Guy "Grundy" Spagnoli
A Lifetime of Achievement
Surfer
SkateBoarder
Community Servant
Who Is Guy? Photos Additional Photos
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Who is Guy 'Grundy' Spagnoli
Guy Grundy is one of downhill skateboarding's pioneers. Guy started skating in 1961 at the age of 8. Like many early skaters of his generation, Guy created his first skateboard from his sister's roller skates. "I nailed them to a 2 x 4 board with carpet stapled to the top" he fondly recalls. "The board rode really slippery and every crack was an obstacle.
At 12, he took up surfing and became an excellent surfer feeling the flow of the waves, learning to read the power line and adjusting with the wind. He also took up skiing and with the parallel stance he used in skiing, Guy applied the benefits of using that stance in downhill skateboarding as well. Guy could speed pump a surfboard as fast if not faster than most. Dorian Paskowitz use to call him "The Mosquito" down at San O' in Oceanside. "I found that weighting and un-weighting not only gave me lift on my surfboard but really made a difference on my speed skateboard."
His first sponsor was Infinity Surfboards with Steve & Berrie Bahne down in Huntington Beach. When the surf was flat, the Infinity Surf Team went skateboarding. This is how Guy first got into downhill skateboarding. The first Signal Hill race took place on October 17, 1975 and Guy heard about the event via Jim O'Mahoney who was organizing the race. I had Infinity as a sponsor and I went to Bates Leathers and Premier Helmets and told them about the event and they agreed to sponsor me. I competed in the first Downhill Skateboard Contest hosted by the United States Skateboard Association (USSA) on Hill Street in Signal Hill, Long Beach California and was able to set the first recorded Guinness Book Land Speed Record on a skateboard at 50.2 miles per hour.
Before the Signal Hill event, Guy had unofficially gone 65 mph. "I was being chased by the Infinity Surf Van. I could go pretty fast and there were many times people forgot to look at the speedometer to see what the speed was. Back then we were all having a really good time. It wasn't serious and we weren't looking to set or break any records, we were just speed boarding. Guy took first place at Signal Hill with a world speed record of 50.2 mph. "Winning took a bit to set in. But it felt great!" His board was a mahogany core made by Dave Dillberg. It had four layers of fiberglass on top and six on the bottom. It featured Tracker Trucks and red urethane wheels. This board, along with his helmet and leathers are in the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. In 1978, Guy competed in the Downhill contest on a skateboard made by Gordie Duane out of solid Mahogany that clocked in at 53 MPH.
The one thing that today's generation of downhill skaters will find remarkable is Guy's truly unique parallel stance. "My stance came from my love of skiing. I felt that my feet side by side was a good platform and I had really good control both side to side and forward to back. I could put my feet close together or separate them a bit depending on the conditions I was skating in and the width of the board I was using and I was very comfortable in that stance."
Guy admits that tucking down into his stance is pretty hard for people and being able to rock back and forth can be somewhat of a task. "It was an advantage for me also because not everyone could do it" he says. With his feet in parallel Guy had a little more control over his trucks. This stance gave Guy the stability to avoid the speed wobbles that affected so many skaters at higher speeds. After 1978, skateboarding focused mostly on vertical riding and the downhill scene seemed to fade into the background. "It really didn't affect me", recalls Guy. I was working a couple of jobs and one of them happened to be at a skateboard park named the Concrete Wave Skateboard Park in Anaheim. We had so much great talent coming through that park and riding the bowls and having that much fun back then didn't bother me a bit on the downhill. As Guy remembers, 1978 was the last race at Signal Hill that really put the screws to downhilling there. We had a lot of people get hurt because of equipment or inexperience. Not only did we hurt people in the crowd but we also had riders get hurt badly and one almost died. In 1977, McGilvery Freeman films added Guy to their hit movie, Five Summer Stories Plus 4 in a sequence called “Magic Rolling Board.” Throughout the 70s, Five Summer Stories and Five Summer Stories plus 4 toured the country 10 times in four successive versions (each proclaimed the “Final Screening”) that played to more than a million people, many of them surfers/skateboarders and many more who had never even touched a surfboard or skateboard. Other movies in the 1970s included Downhill Motion by Spyder Willis films, and The Signal Hill Speed Run 1975 – 1978. Four decades ago, Guy Grundy pioneered speed racing but he remains humble about his contribution: "It never really dawned on me that I was pioneering anything at that time. I'm stoked I helped in my own little way. Now, when I look back, I realize holy sh*t! We started this!"
