Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge Timothy Volkmann on Friday ruled to appoint a public receiver for embattled private utility Big Basin Water Company (BBWC).
This is the latest development in years-long efforts to get the company to comply with state water regulations. The ruling comes as a relief to the roughly 1,200 customers who have been struggling to get safe, reliable drinking water for roughly three years
Judge Volkmann upheld his tentative ruling at a hearing on Sep. 29 and granted the State Water Resources Control Board their request to have a public receiver appointed to manage BBWC.
“The Court does not see any other viable remedy besides receivership. Finally, to prevent irreparable injury to customers, the situation needs to be addressed with immediacy,” Volkmann said in the ruling.
A receiver is a court-appointed official charged with handling a company’s finances and operations. For BBWC, a public receivership is also intended to bring it back into compliance with state water regulations.
The state water board filed a lawsuit in July 2023 against BBWC owners Thomas J.Moore and Shirley Moore after years of alleged mismanagement. The company runs sewer and drinking water services for its customers in the Big Basin area. Numerous violations by both aspects of the utility’s service prompted the water board to bring BBWC into compliance starting in 2019.
The CZU Complex Fires of 2020 severely damaged BBWC infrastructure and compromised its service capacity. Since then, customers have suffered water outages, boil notices and lack of sewer service from an inoperable wastewater treatment plant. According to the company, fixing the drinking water infrastructure alone would cost about $2.8 million.
This mire culminated with state regulators opting to pursue a public receivership in Santa Cruz County Superior Court.
At the time of the ruling, the Moores had entered into an agreement with Central States Water Resources (CSWR), a private, Missouri-based utility company, to take over operations pending a sale. Now, Silver & Wright LLP, the court-appointed receiver, is expected to take over operations, according to Volkmann’s ruling.
“I think having someone in charge of the system who is not selling it or interested in buying it is a good thing,” said Shandra Hunt, a BBWC customer. “The receiver is required to report to the judge at specific timelines, so there is oversight throughout the process.”
The ruling will be finalized sometime next week and will take effect immediately after, giving the receiver control over BBWC.
Damian Moore, son of Thomas J. Moore and former operations manager for the company, declined a request for comment.
A Watsonville man who last year arranged a meeting for sex with someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl was sentenced Thursday to two years of probation and a 120-day suspended jail sentence.
Valentin Rodriguez, 63, must also register for life as a sex offender.
Rodriguez, who taught diesel mechanics at Hartnell College until his arrest in June 2022, pleaded no contest to two charges of arranging a meeting with a minor with the intent to engage in sexual conduct.
He was caught on video by a citizen vigilante who runs the YouTube channel “Creep Catchers.” The video was posted to YouTube, where it garnered thousands of views before the channel was taken down.
Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Denine Guy appeared sympathetic to Rodriguez’s failing health, since he has end-stage renal failure. She also said he likely does not pose a danger to the community, pointing to his low score on the Static-99R, a test that determines sex offenders’ risk of reoffending.
Guy also pointed to the public attention the case got via the news and social media, and the fact that he lost his career in the aftermath of his arrest.
“That no doubt has affected his health,” she said. “His life has changed, but he has also dramatically changed.”
Rodrigez’s attorney Gary Thelander said that he relies on a dialysis machine.
“He is on the machine for 8-10 hours a day, or he will pass away,” he said. “There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it.”
Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Nick Sympson said that it was clear from Rodriguez’s chat log taken from his phone that he believed he was going to meet a 14-year-old girl when he arrived at the pre-arranged meeting place at the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf.
Rodriguez also had a key to a local hotel.
“He was clearly planning to have sex with her,” he said.
Rodriguez did not say anything during the brief hearing, but claimed he believed he was chatting with a 25-year-old bartender from Monterey.
The man who runs Creep Catcher, who goes by the name “Ghost,” said he was inspired by television journalist Chris Hansen and his show To Catch a Predator.
He now has a team of 10 people, many of whom pose as young adolescent kids in chat rooms, wait for suspects to make contact, acknowledge their age and arrange a meeting.
Since he started the channel in 2018, he has scored 381 “catches,” which have led to numerous arrests and more than 50 convictions.
“It’s just something I do on the side to help out the community,” he said.
Ghost said that he sometimes gets pushback from law enforcement officials and prosecutors, but that he makes his catches the right way.
“There are other groups out there that don’t do it as clean or as solid as we do,” he said. “Before we go and confront someone we make sure we have really solid evidence.”
The Santa Cruz meeting was not the first time Rodriguez has tried to arrange a meeting with a minor, Ghost said. About two years ago, he backed out of a meeting in San Diego with a decoy posing as a 12-year-old girl.
“I guess he got scared or spooked,” Ghost said.
Ghost and his channel that is now hosted on the website Locals.com, is one of many so-called predator catchers that have grown in popularity over the years, all of whom have their own signature styles of confronting them.
“I think the reason they’re doing it is because they are fed up with how lenient the laws are with these guys,” Ghost said. “If the laws weren’t as lenient, and if these guys really got what they deserved, there wouldn’t be a CC Unit, there wouldn’t be creep catchers doing what they’re doing.”
Sympson said that cases arising from vigilante actions make him nervous. Defense attorneys can easily challenge certain evidence taken from them.
“You never know what you’re going to get,” he said. “Most of the time when these are private citizens, that can be a dangerous situation. These are significant crimes, and there are significant consequences for them. Encountering someone could be a traumatic situation.”
Law enforcement agents, Sympson said, get specialized training to conduct sting operations.
Still, the case against Rodriguez was bolstered by the “good digital footprint” provided by CC Unit.
“I was very nervous until I got to look at the electronic evidence and assess the merits of the case.” Sympson said.
In 2017, “Smoko,” an ode to smoke breaks paired with a cheaply made but effectively humorous video, rocketed the raucous Australian punk trio The Chats to international fame and made fans of music legends including Iggy Pop, Josh Homme, and Dave Grohl. With close to 20 million views on YouTube, the video has helped the band secure opening slots for some of the world’s best known rock acts including Guns N’ Roses, The Strokes, and Queens of the Stone Age.
