I had known of Jay Smith as a skater for about a year or two, this was sometime around late 1979. He was from the San Fernando valley, the same area that produced the great skater Brad Bowman. Many of the valley skaters such as Brad and Jay got their start at Skater Cross, the now infamous "one run" skateboard park in Reseda, one of the valley's central hubs. By 1979 Brad Bowman was one of Sims top professional riders with his own model and I'm assuming Brad may have had something to do with Jay getting on the Sims team because Jay was sponsored by then. But aside from providing equipment, Sims wasn't doing anything with Jay, he was just another sponsored skater with little direction or expectation from the home office. By this time Skater Cross had closed and Jay was now skating the Marina Del Rey skateboard park on a daily basis. This is when he and I came into contact. I had just begun building the Bones Brigade and I was extraordinarily picky and choosy about who I put on the team. I didn't want skaters from other teams, I wanted unknowns, so Jay wouldn't have been on my radar. But fortunately Jay and I ended up skating a lot together at Marina and I ended up really liking the way he rode. He was super stylish and fantastically limber yet he could explode at times with ferocious power. He also could crouch lower onto his board than any other skater l'd ever seen and land maneuvers others would find impossible because of his low center of gravity. I found myself at times transfixed watching him because you never knew what he was going to do next. I ended up watching him a lot and what I saw I liked. He was different and unique and he didn't skate like other skaters. And though he skated well he wasn't being searched out by any other teams. He also wasn't known for being much of a competitor.

He had no competitive record and very few if any photos in Skateboarder Mag. But there was something magnetic about Jay. As a person I found him shy and unassuming yet if you paid close attention you would see he had a maniacal streak and the ability to be hilariously funny. But, he'd only display those qualities if he trusted you, otherwise he could be quiet to the point of being invis-ible. Thankfully, over time, he seemed to develop a trust in me and started to unfold in my presence and conversely I began to be flat out wowed by him, not only by the way he skated but by his overall personality, how funny he could be but also how sweet. Jay had a very soft side, and was very considerate of others. I remember the day l introduced him to my mom and dad and they liked him imme-diately. There was an introverted kindness to Jay that people warmed to.There was something about Jay that compelled me to break my own rule and reach out to a skater who was on another team. I asked Jay if he'd come ride for the Bones Brigade, Ire-member him looking up at me, totally bewildered and completely surprised. He clearly wasn't expecting this and he didn't say any-thing. I think he was stunned. I then asked him if Sims was doing anything for him and he said not much. So I told him to give it some thought, and that if it felt good, we should do it.

A few weeks later he was on the Bones Brigade and from that point forward something happened; Jay started blossoming. His skating abilities started ratcheting up at a furious pace like that of a rocket blasting off. In no time he developed his phenomenal lay-back grind, a trick that would become his signature and identifier and a trick that would end up belonging solely to him, a trick that floored everyone who was lucky enough to witness seeing it. The great skate photographer Glen Friedman fell in love with Jay's skating and photographed him constantly, resulting in Jay appearing frequently in Skateboarder Magazine. Stecyk as well loved Jay, both for his skating abilities and for his crazy antics like his lizard imitations and the way he drove his car, which was like driving with a Formula One racer; but I won't go into that here. In the process of sponsoring Jay I discovered something that he needed and wanted, something so simple that all of us need and want; and that is for someone to believe in you. I believed in Jay. I had an early hunch about him, that there was more to him than his sponsor Sims was seeing, so I took a chance on him. My belief and friendship with Jay had a profound effect on both of us, and he would go on to carving out a totally unique and totally personal path through skateboarding history, a path that would be a true reflection of the great sensitive, wild, maniacal, stylish and funny soul he was.

Words by Stacy Peralta