DISCO PANTS.

Somewhere in the U-District on the way from Gasworks. Billy Cain and the Henderson's in tow. Asshole commentary by yours truly.

TAKE YOUR OWN.

SHAPE YOUR OWN.

I ONLY SKATED IN SAN DIEGO ONCE...

Diggin' in the vaults for spare parts, found a clip. It aint a great piece of footage, but it does have 3 nostalgic components:

1. Koston had a manual run there in the 101 promo.
2. I had a long-gone edition of my "Legalize It" T-shirt.
3. I could do nollie flips.

TOOFLESS WONDER

Aside from the fact that he looked like a malfunctioned Terminator T2000 gone rogue and homeless, Tim Jackson was a style king. I saw him in his Venice stomping ground circa his heyday, probably 1989. I went down to the beach in search for Mullen (whom I never saw him in those days, but always saw someone) and was blessed with a one man show. Jackson was doing his usual (though far from any other usual) onslaught against the 4 foot tall, 40 foot long wall divider above the (once was) graffiti pits, which are now filled in with sand. He would approach at full speed a la bad-ass Dogtown gangster surf style (i.e. attitude) and straight wallie up and boardslide through the kink, about 20-30 feet. Sometimes he'd layback (as below), other times tuck-knee or pop-out early. It was his shtick and he did it better than anyone I've seen since. Venice had such a rad 80's scene, which was borderline voyeuristic in its display. They performed and we watched. Or was it because we watched?

Check out Rowley's psyched intro to Jackson's Risk It Part

ARE GOOD CURBS ENDANGERED???

What I wouldn't do for a nice waxy double-sided curb right now....maybe I'll start a non-profit to save them in their plight. Seriously -where have they all gone??

OLD WORLD ORDER

Banger of a video (Manolo's mixtapes are the illest) for the weekend: World Park Mixtape

To this day, World Park, which I only went to once, remains one of my favorite skate parks ever. It was nestled in a shitty warehouse in what I think was Lawndale, just between Hawthorne and North Redondo. Private to Rocco team players and various friends of the teams, it was an unsupervised den of inequity/hell. And it saw not only the hellfire wrath of kids without adults (but with spare cash), but also some of the most progressive skating in the early 90's tech boom. Whenever this park showed up in a video part I got really hyped. It was all about the noise. That little warehouse was a huge acoustic drum. The clanking of the metal lips on the ramps, the hollow wooden boxes echoed when wheels touched down, the banshee wails reverberating in the rafters whenever a trick was landed....it enhanced what was already really good footage -usually something you hadn't seen before.

When I went there, I met Daewon Song for the first time, as he was our chaperone for the night. I'm sure I geeked it, but I do remember enjoying the park to its fullest, skating until late in the morning. And I of course remember every single thing he did there that night. Blunts on the hip spine (4" worth of wood/coping), mach 3 tailslides to heelflip out across the box, his usual barrage of manuals, 360 flip fakies on wood laying against the wall almost vertically, and showing us how he could kickflip with his foot in the extreme heelflip position. He also challenged any of us to try and "take him down." Don't you always wrestle before you skate?

That building will never Rest In Peace after what it went through at the expense of Steve Rocco and his band of misfit toys. Small wheels, flip your board, tricks for cash, kick a hole in the door, climb the walls, howl at the moon, claim to be the King of the Wild Things.

FUCK YOU SKATE BARN!!!!!!!!

Blair and I tried stopping in at the Skate Barn over the holidays. I had some free passes that my lady bought me thru Group-on. I had talked the the owner a week previous to make sure I could redeem my coupons, to which he replied, "no problem....yeah, over a thousand of those were purchased..." He failed to warn me (and I imagine the rest of the 1000+ people who obtained the Group-on) that they would be closing their doors for good within a weeks time. What a god-awful businessman. Not only did they obviously fail to meet their rental requirements, but they failed to let those who invested in their coupons (probably sold knowing they'd cash in on them as their business sunk into the ocean) that they should hurry to redeem them. They didn't change their website, they didn't send out a courtesy e-mail. I hope their debts outweigh what they ripped-off from their coupon constituents. I would hate to think all that money was a scam to help them out of bankruptcy. Shitbirds. 

Speaking of birds, that night, over the Skate Barn, there was an ominous flock of about 2000 crows swooping and screeching and diving around the sky. It was an omen. But for what or whom, we shall never know. 

Oh...really?!?

(NOT) DOWN WITH SKATE BARN!

Where to now? Another hour in the car to Inner Space...

WHAT IF?

SECRET SPOT IS STILL THERE. (I thought it was demolished.) Some ply wood, a machete, lots of wax, and 2 helmets should do it. Frontside and back, curved madness!

DOOR WAYS

I took Nick to South Park for the first time. He seemed to really like it, especially the arches.

This is a make. Proper backside 5-0.

Attempted melon.

Up and over roll-in, and another hairball one with a grab and shove.