The band’s current guitarist Josh Hardy joined The Chats after the band’s wildly successful single and 2020 debut, High Risk Behaviour, came out and the group’s first guitarist, Josh Price, exited. Becoming a member of The Chats in late 2020 caused Hardy, who speaks to Good Times via Zoom from Brisbane, Australia, to leave his job as a manual laborer. He clearly enjoys touring the world with his friends and meeting legendary rockers like Julian Casablancas of The Strokes more than installing shingles. “It’s unreal,” he says. “I fucking love it. It beats roofing.”
With Hardy in the fold, The Chats released their provocatively titled second album, Get Fucked, last year. When the group’s bassist and vocalist Eamon Sandwith suggested the album title, Hardy thought “it was like hilariously genius.” “It’s a fun record,” Hardy adds. “There’s some more serious songs on there, but it’s all a good laugh, a good time.”
The fun begins with “6L GTR,” an opener that careens like a turbo-charged car with a reckless punk-assed driver complete with a guitar solo that squeals like skids on the pavement. The initial version of the song featured some lines from Van Halen’s “Panama” until their management suggested getting David Lee Roth to sign off on the usage. “We hit him [up] and showed him,” Hardy says. “It was just a stern ‘no.’”
Another album highlight is “Struck by Lightning.” Just over a minute and a half, the song recalls the relentless efficiency of early hardcore with lightning fast riffs and backing vocals following the chorus like thunder after a strike.
While the lyrics of “Struck by Lightning” are cartoonish—“Got lightning bolts running through my veins/ Electric shocks deep-fried my brain”—“Boggo Breakout” tells the story of one of Australia’s most notorious jailbreaks. In 1989, the largest mass escape in Queensland history occurred when eight prisoners managed to escape from Boggo Road Gaol, the Australian state’s main prison.
“Basically, they managed to fucking hijack the laundry truck and take it for a burn around Brisbane for a couple of days or something before they got caught,” Hardy says.
Three of Get Fucked’s songs were written while The Chats holed up in a friend’s dive bar an hour from Brisbane.
“We just isolated ourselves for a few days and just went full monk style and fucking got into it,” Hardy says.
One of those songs is “Emperor of the Beach,” which to use an Australian term takes the piss out of territorial locals.
“Every coastal town all around the world has those dickheads that make people feel really unwelcome,” Hardy says. “It’s a bit of a fuck you to that.”
Co-headlining with The Chats on their 2023 U.S. tour is longtime Australian band the Cosmic Psychos, a raucous punk act that dates back to the mid 1980s.
The Cosmic Psychos have a thick, heavier garage punk sound that celebrates their connection to 1990s grunge acts including Mudhoney and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. “Back to School” sounds like Motorhead playing in the 1990s Seattle scene, while “Nice Day to Go to the Pub” shows their shared sensibility with The Chats who have their own pub song titled “Pub Feed.”
Being able to tour with one of their formative influences is a treat for the members of The Chats, who were born nearly two decades after the Cosmic Psychos started playing music. “I’ve still got to pinch myself sometimes that I am able to play shows with them and see them every night,” Hardy says.
It is difficult to say which band will have the last headlining slot at The Catalyst show since both groups like playing the earlier slot. “There’s nothing I love more than finishing playing a set and having a few beers and smoking a joint,” Hardy says. “Then watching them play after we play.”
The Chats, Cosmic Psychos, The Schizophrenics, and Gymshorts perform Saturday, September 30, 7pm. $25/advance, $29/at the door. The Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. https://catalystclub.com
We’ve been coming to Totoro even before it was Totoro, and always enjoy the beach neighborhood ambiance—casual Santa Cruz funque—in a welcoming space. Tiny Sushi Totoro, recently spiffed up with playful chalk artwork by Sarah Terakura, sleek new tables, and a brilliant vermillion paint job, offers sushi classics for a multi-national westside clientele.
Classic 70s and 80s rock, like Steppenwolf’s Magic Carpet Ride, wailed away in the background as we took a favorite table with a view of vibrant chalk wall graphics surrounded by diners from all over the world, and a very friendly, very diverse staff to match.
I can never pass up the maguro-filled tekka maki, especially now that Totoro stocks the delicious, peppery shiso leaf. Just ask for tekka maki with shiso and you’ll receive small nori-wrapped slices of sticky rice surrounding a crimson heart of bluefin tuna and an emerald spike of shiso ($9.45).
Jack’s all-time favorite Spicy Tuna handroll ($12) is pretty much bullet-proof. The cone of nori, a seaweed wrapper with the addictive flavor of the sea, arrives filled with a paste of creamy pink tuna and a micro-dice of cucumber. And some very hot pepper sauce. Once your lips have gotten acclimatized, you can’t stop.
To cool things off, we split an order of New York roll ($10), a creation of ebi shrimp, avocado, and ribbons of cucumber, all packed into a jacket of rice, wrapped up in nori. Of course every bite comes to full flower when dipped into a bath of wasabi and soy sauce.
The minute our order arrives we scoop up a nugget of wasabi, place in a small dish and then add soy, stirring into a thick paste with chopsticks. This becomes the fiery foundation of each bite and can be altered in firepower by adding more or less, soy.
Even a few drops of hot sake adds textural and flavor variation, although like most sushi bars these days, Totoro doesn’t stock top flight hot sake.
Like many Totoro patrons, we tend to circle ’round our favorite rolls and seldom color outside the lines. But last week we decided to try one of the “Special” sushi rolls, the charmingly-named Pink Dragon.
A serious entree for $18, this gorgeous creation arrived in a long line of plump cross-sections, each slice topped with a transparent wedge of fresh lemon. Almost too pretty to eat, it was as satisfying to the taste as it was to the eyes.
The interior of this roll was a rich heart of unagi (the grilled freshwater eel we both love), and avocado, a fruit/vegetable through years of California tinkering has made its way into the sushi hall of fame. Rightly so, since avocado tends to flatter every other ingredient it touches.
Okay, so the unagi and avocado are wrapped in a thin blanket of sticky rice. Over the top of each round section lay alternating bands of orange salmon, and pink maguro. A delicious journey through A list seafood.
The thin triangles of lemon on top could either be eaten along with everything else, or removed and squeezed (my method) so that fresh lemon blended with the inevitable dip into wasabi-enhanced soy sauce. The Pink Dragon was a major hit and definitely the discovery of our latest dinner at Sushi Totoro.
