A Place In The Books DVS salutes Simi Valley, California’s Skatelab for ten years of skateboarding and the continued preservation of its history. The Skatelab in Simi Valley, California is much more than just a great skatepark. Opened in December of 1997, The Lab, as owner Todd Huber calls it, is a full-blown skateboard history museum that houses what is likely the largest collection of skateboards and related memorabilia in the world. Huber, although he doesn’t admit to it, is a bona fide skateboard historian and can give an on-the-spot historical rundown on just about every piece in his collection. And his collection is staggering. Literally thousands of vintage skateboards line the walls and ceilings of the park’s entrance. Upstairs, incased in glass, is a shrine to skateboarding’s colorful past. His cases display everything—vintage scooters, old skate books and magazines, early skateboards with clay and metal wheels, kitschy skateboard toys, vintage skateboard-themed pinball machines, classic shoes, and so much more. “There’s more to skateboarding history than just skateboards,” says Huber as he dusts off an envelope that’s tucked away under a stack of boards. He reaches inside and pulls out a white yamika. “This was Alan Gelfand’s yamika from his wedding,” he says. “Alan invented the ollie and his wife sent it to me right after their wedding party.” Nearly everything in his collection is on public display, but Huber keeps an extensive collection of items privately stashed in his back office. “Most of this stuff is back here because I don’t have room for it up front,” he says laughing. “Some of it, however, is my private collection stuff that not many people get to see.” Like Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose, Huber has an array of bizarre prototype skateboards that went the way of the Dodo decades ago. “Skateboarding was different way back in the day,” he says dragging out what appears to be a bobsled. “This is a one of a kind knee board,” he says kneeling into the knee grooves carved into the body of the torpedo-shaped sled. “Skaters experimented with all types of different variations of skateboard designs back then. This kneeboard has urethane wheels and is weighted in the front with a 100-pound lead weight for added speed. As you can see, this thing never really took off, but it’s still a part of skateboard history.” Other strange skate aberrations like the French snow skate, a skateboard with wings, and all sorts of decks with distorted and unusual shapes line the inside walls of his private room. “This was my first skateboard,” says Huber pointing to a 1960’s-era red skateboard with a cartoon drawing of a girl on the top and the words “Surfin Suzie” inscribed below. “On the underside there was a faded address written from some place in Illinois. I wrote a letter to the address and the people living there wrote me a huge letter back explaining that the board belonged to the previous owner of the house. They gave me a ton of history about the original owner and the board. It was pretty cool.” For a guy who’s got one of the largest skateboard collections in existence, Todd is remarkably humble and, in spite of his life long involvement, is still supercharged on skateboarding. In honor of Skatelab’s ten-year anniversary and Huber’s continued devotion to skating, DVS produced 300 special Skatelab shoes using a blue and grey colorway that mimics the color of the ramps and walls inside the skate park. The shoes also feature a printed collar that features some of the many historic boards Skatelab has on its walls. “We have a lot of history with several member of the DVS family,” says Huber. Gabe Clement (DVS Skate Team Manager) used to come skate here with his red Mohawk back in the day. Torey Pudwill grew up skating here and Mike Mo too. They all came up skating Skatelab.” “I’d like to think that DVS chose to do a shoe with us because we’re a park that gives a lot back to skateboarding,” he says humbly. “Even if you can't make it to skate our bowl or see our amazing skateboard collection, you’ll be stepping into a little piece of skateboarding’s future history every time you wear our shoe.” In honor of its ten-year anniversary DVS will be hosting a special demo at Skatelab on August 22. If you’re in the area, come check it out.