Jon Swinamer grinding the hip, Halifax bowl 2008, Chris Bright photo.

Burly Caps are the highest quality replacement caps for skateboard knee pads, hand-made from UHMW polyethylene, and available to fit 187, Boneless, and Pro Designed pads. they will outlast your knee pads, and perhaps outlast your knees. 

Burly Caps are available for the first time in years for $30 post paid, shipped with the correct velcro. Paypal orders, and enquiries can be sent to greg.baller@gmail.com

From left to right: 187, Boneless, and Pro Designed. Top row are manufacturer stock caps, and the bottom row are hand-made BURLY CAPS.

BURLY T SHIRTS now available!! BURLY OG logo available in black, and BURLY Life Expectancy logo available in white. Quality Hanes tagless T's, $25 postpaid. Paypal to greg.baller@gmail.com.

                                                                          

 

My first pair of Rector knee pads, Edmonton 1982, Huber’s ramp. Repairing them became a ritual over the years, as wear and tear from plywood, masonite, and concrete added up. Such was the case back then: equipment was hard to get, and fixing stuff was normal. 

Brian Belija, layback air, Calgary 1983. Greg Baller Photo. Brian was cutting pieces from plastic buckets,and making extensions for Rector recaps. The bottom velcro strap would always get worn out from sliding, and this was the first time I saw an attempt to combat that problem. You can also see he made a plastic slider for the toe of his shoes. It was this kind of thinking that went down in the dead of winter in the Great White North…..

Calgarians ripped, and with each subsequent visit, the skating got more radical. Barry Heibert, Calgary 1983, with a face high Lein air and some rotten Rector pads. Greg Baller Photo.    Mike Pust, overhead backside air, Calgary 1984, Greg Baller photo. Early generation Smith Caps on some modified Rectors.                           

                                       

John Gibson, Andrecht, Del Mar 1984, Steve Huber Photo. Rector knee pads were still the norm, and the bottom strap was still fastened in the front. Big guys like Craig Johnson and Neil blender were sewing two pairs of Rectors together around this time.

Neil Blender, Vancouver 1985, Greg Baller photo. Everybody who skated vert at this time spent time fixing and modifying their gear out of necessity. Shoe Goo, duct tape, scraps of leather and plastic, and the needle and thread were all part of the mid-80’s deal.

Kevin Roebuck slashes Lake Eden’s capsule bowl, Edmonton 1986. Greg Baller photo. By this time, Rectors with Smith caps were the standard-issue for vert skaters. The magazines were getting thicker, NSA contests were touring North America, and the industry was gearing up for growth like it had not seen in a decade. For those already entrenched, the backyard scene flourished.

 

Greg Baller, backyard air, Edmonton 1986, Steve Huber photo.

 

Greg Baller, sweepers, in and around the Toronto area 1987. Orangeville ramp photo by Perry Gladstone, Damn photo by Mark Hesselink.

 

 Tom Boyle, winter method, Pastor’s 1987, Greg Baller photo. Pro Designed caps, salvaged from a dead pair, stuck onto beat Rectors.  

 

Cow Ramp 1988. Clockwise from top left: Tom Boyle, channel to Smith with Bill Weiss posing sexy; Justin Bokma tent tragedy; Steve Kotsopolos, ollie; Steve Coffey, lein; and Brent Jordan, smith. Greg Baller photos. Steve had a pair of the new Rector Aggressor pads with the first ever Burly Caps which had been hand-made by fellow Toronto legend Eugene. Eugene was a tinkerer from way back, and had cooked up these chunky UHMW caps, and I was blown away by how much tougher they were than any commercially available cap.

Greg Baller, Toronto Skate Works 1988, Perry Gladstone photo. These would be my last set of store-bought, flimsy, polystyrene injection-molded disposable re-caps. Eugene had a great idea with his UHMW caps, and when I got to Halifax, I sourced some plastic, and got busy. Early versions were very crudely shaped, but people were stoked.