As we left, an extended family from South America was busy helping their small children enjoy their Santa Cruz sushi experience. Out in the parking lot on an SUV tailgate a happy baby, freshly nude from the beach, was being dressed by its tie-dyed mother. A slice of the real Santa Cruz.
In the shadow of a new six-story housing development on Laurel Street, Mia Thorn is sweeping the outdoor patio of her eatery, Cruz Kitchen & Taps, getting ready to open for dinner. Thorn has watched the project across the street rise from the rubble of what used to be a Taco Bell.
“It’s like a weed! It just shot up,” Thorn says.
Looking up at the new building’s steel blue facade from Thorn’s establishment, which previously housed the iconic Saturn Cafe, the juxtaposition between Santa Cruz’s past and future is stark.
As building projects in the downtown area continue to gain footing over the remnants of previous long-time businesses and structures, the change is giving some residents whiplash.
Santa Cruz is experiencing a seismic shift as it moves into a new era of urban development. As the national housing crisis deepens, it’s the city’s responsibility to alleviate it at the local level. What that looks like—and who will be uprooted in the process—is a major debate.
Making Plans
The Downtown Plan Expansion has been a contentious issue within the Santa Cruz community since it was brought to the public in April 2022.
The project, which began to take shape in 2021 with the help of a state grant, envisions an overhaul of roughly 29 acres south of Laurel Street that stretch towards Main Beach. The city of Santa Cruz says that a core objective is building much-needed affordable housing in the project area. The initial plan called for 1,800 units of new housing, of which 20% would be required to be affordable to people with moderate, low and very low incomes.
The plan would also build out 60,000 square feet of commercial retail space, as well as a new 3,200-seat arena for the Santa Cruz Warriors basketball team to call their permanent home.
The Warriors play a key role in funding the expansion. The organization has pledged to seek private money for the project—including the market-rate and affordable housing—in exchange for permission to build adjacent commercial developments that will bring a return on investment.
In order to fit the 1,800 units of new housing, developers would need to build up to 17 stories according to the initial proposal and the potential change to the skyline downtown was a concern for residents.
The pushback against the project came to a head during a September 2022 informational meeting. City staff informed attendees that the meeting was not meant to discuss any of the pros and cons of the project as a whole. However, this did not dissuade detractors of the plan from speaking out: they voiced concerns over traffic congestion and the town “losing its character” to towering skyscrapers.
As a result the city planning department, with direction from a new city council, in January 2023 amended the Downtown Plan Expansion. The maximum height was cut to 12 stories and the number of units slashed from 1,800 to 1,600, including any density bonuses developers might use. The affordable housing rate was left at 20%.
For months after, as city planners took time to tweak the plan, the conversation surrounding it died down. But in July, a new group calling themselves Housing For People revived the issue and raised the stakes.
Under their proposed initiative, certain aspects of developments like the Downtown Plan Expansion would be decided by voters. The initiative, which the group seeks to put on a ballot for next year, would require development projects in Santa Cruz over a certain height to be taken to a vote.
Height limits on buildings in the area south of Laurel Street where the plan is projected are currently set at a maximum of eight stories—the expansion plan area would be rezoned to increase that height limit. The initiative also wants the affordable housing allocation to be increased to 25% for the entire city of Santa Cruz.
Frank Barron, a retired land use planner who previously worked for the city of Santa Cruz, is using his knowledge to help steer the demands of the group.
“Under our ordinance, if it passes, it would be subject to a vote of the people so you have to put it on the ballot, and decide if we want that 29-acre area to be up-zoned, or any other areas throughout the city,” Barron says.
“Along the corridors and throughout the rest of downtown, there’s some pretty tall buildings that could be allowed under existing zoning. So we’re saying ‘okay, we accept that, but we will want a vote of the people if they want to go above that.’”
The group needs around 3,800 signatures for their initiative to make the ballot. Barron says that they have significant support from city residents.
City officials tasked with moving the Downtown Plan Expansion forward—including recently-elected Mayor Fred Keeley—question the initiative’s intention.
Keeley says that Housing For People’s initiative is misguided, failed to get any public input and was “cooked in someone’s living room.”
“It went through no public process. They had no public meetings, they sought nobody’s broad input on it,” Keeley says. “It’s the idea of a few people sitting in their living room thinking about what the city should be doing and not doing from a planning perspective.”
When Keeley ran for mayor in 2022, part of what he campaigned on was addressing residents’ concerns over the Downtown Plan Expansion. Once elected, Keeley led the efforts to amend the plan in January 2023. He says that although the city has tried to address the unease groups like Housing For People voiced, ultimately their demands are arbitrary.
“I think that picking a number out of a hat with no basis for indicating whether that’s going to be possible or not points to another major—and probably fatal—flaw in the initiative. Again, was the number ‘25%’ the result of community meetings?” Keeley says, in reference to the 25% affordable housing demand from the group.
Ultimately, Keeley says, the initiative’s purpose is to “kill development of housing in Santa Cruz.”
While city officials tout the importance of public engagement, some residents most affected by the debate don’t feel like they have been properly informed or included.
Left Behind
Mia Thorn signed a seven year lease for her restaurant’s Laurel Street location in 2021.
The building she’s in will be redeveloped as part of the Downtown Plan Expansion and will likely be razed sometime before her lease is up. She says that the fate of the area has already been decided and that those affected by the plan don’t have a say.
“It’s already done. I don’t know if anybody is really gonna sit in protest and actually have their voices heard with it,” Thorn says. “The powers that be […] they’ve made moves five years down the road, seven years down the road, that we little guys are barely hearing about now.”
The impact on the handful of businesses that will be bulldozed is only one of the pending effects of the expansion. Roughly 150 city residents living in the project area will be displaced when the time comes.
Thorn says that despite feeling powerless over her business’s fate, she is a supporter of the revitalization the plan expansion will bring. Having grown up in Santa Cruz, she knows how rough the area can be.
“South of Laurel is up and coming and I believe in it,” Thorn says. “I’m excited to see growth and I’m excited to see this not be so scary and funky.”
She also expresses support for the Housing For People initiative.
