Wentzle Ruml IV was a member of the legendary Zephyr skateboard team.
Early life
He grew up in
Venice,
California, and began skateboarding with good friend
Bob Biniak. He attended
Santa Monica High School and later Olympic High School. Team founder Skip Engblom discovered Ruml under the Ocean Park bus at the Third Street stop: "He always missed the rear wheels, so I picked him up for the team. I had a feeling that we had to get him off the street if he was gonna last much longer."
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Z-Boy Career
Ruml was never the most prominent member of the team, but is credited with being one of the pioneers of pool skateboarding. Stacy Peralta credits Ruml with pioneering the 360 slide and Tony Alva says he was the first to pull off a 180 lip slide into a 360 roundhouse back into a 180. As the team began to dissipate, Ruml moved to Hawaii to skate and surf with
Jay Adams.
Later life
Ruml lives in
Cape Cod,
Massachusetts. He owns Wellfleet Sea Farms Inc., an
aquaculture farm in Wellfleet Harbor on Egg Island.
External links
American skateboarders | Living people