I met up with Tony Alva and Christian Hosoi at the Bomb in a Bowl fingerboarding art show in Los Angeles, back in December 2013. It was the highlight of my son's brief fingerboarding career, heh.
I hadn't seen Tony in years, and frankly he seemed way more subdued. Somewhere, on Facebook I think, I'd read something about him overcoming substance abuse. Lord knows there was plenty of that back in the '70s and '80s, but I guess Tony was having some really difficult times.
This is all guesswork, since I haven't spent time with these guys lately. But he talks about it at this video clip from Vans Off the Wall, "Pass the Bucket with Tony Alva: Considered to be one of the the most influential skateboarders of all time, Tony Alva, an original Z-Boy, hit a bottom 4 years ago battling drug addiction and alcoholism."
The video's actually from 2007, so again, I can't confirm where Tony is right now with his life or recovery. I do know that he is perhaps the purest skateboarder ever, and thank goodness he's doing alright. Skated many times with him back in the day. And oh those were the days.
Watch that video. It's good.
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