TONY MAG BAT

Description

H-Street was founded circa 1986, by professional skateboarder Tony Mag and bro Mike Ternasky. The two teamed up with pro skateboarder Dave Andrecht to form the first skateboard company that was run by skateboarders.

T-Mags basic idea was that skateboard companies should be run by skateboarders and not guys in suits that didn’t ride, and that skateboarding should be a source of free and individual expression. The fact most towns in America have an actual H-Street somewhere, made it into an every town idea. H-Street is inclusive, not exclusive.

Inspired by Powell’s success in making skateboard videos, but limited to the budget of a real skateboarder, T-Mag and Mike theorized that a skate video could be made with a cheap VHS camera and edited at their pad on a VCR. Since this was the basic home video equipment available early in the 80′s the two ventured into uncharted waters. Knowing that it was more important to have skateboarders that demonstrated innovation and style for the sport than have a big budget, they invested in skaters that would become some of the world’s best, Danny Way, Matt Hensley, Mike Carrol, The Godoy brothers, Sal Barbier and Erick Koston just to name a few.

The team started with John Schultes from Del Mar and John Sonner from Vista. Soon Ron Allen was added, who was originally a friend of Mike’s from Nor Cal. One summer later, the video Shackle Me Not was born and would change the way that skateboard videos were made from that point on. A year later, Louisiana swamp rat Sal Barbier was added to the team, along with Alphonzo Rawls and several other top skaters of that time, and Hokus Pokus was made. Together Hokus Pokus and Shackle Me Not would take the skateboard world by storm; the videos became some of the most watched skate videos of all time. H-Street would eventually produce five major videos, with such notable skaters as Eric Koston, Mike Carrol, Jason Rogers, Colby Carter, Chad Vogt, and many other top pros of that era.

H-Street also produced a host of innovative and original skateboard products, most notably T-Mag’s “Hell Concave”, a board with an extreme amount of concave, which extended throughout the tail and nose of the board.

The early 90′s brought an abrupt end to the legacy that would be called H-Street. With the sudden and tragic death of Mike in a car accident, T-Mag went on to do other creative enterprises in the industry, eventually becoming founder of Osiris Shoes.

H-Street had become a memory, but skateboarders of all ages kept watching those ground breaking and legendary videos! After years of people asking T-Mag about the brand, in 2008 he decided to resurrect it. Slowly the company has come back to life and now in 2015 with his business partner and wife Monica Mag, as a team they are taking H-Street back to the streets, where Only The Faithful reside.

We are H-Street. Born by passion, raised with grit, skateboarding is in our soul, it’s the blood and sweat we leave behind at every bowl, street or park.