The story of the nineball starts in our La Jolla backyard in 1993. At the time our house consisted of a bunch of good friends, a halfpipe, pool table, ping pong table and shaping room all just across the street from some nice smooth hills down to the reefs. Being that the house had all these fine features, it became quite the hangout spot.

One of our friends from Hawaii who used to call people “nineballs” all the time in a friendly razzing sort of way, called up on the phone one day to see what was going on at the house. Of course we were all “studying” so he got the answering machine and said “Whats going on over there at Sector 9?” which to him and us meant a house full of nineballs.

At the same time one of the house favorite hill cruisers, a snowboard-turned-skateboard, was stolen from Northbird in La Jolla and a couple replacement boards were almost finished and just needed the finishing touches of a logo. The message on the machine was heard and the name not only had a nice ring to it but seemed fitting as well so it stuck.