Dreaming of Useless Wooden Toyzzzzzz...

New Deal x CouchCurbs
1 x CouchCurb
1 x Dreamy Fleece Blanket
1 x Collab Sticker Pack

Available Friday 2/5 at www.couchcurbs.com

@SteveCaballaro is such an #Skateboardinglegend that he was inducted into the @SkateboardingHallOfFame in 2010. #Stevie ranks as a #MacroInfluencer though I have always known him as just a #Mega #SkateboardingEnthusiast!

Cab was on the cover of the new @TransworldSkate magazine in the inaugural issue May/June 1983, at the Palmdale backyard ramp doing and indy air over the channel with a photo by #FrankHawk...

I thought I would share some #SkateboardingHistory along with a few stories about our latest #NewDealArtistEdition that will drop Wednesday at 12:43 PM PST. Go to the @NewDealSkateboards website for more details. If you missed his contribution to the #NewDeal1990 show, dig a little deeper as I take you back even further...

Our paths first crossed when @MikeMcGill introduced us in July of 1980 at #MarinaDelRaySkatepark on my first trip to California. Before that I had basically known #Cab through magazines and events over the years.

I thought I would share a few things from my #printedMedia @LookBackLibrary powered archives with these early 80’s images that are burned into my brain (and maybe into yours too). Enjoy...

caption: CAB shared the cover of @Skateboardermagazine’s #ActionNowMagazine in the Nov 1980 issue at the #ColtonGoldCup contest. He wrapped up the #GoldCupSeries at the end of 1980 with a win at the #UplandCombiPool where he unleashed his namesake trick the #Caballerial

In the summer of 1981 he visited Florida at the #KonaSumerNationals @KonaSkatepark and took his first solo @ThrasherMagCover on that trip with the win beating out my Florida #SkateBros showing us his expression of #SkateTivity that still flows with today. I had a front row seat judging that contest and was totally impressed. This Sep '81 issue was the 9th and final large format 10 ½” x 14 ¼” newsprint format issue of #Thrasher

Stevie Got his first interview and another cover of #ThrasherMagazine Feb 1982...

Stevie also came out to @KonaSkatepark in 83 and ventured with a few other California pros to ride our new #StPeteRamp in 83, but #Cab did not beat out @TonyHawk that day for the $50 first place prize on a #BackYardRamp. The #StPeteRamp set the standard for skateboarding ramps to progress in the 80’s, with 16ft of flat 8 ½” Transitions and 1 1/2 ft of vert.

At that time in life I was just peddling my #SchmittStix rails, and was much more well known for building ramps than for making boards.

In the early 80’s in the #BackYardRamp era we communicated thru photocopied zines that we would send to each other thru the mail. With magazines having closed down, this was the only obtainable skate communication by our generation at the time.

 Above we see a picture of Stevie doing an Indy air that day in the zine that our #RampLocals made, created by @Grigley @Twelve1seven @BillProcko @ChuckHults @CBsk8Mag  @Chuck_Hults  #JustForFun #JustForFunZine

The examples above are just a few highlights of the early years of the influence of @SteveCaballero

Stevie has always expressed his #SkateTivity on the board and off in so many ways that have inspired us all.

This #MyStevieStory, and it's perpetual, as #SteveCaballero will never be done contributing to our #SkateboardCulture

When @AndyHowell43 told me Stevie was going to be part of our #ArtistEdition I was blown away. As never rode my products but has ridden the results of my work in skateboarding since the 80’s. I can proudly say at least he rode some of the big ramps I built back in the 80’s.

Thanks for the influences #Stevie as my actions in skateboarding have always been influenced by my fellow skateboarders and I react to what I see taking place. You're part of #MyNewDealStory and beyond...

Even though we met back in July of 1980, we hadn't ever done a project together officially... until now!

Our interaction has always been strictly as fellow #SkateboardingEnthusiast, but I'm sure our paths will continue to cross for a long time to come... 

After all, it's skateboarding.

#PaulSchmitt

#ProfessorSchmitt

#ProfessorPaulSchmitt

The word "Legend" in skateboarding is thrown around too easily in my opinion, but Stevie Caballero is a true skateboarding legend. That, I know everyone would agree with.

Growing up in London in the late 70's, Stevie was on my wall in an ad, and he was wearing rector elbow pads on his knees. That image is embedded in my brain.

Just a few years later I was lucky enough to session with him and Mike McGill at Crystal Palace in the early 80's, when those guys came to town on the way to the Swedish skate camp. That was an amazing experience for us skaters, and it gave us a massive boost.

Much later when I moved to Northern California, I found myself skating in Stevie's back yard in San Jose and regularly skating in the same sessions and later entering contests together. I never placed close to Stevie, except for the Raging Waters lip trick contest where I finished in 4th right behind him.

I remember watching the Joe Lopes Ramp Jam (RIP Joe) and in the video of that contest Stevie was doing so many groundbreaking tricks. He was on another level, Frontside and backside boneless, Les Twists, Miller Flips over the channel as I recall and going so high on that small ramp.

The crazy thing is after being around him for so many years is that I still have the same feeling, like, 'That is Stevie!" It's, in a way, awkward, because I spent so much time looking at him in the mags and his photo being on my wall... and here I am in his presence. It's just the massive influence he had on us all from that era.

Stevie is a true professional on and off his board, and for him to do this Collab with New Deal is incredible.

Thank you, Stevie, for being you...