“I think it’s smart. I think we as locals, knowing how expensive it is, should have a say in how people find affordable housing, and what does that look like,” Thorn says.
The waves made by this local group have a lot of people talking. But one burning question is: where do the Warriors stand at the moment?
Will They Stay Or Will They Go?
Santa Cruz Warriors President Chris Murphy says there are currently no plans for the team to leave town.
“We love Santa Cruz. We have no intention of leaving Santa Cruz and we’re working with the city on what the next few years look like with the lease renewal,” Murphy says.
The team is currently in negotiations with the city to renew the lease on their present arena, which is only their temporary home. There were always plans to build a more modern, permanent home for them after their initial 15-year contract was up. That time is fast approaching.
“We continue to work diligently with the city and the private sector towards finding the best possible solution for not only a new venue, but for creating a lot of homes downtown and finding the best solution for the entire community,” Murphy says.
When asked about the demands of the Housing For People initiative and how it may affect the Warriors’ future plans, Murphy simply says that “everyone is entitled to their opinion” and that they will continue to work with the city towards their common goals.
A Change Is Coming
As the city moves forward with multiple housing developments in its urban core, the promise of affordable housing in the future might not calm the fears for residents who find it hard to afford a place now.
“I don’t think that’s an irrational concern. I think that that is an absolutely legitimate question,” says Mayor Fred Keeley.
Keeley understands the apprehension surrounding the Downtown Plan Expansion. Big changes like this don’t come often to a town like Santa Cruz, but he says that it’s been here before.
“We’re on the third of three big inflection points of change in our city’s history,” Keeley says.
Keeley considers the arrival of UCSC in the 1960’s and the city’s rebuild after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake as the two previous inflection points. Now, the time has come to embrace the third, according to Keeley, and that has to be done as a reflection of the entire city, not just one faction of it.
“I view it as my responsibility, together with my colleagues, to help lead us through this moment of change in a way that we can see our Santa Cruz values and hopes and dreams reflected in that change that comes about,” Keely says.
Jennifer D’Attilio always knew she wanted to be in the medical field, but it wasn’t until her father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease that she realized she wanted to specialize in speech pathology.
“My father was a physician in Monterey for over 30 years,” D’Attilio says. “When he developed Parkinson’s disease, I started researching things that could help him to continue to provide his gift to the community, because his voice was getting lower and lower and patients were struggling to hear him. I found a speech pathology program for Parkinsan’s patients and I got trained in it. I got inspired to help others.”
D’Attilio helps run the Central Coast Language and Learning Center in Monterey, which serves around 300 families a week—people from infants to adults, across economic backgrounds and race.
The demand for the center’s services has spurred the opening of a second location in Santa Cruz on Oct. 2. Many of her clients travel from Watsonville and Santa Cruz to the Monterey clinic, D’Attilio says, so she hopes the new center will address an apparent need in the community for these speech services.
“We have a lot of families that came down from the Watsonville area, we just knew there were still underserved families and a huge need in the Watsonville-Santa Cruz area,” D’Attilio says. “Those communities really don’t have a spot to serve families facing communication difficulties.”
Addressing The Need
For many people, there’s a conception that speech therapy is for children who struggle articulating—but in reality the need for these services extends to a wider group of people.
Speech pathologists provide therapy in a range of specialties, from articulation, voice therapy and swallowing therapy.
“Speech therapy is for anyone who struggles with communication, with the ability to talk to their family members or loved ones,” D’Attilio says. “We have always used a family-centered approach. So therapy is not just for that patient, it really focuses on the whole family and how they can adapt to their loved one who may be struggling with communication.”
In addition to helping children with speech impediments or learning abilities that might make communication more challenging, the center offers programs for people who have been in accidents that have impacted speech or communication, people who are recovering from strokes and a Parkinson’s recovery program called Speakout.
“This program is unique because it’s a group for Parkinson’s patients, where they meet and continue to push one another and inspire one another to use their voices and to be loud,” D’Attilio says. “Oftentimes, patients with Parkinson’s if they don’t get therapy, they lose their voice and they’re so quiet that those around them can’t hear them.”
In Monterey, the Speakout program has 25 clients. The new center in Live Oak will have its own Speakout program to service Parkinson patients in Santa Cruz.
There will also be seven Spanish-speaking speech pathologists and bilingual administrative staff to help non-native English speakers with any communication challenges at the new center.
“Communication is that basic human need,” D’Attilio says. “The beauty of speech pathology is that we have that gift of finding a way, whether it’s through sign language, through device, through verbal communication through gesturing, there’s ways to bring communication so that a family member can communicate their needs to their loved ones.”
Santa Cruz aviation company Joby on Monday became what is likely the first in the nation to deliver an air taxi designed for vertical takeoff and landing.
Joby Aviation delivered the aircraft to the U.S. Air Force at Edward Air Force Base as part of a $131 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.
The delivery came six months ahead of its promised date, Joby said in a press release.
A second electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is planned to be delivered to Edwards in early 2024.
With a range of up to 100 miles and a top speed of 200 mph, the Joby aircraft is capable of transporting a pilot and four passengers quickly and quietly with zero operating emissions, the company said.
The aircraft will be used for missions such as cargo and passenger transportation.
In addition, NASA will also use the aircraft for research on how eVTOL aircraft might someday be used for transportation nationwide.
Joby’s agreement with the Air Force—called the AFWERX Agility Prime contract—includes providing up to nine aircraft to the U.S. Air Force and other federal agencies.
AFWERX is the Air Force’s technology and innovation arm.
The aircraft was built on Joby’s Pilot Production Line in Marina. It will be stationed at Edwards Air Force Base for at least one year.
The U.S. Air Force and Joby will train its pilots and ground crew, and conduct joint flight testing and operations to get a feel of the aircraft’s capabilities in realistic mission settings. The year-long test run will give the U.S. military a sense of how it might incorporate eVTOL aircraft into its arsenal, and give Joby experience as the company prepares to launch commercial passenger service in 2025.
“We’re proud to join the ranks of revolutionary aircraft that first demonstrated their capabilities at Edwards Air Force Base,” said JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby.
Joby first partnered with the Department of Defense in 2016, when it granted both early funding and access to test ranges.
