Now 67 years old, Bruce Logan began skateboarding in the late 1950s on steel wheels nailed to a two-by-four. By the early ‘60s, he was a top professional skateboarder. By the mid-‘70s, he was widely considered the best skateboarder in the world. Around the same time, Bruce and his family — mother Barbara; older brother Brian; younger brother Brad, and little sister Robin — launched Logan Earth Ski, a skateboard that outsold most other brands of the era. By the early ‘90s, the skateboarding business collapsed, Earth Ski was out of business, and Bruce was left a homeless methamphetamine addict. By 2009 he had cleaned up enough to accept his award as the first inductee to the Skateboarding Hall of Fame.
Bruce competed professionally until his last contest at age 36. Concerning that event, he said, “Tony Hawk was a kid on his way up — he called me ‘Old Man,’ and I called him ‘Gumby.’ I got the last laugh when I got fourth in that event, and he got sixth.”
Known for the risky high-speed tricks he invented like the nose wheelie where he would race downhill at up to 40 miles per hour balanced on the front two wheels, he was only hurt twice in his 60-some years skateboarding. “I was going about 40 miles per hour when I ran off my board and snapped my ankle. Another accident occurred when I did a high pirouette, landed on my board and dislocated my shoulder.”
Bruce’s worst collision, however, did not occur on a skateboard, but a bicycle. On Sept. 7, 2017, a car hit him. After suffering nine broken bones, he was Life-Flighted from a street in Oceanside to the roof of Scripps Hospital in La Jolla. With his survival uncertain, a coma was induced that lasted 18 days.
Bruce last stepped onto a skateboarded at the Simi Valley Skateboarding Hall of Fame and Museum earlier this year. “I just cruised like an old man. That’s OK; I feel lucky to be alive, clean and sober. I’m thankful to many people for my survival, but mainly the Step House where I attend Alcoholics Anonymous.”
Original Logan Earth Skis and a vast collection of other historically essential skateboards are viewable at www.skateboardinghallofame.org.
Robin Logan is currently reviving Logan Earth Ski. For more information, check her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=logan%20earth%20ski&epa=SEARCH_BOXI