~ Steve Douglas

Steve Douglas - Half cab to feeble fakie, raging Waters, Photo: O

First off, I believe it's safe to say that everyone who rides a skateboard has been influenced by Steve Caballero, whether they know it or not. If you are an old ripper like me, the influence is obvious and intuitive, affecting your smith grinds, boneless ones and, dare I say, Caballerials. A generation younger and you’ve watched Stevie in Bones Brigade videos, and probably used his avatar as a proxy for your own skills in the famous video game, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. If you are younger, like two generations younger than me, you are influenced by the prevailing Vans skate shoe, The Half Cab, and by countless tricks and permeations of tricks on all terrains that Steve Caballero may have done originally in a pool or on an old wooden halfpipe in the early 80’s. Suffice it to say, Stevie’s inspiration and influence is woven into the fabric of modern skateboarding in many more ways than one.

My Stevie Story starts in 1984 with a visceral, first hand, DIY experience which bridged the divide between the weather beaten asphalt ditches of Virginia Beach on the East Coast, and the infamous glossy red curbs and superior ramp terrain in the NorCal city of San Jose California. It continued through many contests, sessions, art projects, and collabs together, and I expect it will continue for the rest of my life. 

Stevie is an inspiration and a role model, but most of all, I consider him a friend. I’m so stoked to have him featured in this NEW DEAL x CAB Artist Edition, another amazing experience for me and a new chapter of #mynewdealstory.

A Howell original ink and whiteout drawing from 1984, when I was 15, a frontside skeleton boneless miller flip in a banked pool, with “Faction” spray painted on the wall of the pool. I sent this to Stevie by mail and he published it on the cover of his infamous SPEEED ‘Zine #8. The original is now in the @skateboardmuseum in Germany.

The only remaining post-fire photo of my Sic Nature zine with Stevie doing a big frontside ollie at the Mile High Ramp in NorCal.

Handwritten letters and art trades brought so many of us in the early days together through art and a love for skating. ‘Zines and the discovery of early photocopied self-publishing helped me see things on a larger scale, and influenced my future decision to pursue art. In a tiny 80’s skate scene, I was able to remotely connect with Stevie and other pro skaters in California by writing letters from my little wooden desk in my bedroom in Virginia Beach.

Since the scene was so small, anyone who skated was stoked to have contact with any skater anywhere. Hence, through these zines and letters we formed an early network, first on the east coast, then nationally, then even reaching other parts of the world. It was one of the experiences which helped me see greater possibilities early on. Stevie, his Faction bandmate Gavin O’Brien, and other pros gave me crucial insight into the skate scene in the skate mecca in California.

The artist, Steve Caballero, with artist compadre and NEW DEAL co-founder Andy Howell, at the opening of the NEW DEAL 1990 Exhibition at Subliminal Projects gallery in Los Angeles in 2019.

A Caballero deck that Stevie gave to my son True on the occasion of True’s 3rd birthday in Redwood City, near San Jose, a decade ago.

“Stay Creative”, a motto we’ve always lived by...

10 years later, the story continues, and inspiration comes in many forms... The artist at DesignerCon inspiring an up-and-coming member of the next creative generation with a Cab Dragon collectible figure. My son, True, is an aspiring artist and still a die hard Caballero fan. (IG @stevecaballero @burritoking957)

I traded art, photos, and letters with Stevie during the ‘80’s for our ‘zines, even before we met at the Faction show in Norfolk, or the Mt Trashmore Pro Vert Contest in Virginia Beach when I was 14-18 years old. It’s crazy to think about it because my own son is doing art and skating now and he’s 13 already. 

These were my formative years to say the least, and the skaters I looked up to, many of whom I’d come to be friends with and even compete with in contests, were an inspiration to live in my spirit and always stay true to my calling.

That approach has served me for my whole life, and I owe it in part to Stevie, through his early inspiration on and off the board.

Me, my daughter, Love, and Stevie with one of his early prints at a show we both exhibited in at CUKUI Gallery in San Jose in 2011.

And so many years later, Stevie has inspired me again with his art, and the way he has attacked the brush and ink just like he rides a skateboard, improving and innovating with every twist and turn.

Stevie took a break from the Gentlemans Ride in 2019 to roll up to our house for a NEW DEAL afternoon party for the artists and team. (photo with my wife Ginger @shebuddha)

Old faction flyer from Stevie and Gavin O’Brien around 1985.

A NorCal-centric letter from Faction lead singer Gavin O’Brien (yes, brother of Scurbs Skate Gang fiend and Santa Cruz Pro Corey O’Brien), circa 1985.

A photo of me and Stevie having a laugh outside the Faction’s last show in Los Angeles, CA, Feb 2020.

A much needed catch up with Stevie and my old Santa Cruz am teammate Jeff Kendall backstage at the Street League Contest in Los Angeles.

Street League grandstanding...

Stevie, thanks for the early inspiration and inclusion when I was a secluded East Coast (Virginia Beach) kid skating, dreaming, and trading zines just for the love of it, and later for the genuine camaraderie you shared as pro skaters in the late 80’s and early 90’s, when that dream came true.

That was a time when skating was still counterculture, even underground, and such a small and stoked scene, so I’m grateful for connecting with kindred spirits like you.

All the art stuff together has just been a bonus!! My son still had the board you gave him 26 years later on his 3rd birthday hanging on his wall, until the fire 🔥, but the love and support you shared with us afterwards will never be forgotten! I’m sure we’ll be having you over for dinner and an art sesh in the near future!

~ Andy Howell

A short video for the incoming NEW DEAL X CAB capsule. Enjoy!