Mid-Eastern Skateboard Series

I moved back to Tennessee from California in the summer of 1985. Before I left California, I was already organizing another skateboarding series. I had joked during an interview at the end of the '84 series that I was planning to change the format of MESS to the Mid-Eastern Skateboard Sessions because I was tired of contests. Yeah, right.

The 1985 series was called the Eastern Blowout Series. I decided it was time to move beyond the Mideast and take on the entire Eastern portion of the U.S. I should have called it the Eastern Burnout Series. (The next year, NSA held a pro-am in Chicago called the Chicago Blowout. Coincidence? I don't think so. I would have sued, but I became the head judge for the NSA in 1987.)

I called some of the usual suspects (Robert Taylor and Joe Polevy) for Blowout contest locations and scoped out some new possibilities. The first contest was supposed to be a streetstyle event in Asheville, NC. I pissed off the locals by cancelling the event due to a Mt. Trashmore contest that was planned for the same weekend. It revealed my less-than-enthusiastic attitude about streetstyle contests. Uh, sorry guys. Here's the flyer (opens in new window).

I can't remember the order of the contests after that, but there was one in Kingsport, TN, on a great ramp built by Robert Taylor and company. Mike Taber and Steve Gee, both long-time MESS skaters, organized a contest way up in Mishawaka, IN. I remember having a lot of fun at that contest, but I don't remember much else, except the drunken backseat car ride with Joe Bowers (Lyle was sober at the wheel).

Another contest was held in Greenville, SC, at the same site as the MESS '84 finals. I do remember being hassled by the Atlanta crew for dissing their previous contest and getting splinters in my ass, which somehow must have been related.

I realized after the Eastern Blowout that I should stop organizing skateboard series immediately. It was no longer the MESS—it was just messy. I knew that if I kept trying, it would become work, so I moved back to California and got paid to work at TWS.


So what happened to everybody? Plenty of skaters stayed put and kept building their local scenes. The MESS also inspired a new generation of skaters, some of whom were more excited by product tosses than actual skating.

I recently took a chance with Google and performed a search for Mike Kays. He ran MESS #3 (1984) in Elizabethtown, KY, the only MESS contest held in a trailer park and a great contest, despite the low turnout (the urban skaters were too scared to attend)

As I scanned down the results, I saw one that mentioned skateboarding. It was a link for the PASS—the Pacific Amatuer Skateboard Series in Hawaii. Hmmm, sounded a bit familiar.

I sent an inquiry asking if this Mike Kays in Hawaii was the same one who ran a contest in Kentucky 18 years earlier. The reply came quickly and in the same friendly, easy-going manner I remembered back in '84. Yes, it was the same Mike Kays (that's him to the left). He also built a massive wooden bowl on a military base. Mike's oldest son, Chris, was featured in a Louisville photo essay in a recent issue of Transworld, and his son also used to be sponsored by Volcom, the company that Marty Jimenez works for. Everybody together, "It's a small world..."

And, of course, there were the MESS skaters who turned pro: Ray Underhill, Bill Danforth, Jeff Kendall, Marty Jimenez, and Bob Pribble from the core MESS founders. There were also Tom Groholski, Henry Gutierrez, Alan Midgett, John Grigley, and probably a few others who competed in the '84 series. Many skaters got sponsored during the MESS, including myself.

Mike Hill and Chris Carter started Alien Workshop. Joe Bowers joined them as an employee after working for Skate Rags for many years. Jeff Kendall works for NHS. Ray Underhill works for Eastern Skate Supply and is the webmaster for Tony Hawk Inc. Bryan Ridgeway worked for Tracker for many years and is now at Birdhouse. Brian Beauchene started his own skate shop. Bill Ferguson opened a skatepark.

After the MESS, skateboarding took off again. Our old ramps rotted. People moved to California, complained about it, and moved somewhere else. A few stayed and made it better. Some of us kept skating, some of us stopped, some of us cursed the thought of it. A few of us stayed in contact.

As I began contacting skaters I had not seen or talked to in 8, 12, 16 years, I realized that it wasn't like my recent 20-year high school reunion, where I felt that I had nothing in common with most of the people there. With the MESS, it was like I was picking up from the last contest, only this time I was organizing a website instead of a contest.

Many of us are talking about an actual reunion—similar to how we began talking about a series 20 years ago. Who knows where this could lead, but, this time, I really don't care if it rains.

— Britt Parrott, July 2002