23. Hanging out at Muritai School by James Curtis

Skateboarding at Muritai School brought us all together. It gave us all somewhere to go after high school. Most people brought their skateboards to skate on the ramps that the youth worker Chris Casey had helped the boys build. Even kids who lived in the Hutt would come out to skate on those ramps. They were really popular.
 
We formed a bit of a community really. There was Dave and me, Tom Owers, Tom Rainey-Smith, Shamus and Sam Boyer, Harley Tripey, Matt Tuffin, Reuben Nicholas and Tom Lynch. Sometimes the older brothers Sam Rainey-Smith and Stephen Owers would join us. We felt like the rebels, listening to punk music in our cars and skating. You could have up to 40 kids down there, just mucking around and hanging out together. 
 

I just tagged along really, but I had my car and sometimes my motorbike and that made me popular. We liked playing the US band NOFX on our car stereos. It’s skate punk type music -- ante-establishment, anarchistic and ante-capitalism. They were one of our favourite bands. 

To play "180 Degrees" by the punk rock band NOFX Click Here
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Sometimes we would go to Ryan Cowley’s place and sit in the garage smoking and drinking beer. One night, some of Ryan’s friends were staying over. Dave, Tom and I thought it would be funny to light fireworks in the driveway at night time and the run off. But unfortunately, Ryan’s father heard us and got into his car and chased after us. Eventually he found us in Muritai School and really lost his cool. I am not sure he handled it very well. But I guess we could be pretty annoying too.
 
The principal of Muritai School, Pete Pointon, let the skateboarding go for a while, but he had trouble with Dave and Tom and eventually banned the skaters. Then the skating ramps moved over to San Antonio. Things changed a bit after that.