The Legendary Skater Tony Alva
Article By: Kelsey Grillot and Ginger Coyote
Tony Alva is an American skateboarder, entrepreneur, and musician. He was a pioneer of vertical skateboarding and one of the original members of the Zephyr Competition Skateboarding Team, also known as the Z-Boys. The Transworld Skateboarding Magazine ranked him eighth in its list of the “30 Most Influential skateboarders” of all time.
In the early 1980s, Alva played bass guitar for the “Skoundrelz”, a Venice, California punk band. Three songs appeared on BCT’s First Strike compilation released in 1983. Whenever Tony was in San Francisco Meri St. Mary and I would hang out with Tony. He was working on set design for many of the new network Fox. Tony was friends with my dear friends Vonya Seiss and Lisa Zane in Hollywood. I met his brother Mark through him. Mark and I are pals to this day. We both loathe the orange blob. Later, Tony was in an early line-up of sleaze rock band Junkyard. In 2007, he formed the band G.F.P. (General Fucking Principle) with Dead Fucking Last vocalist Tom Paul Davis (Crazy Tom), guitarist Greg Hetson (Circle Jerks, Bad Religion) and former Suicidal Tendencies drummer Amery Smith. I also hung out with Junkyard. In 2013, Alva began playing with the Los Angeles rock band, His Eyes Have Fangs.
In July 2023, His Eyes Have Fangs participated as a special musical guest at the Los Angeles art and music collective Surf Skate Roots Rock, reuniting with fellow skateboarding-artist pioneers such as Lance Mountain, Lonnie Toft, Mike Smith, Marty Grimes, George Wilson, Steve Olson, etc.
