The Godoys: The Story of Iron Cross
A Brief History of the Godoy Brothers

Art and Steve Godoy. Background, skate history/pro models

Art and Steve were born in 1967, which makes them 35 years old for those of you who aren’t good at math. Art is older by 10 minutes. They were born in Mexico, then moved to Venezuela where their sister was born, moved to Puerto Rico, back to Venezuela then moved to Chicago in 1973 because their mom’s from there. Then they went to Lancaster PA with her, and it is there they started skating in 1976. They went through most of their school years there and in ’82 they got kicked out of school and had to go live with their dad in Mexico City. When he moved to Dallas, they went with him. That’s when they got sponsored. Art got on Zorlac and Gullwing and Steve was on Powell and Tracker. They used to skate with Jeff Phillips, Dan Wilkes, and Craig Johnson every day. Their dad then got transferred to Hong Kong and they ended up going back to Lancaster to finish high school.

On the night of graduation, they were on their way to Dallas to live, even though they didn’t have anywhere to stay. They lived in their Chrysler for about 9 or 10 months in 1985. They had just quit Zorlac and were both riding Tracker Trucks and Tracker boards until they had something concrete with Kryptonics. You may remember this ad with them doing doubles— Art doing a backside air over Steve doing a frontside invert. That was at the height of their poverty. They were, according to Art, wearing “some gay clothes. When we got on Krypto, this company called Action East wanted to pay us to wear these brightly colored shorts and so we did…only cuz it meant gas money (heat at night) and food. We were also wearing retarded Haro pads. Haro said they were gonna pay too, never got a dime, those things started to smell like shit right from the start too…did ya see the red shoes we had on? I believe they were red, those weren’t even Converse, they were Payless “pro wings,” only $5 and the soles were like cheap cardboard, just goes to show ya we were broke. Some funny shit!”

They turned pro in ’86 with the combined Godoy “heads” deck on Kryptonics.The brothers had no say in the shape of their deck: it was the generic Atlantic Skates shape. Then Kryptonics released a second Godoy brothers model that was VERY short lived. It had “Pinocchio” looking guys with mittens on, and the names read “Arthur and Stephen Godoy.” They had input this time, so it was a custom, stinger shape, but they left Kryptonics shortly afterwards. Art explains: “No, we were never kicked off any company we ever rode for. Weeft, they were very new at having pros ride for ’em and were being “coached” by Larry Balma. See, after the 70s, the board division became the responsibility of Atlantic Skates and the wheel manufacturing stayed in Colorado where they always were. We had the 2-headed model which wasn’t our shape, it was just a generic shape they used for all their decks. So we were bummed, and that’s when the really rare “pinocchio” deck came out …by that time, we were over it and were in talks with Skull Skates. The board shape thing and sharing ads with ams…we weren’t into that.”

So in late ’86 they joined Skull Skates, and moved to Cardiff, California shortly later. They had a combined model on Skull Skates, with both a full- and mini-sized model. Same gargoyle graphics on both. It’s probably their most famous deck, and their best seller. In early 1988 they left Skull. Art got on H-Street and Steve got on Circle A (Bob Schmeltzer’s company). Art had 3 decks on H-Street. The first had Japanese-looking graphics that featured a whale coming out of the water and eating somebody. He then had a full-size deck on H-Street with a fish on it, and a mini model with a sea serpent. Steve’s Circle A deck was a full size only. Cool graphics, a guy made from smoke coming out of a candle with these two skeletal dogs under him. In late 1988 Art and Steve left their companies to start their own—Iron Cross Skateboards. Art and Steve both had two individual models on Iron Cross. These were their last pro models. The Godoys today are sponsored by PoolSchool skateboards, Fury trucks, Spitfire wheels and Vans. Steve’s son, Knox, is sponsored by Baker skateboards and is one of the best young street skaters in the world. According to Art he is a foul mouthed yob. I guess the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree, but if he has one ounce of the integrity and ability of his dad and uncle, he will be a great person as well as a great skater. What follows is the uncensored story of Iron Cross Skateboards from the mouths of Art and Steve