“The arrival of Joby’s aircraft at Edwards AFB is an important step towards achieving this objective,” said Col Elliott Leigh, AFWERX director and Chief Commercialization Officer for the Department of the Air Force.
When it comes to skateboarding, no brand is more iconic than Santa Cruz Skateboards.
Whether it’s the ubiquitous yellow lettering against the red dot or the savage, blue, screaming hand, Santa Cruz Skateboards (SCS) is known throughout the smallest corners of the world. Its apparel and brand transcend the world of skateboarding, often repped by people who don’t even skate but want to look cool just the same.
The art of Santa Cruz Skateboards has been exhibited in 20 cities across the world in traveling art shows and Jim Phillips, the creator of the brand’s quintessential art, is recognized as a high-end artist with collectors around the globe willing to pay top dollar for anything they can get.
Last week Santa Cruz Skateboards celebrated its 50th anniversary with three, tricked-out days of art, music and skating. On Thursday there was a private screening of the upcoming Jim Phillips documentary Art and Life: The Story of Jim Phillips at the Rio Theatre which was followed the next day by two separate, invite-only parties. The first was for NHS employees past and present, a who’s who of world-famous skaters, and fellow industry names. They gathered for the festivities complete with special edition skate deck giveaways, food and speeches from company higher-ups.
In honor of the momentous occasion, representatives from the City and County of Santa Cruz, the California State Assembly and Senator Laird’s office all bestowed recognition proclamations to Richard Novak, one of the company’s founders.
That party ended with a head thrashing set by local metal/punk crossover act Dusted Angel. Singer Clifford Dinsmore is also the frontman for legendary 1980’s punk band, Bl’ast! featured in the infamous Santa Cruz Skateboard ad with a young Rob Roskopp, launching over the band.
“I also worked in the wheel department for two years, maybe three before I bailed to go to school,” Disnmore remembers. “I have this vague memory of it being very surreal with all these gnarly chemicals everywhere.”
Friday night the party moved to Moe’s Alley where anyone lucky enough with a wristband saw rock, surf and punk acts The Bone Shavers (featuring Bob Denike, more on him in a minute), Screaming Lord Salba and his Heavy Friends (featuring the infamous skater, Steve “Salba” Alba), and San Jose’s three decade running pop punks, The Odd Numbers.
Saturday was the grand finale, an open to the public celebration bouncing from two skate parks to land at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk where pro-skaters demonstrated their skills. The night wrapped up in a ribbon of rock with a free concert by pillars in the underground, Dinosaur Jr.
“They were the soundtrack for Alien Workshop [Skateboards] videos of the 1990’s,” explains retired pro-skater and current NHS Inc. CEO and CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), Jeff Kendall. “So it was easy to pick those guys especially since they’re available and on tour right now. We got lucky.”
How did a small skateboard company started by three friends in the sleepy, surf town of Santa Cruz, become the oldest running skate company in the world? And how did it practically create the entire skating industry as we currently know it?
“Killer product, killer team riders, great brand identity, and great graphics backed up by R&D [research and development],” proclaims NHS Executive Chairman, Denike. With the company for 36 years, he spent the last two decades as NHS’ CEO, stepping down only last year.
Yet before grinding into what makes Santa Cruz Skateboards the most influential brand for half a century, a bit of context and history is needed. It’s a history that’s well documented and repeated many times before, so this will be as brief as possible.
BIRTH OF A BRAND
“They were literally in the skateboard business by accident and overnight,” Denike says.
The “they” he speaks of are local surfers Richard Novak, Doug Haut and Jay Shuirman.
They began in 1969 as a reinforced plastics company selling raw materials to manufacturers and making their own boards as Santa Cruz Surfboards.
“Doug was making surfboards throughout the whole beginning,” Novak recalls. “But we [Novak and Shuirman] were running his retail shop.”
It’s the same retail shop where the Santa Cruz Boardroom stands today on 41st Avenue in Capitola.
Novak says he made skateboards prior for personal use. But in 1973 a friend from Santa Cruz–Jimmy Hoffman, Shuirman’s surfing protege or “grem” as they called them back then instead of “groms”–went to McCully Bicycle & Sporting Goods in Hawaii. After talking with them, the sporting goods store challenged the Santa Cruz company with an order of 500 skateboards.
They quickly fulfilled the order with fiberglass decks and unused stock material they had around the shop. Soon after, McCully ordered another 500 that also sold-out almost immediately. That’s when Novak, Shuirman and Haut had their “A-ha” moment. That year they founded NHS Inc. (an acronym of their surname initials) and Santa Cruz Skateboards was born.
“The only reason we did those businesses is because it allowed us to surf all day,” Novak chuckles. “When I saw the skateboard deal going down I thought, ‘Wow, we could build a business in this.’”
He and Shuirman were the two main drivers behind SCS, allowing Haut to continue his surfboard business while maintaining his retail store.
Realizing they wanted to have the best skaters riding the best products to represent their company, NHS Inc. dedicated themselves to constant innovation and created an entire industry around their products.
VINTAGE SKATEWORK The Capitola Classic was a racing competition in
Capitola from ’73-’83. The artwork on those is Jim Phillips. Photo: Mat Weir
ENGINEERING AN INDUSTRY
The first of those innovations was the game changing Road Rider Wheels of 1974. Until that time, skateboards were made with roller skate ball bearings, which were loose balls in the wheel. NHS was able to get a different size balls for much cheaper and installed them as sealed precision bearings. This allowed the rider to have more control with a smoother, faster ride.
Throughout the decades the innovations would come in different forms.
They began making decks, first out of five ply then seven ply maple wood for lightness and durability. Inspired by Formula One race cars, they built the first independent suspension truck for a skateboard and created the Independent Truck Company–the most used trucks in the sport to this day. Santa Cruz Skateboards were also the first to have Everslick, a thermoplastic covering the bottom of the board that allowed riders to slide easier for longer distances. They were the first company to have full art prints on grip tape, the first stackable risers–called Cellblocks–and one of the first to make boards concave instead of flat.
All industry standards to this day and most of them came from the engineering mind of one man, Tim Piumarta, NHS’ Director of Innovation in the R&D department.
“I always tell Bob that when I was 14 I was one of the lucky few in my generation that knew exactly what he wanted to do in life,” Piumarta explains.
