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....
"Two hundred years of American technology has unwittingly created a massive cement playground of unlimited potential. But it was the minds of 11-year-olds that could see that potential." C.R. Stecyk III
Showing posts with label THE 90'S. Show all posts
Showing posts with label THE 90'S. Show all posts
Thursday, June 21, 2012
"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?
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....
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
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.
Friday, February 10, 2012
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.
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.
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