Originally appeared in SkateBoarder magazine vol. 2, No. 2 Fall 1975

Stacy Peralta is prototypical of the emerging new style in skateboarding today. At sixteen years, he has been riding skates "off and on" since the age of six (after watching him, one suspects he was mostly on). Stacy describes his early days as mostly "a downhill surf-skate style based around weight shifting."

Recently, along with some friends from the Santa Monica area, he entered the Del Mar Ocean Festival Contest just to see what it would be like . . .and somehow wound up placing sixth or eighth in freestyle. Until this point, Peralta had considered himself a "surf skater as opposed to a trickster." This initial exposure to the varied criteria of freestyle competition caused Stacy to concentrate on learning some of the "conventional maneuvers" under the tutelage of Chris Dawson and Tom Waller. Apparently his endeavors in this direction are beginning to pay off, judging by his recent competitive outings:

Santa Barbara; 2^nd slalom, 3^rd freestyle
Huntington Beach; 1^st slalom, 3^rd freestyle
Los Cerritos; 3^rd overall
Long Beach, 1^st slalom
Orange County; 1^st freestyle, 2^nd overall
Steve’s South Bay; 1^st slalom, 2^nd freestyle

Many seasoned skaters now consider Peralta to be the best all-around competition on the circuit, due to his unequalled proficiency in the banked, flat, downhill and slalom areas. Stacy credits his surfing and skiing experience with a lot of his success, because the weighting and unweighting actions are so similar to skating.

Stacy enjoys free skating for fun, and really doesn’t "dig the formalization of skateboard contests;"consequently, he plans to continue in organized meets "only as long as it remains interesting." As a sidelight, Stacy wears out a pair of shoes every two weeks. He says the pants last a little longer.