“And that was to make skateboards, but make them better, stronger, faster and last longer than before,” he says.
In this spirit, NHS Inc. was the first skateboard company to have an R&D department and continues to be one of the only companies who still does to this day. When Shuirman tragically died in 1979 at the age of 40 from leukemia, it was Piumarta who filled his shoes.
No stranger to the sport, by the time he started working in R&D Piumarta was already an established all-around skater. He applied this knowledge to his life’s mission. Armed with the motto, “You can’t improve what you can’t measure,” he currently holds five U.S. patents with another five pending.
When asked how many he has internationally, Piumarta is at a loss for words.
“I don’t know, a lot” he says.
“Two dozen?,” replies Denike.
Piumarta’s eyes grow wide in amazement before he sincerely exclaims in almost disbelief, “Is it really? Wow!”
Unlike the warehouse and other NHS offices which are covered in art, photos, skateboards, magazine cutouts, clothing and more, Piumarta’s room is a sanitized white with bare walls. Instead of decorations, massive machines designed to test and measure the strength, successfulness and durability of the different skateboard parts fill the room. Walking in feels like being transported to an entirely different world apart from the rest of the company.
“I’ve walked through the door here for about 11,500 days,” he says. “Every time I walk out the front door it’s never ‘Oh no’ but ‘What did we learn today?’”
When asked about Piumarta, Novak doesn’t mince words.
“He’s probably done more for skateboarding than anybody but he doesn’t get credit for it,” he says.
As the saying goes, every dog has its day and for the 50th anniversary, the R&D lab was officially dedicated to Piumarta. However, he doesn’t take all the credit.
“If it hadn’t been for the vision of Richard and Bob to invest in this starting in the 1980’s, we wouldn’t be here.”
What’s Piumarta’s favorite of his innovations?
“The concave skateboard with the upturned nose but I have a lot I’ve forgotten,” he chuckles.
INNOVATION IS KEY
Product innovation isn’t the only way Santa Cruz Skateboards changed the industry. Simply put, there wouldn’t be an industry without the hometown brand.
“Jay and I thought that if you could take skateboarding and make it an international business, all we’d want is a small piece of the pie,” Novak explains. “We didn’t want the whole thing, just a small piece and we’d be ok. So we needed a discipline that would appeal to Europe and Asia, and that was racing.”
Today’s groms might not know this, but before kids were serving tricks on the streets and in backyards, most of the competitions in the early days were around racing. In the 1970’s Santa Cruz Skateboards began sponsoring racing competitions, determined to have the best racers on their team. Those early teams allowed SCS to become a powerhouse in the sport with riders like John Hutson, Mike Goldman and Denike himself.
“We took the money from Road Rider Wheels and dumped it back into Santa Cruz Skateboards,” Denike says.
Even as skateboarding fell out of the mainstream and went underground–sometimes referred as “The Great Collapse”–and SCS went from a multimillion dollar company to almost broke, they somehow survived to thrive.
“1979 was the worst year of my life,” Novak admits. “That was the year Jay died, the industry slowly collapsed and I only had three people who stayed with me.”
SCS was able to reinvent itself and pivot with the trends when backyard pool–or bowl–and street skating filled the void. This was the era of the late Jeff Grosso, Rob Roskopp, Salba, Duane Peters, Eric Dressen, Keith Meek and more. It was also the era of Jeff Kendall, who went pro with SCS from 1986 to 1992.
“I retired at 25 and at that time I was like, ‘Well, now I really have to figure out what my next job is going to be,’” he says.
Kendall has spent the last 37 years with Santa Cruz Skateboards, first as a rider, then as an NHS employee. For 30 of those years he worked in a multitude of positions starting as a team manager to brand manager, marketing director, vice president, chief marketing officer and finally CEO last year.
“I always knew [professional skating] wasn’t going to last forever but I wasn’t considering a job in the industry,” he says. “I was paid to ride this damn thing, how am I going to beat that?”
It was also in the 1980’s when Thrasher magazine, the sports’ monthly bible for everything skateboard related, was founded. While Santa Cruz Skateboards as a brand technically had nothing to do with its creation, Thrasher was founded by Novak, Kevin Thatcher, Eric Swenson and Fausto Vitello initially to promote Independent Trucks, which Swenson and Vitello helped create with Novak and Shiurman.
The magazine’s tagline, “Skate and Destroy” still lives today as stickers, t-shirts and tagged on the walls of skate parks around the world.
Santa Cruz Skateboards used the turmoil of the 1980s to change their signature style to something that would rocket them onto a completely different level than the competition.
Enter the psychedelic world of Jim Phillips.
PHILLIPS’ HEAD
“I always felt the skateboard was my gallery,” Phillips says with his signature smile. “The skateboards are out there all around the world every day. Why do you need a gallery at all?”
Prior to working for them, Phillips was already friends with Novak, Haut and Shuirman through the local surf scene.
“In fact there’s an old story about how Novak kicked me off the beach the first time I surfed Pleasure Point,” he remembers. “I was with my friend Big John Evenson when Rich and another surfer came up and said, ‘You can’t surf here!’ I was ready to go but Big John stood there and said ‘Why can’t we? You guys are surfing down at The Hook, there’s nobody out.’ They said some running words and walked away.”
“The only reason why we gave him permission is because his buddy was bigger than me!” laughs Novak.
Phillips became the art director for NHS and Santa Cruz Skateboards in 1975. It was his artistic brilliance that created the classic Santa Cruz logo in collaboration with Shuirman, who told Phillips to add the important detail of a red dot behind the lettering. At that time SCS graphics were more conservative with patterns of lines or lettering and the company’s name or logo in wholesome, clean font.
So by the 1980’s when punk rock was exploding, do-it-yourself ramps and backyard pools became the new skateparks and kids were looking for more extreme action, the classic Santa Cruz style started to feel dated.
In 1985 that all changed when Phillips designed the first Screaming Hand for NHS’s SpeedWheels line. It was an overnight hit and has become one of–if not the–most recognizable images in skate culture and around the world.
A self-proclaimed workaholic, by the end of the decade Phillips had his own art studio cranking out designs for NHS’s various brands and individual Santa Cruz Skateboard team riders. He used bold lines, bright colors and psychedelic cartoon imagery that perfectly balanced a railslide of humor, gross-out fun and badass imagery.
