SKATERS: 1 - UNIBOMBER: 0

I vaguely remember this, which is to say, I don't remember it at all. Street skating brings you in face-to-face combat with so many poor souls, it's impossible to keep record of them all. Between knives, fireworks thrown from moving cars, iron clubs, mace, and guns, one tends to lose memory of the relatively passer-by's. Aside from the fact that I wish I remember this Cohen Brothers character, I need some assistance.

Who took the photo? (Blair?) Does Chris remember this? Did it escalate? He looks ready to watch a Bears game and shoot some shit if they lose the game.

Strange thing is, I dress more like him these days than the kite-flying shit I had on there. But I did have Jovante's last board....

LATER NOTE: I asked Chris about this and all he had to say was "Ha, mall grab skills."

WELL, HAVE YOU?

Does your mother support your skateboarding?

Andy, Vinnie, Gerwer.

SPOT CHECK: TRACYTON ELEMENTARY

Blair and I brought this kiddie table from Washboard's and tried flippies over it. I don't know why we didn't get them. That's a little Josh Renner in the background. He probably could've done either first try.


Tracyton got cut out of the budget a few years ago, co-opted students going to another school in a consolidation move which must've sucked for both student and teacher. It's just a grass field now.

COFFEE AND CIGARETTES

Melody (AKA "Mel" back in the day) is an old friend. She sent me
this nice little ditty:

It's Saturday, around 8:30pm on a warm, breezy summer evening. I'm 36
years old. I just left work and am walking to my car. I hear the sound of
wheels on pavement, and the unmistakable sound of wood sliding on a curb,
echoing out of the parking garage across the street. As soon as I hear
these familiar sounds, I am 17 again. I imagine the boys inside of that
garage with ridiculously baggy pants and flannel shirts. The sound track
playing in my mind: Operation Ivy, NOFX, Descendents. I can taste the
Mountain Dew and as I take a deep breath, I can feel the cigarette smoke
flowing in my lungs (a habit I gave up more than 14 years ago.) I go all
the way back to my days as a cashier at a weird little burger joint called
Farknarkles, where on any given day I could hear the sounds of wheels
coming down the hill towards me, prompting me to get a few "pink waters" 
ready because my boys were thirsty!

As I approach my duel-sliding-door, silver mom van, I imagine myself opening
the door to a band-aid colored, 1978 Pinto station wagon. A bitter-sweetness
fills me as I remember days since passed. I feel content with the memories
made, and the friendships discovered. On my drive home, I think about
specific people and specific memories. I think about driving my friends
all over town so they could film their skate sessions; clocking them with the clunky
speedometer while they bombed hills; taking the injured to the hospital for
stitches, casts and bandages; and late summer nights, jacked up on coffee,
watching my friends skate a rooftop parking lot. Although I have no desire
to relive my teenage angst (or drive that Pinto), I feel a happiness that
I was a part of something that can cause me to completely step back in
time, even if only for a moment.

The next morning, as I pass that same parking garage on my way back to
work, I hear wheels again. I turn to look, just a middle-aged woman in a
navy suit wearing running shoes, holding her high heels and pulling a
rolling suitcase. Not the wheels I was hoping for.

Reverie officially over and I am 36 once again.

SPOT CHECK: GENERAL SUPPLY

A lot of hours went down at this West Bremerton attraction. The new ledge looks fun, I need to check that out soon, had no time yesterday. It can be seen so far in these previous posts:

FEELING A BIT MELANCHOLY

Skate Rats 101

Props to Seth Book for the updated version. 

 

NEW APPROACH TO RED CURB

CONCRETE IS HARD, VERY HARD!

NOPING

Mr. Weinstock with a proper frontside ollie at the weirdest park we've got, Southpark.

NOW THE STORY CAN BE TOLD...

This video got me hyped before I even stepped on a board. I just remember Natas skating the couch. When I lived in Venice I was always hoping to run into Mike Muir. Never happened. Note the very oddly placed (even for him) Timothy Leary cameo.

