RIP to one of skateboarding’s early pioneers and Skateboarding Hall of Fame inductee, Ty Page.

Taken from the 2016 Skateboarding Hall of Fame program:

Born May, 30, 1958 and raised in the “Endless Summer” lifestyle of the Redondo Beach breakwater, Ty Scott Page would become one of the most innovative professional skateboarders of the early ‘70s—famously known for his Ty Hop, today called the pop-shove it, Ty Slide, 360-headstands and a host of other inventions. After beginning surfing at the age of three, then skateboarding at age four, Ty’s natural athletic prowess immediately separated him from his peers. By 1972, at only fourteen, he won the national title at the U.S. Surfing Championships.

Ty entered his first contest at the Del Mar Nationals in ’73. By ’75 he would place second at the same contest—famously the same year the Z-Boys made their debut. By the age of 17, Ty was making over $100,000/year as the skateboard industry boomed into a 40 million-boards/year behemoth. Continuing to invent new tricks throughout, Ty Page would appear in several movies, television commercials for Sunny Delight, Wendy’s, MG cars and onwards while traveling the world as a bonified superstar. In March 1978, he would perform in conjunction with Carlos Santana, Aerosmith, Heart, and Ted Nugent at Cal Jam 2 in front of an estimated 300,000 spectators, breaking the record for the largest audience in the history of skateboarding.

WORDS / Mackenzie Eisenhour (@deadhippie)

PHOTO / Jim Goodrich