Alan Gelfand

Alan Gelfand (born in 1963 with New York) is the inventor of the Ollie, a figure of Skateboard.

It settled with Hollywood with its family in 1968 and started to make skateboard in 1974 after his/her father bought his first board to him. In 1976 it gained the championship of skateboard of Florida of the south. During this year, the first park of skateboard was created with Orange Port in July, followed by that of Hollywood called Skateboard the USA which played a big role in the development of the ollie . In 1977, the figure No-hands aerial (meaning in the air without the hands ) was named ollie by his/her friends Kevin Peterson, Craig Snyder, Jeff Duerr, and Scott Goodman, taking again the nickname which they had given to Alan Gelfand.

During the summer 1977, the Californian Skateur Stacy Peralta, during a visit with the park Solid Surfing Skate Park with Fort Lauderdale , met Alan Gelfand and noticed this incredible figure. In 1978, after Stacy Peralta formed the store of equipment for the skateboard Powell Peralta with George Powell, Gelfand was recruited like the first member of their new team. This team became then known under the name Bones Brigade which included/understood other skateurs Floridiens like Mike McGill, inventor of the 540 aerial or McTwist in 1984, and Rodney Mullen which became, in the years 1980, one of the principal skateurs in the world.

Another member of the Bones Brigade , Tony Hawk, used the ollie to take more height by carrying out figures. Thus, the ollie revolutionized the practice of the skateboard so much so that the majority of the figures use it, and than it is a starting point obliged for the beginners in skateboard. At the end of the years 1990, the ollie became an official word of the English dictionary Oxford English Dictionary , but its origin was presented like unknown factor.

In February 2004 this dictionary was corrected in order to indicate that the creator of the ollie was Alan “Ollie” Gelfand.

Alan Gelfand stopped the skateboard in 1981 because, inter alia, of a wound to the knee.

In the Eighties, Alan Gelfand was put at the Automobile race, driving only cars Volkswagen, and gained several races of the Sports Because Club off America (meaning American club of sport scars). In 1987 Alan Gelfand gained World Karting Association Large National Championship (meaning great national championship of the worldwide association of Kart ). Then it gained four 12 midnight races at the wheel of cars which it improved itself in a store called Ollieprep . In 2001 it took part in a race of the Grand Am Cup at the wheel of a Porsche 986 Boxter model 2000. Alan Gelfand continued to take part in races during one year, placing it third of several national competitions.

In 2001, it returned to the skateboard, and in 2002, it opened a park of skateboard with Hollywood, called Olliewood. He is also owner of a store Volkswagen called Volkswagen Depot .

External bonds

the official site of Alan Gelfand
“'' Olliewood ''”
“'' Volkswagen Deposit ''”

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