Gentle Jones Interview by Brink
Photos by Angie Gray
Brink: How long have you been skating?
GJ: I got my first skateboard in 1979 for Christmas. It was a solid oak Gordon and Smith Warptail. I fell in love immediately and I’ve been skating ever since. I am 52 years old this year. I still love skating just as much as when I started, the feeling of freedom and gliding across the landscape is magical. There is nothing else like it.
Brink: How long have you been in Delaware? What city do you currently live in?
GJ: My family lived in Mingo County, West Virginia since the 1600s, they moved to Delaware in 1964. Currently, I live in beautiful Prices Corner, Delaware, the finest place in the world.
Brink: What are the positive effects skateboarding had on you and your life?
GJ: Skateboarding changed everything about my life. As a kid it was a fun activity and it was easy to meet other skaters and make friends that way. After high school I got a job at our local skate shop, Henry’s, I was also sponsored on the shop team and got noticed by a few other east coast skate companies. I got on Soul Trip skateboards and Toxic wheels. Shortly thereafter I got on Dead End skateboards and went to New York to work for them in 1992. In 1995 I drove to California to skate in their CASL contest series (the only year long contest series in the country at the time) I was skating contests every weekend from 95 to 96 winning trophies at all of them. In 1996 I got first place for the entire year, the whole season, which is one of my proudest moments. Anyhow, all of those contests I would show up early and volunteer to help set up. I ended up on Tim Payne and Dave Duncan’s ramp crew and we built ramps all over for amateur and pro events, we built street courses all over California and vert ramps for huge pro contests. One vert ramp we built was on a mountain for a snowboard / skateboard festival called Board Aid that was an absolute blast, I am in the background of a 411 video that covered the event. Another memorable ramp I worked on in 1996 was for the Vans Triple Crown vert contest at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, I remember one day after work I had a few hours free time in Vegas so I went to skate this amazing drainage ditch I knew about which was long and smooth and had enough incline that you were cooking halfway down, it was fast as heck. Well, I got to the ditch and there was one guy already there, Tony Alva. Tony was the biggest skater in the world in the 1970s, a total legend. We skated this ditch together for hours and both of us were really on it that day, landing everything, it was amazing. As we were both leaving, he told me I was ripping and took the shoes off his feet and gave them to me. Turns out we have the exact same size feet because those shoes fit me like Cinderella. They were custom black shoes with silver stitching on the tongue that said “ALVA” and I wore them like magic slippers, I skated them to death. I should have kept them. That is one of my personal favorite memories, it was an awesome day. Tony is a big inspiration to me, back then in 1996 he was considered an old head, a relic from a bygone era, and he was only 39 years old. Nowadays its way more common to be skating after 30, but then it was rare. Tony inspired me to keep skating as long as I can, and just like him I get my own skateboards pressed exactly the way I like them. Over the past decade I’ve sold hundreds of boards I designed, it’s a great feeling getting good wood under the feet of people who love skating as much as I do. Its more than a hobby, its truly a lifestyle and a culture. I am proud to have made my own small contribution from Delaware.
The last contest I skated was in 2022, a freestyle contest in Ithaca, New York, where I got third place in the Masters Pro Division.
Brink: Have any pros come out of Delaware over the years?
GJ: Dave Hackett, who was a World Champion skater in the 1970s, was born in Wilmington, Delaware. Chuck Treece and Ned “Peanut” Brown were also born here in Wilmington and turned pro. Those are my OGs and I am proud to know them. They still skate and they are all rippers. I got to share the stage with Chuck Treece a few years back when we threw a concert to raise funds for the Wilmington Skatepark, it was a heck of a show and now the skatepark is here for anyone to enjoy so I am super proud of that, being able to contribute my time for the next crop of local skaters. And there are pros from the generation after me, Willy Akers, Brian Peacock, Mark DelNegro. As a teenager I also looked up to locals like John Conrad, Pete Lindell, Rob Cocco, those dudes were all absolute rulers back then and could hold their own with anyone. There have always been world class skaters in Delaware.
Brink: What changes in the local scene have you seen happen over the years?
GJ: In the 1970s there was a concrete skatepark in Wilmington called Easy Rider and in Smyrna they had one called High Roller. Both only lasted a few years and were demolished. There are very few photos of either place and I’ve never seen any video footage of them. But Ned Brown got his nickname “Peanut” from the Peanut Bowl at Easy Rider skatepark because he ruled it. In the 80s and 90s there were zero skateparks in Delaware but now they have nice skateparks all over the state. The Wilmington Skatepark off Maryland Avenue is a 10-minute drive from my house and its my favorite, if you are willing to get up early you can have it all to yourself.
