Umm… Ok lads, I wasn’t sure where to post this, so sorry if the news is a little late on this site.
Rollerball Paul has suggested a vert jam session at Monster this Monday the 9th of January to celebrate the life of John Findlay.
Start time is 6pm. Wear a loud shirt!
Rock on.
I’m there. Didn’t know Fin and I hope it doesn’t seem odd to ask… MM, GH, Parker, you guys that knew Fin well, maybe you can give those who didn’t know the man (like me) some of his story.
Arrr didn’t (couldn’t) make it 
Maybe, as Boris suggested, wherever we have wed night MASH roll can be loud shirt night. Riverwood - anybody?
Riv great, Guys I would also like to know more about John Findlay too, is that him making comments in tic tac to heal flip. I hope thats not stupod question. 
Johnny and I arrived at Pymble one early morning drizzling in rain hoping for a miracle that it was going to be dry, as we walked up to the pool we saw some clown singing loudly in the bottom of the pool. Who are they? We’ve not seen them before and we noticed that they had roller-skates and the only one that could getaway with having roller-skates was Murray. Not only that but we had never really talked to anyone there. We introduced ourselves as did they, so we headed to the squash courts and familiarized ourselves, the only problem was we couldn’t understand a damn word they were saying to us, he had just got off the plane from Scotland only a week before It was John Findlay accompanied by a Pommy mate named Steve Henshaw. We found out that Fin actually lived not far from us. We had made some new friends but roller skaters? Steve, Bim, Fin and Steve Hensaw were rolling with us every day and we became inseparable.
Fin and Steve had had enough of roller-skates, I mean they were both so good but you could see that they kinda felt left out, then all of a sudden they both turned up with skateboards and the roller-skates were never seen again.
Fin went on to become one of this countries finest and well respected skateboarders.
Over the years Fin made friends with everybody he came in contact with, his quick witt, humour and spontaneity were the key elements that made him such a lovable character but he will be mostly remembered for his kind heart and generosity that left most wanting to be around him endlessly.
Greg
haha… Anyone got pics of Fin on roller skates? I admit that I’m guilty of skating at Dodgem City.
Had to watch Tic Tac last night after Jimmy reminded me “Fin’s on it hey Dad?”
Fin on Melbs: “the weather’s shit and the chicks are all ugly” 
Saw you too there Michael when you were Mick inc. wig 
Lux, Errol, Wedge, Tes (where is he?), Sac… hadn’t watched it for a year or more - loved it all over again.
Mick, ive sworn to secrecy on that one. The pics i did have were stolen from me one at a time by none other, and now no longer exist amongst hundreds of other skate memorabilia pics. but Ill see what i can come up with.
Tez is a clothing Guru somewhat (jeans i think) somewhere in East Sydney i heard last.
I didn’t know the man personally, but he sure sounded like a true character, and a shit hot skater as well.
Read somewhere that Fin took a liking to being a ninja, and use too get around at nite dressed in the full ninja garb, he would move silently through the shadows for hours on end.
Some one was concerned about this and questioned him about his nitely activities, fearing he could get himself into some kind of trouble. Fin’s response to this was that a true ninja would NEVER get caught, and that he shouldn’t worry!
Where ever you got that from Sean its a dead cert, the Ninja antics do go back as far as i can remember.
Fin dressed as ninja, I as black sheet ghost and made our way very inconspicuous down the road 700m to the Rivertone Bowling club and snuck our way into the back entrance of the bistro unseen and stole a bag of bread rolls and back home again. Fin 20min later called the club and told them what we had done or should i say what we achieved and asked for the sum of $100 ransom for the 50 or so bread rolls or they would be consumed. They hung up!
aahaahahaha f*cken classic
The Finn night was great and Mick ended it perfectly by making some very technical and gnarly ollie to boardslide thing on the extension (i’m not sure what it should be called).
Finn went all the way back to Pymble, except he started as a roller skater. He was a grommie to me then and I didn’t really get to know him until much later. But the way I got to know him was a typical indication of the spirit of Finn. It also connects with another Oz skate video, Johnnie Goes Off.
It was the early to mid 90s. I hadn’t been part of skating for more than a decade, but I bumped into Fox somewhere and got invited to the launching of his new vid. I turned up to a room full of 80s and 90s skaters who didn’t know me from a bar of soap (later I found Errol and Dave Mock). Finn was clearly some shit-hot pro skater and the absolute life of the party. I didn’t recognise him at all, but he recognised me from Pymble and Skate City. He came running across the room and embraced me while screaming ‘Bill Schaffer, You Were a God!’ so everyone could hear.
I’m not saying this because I want anyone to think I was ever a God (I’m sure you all know I was never more than a mere mortal and a fairly borfish one at that). But it shows how generous Finn could be. He must have seen me, recognised me, and seen that I felt kinda nervous and unsure if I belonged in this brave new world of modern skating. So he way over-compensated to make me feel good. He was always like that with me - he was such a better skater by this time it isn’t worth talking about, but he’d turn up for a session with me at Maroubra any time (me and Errol sessioned with him 2 days before he died and I believe we were supposed to be going skating with him the day after).
Finn was also incredibly well-read, intelligent, funny (shit yeah!), friendly, and maybe too radical for life itself. Let us all SHRALP every day in his memory (and also in the memory of Matt Hoffman and Lopez).
What a story GH…pissed myself laughing!
Bill…you are truly the fountain of knowledge in all things that relate to skating.
I know your secret now Bill…you have it all written down on little square pieces of paper!!!
Thanks for the compliment Bill. And thanks for the inspiration Fin.
When Fin and I made Screen Zine 2 we hired an editing studio at very, very cheap rates for 15 hours (6pm to 9am) a night. We were stuck in there like a pair of freaks for 2 to 3 nights a week for a few weeks. But damn they were fun and funny nights.
We made the first Screen Zine in my bedroom and Fin would come up with random quotes that he would have me typing on Ye Trusty Ole Amiga 500 computer and superimposing over the video. Most hilarious house guest I’ve ever had.