Gregg Ayres, 1977 - Photo: Gary Medeiros

Gregg Ayres skates Aptos Contest, 1977 - Photo: Gary Medeiros

Gregg Ayres

Name? Gregg “Queaver” Ayres. My mom didn’t like Gregory so she gave me the funky Gregg spelling. As for Queaver, that was given to me by Rodd Saunders.

Born? I was born on Tax Day, April 15, 1959. That means every year I get to celebrate my birthday by filing taxes.

Famous for…? Pipe riding. I was also the first guy who could carve switch foot and I did that in the Winchester Contest and blew people away. I would carve regular foot and slide my heel around and carve switch foot.

When Team Tunnel? 1976 to 1978. Over 2 years total.

Tunnel set-up? Even though I had two of my own signature Tunnel decks, most of the time I used the Tunnel Rodriguez “Beam” Model. I had Bennetts for freestyle but Trackers for pool and bank riding.

Tunnel memories? My closest brush with death was surfing 6 to 7 foot waves with Tunnel’s Michael McCreary up near Half Moon Bay. Suddenly, these enormous 20 foot waves broke across the entire bay. I was held down by that freezing water and thought I was gonna drown for sure.

Team Tunnel? Everyone on the team was a good skater. People really respected Team Tunnel and wanted to be on the team. We got even better in contests when we got Steve Alba to join up.

Magazines…? I was on the cover of SkateBoarder 3 times in 1977. I don’t think anyone was on more covers than me in the same year.

Other skate teams? Kryptonics, Sims and the Pepsi Team. I’ve seen some of my signature Sims decks go on Ebay for more than 2 grand! If they go much higher, I might have to pull out one or two from my private collection.

What’re you up to these days? I work as a financial advisor and I have a wife, a 7 year old son and a 5 year old daughter.

Your legacy in skateboarding? My legacy is nothing compared to the legacy of my dog Scruggs. He was an amazingly well behaved dog. And he was in SkateBoarder as well as Skateboard Madness, the movie. He was definitely the most famous dog in skateboarding in the ‘70s.