Larry Stevenson
Richard Lawrence "Larry" Stevenson (December 22, 1930 – March 25, 2012) was the inventor of the kicktail, the bent-upwards end of a skateboard, which made most of today's skateboarding tricks possible and essentially revolutionized the sport.
Early life
Stevenson was born in 1930 in Santa Monica, California; his mother was Inez Kiem and his father was Leonard Stevenson. After high school Larry Stevenson joined the U.S. Navy as a fighter mechanic. He served for two years in the Korean War.
After that, he went on to Santa Monica College in California and became a swimmer. He played water polo and swam for Coach John Josephs. Stevenson won the all American award for fastest time for the breast stroke. The record was only recently broken, and he was given a lifetime allowance into any Santa Monica College event, if he wished to attend. After SMC, Stevenson went to USC, on a swimming scholarship, where he majored in business.
During the middle to late part of the 1950s, Stevenson became a Venice Beach lifeguard for the city of Los Angeles. While sitting watching surfers he noticed they would skate on crude skateboards back in the parking lots at the beach. This was true especially when there was no surf. Stevenson, while visiting Hawaii en route to Korea, during the war noticed a great surfing beach called "Makaha". All those years later he remembered how much he liked the beach in Hawaii, but he also loved the name Makaha.
Lawrence
Lawrence may refer to:
Geography
Communities
Islands
Rivers
Transport
Education
Colleges and universities
Lawrence, New South Wales
Lawrence is a small town 13 km from Maclean, New South Wales, Australia. It is accessed by the Lawrence car ferry from Woodford Island or by travelling 30 kilometres north from Grafton. At the 2006 census, Lawrence had a population of 390 people. Lawrence has a number of sporting facilities including, a cricket field and soccer fields, a nine-hole golf course and tennis courts. Lawrence has a public school, a general store, post office, police station, Tavern and a local school and route bus service. It also has a museum housed in the old radio station building as well as very well preserved Public Hall of timber construction dating from 1892. The town is in the Clarence Valley Council local government area.
References
Lawrence (Amtrak station)
The Lawrence Amtrak station is a train station near downtown Lawrence, Kansas, United States served by Amtrak, the national railroad passenger system. Lawrence Station was built in 1956 by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad to replace the Atchison Topeka Santa Fe Station built in 1883 which was damaged by the 1951 flood. The Mid-Century Modern station has been declared eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
During 2011, more than $1.5 million in station improvements were carried out, including the construction of a new 500 feet (150 m) platform and repairs to the platform canopy, new lighting and improved access for persons with disabilities. A ceremony was held on December 3 to mark the end of the project.The City of Lawrence is expected to obtain ownership of the station in 2014, and has been awarded a $1.2 million grant to carry out a complete restoration of the structure.
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