Kendall’s End of the World board, the Salba Witch Doctor and Claus Grabke’s Exploding Clock are only a few of the plethora of pieces that were sought after. Today, these designs are just as popular with some receiving reissues while originals sell to collectors for hundreds and even thousands of dollars online.
He draws his inspiration from an array of wells of artists like Hieronymous Bosch, Walt Disney, The Fleischer Brothers, Salvador Dali (who Jim co-painted the inside ceiling of a limousine with once) and others. The “mad artists” as Phillips says. However, his greatest inspiration is much closer to home.
“My wife Dolly, we’ll have been married 56 years next month,” he says, smiling. “We’re madly in love. She’s also helped along with some of my creations, gives me lots of advice, and critiques my work when I’m done.”
Phillips’ designs are so popular that in 2013 NHS Inc.won a copyright infringement dispute with New York fashion designer, Jeremy Scott, after his runway show collection blatantly copied Phillips’ Roskopp Face design without permission.
However, Phillips’ personal favorite design might be a surprise.
“I always liked the Slasher,” he says, referring to the design he made for Keith Meek, who also worked in the art studio under Phillips.
“He’s a character more than the Screaming Hand, but I had to talk [NHS] into both.”
Phillips’s world grew much smaller in 2011 when he was diagnosed with not one, but two forms of cancer: bone and melanoma. He retired that year to focus on his health when he was initially only given months to live. Now, 12 years later, he’s as energetic as ever, filled with love and gratitude for every day.
In honor of the private screening of his documentary last Thursday, Philips decided it was time for his next move, unretiring. Attendees to the film were privileged to see the first Jim Phillips piece in 12 years: two slimy aliens holding surfboards at the beach done in a familiar style. The new work will receive a limited run of 66 prints, numbered and signed by the big kahuna himself.
“It’s Dalí-esque,” he says with pride. “I put 200 hours into it.”
SCREENING HAND
As essential as those are to the history of Santa Cruz Skateboards, the company’s innovation in art isn’t just content, but also application. They were the first brand to print on previously ignored things like the wheels and they’re the first to print a full board from nose to tail including the concave dips.
“That’s probably one of the most raddest things I ever got to invent in my life,” says NHS Production Manager, Dave Friel. After 38 years with the company, it’s safe to say that Friel has most likely swiped the ink on anyone’s favorite design from that era, including the original Slasher boards.
“I thought I was the coolest fucking dude on the planet,” he remembers of the run. “I printed 400 boards, all four colors [cyan, magenta, yellow and black] on a white board in one day. That had never been done before.”
Yet to be able to print on an entire concave board without ruining the image, Friel had to create a new type of screen. This one had jigs in the corners with braces that stretched the screen to fit the curves of the board. For years it was a secret design exclusive to NHS and SCS.
“[Our competition] kept going after the idea that something abstract, some weird movement had to make it work,” Friel says. “However we were already onto the next thing. I innovated the silkscreen to a level nobody imagined.”
TO FIFTY AND BEYOND
Today, as the company reaches middle age, Santa Cruz Skateboards shows no signs of slowing down.
“The one thing I want to do before I go is make the seven ply board obsolete,” Novak divulges. “Any sport that you want to innovate, progress and move forward with, the equipment has to get better and better.”
They have experimented with everything from nylon boards to a plastic in 1994 they called NuWood which was an injection-molded board that not only was nearly Indestructible, but it was recyclable (when skaters were done with it they could return it to NHS who would grind it up to make a new one).
This year they launched a crossover collaboration with Pokémon that featured different characters on the decks with some being more limited–and therefore more collectible–than others. However each board was individually wrapped in a foil package (like a pack of Pokemon trading cards) so buyers had no idea which board they were buying until they opened it. They sold out online in less than five minutes.
“As a brand, Santa Cruz has also been working on reissues for the past 20 years,” Kendall says. “I have boards with my names on them that are still selling to this day which blows my mind.”
Like his first, End of the World board which was recently reissued.
“I’m really proud of the people I have working for me, especially the last 20 years,” concludes Novak. “They are NHS.”
Lindsy Valdez, 38, Manager at Hapa’s Brewery, Los Gatos
“Have I seen a UFO? Yes! I was with friends around a bonfire, and it was this pretty large light in the sky that just appeared, not blinking, not moving, just hovering there, not making any sound. It lingered for maybe ten minutes, and then disappeared. But I’m not scared of aliens—they just seem like people.”
Kamran Aghevli, 11, Student
“I think the aliens are a life force, not like with three eyes or whatever. They’re probably thinking of a chance to strike soon, waiting for when we’re vulnerable.”
Jeannie Liu, 36, Physical Therapist
“There might be endless numbers of parallel universes that technology hasn’t detected, so anything is possible. The Air Force pilots have seen things, but our perceptions will change under stressful situations. Also, illusions happen, like how a camera exposure can make it look like there’s a ghost behind someone. So, it’s hard to say if they saw a UFO—but I’m open to the possibility.”
Evan Bacon, 18, Barista / Student of Economics at UCSC
“There’s too much talk about UFOs at this moment for it to be real. It’s a distraction from what’s really going on. It’s unrealistic to think we’re the only beings to figure out space travel, but little gray men are a bit far-fetched. If aliens were real, why would they look like they do in movies? I think there’s some truth in what the Air Force pilots saw, but they could be mistaken in what they are seeing.”
Susan Trinity, 60, Self Employed
“I haven’t seen one, but I know someone that has. He was in the Army—he dealt with it, and he said it really messed him up. I do know they are out there, and I consider that we came from UFOs, we are descended from aliens, we came here. There we go!”
Jeff Fitzgerald, 35, IT Consultant
“I’ve seen the videos and the guy who testified in Congress. It’s pretty exciting that they’ve acknowledged it publicly. It’s intriguing, but there’s so many things that it could be. If there is an alien species capable of faster than light travel, if they wanted to do something terrible to us, they probably would already have done it. And what could we really do about it?”
If you wanted to design the perfect incubator for a jazz musician, it might look a lot like the Santa Cruz scene Donny McCaslin grew up in, circa 1980s.
