I moved to LA from Rockford, IL in 1973 when I was 14 years old and was amazed by how completely "skaters" were into skateboarding as a lifestyle.
I mean it was shocking to me. There were other cliques, but those guys were obsessive. And I was amazed at what they did on their boards. They did stuff that truly seemed impossible to me.
I was amazed by the boards themselves too. We didn't have anything like those in the mid-west and I'd never seen anything like them.
Compared to the tiny steel wheeled skateboards I'd seen those laminated and curved plywood boards were huge and the plastic wheels and "trucks" were way more high tech than I'd ever imagined anyone would apply to a skateboard. I remember asking them "They make these wheels and axels just for skateboards?" because I really thought they must have some real industrial use and were being re-appropriated. They thought I was a dumbass for asking.
I learned fast to not touch anyone's board, and don't even ask if you can ride it. That, to me, was funny because I'm thinking the best I can do is not fall off if I can get both feet on it going as slow as I can and I'd watch them jumping curbs and making the board do flips and catching air, but they were convinced I'd bust it? I couldn't imagine how?
Listening to a group of them talk was also impressive. They had their own accent and lingo and, again, I'd never really seen anything like that before. They didn't sound the same as kids who weren't skaters and they didn't talk about the same things. They mostly talked about skating and everything else didn't matter. I would listen to them and wonder "how can they only talk about skating?"
Those hardcore skaters were truly a mystery to me, but learning they're preserving their history doesn't surprise me. They really were different, and that history should be preserved. It was as unique as anything I've ever seen in modern American culture.
My first trip to SF was a solo trip (20 years ago) to skate all the classic spots in the city. EMB, Hubba, Pier 7, etc.
I remember getting off Bart in the middle of the city and having no idea where I was. This guy skates by as I’m standing there looking clueless and asks if I needed help finding any spots. Once he realized it was my first time in the city, he spent the “entire” day showing me around to every spot. At the end of the day I bought him a sandwich and he pulled out a giant blunt (I used to smoke).
One of my favorite memories of skateboarding and of SF.
Similar story in San Diego in 1996 (I had just turned 18). Except I was planning on moving to San Diego from Eugene. I thought I had it all worked out. I managed to sell my Performa 6214 and playstation and came up with 1200 bucks. Enough for a bus ticket and and a hotel for a night once I get there. In the morning I will find a room to rent and a job. Surely I can do that in a few hours.
That didn't work..
I ended up renting a really bad pay by the week hotel where I had to sleep with the lights on because the roaches were aggressive.
It took about 36 hours to realize I would quickly run out of of money and end up back in Eugene living on my sisters floor. So I just rolled with it.
I would catch the bus from downtown to La Jolla and skate back downtown. I loved the long stretches of smooth path that ran along the beach. It is nice to just do flip tricks going pretty much as fast as you can without a tree root messing up a sidewalk. Like butter.
But I broke a kingpin about four days into what was now my vacation. So I was at the skateshop getting a new one and ran into this kid I met a few months earlier in Sacramento when I was on my way to The Tibetan Freedom Concert in S.F.
So we hung out for a few days and he showed me some lesser known spots in San Diego. He also called in a favor to get my stupid broke ass back to Eugene.
I was 30 when I discovered I could no longer skateboard. Nasty handrail thing and I was just done. I could have kept going but I wanted to go out on the top like Seinfeld. So I gave my board to my sisters son who had been rolling a Razor scooter. I would no longer hurt myself daily and maybe he would get a girl to talk to him.
Now I just think about what I would do with stairs and curbs when I walk down the street.
Fantastic to see this on the front page! Thought about this yesterday (while skating), skateboarding is really THE best sport... You're competing with yourself while generating more fun, discovery and advancement for all. Total opposite of zero sum. The best are those magic sessions when everybody gets hyped off each other and lands crazy tricks far above their usual skill. Hope the kickstarter succeeds:
On a similar note, a great deal of skateboarding’s oral history is being recorded and archived by The Nine Club[0], a podcast where a few professional skateboarders and people in the industry sit down for a conversational interview. They’ve been going strong for over two years now, currently with 105 total weekly episodes. Hearing Jamie Thomas talk for nearly four hours about his career is incredible, especially if you’re at all interested in the history of the culture.
They’re able to run it from donations, Patreon, and merchandise sales. I support them on Patreon, and I think it’s great what they’re doing!
Did anyone else here take the irresponsible path in life or am I the only one? I dropped out of college for a job offer as a full-time skateboard videographer and didn’t look back for almost a decade. I’m not sure I regret it, but getting real jobs after the fact is pretty strange with this stuff on my resume. I honestly still assume a lot of people who read my resume must think I made it up. Every now and then, someone gets excited and fans out but they still don’t take me seriously unless they work in advertising, because people in advertising realize, consciously or not, how action sports expanded the boundaries of what branding is. Very strange to look back on this stuff; especially the earlier days when it was a very genuine and outright spastic culture. Unfortunately, it’s also a little embarrassing haha.
Love that this got onto the front page of HN! I started skating in the late 80s, when we had the Bones Brigade and guys like Natas Kaupas showing what you could do it the streets. Then I lost interest and didn't pick up a board again. Until about 3 months ago when I decided to buy another setup and try again. I live in bayside Melbourne and we have this awesome skate park in St Kilda where it's good for beginners. I've been going 3 times a week...
I've been pretty consumed by skate nostalgia and can't get enough of stuff like this!
16 years on the board for me. From Cornwall, to Oxford, to Boston MA. Weird seeing the pictures of Sean Goff riding a sketchy ramp in Iffley Road in 87. He's still a regular at the new Oxford park, on the same spot as that ramp, and he still destroys it! As others have said, this is a strange mixing of worlds, skating and HN. It's great to see people come out of the woodwork!
Tech has got me to the place where I finally have enough space to build a ramp in my backyard! Finished it just a few weeks ago, and it's a dream come true.
I mean it was shocking to me. There were other cliques, but those guys were obsessive. And I was amazed at what they did on their boards. They did stuff that truly seemed impossible to me.
I was amazed by the boards themselves too. We didn't have anything like those in the mid-west and I'd never seen anything like them.
Compared to the tiny steel wheeled skateboards I'd seen those laminated and curved plywood boards were huge and the plastic wheels and "trucks" were way more high tech than I'd ever imagined anyone would apply to a skateboard. I remember asking them "They make these wheels and axels just for skateboards?" because I really thought they must have some real industrial use and were being re-appropriated. They thought I was a dumbass for asking.
I learned fast to not touch anyone's board, and don't even ask if you can ride it. That, to me, was funny because I'm thinking the best I can do is not fall off if I can get both feet on it going as slow as I can and I'd watch them jumping curbs and making the board do flips and catching air, but they were convinced I'd bust it? I couldn't imagine how?
Listening to a group of them talk was also impressive. They had their own accent and lingo and, again, I'd never really seen anything like that before. They didn't sound the same as kids who weren't skaters and they didn't talk about the same things. They mostly talked about skating and everything else didn't matter. I would listen to them and wonder "how can they only talk about skating?"
Those hardcore skaters were truly a mystery to me, but learning they're preserving their history doesn't surprise me. They really were different, and that history should be preserved. It was as unique as anything I've ever seen in modern American culture.