crowds of 25,000+ fans doesn’t come easy. Alike the rest of the ripping squad Al worked himself hard to push the advancement of skateboarding. Unfortunately Al broke his legs two years in a row at the Richmond Skate Ranch, this really slowed things down for Al.
Al couldn’t have put himself to better use during his injured time. He dove deeper into his love for art and started doing computer graphics. This Emily Carr trained artist has worked in TV, film and the video game industry. Most notably to all the skate fans, he worked on EA Skate.
So why does Al have a pro board not a pro disc? Well when he was helping run the Canadian Pro Am Skateboard Association he met a fellow by the name of Rick Tetz. After working on the events he met up with the sword spinning and nunchuck swinging Rick and they started skating freestyle together in an underground parkade in North Van, home of CalStreets. To this day CalStreets loves Al and welcomes artists to design their own skates. Needless to say a professional artist’s work made the cut.
All CalStreets Skates decks are hand made in the United States using only the best Canadian Maple money can buy. The manufacturing of these boards are of such high quality that the worlds top pro’s have their decks made by them. Not only are these boards stronger, but they have an exclusive technology designed to make the board last longer not found on any other street or transition deck.
Remember the 90s when we had slick decks? These are the slicks re-invented. No longer are slicks a plastic sheet that can peel off on the bottom, these are so thin and tight fitting to the board you wont even notice its there, of course other than when your sliding. The texture of the slick itself will give skaters the smooth consistent slide to help master any ledge or rail trick. Not to mention the resolution on the graphics is up to 4 times higher than any other deck currently on the market using the standard heat transfer method. With 100% skater input into carefully thought out shapes and designs, these are by far the wave of the future.
- 14.25” Wheelbase
- 8.38” Width
- 32” Long
- 6 3/4” Tail
- 7 1/8” Nose
- Artwork by Alan Harrison
- Legendary Skater
- 1200 DPI Slick Bottom
- 7 Ply Canadian Maple
- Handmade in The United States
Graham X Peat – Reports on Canadian Nationals with rare footage from Russ Howell. Many of Canada’s skaters include Monty Little, Bud Watt, Al Harrison, Mike Blake, Dave Riley, Richard Storey, Mike Lein, Rich Lein, Rick Tetz, Dave Crabb and many more.
