PVCC Puma Press: December 2002

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	Photo by Robert Cain
	Skilled skater, A lex Hall, catches some ‘major air’ at the brand new North Valley skate park on 40th street and Grovers.
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Small wheels blaze across a polished concrete surface, hot in the mid-day sun. They are the skateboards of extreme skaters, and one of their riders is 20-year-old Alex Hall, a PVCC sophomore.

A veteran of skate competitions throughout the Southwest, Hall receives all of his equipment from private sponsors, such as Lakai Footwear, Matix Clothing, Stealth Wheels and Stress Skateboards.

Born in Colorado, Hall spent most of his life growing up around the San Francisco bay area and didn't even start skateboarding until about six years ago while living in Oregon. "I started skating on friends' skateboards, just doing tricks over a piece of ply wood,” says Hall.

From that point Hall purchased his own skateboard and his one-time, kick-around hobby grew into a passion.

While skating at a Phoenix skate park one day, the Oregon prodigy a skating scout from Tanimarra Skate shop spotted him; the sponsor liked what he saw and decided to sponsor Hall. Within weeks he was fully funded with clothing and equipment in order to compete in local competitions.

"It's pretty cool getting a package in the mail with four pairs of shoes in it," Hall said, already sporting a full wardrobe provided by his various sponsors and skating on a brand new Stress skateboard.

Although skateboarding is important to Hall's life, he isn't relying solely upon the prospects of his talents. He is taking four classes this semester at PVCC and plans to become a pharmaceutical representative. When he's not going to school or skating, Hall holds down a steady job at Bank of America as a bank teller.

Aside from the various competitions that Alex has been involved in, he's been in several skate videos sponsored by Stress Skateboards as well as some independent videos that he helps produce.

Because current laws prohibit loitering, or skating on private or government owned property, skating into the wee hours of the night becomes essential for skaters if they want to get the best footage for a video. Toting a generator, a video camera and a few skateboards, Hall will go out with a couple of friends, sometimes after midnight, to an ideal location to perform in front of the camera.

So far in his skating career, Hall has fractured his left ankle as well as spraining both ankles several times, a common ailment for those trying to balance on a thin piece of board with four small wheels.

Hall shares his passion for skateboarding with another PVCC student, Mikey Miszuk, who also skates for Stress Skateboards. Both students travel along the Western United States representing their sponsors with a team of other skateboarders, competing with those of the similar standings.

Locally Hall and Miszuk just competed in the Phoenix Warped Tour competition, as well as the Tempe Salvation Contest at SDG skate park; in both competitions their skate team took first place.