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The 4th Annual Pat Wachter Bowl Contest

Intro

Saturday

( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Contest Results Sponsors & Links Who is Pat Wachter?

Who is Pat Wachter ?

Thrasher's February 1981 "Something Else"
featuring Pat's insane, upside down
over-vert grind at Get-A-Way skate park

��   To cut to the chase and put it simply enough, Pat Wachter is Alabama's first pro skater. But wait...there's more! Pat began skating some time in the mid 1970's. As Pat will tell you, around the late 70's, there were far more talented skaters in Alabama in his opinion, however, Pat possessed the business skills to make a living riding a skateboard.

   His first experience with skateboarding began when he was riding his sister's little "toy" skateboard. What began as an after-school activity became his obsession. Soon, his father was making boards for Pat and his friends. However, Pat was working at the local skateshop, and the owner did not like the fact that Pat was riding his father's boards. That's when Pat started to get free equipment, and I guess you might say, he was "sponsored".

   Shortly after at some point in 1976, Pat got a warehouse job with skateboarding company, Southeastern Distributors. Aside from warehouse duties, he had to do many other jobs around the place, but his favorite was getting to test out new products. It was during his time there and the opportunity to " wear many hats" that he gained his experience in the skateboarding industry itself and learned the business side of things.

   In 1977, the owners of the newly built Wheel-A-Wave skate park in Birmingham, Alabama offered Pat a job as the resident pro. Although not the best skate park, at the time, it was all Alabama had. Pat made many new friends in Birmingham including Mark Eddings, still a legend among the Alabama skate scene. Pat, however, was still a wild child of sorts, and after he and his new pals got busted several times by the owners for skating and drinking at the park after hours, he was asked to turn in his key and leave.

   Luckily for Pat, Flying Wheels skate park (which was designed by Mike Williams of Gullwing fame) was being built in Gadsden, Alabama by Dave Norton. Pat applied for and got the job. At that time, Pat was riding for RMI which he describes as "one of those bandwagon companies just in it for the money" although he did like their boards. However, Pat soon switched companies when he was picked up by Sabre. Because Tim Marting who also rode for Sabre had just recently been featured doing a "rock and roll", Sabre was a hot company and treated their riders very well. Pat was stoked!

   Not long after, there were rumors of a new park being built in Huntsville, Alabama to be designed by Bill Underwood. Although Pat loved working for Dave and appreciated the opportunity he gave him, Pat felt compelled to try to get a job at the new park. Many skaters with better name recognition, bigger sponsors, etc. applied for the job, but luck smiled on Pat once more, and he got the job as resident pro of the new Get-A-Way skatepark. Oddly enough, it was a movie company out of New York that hired Pat and owned the park. They brought Pat in immediately even before the first concrete was poured to assist Bill Underwood and the contractor, Bob Mead with getting the park up and running.

   As Pat will tell you, working with and learning from Bill Underwood (designer), Bob Mead (contractor) and Duane Bigelow (poured the cement and famous for Cherry Hill, Upland Combi Pool, etc.) was the opportunity of a lifetime. However, the owners of the skate park were very rigid and ran it very strictly. The final straw for Pat was probably when Tony Alva came to visit the park. The park was closed that day, and they would not open to let Tony skate. Like most of us, Pat was shocked with disbelief. Not let Tony Alva skate?!?!? After that, the relationship between Pat and the management began to deteriorate further, and Pat was finally fired. To top it off, it was a movie producer that fired Pat with the reason given as Pat was "too wild for them". To make sure they did not see "wild" Pat again, they went a step further and banned him from the park for life! That didn't stop Pat of course, and he did sneak back in and skate the park a few times until he was threatened with being arrested the next time he was caught.

   Lucky for Pat once more, his old friend David Norton hired him back to work at Flying Wheels in Gadsden. This time he was even given a small apartment in the back of the park as part of his deal as the park's pro. With that, he had the run of the place and could even skate and party at the park after hours. Pat was happy to be back. He didn't give up on Get-A-Way though. By this time, Get-A-Way had hired a new manager who knew of Pat only by name. To get around this, Pat would use a different name to go skate the park. Even all the skaters there played along and would call Pat by his new alias while at the park and keep a lookout for the owner. It worked well, and Pat was riding the park once more.

   Not long after, the entire skate scene took a nose dive around the world. Parks and companies felt the crunch and closed shop left and right. Pat was one of the many casualties of the time and went down with the ship like so many others. That was the end of his time as a pro and making a living from skateboarding. However, he will forever have his place in Alabama's skateboarding history. Pat still skates to this day. If you ever happen to meet him, maybe you will be lucky enough to hear some of his amazing and hilarious skate stories and adventures from over the years!