a byerly? I'm just curious.

the 2001 Hyperlite poster behind me has him on a drifter. But the videos back then have him killin it on just about every HL board.

I think that was the year he was doing R&D for his own board, so he was alternating different HL decks to learn what features he wanted to incorporate into his own board. I know he was on Scott's 142 for a while, I'm pretty sure he rode the Project for a while, and also Danny's board for a period during that year. There have been video and stills published of him on all of those decks during that year. That was the year he had just come out with his signature bindings but did not yet have his signature deck.

I haven't been on the scene long enough to know this but, what did he ride before Hyperlite?

Parks started out for many years on Connely (now CWB), then if I recall correctly he bounced around for a little while before signing with HL. Even when he was bouncing around among different board sponsors, he was wearing HL Highbacks with the logo painted over. Darin also did this for couple years when he first signed with O'Brien, wore HL Highbacks painted over, that is. I'm sure somebody on here can recall the boards that Parks rode in between Connely and HL, it just escapes my right now. I think I recall Parks was on Matt Staker's pro model at least for a little while. Anybody?

Free Motion I think, correct me if im wrong

You're right, that's it, but there may also have been some others.

was the free motion "Quest," his first signiture board?

nope, just free motion... do you remember those ads??he had one where he wearing a dress jacket and slacks and he is riding the nose of his board out of the bindings and waving to the camera...circa '98 <BR> <BR>shapiro got into some hot water for wearing highbacks while under contract with o'brien...i think o'brien had to redo all their ads with darin in them that year becasue of it... <BR>

his first signature board was a connelly, it was bright orange blue and white

He unoficially rode for the LF team, the first sequence of the Double half cab is on a Best board. But then again LF pretty much was FM. His FM Quest was pretty much the same board as his Connelly, in an old interview he was talking about how the shape &amp; channels were the same. Anyone remember Shafted where he was rocking super old O'brien boots, I think they were called the Axis. Damn that was a long time ago.

He rode the Connelly T2 when he first joined the tour then he had a pro-model (which was the same as Zanes) in 98 (I used to have one) then went to FM (as stephan said with the LF-fm thing) rode the mission then the quest. he was booted from the team (there was some bad blood there apparently, only what I heard) he rode a painted board for a while, joined HL was in the works for a pro-model, then switched to the project. Then the byerly, now his board. (there might be a couple small points wrong there, I'm working from memory)

If u watch all or nothing, he's riding the 02 premier, and 02 byerly, so my guess is thats what he was riding. <BR> <BR>Think its a combination of these boards with a little extra agression which created his board

IIRC, he also rode a painted over BadAss board that had something to the effect of "this space for sale" painted on the bottom (this was in the time frame between FM and HL)

I guess his contract with FM dictated bonuses based on contests and he wasn't getting paid. He bitched about it in an interview after they told him they weren't going to pay him. Where is FM now? Does ayone really care...

where's FM and Staker I would add... they pretty much disappeared together... well at least, haven't heard about them for a long time up here in Canada... I might have heard FM was dropped with all that Obrien/Liquid Force thing last year... I remember Parks riding a yellow painted board with Bonifay written under it... I think it was in 12 Honkeys or in some contests... he has also been wearing ultras if I'm not mistaken(don't remember if it was when he was with FM or after)... I remember those old Obrien axis too... in hype he was riding a white byerly and a red board that looked like a byerly shape with Highbacks... on my first year, i've ridden the CWB Dually ZR which was the same shape as parks signature board...

Actually Matt Staker writes for Alliance magazine. <BR> <BR>(Message edited by r_dub on July 30, 2004)

Let me correct my statement forgot two things. He rode the dually first then the T2. And the premmy between the project and byerly. <BR> <BR>Jonathan as Ryan said he writes for alliance but was also on the Joyride team (though I don't know if he still is)

the dually zr was was my first board. how come im not that good? boards and binding have come a long way since 97

Alliance is pretty rare where I'm from... I can put my hand on a copy once in a while but didn't remembered about Staker writing in it... the graphic was so sick on my first Dually ZR... blue water pattern with orange flames... the base was plain white with the same flames though... I had CWB Grips on it... those were pretty sick bindings at the time...