Recently, Dusters California launched a deck in his honor. Guy is also featured in the Signal Hill Speed Run documentary Currently, Guy lives in Utah where he has retired. He enjoys skating, snowboarding, golfing, fishing and camping. He heads down to lower Mexico to ride waves. In terms of the current generation he is very impressed by the current downhill community. They are out there bombing these winding downhill runs and just having FUN. They are organized and safety minded, and it doesn't get any better than that. My hat is off to all those guys and gals out there skateboarding and having fun!
As Guy sees it, the renaissance of longboarding is not something that was unexpected. "Riding a longboard is natural. Sometimes it's just nice to cruise and a longboard is just the right board for cruising." But as he quickly points out; "God forbid, though, if some young gun comes riding around my house and comes riding down my hill. I'm going to grab my new Guy Grundy Model and join the fun!
Guy was born November 7th, 1952, and began surfing in 1964 at the Huntington Beach Pier. Originally one of the Huntington Beach Lifeguard Surfing group, he says. They made us wear the orange helmets whenever we surfed. He starting competing in surf contests in 1967 and won numerous trophies of surfing accomplishments in the junior division of U.S.S.A (United States Surfing Association) which then became the W.S.A.(Western Surfing Association) in the area. He won the Huntington Beach City (Men's division) contest in 1971 and in 2003.
He worked and surfed for Walden Surfboards, Infinity Surfboards, Surfline, Wayne Brown Surfboards, Carl Hayward Surfboards, Chuck Dent Bronze Aussies Surfboards and Gordie Surfboards.
He placed in the top 5 in numerous contests from 1972 all the way to the 2000s while traveling to Hawaii, Japan, France, Mexico, Central America, South America, Australia and Thailand. Guy joined the Hole In the Wall Gang for Gordie Surfboards in 1978.
Guy recalls that, "When the surf was flat we would turn to skateboarding to stay in shape and skateboarding was another form of surfing but on land. We would ride the streets and hills of neighboring cities and find locations throughout Southern California that were ideal for smooth land surfing. "I was always into going fast while surfing and skateboarding helped me find the speed lines that I needed to practice on and then bring that into the water when I surfed. "He competed all of 1978 in the WSA Masters Division taking 1st, 2nd or 3rd in all contests. He won numerous events in knee-boarding, paddle races and Surfing to help the Hole in the Wall Gang become the Number 1 Team on the West Coast of the United States. Guy 'Grundy' Spagnoli 2011 Honor Roll Hole in the Walk Gang Team Member Inductee 2011
Photos
Skater
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Surfer
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Surfing Walk Of Fame
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Surfing Walk Of Fame
4/23
Surfer
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Happily Married for 37 Years
6/23
Community Servant
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October 17th, 1975
A Life Experience Accomplishment
Signal Hill Downhill Speed Record
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Dusters Signature Board
9/23
1st Recorded Guniness World Record
10/23
World Record Board
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World Record Board
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February 1976
The Movie "Five Summer Stories +4"
'Magic Rolling Board'
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2012 California Surf Museum Need For Speed Poster
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Movie Board, Practice Board and World Record Board
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Always Promoting Safety
1975 Signal Hill
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1975 Signal Hill
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Safety Always
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Signal Hill Speed Run
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1975 Signal Hill Speed Run Painting
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Guy 'Grundy' Spagnoli - California FreeFormer Leathers
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2009 La Costa Reunion Group
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1975 Signal Hill - Guy Grundy
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