FAR OUT

She grew up down the block from my Old Man. Then I grew up with a torn bikini poster of her in our work room. That's where I got the skateboard bug....

AGAINST THE RAIN

Got rained out before even arriving to Jefferson park at 9am. Headed down to Marginal and pretty much had it to myself for a couple hours. Artsy shots ensued.

"FROM A BUNCH OF PUNKS."

Undoubtedly one of the more banal trends in skateboarding, from an artist's perspective or not, was when everyone became a tagger in the early 90's. It was so rampant amongst street skating, (i.e. condensed in commercial urban areas) that it actually may have been what led to the full-force crack-down on graffiti in general, starting in Los Angeles. SWAT teams burst into the scene (and my front door), molesting and arresting potential felons under the ruse of fighting gangs. The tactic spread like wildfire to law enforcement all around the country as it was considered an effective method of stomping out the most feared and loathed artwork in our national history.

Indeed, you don't see the quality of pieces anymore anywhere on the West Coast. Just shitty tags and throw-ups....ironically, as one saw skaters doing en masse a la '93.

It did make for some good hometown drama though....

 Ah Billy, where are you?

THE CHROME BALL IS IN MY COURT.

Treated self for birthday...wanted something big and fun, roughly like an old Blind shape from days of old. I found that shape in a Black Label series, and Mike at Gravity hooked me up without selling the whole series to some board collector schmuck. The only problem is all the artwork is done by Neil Blender, and now I'm having a hard time thinking about fucking it up. Same reason I can't buy one of these beauties...

And it's Blender!

....couldn't resist.

Vatos Loc(als)

Long hiatus away from the blogs. 3 funerals and a wedding. Seriously heavy.

Not sure how to segway back into posting, but it was so random before, I guess there's no reason it shouldn't continue that way. I am running out of material however....

So why not steal an epic pic?! Skateboarding can make anything cool cooler.

I actually dreamed about a chicano gang last night after having stared for a long while at this superb photo of Stecyk's yesterday. Why a gang, I'm not sure....maybe the various 13's in the background. Ah, what I miss and don't about living in Venice. V13 ese!