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Reviews
Rom Boys: 40 Years of Rad (2020)
From South Bank To Rom
When I was a kid I migrated from the South Bank to Rom...it was around 1977/78. A friend of mine had become the park's resident professional and got us in free. From that point I didn't look back until the sad day it was closed by the then owners. I became a prominent member of the park team (I was known as "Little") and we represented the park in competition. The park was full on a daily basis and (for us serious skaters) unbearably packed at weekends. What people tried with skateboards there was 'rad' to say the least. Unless I'm sorely mistaken (I'm not) "light buld" and I were the first people to have thrown somersaults on skateboards out of the pool & the park manager seemed to find it hilarious telling me I wasn't managing to do "snap-back gnarlers" on the pool coping after about ten in a row. It was a vibrant place of freedom with ridiculous numbers of talented skaters. It was fun! I went back to South Bank briefly and brought my friends (the Americans Jeremy Henderson & John Sablosky) who were prominent on the English skateboarding scene at the time to the park...Jeremy got there and started throwing 6 foot aerials out of the "big" bowl (original park goers will know what I mean...the large bowl before the 6 foot of vert was cut right down in size!) and John was his usual classy self. But they noticed talent and went back to their teams...before you knew it Benjyboard was poaching park team members...that's how good they were. The entire thing is not completely as I remember it but then nothing is. Thanks to the film makers for a genuinely brilliant trip down memory lane...what a wonderful look at what is rightly a National Heritage Site.