May 8, 2004

© Skate Scene Media

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With the planned release of the new Germs deck on Monday our crew went up to Los Angeles to visit Darby's mom Faith and give her a grip of the new decks. The deck has a Darby Crash photo that many have seen around forever of Darby holding his skateboard. Also meeting us was Gary Leonard who is an award winning photo journalist, he took that photo of Darby in March of 1980. Faith still lives in the same house that Darby lived in before he moved up to Hollywood.

Faith was pretty emotional about seeing her beloved Darby, who's real name was Jan Paul Beahm memorialized on the bottom of a skateboard. She told us a pretty funny story about how he started to skateboard.

When he was 16 he took his drivers license test and scored a 100 so of course mom thought that this would equate to a good driver. Well Darby ended up totaling his mom's station wagon that he used to get around in. Without a car now, he still needed to get around so he got himself a skateboard and that is how he started on skateboards. While we were there visiting she told us lots of stories about Darby and all the crazy stuff he would do. These were stories that have not been told in books and other places before.

She brought out a bunch of Darby's old stuff that many of us had never seen before ... well atleast not in the tell all books that are out now. The plastic bag pictured here had some baby photos, his birth bracelet and vaccination card from when he was born in 1958. The thing that was the bitchenest was the original folder Darby created that had all the lyrics hand written, this folder was thick. We just could not believe that some 24 years after his death we were looking at all this stuff, it was eerie and cool at the same time. The bathroom in the house Faith described as a make shift barber shop where Darby and his friends would cut and dye their hair. The room next to the bathroom was Darby's where his mom said that he went and got a lock so that he could lock the door so no one could bother him while he sat in there for hours and wrote lyrics.

Faith took us outside to the corner where Darby way back paid his tribute to David Bowie by carving Bowie's name in some wet cement. Out in the back of the house was a hand print that Pat Smeer, Darby's long time childhood friend etched when the poured the cement.

One thing that was very noticeable was that there was this almost skatepark in the back of Darby's house. What we mean is that there was an 80 year old avocado tree in the back that the roots had got so large that it had pushed up the concrete to make some small banks to grind on as well as a pretty good gap to ollie over. The kids that live in the apartments back there were surprised how we turned a small courtyard and walk way into a session spot -we think that they may carry on from here. It was now getting late and we needed to get back so we said our good byes for now and headed out. This was a great afternoon, we visited with a very cool lady and sessioned Darby Crash's backyard ...... not too bad for a Saturday afternoon ..... unforgettable.

The deck is currently available at skate shops and better Punk record stores, so get them there. If they do not have them, ask them to order the decks in from their connections, should be easy.

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