 

John Raimondo, St. Andrew’s ramp Halifax 1989, Greg Baller photos. Some early Burly Caps duct-taped onto John’s double Pro Designed goalie pads.  John and I worked at PRO SKATES in Halifax, and partnered up to make Burly Caps as a little side venture. We were making caps for everybody in town, and showing them to people on the road. Folks got stoked.

Greg Baller, Turf clover 1989. Perry Gladstone photo.

Other skaters, shops, and distributors were interested in getting Burly Caps, so John and I started making more. By 1990, we had shipped over 1000 pairs all over North America. 

Sam Hitz, sporting a BURLY CAP, TURF, Pete DiAntoni photo poached from THRASHER website, here is the full article http://www.thrashermagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2678&Itemid=38

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Rob Bell, St. Andrew’s ramp Halifax 1990, Greg Baller photo. The early-90’s saw some changes, the biggest was losing the indoor space for our vert ramp in Halifax in about 1993. A lot of dudes moved away to Vancouver to skate. We worked hard and lobbied the city to build an outdoor bowl, which we got in 1995. There were mini ramps, and some natural terrain, but basically we went over a decade without vert, just like so many other locals worldwide.

Mike Prangnell, kickflip, Fall River 1993, Greg Baller photo.

Nothing funnier than giving a newspaper photographer illegitimate pseudonyms…..Rob Bell and Greg Baller clearing the “pit”, winter 1996, Halifax! 

 

Selwyn Sharples, frontside air, Halifax bowl 1997, Greg Baller photo.

Jon Swinamer, corner grind, Area 51 Halifax 1998, Greg Baller photo. Concrete/brick lip on wood/masonite corner. We were starved for real vert situations, and ceiling heights dictated form….dudes lived in this warehouse!!!

 

Barry Walsh, ollie at Whiterock BC 1999, Greg Baller photo. Travel, as always, was the way to experience other scenes, and to ride terrain that was exciting. 1999 saw me skate over 50 concrete parks in North America, on an eight month long road trip. The new concrete revolution was brewing hard, and suddenly knee pads were being dusted off after a long dark period!

Rob Bell rolling into the newly-replicated Combi at Vans, 1999. Greg Baller photo. 

Three clippings from Concrete Powder Magazine, from the Y2K. Aside from the road trips, we were surviving on mini ramps and our little bowl. Trips became annual affairs to hit concrete.

2001 trip coverage from Concrete Powder Magazine.

Losing the Area ramp sucked balls. This town was hurting for skate terrain. People got busy with the City….

And the wheels of bureaucracy began to spin…….when Hussey makes the newspaper, you know something’s about to happen.

Greg Baller, layback Halifax 2006, Mike Tompkins photo.

We got a major concrete park here in Halifax in 2006, and I had picked up a pair of 187 knee pads in Encinitas that year as well. Although the stock caps were thick and slid nicely, they of course wore through surprisingly quick, and so did everyone else’s. Soon, Burly Caps were being baked up to fit the new pads…..

Obligatory lifestyle photo. Dale Hussey and myself sliding Burly, Halifax 2008, Chris Bright photo.

Dale Hussey, Halifax 2009, Chris Bright photo.

Greg Baller, Fontana 2009, Chris Bright photo. Doing a blog makes me realize that all the decent photos that I have of myself are pretty much of layback grinds. Do I care? No. I have been actively skating now since 1976, and still get excited every time I get rolling! My elbow pad is the same one I have had since my first set of Rectors in 1982. I have re-lined it, re-backed it, re-strapped it, re-velcroed it, and re-backed it again. 27 years for that stink-pad…. luckily, I don’t often slide out on my ELBOWS!!! This is about KNEE PADS!! Too many laybacks? Sorry. This one is rad though!

John Raimondo slaying one back at Green Lake Washington June 28, 2009!!!!

 

Just this year, after my buddy Gary gave me some Boneless caps and said, “Make me some Burly Caps to fit my Boneless pads” I decided to offer Burly’s up to whoever wants them. 

Gary Harris, invert, Green Lake 2009, John Raimondo photo. His Boneless stock caps look like most people’s: WRECKED! Burly Caps now available for Boneless thanks to Gary!!