From Prices Corner I can drive 15 minutes and be in Pennsylvania, Maryland, or New Jersey. Within an hour or so I can be in New York City, Baltimore, D.C. and every place in between. I’ve skated all those cities, in fact I’ve skated all over the country. I skated Philly heavy when Love Park was wide open. Its only 20 miles from my house. One time in 1991 skating at Love Park Ken Salerno took a photo of me ollieing into the fountain (one foot ollie) and that was published in Thrasher Magazine in their first Philly article, might be the first published photo of anyone skating in Love Park. That was such a rad spot. In the winter time late at night I’d go to Philly to skate in the subway under City Hall to get out of the weather, it was smooth and dry and its also a rad spot with stairs and gold handrails. One winter I went underground there with a couple of friends and while we were skating two cops rolled up on us in a golf cart and jumped on one of my friends and started beating him with billy clubs. Needless to say we made a quick exit. Soon after that skating at Love became a bust and I heard around that time you could get a ticket for skating Philly that was hundreds of dollars, which for a young person is a small fortune. I was born broker than a buzzard in a boneyard, so I am inclined to avoid large fines. So I’ve stayed closer to home since then and never had trouble like that around here. There was a time when skating was heavily discouraged and almost perceived as some type of outlaw activity (which it is not) but these days its perfectly acceptable and people are stoked on it. I haven’t been thrown out of anywhere in years, I think those days are long gone and I’m happy to see that skateboarding is accepted by everyone. Now that skateboarding is in the Olympics I’m willing to say its America’s greatest pastime.
Brink: As a long time skater yourself, what would you say to people who still don’t really understand skateboarding or still think it is “dangerous” or harmful or bad for kids, property, etc.?
GJ: Skateboarding as a form of transportation is totally safe. As a sporting activity its no riskier than anything else like mountain biking, horseback riding, or snow skiing. I would actually say that skating is safer than all of those because you can simply step off a skateboard, but if you fall off a bicycle you are going to get smoked. I’m in my fifties and I skate very mellow, its not dangerous at all if you know how to ride. I think people who don’t skate see video clips of professional skaters getting buck on handrails and huge gaps and yeah there is a risk to that, but keep in mind that is high-level showing off. Most skaters are just doing fun tricks for their own enjoyment, having good times with friends. When I skate with my friends none of them die, we leave the session with smiles. Most of my friends have old bodies delicate as Faberge eggs, we are very careful and we do just fine.
Skateboarding does not cause property damage. A person with a keen eye can point out where a curb or a ledge has been skated. Those are signs of human activity, and I think that’s a beautiful thing. An archeologist will dig up a mortar and pestle from thousands of years ago and show you the wear on the surface from use, that’s not damage, it shows value. It shows human activity, an artifact of the richness of a human experience.
Brink: Talk about the role skate shops in Delaware.
GJ: When I was a kid in Delaware skateboards were mainly sold in bicycle shops, it was that way all over the Mid-Atlantic area in the 1980s. Our local shops then were Henry’s bike shop, Dunbars, Wooden Wheels, Bike Line, they all mainly sold bikes but would have a small wall of skate decks and wheels, trucks, and hardware for sale too. That’s just the way it was back then. The selection was limited. These days we have dedicated skate shops who specialize in skateboarding and are full of skate gear. The two shops closest to me are Switch and Kinetic and they are both great shops run by awesome people who skate. But you can also go to the mall and get a board at Zumiez. Its amazing how accessible gear is now, you can get ahold of anything easily.
Brink: What is the skatepark scene like these days?
GJ: We get cold winters. We get snow. When I was in high school I’d drive hours into Pennsylvania to skate an indoor park like Cheapskates, Spunk, or Shimerville, and they charged a fee to skate. Those places are all long gone.
I remember one time skating Cheapskates back then, it was basically empty, only me on the street course and a little kid, like elementary school age, who just stayed on the vert ramp. He was so little he looked like a chicken nugget on this huge vert ramp. That kid was Bam Margera. I had no clue back then that he would grow up to be a TV star and a world famous party animal. Bam lives in West Chester which is right up the street from Prices Corner. Over the years I skated with him plenty.
We don’t have any indoor parks in Delaware currently. I don’t skate outside at all when its cold so every winter I basically pile out and gain like 10 pounds I have to work out after a cold winter. At the time I am writing this, its early spring and I am still working off 5 pounds of blubber from all that good holiday eating. We really need an indoor skatepark in Wilmington.
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