Paul aka “Bode”

Hey All— My name is Paul and I am a native of Houston. I started skating the streets about 16 years ago. I met a girl at the old Emo’s bar. She talked about skating later that night. At the time I was really into skateboarding and had my board with me. So…I joined a handful of skaters that night. They skated into a bar…wow…this is cool.

The next day, I bought a pair of in-lines (first generation) and skated parking lots and sidewalks for the next two weeks. I heard about a skate group with the funny name of “In-Line Swine”. They met at a bar downtown called “Fuzzy’s”. Turned out it was a bar that mostly catered to Houston Police. Somehow, for some reason, this was also a skater hangout. The cops stayed on one side, the skaters on the other. In-Line Swine met every Tuesday and Thursday night. If it rained, we just sat and drank.

I started doing trips that were planned around skating. I did a Zephyr skate trip in Holland, skated the Philly Freedom skate 3 different times, did the San Francisco Friday night skate, skated the Northshore Inline Marathon twice, the Round Rock in-line Marathon many times, skated Washington DC, Dallas, and many other cities.

I got the skating nickname “Bode”(Bō’ dē) because I like to skate sideways—with one skate facing forward and one facing back. It’s so much more stable that way. I have heard it called “Side Surfing” and “Catalan” during the X-games. Back in the early 90s there was a line of skatewear t-shirts that featured a skeleton skating that way—called ‘Bode Designs’. I had a Bode shirt, but it died. So that’s where ‘Bode’ comes from!

This will be my 3rd time overseas. I have been to England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Holland. So this trip will cover some new ground for me. Dana #1 and I will spend a few days in Spain before the trip. She spent a few years growing up there.