There was a percolating, local jazz marketplace in those days, with steady gigs for musicians, a renowned jazz program at Cabrillo College and in 1975, the opening of the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, provided an unshakeable stage for both local players and traveling icons.
McCaslin returned to familiar turf last week. He and his quartet played the West End stage at the Monterey Jazz Festival, where he played several times while still in high school.
He started learning the saxophone at age 12.
The quartet will play music from his new album “I Want More,”out on Edition Records.
McCaslin’s late father, Don McCaslin, was at the epicenter of the scene as a steadily gigging, dedicated pianist and vibraphonist who sometimes played as many as 13 gigs in a week.
In those days, jazz people were known to hold down long-running, standing gigs and Don had a lot of them. He played 17 years outdoors at the Cooper House before it was wrecked by the Loma Prieta earthquake.
Don also played almost 20 years at the Wharf House in Capitola and nearly 25 at Severino’s in Aptos. He had long runs at the 2525 Club in Soquel, the old Bayview Hotel in Aptos, and the New Riverside in Capitola, along with steady bookings at places like the Crow’s Nest, the Balzac Bistro, and many other clubs that live in memory.
His son Donny McCaslin, now based in Brooklyn, has early memories of going to his dad’s Cooper House gigs to help him set up and watch the show.
Thinking back, McCaslin thinks his interest in the tenor sax might have been sparked by his father’s tenorman, Jesse Braxton, “a very charismatic player.” Once he decided on the sax, McCaslin started taking lessons from the still-active sax player Brad Hecht and later Paul Contos, who has a prominent position in the education department at SF Jazz in the Bay Area.
“My dad gave me so much info that was brand new to me, about players like John Coltrane and Michael Brecker and I started exploring the jazz language,” McCaslin says.
The younger McCaslin didn’t take long to achieve fluency. Living with his mother in Happy Valley after his parents divorced, McCaslin attended Aptos High School and got an early start with its renowned jazz program.
McCaslin auditioned with the jazz band at Cabrillo College and found he wasn’t ready, but soon after started participating in Cabrillo band rehearsals several days a week.
He started sitting in with his dad’s bands several days a week at the recently-opened Kuumbwa Jazz, a place where he once saw jazz titans like Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner play.
“All those elements gave me a real immersion in the music,” he says. “I had the opportunity to make some mistakes and learn from the best.
His father “really worked hard at music, but for him it wasn’t just a job. He knew a million songs and the whole word of music was a huge part of his identity.”
McCaslin’s adolescence as a developing musical prodigy wasn’t always smooth sailing, with the emotional turmoil of his parents’ split weighing on him.
But “Musically, it was an ideal environment,” he says. Thanks in part to scholarships he won in soloist competitions, McCaslin was able to attend the prestigious Berklee College of Music in 1984. In his sophomore year, he turned down an offer from drum icon Buddy Rich to go on tour, deciding he wasn’t ready for the big leagues.
In 1990, he moved to the center of the jazz world, NYC, where he freelanced with a long list of top players, among them Cuban pianist Danilo Perez and bassist Eddie Gomez.
Along the way McCaslin started composing original music and became a bandleader.
“The composing happened organically because of the instrument I play,” he notes. “Sax is a lead instrument.”
McCaslin’s career took a major leap around 2015 when the late David Bowie heard him solo with the Maria Schneider Orchestra. Bowie’s people came to hear McCaslin’s combo. “The next day [Bowie] emailed me asking to record some music,” he says.
Bowie’s epic final album, 2016’s “Blackstar”, was the result. The record won multiple Grammy awards and McCaslin shared the spotlight. The experience influenced his own first album, which blended elements of alt-rock with jazz.
Dipping further into the pop music waters, McCaslin spent part of this summer touring with Elvis Costello and the Imposters, as part of a three-piece horn section. Since the Bowie project, McCaslin says his phone has been ringing more often with frontman opportunities. He’s been touring in Europe and Japan with a new album, which he will perform in Monterey with his quartet. Playing alongside him will be pianist Jason Lindner, bassist Tim Lefebre and drummer Nate Woods.
Using the music he helped Bowie create as “a jumping off point,” McCaslin has also developed a Blackstar symphony that includes his band, a 75-piece orchestra and three vocalists. It debuted last year in Tel Aviv. A Pacific Northwest tour starts in November and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. is slated for early next year.
Despite his success, McCaslin always came back to jam on familiar grounds. Unfortunately, in January, 2020, he played his last gig with his father, who was struggling with health problems. Two months later he died of congestive heart failure at the age of 93.
He hasn’t forgotten what he considers the most important lesson his dad passed on to him. It wasn’t about riffs and chords, but rather the personal finance tightrope-walk of the jazz life.
“He often said to me, ‘if you’re going to go into something, do it because you really love it, not to become affluent,’” McCaslin says.
video, rocketed the raucous Australian punk trio The Chats to international fame and made fans of music legends including Iggy Pop, Josh Homme, and Dave Grohl. With close to 20 million views on YouTube, the video has helped the band secure opening slots for some of the world’s best known rock acts including Guns N’ Roses, The Strokes, and Queens of the Stone Age.
We've been coming to Totoro even before it was Totoro, and always enjoy the beach neighborhood ambiance—casual Santa Cruz funque—in a welcoming space. Tiny Sushi Totoro, recently spiffed up with playful chalk artwork by Sarah Terakura, sleek new tables, and a brilliant vermillion paint job, offers sushi classics for a multi-national westside clientele.
Classic 70s and 80s rock, like Steppenwolf's...
mes to skateboarding, no brand is more iconic than Santa Cruz Skateboards. Whether it’s the ubiquitous yellow lettering against the red dot or the savage, blue, screaming hand, Santa Cruz Skateboards (SCS) is known throughout the smallest corners of the world. Its apparel and brand...
Have I seen a UFO? Yes! I was with friends around a bonfire, and it was this pretty large light in the sky that just appeared, not blinking, not moving, just hovering there, not making any sound. It lingered for maybe ten minutes, and then...
ator for a jazz musician, it might look a lot like the Santa Cruz scene Donny McCaslin grew up in, circa 1980s. There was a percolating, local jazz marketplace in those days, with steady gigs for musicians...
