Ron Allen (born December 31, 1962) is a goofy-footed American skateboarder from

Visalia, California Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-most populous city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 38th most populous in California, and 183 ...

. Allen, living and working in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, is a well-known California

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...

and

vert skater Vert skating or vertical skating is a discipline using skates like inline skates or roller skates on a vert ramp, a style of half-pipe. In vert skating, the skater is able to achieve more air-time as compared to other styles of skating, meaning ...

who had parts in

H-Street H-Street Skateboards is a skateboard company started by Tony Magnusson and Mike Ternasky in 1987. H-Street garnered popularity through their innovative videos and skating . History Magnusson and Ternasky went to George Hamad to pitch the ide ...

videos, Shackle Me Not and Hokus Pokus.

Skateboarding career

Allen is one of the nation’s first black professional skateboarders and one of the first to obtain a major

corporate sponsorship A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as "born out of sta ...

. The first company to sponsor Allen was Gullwing Trucks. After placing third in an amateur contest in Santa Barbara,

Vision Street Wear Vision Street Wear is an American clothing, skateboarding and BMX brand. Started in 1976 by Brad Dorfman, the company sponsored early skateboarding greats such as Mark 'Gator' Rogowski, and Mark Gonzales. Although Vision is mostly known for its ...

started to sponsor Allen. In 1989, Allen left Vision for the newly founded

, alongside John Schultes, Colby Carter, Art Godoy, Tony Magnusson,

Danny Way Danny Way (born April 15, 1974) is an American professional Skateboarding, skateboarder. He was awarded Thrasher (magazine), ''Thrasher'' magazine's "Skater of the Year" award twice. He is known for extreme stunts, such as jumping into a skatebo ...

, Chris Livingston, Aaron Vincent, John Sonner, David Nelsen, Matt Hensley, Sal Barbier, and others. After

, Allen started his own company with Mike Ternasky called ''Life'', a name based on the

De La Soul De La Soul ( ) is an American hip hop music, hip hop group formed in the village of Amityville on Long Island, New York (state), New York in 1988. They are best known for their eclectic sampling, eccentric lyrics, and contributions to the evoluti ...

song called ''Living In a Fulltime Era''. Soon after starting ''Life'',

Sean Sheffey William Sean Sheffey is a regular-footed American professional skateboarder. Early life Sheffey grew up in Maryland. Growing up, Sheffey was inspired by the skating of Mark Gonzales, Jesse Martinez, and Natas Kaupas. Skateboarding career Sh ...

joined the team. Two years later, Ternasky left ''Life'' for

Plan B Skateboards Plan B Skateboards is a skateboarding company based in San Diego California, United States, founded by Mike Ternasky, Danny Way and Colin McKay. PlanB has been manufacturing and selling premium skateboard hard goods and apparel since 1991 . Hi ...

. ''Life'' ended because Allen and the other members of the company weren’t happy being associated with H-Street, so they moved to Deluxe & called it ''Fun Skateboards.'' The team consisted of Jesse Niehaus, John Reeves, Keith Hufnagel and others. After ''Fun'', Allen founded ''American Dream Inc'' with the artist Alyasha Moore, who Allen met in 1996. Moore designed a deck for Allen with Dexter Woods of the San Francisco chapter of the

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxist–Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California ...

on it. In 1999, Allen founded and released a

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

board on his new company ''Energy'', standing for: Enough Nonsense Every Rider Get Yours. In 2007, H-Street reissued Allen's Ben Outlook board with art by Jeff Klindt. In 2008, Allen joined Creation skateboards at the age of 44. Additionally, Allen worked as team manager at High Grade Distribution, the company that distributes Creation; however, as a stint as team manager, Allen went back to being strictly a Pro. Allen had a part in the 2016 documentary ''“The Blackboard”''. The film, by Marquis Bradshaw, a

Minot, North Dakota Minot ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Ward County, North Dakota, United States, in the state's north-central region. It is most widely known for the Air Force base approximately north of the city. With a population of 48,377 at the 2 ...

attorney and filmmaker, which explored the issue of racial identity among African Americans through the lens of skateboarding. In 2024, Allen was inducted into the

Skateboarding Hall of Fame Skateboarding Hall of Fame (or SHoF), founded in 1997, is a museum and hall of fame located in Simi Valley, California, United States. The museum documents the history of skateboarding and the skateboarders, photographers, and other notable figu ...

. Allen is recognized for his unique variation on the

Ollie Ollie is a given name and a nickname, often as a shortened form of Oliver (given name), Oliver, Olive (given name), Olive, Olympia, Olga (name), Olga or Olivia (given name), Olivia. Variants include Olie, Oli, Oly (disambiguation), Oly and Olly (di ...

North. Allen is known for his unique style where he often leans back on his rear leg.

References

1964 births American skateboarders African-American skateboarders Sportspeople from Visalia, California Living people 21st-century African-American sportsmen 21st-century American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-skateboarding-bio-stub