Stacy Peralta

Stacy Peralta Instagram – A few followers recently reacted to a line in one of my posts regarding Jay, Tony and I “building our careers.” It wasn’t necessarily building as it was finding the sweet spot and staying there. Before the Zephyr skate team existed we were members of the Zephyr surf team, competing in local surf contests as the junior members and operating under the influence of the elder members; Ronnie Jay, Bill Urbany, Wayne Saunders, Wayne Inouye and others. They were our role models as were the great Hawaiian and Australian surfers; BK, Bertleman, Lopez, Reno, Terry Fitz, etc. At that time the holy grail that all surfers were chasing was how to earn a living surfing so that we could surf all day and avoid conventional jobs. Jay and Tony spent quality time on the North Shore trying to make that happen. But when the urethane wheel appeared and skateboarding blew up, the opportunities that came to us through skating dwarfed what surfing offered, so we came to it with the same desire to make our living riding skateboards all day and night and not have to “work.” Alva didn’t win the world championships and start Alva Skates while sitting peacefully in the Lotus position, he made these things happen with intention so he could support his love of skating and surfing. Same with me, it was a dream come true to be paid to ride my skateboard because it allowed me to skate all day, every day. Jay himself told me he wanted to be involved with a skate company and have his own team. It was the dream we were all after. Who wants to work when you can skate or surf all day? So if you can find a way to get paid to do what you love doing, then you’ve found the holy grail, at least the holy grail we were all searching for….as for Tony and I, we’re still living that dream that began when we were both 16. | Posted on 24/Jun/2023 19:47:26