DIY

Ben and Blair started this chicken wire concrete masterpiece in one of the lower parking lots of the East Bremerton YMCA, and Blair and I got a little further the following night via car headlights. The next day we found a large note from the Y insisting we cease and desist any and all building on private property. Now, just 20 or so yards away, is a large, public concrete skatepark...with no transitions.

BIPOLAR BEARS

You can feel that Winter is upon us soon. Get ready for frost sessions. Must...find...mittens.

Heath, Chris, Blair and Quinn at Silverdale, Dec. '09. Fun.

PLEAD YOUR CASE

If we don't get them
They gonna get us all
I'm down for runnin' up on them
Crackers in they city hall
We ride for y'all...

JUNK

I FILMED THAT.

I FILMED THAT. from Quinn Davis on Vimeo.

Only thing I ever filmed that made it into a legit company skate vid. Daewon Song, Daewon vs. Rodney Round 1. You don't care about credits when you're 21. He gave me a board and wheels. Good pay for 10 minutes work.

AFTERTHOUGHT: I wish Jeff Henderson would get his ass in this here blog...I know he's filmed some of the gnarliest stuff ever done to date. Stay gold, hoss. 

FEELING A BIT MELANCHOLY

Greg Martin, old buddy, hometown ripper. Taught me board(rail)slides. This has got to be my first skate photo. Ma's point-n-shoot.

Wade Speyer, Aforementioned Bainbridge Think demo. Taught me I am a pussy. My old trusty Pentax Asahi, RIP.

Adam Crew, another hometown ripper. Blasting at Silverdale. Taught me what style looks like, holmes. Dad's newer Pentax, still got it. 

Blair Taylor, homeboy, running a little interference bonkage. What was that bank called? U-Haul? Pic taker?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

ANTICI...PATION

Earlier post about taking the plunge sums this up.

Age is not an issue.

BULLDOG SKATE GENE

Why do all bulldogs like to skate? I think we need to find and research that genome.

Pools held the primordial ooze

This is a great photo. And I don't know the back story....he'll fill us in via comments.

 Blair's always been one of the funnest people to skate with, and always a step ahead of me.

Grind over the light, no coping, more like ledge on vert.

Skate & Destroy vs. Disrespect

Board in question from previous post, being molested and abused as described, circa '95. Posed lay-back grind on one of my favorite all-time spots, Safeway Red Curb in Silverdale, R.I.P. (Photo by John Daley on a late, very bored night, right before we stole a television and photo-staged it sliding down a playground slide.)

Q.

Power = ambition + talent

I think I only skated with Junior Wudruff (sp?) once. But it was inspirational. He and Ben Hooker and others were of the generation before us who we looked up to. I skated with him and Ben at the newly built Fred Meyer on Wheaton Way in East Bremerton. I remember Ben slappy 50-50ing the ledge, Danny Seargent style. Amazing. Junior, I just remember being goddamn good. No specifics.

Anyway, I don't remember who posted this photo I stole on Facefuck, but credit due, because it's epic.  Rough ground, no nose, huge hydrant, and he's easily going to clear it. Nick White had similar power and finesse. I skated with him more often, so he was the dude I idolized the most. I geeked it completely and actually asked the proverbial (of old) grommet question, "what's the highest thing you ever ollied?" He humored me and after laughing, said, a tennis net. It floored me. What a little grom I was. Fuel for the fire. Ollieiing was the goal at the time.

What really pains me is I used to have that exact Natas board. And later, I treated it like shit, just skating it and not caring about the damage done. I left it in an L.A. garage to be thrown away by an unknowing mother. I just spoke with someone about that the other day. He said it sounded insignificant, like a vintage car that doesn't get seen or driven. I told him it was about the significance of actually having owned it when it came out, and it meant a lot to me as history. It's not about the commercial value, but the nostalgia value. Red Slimeballs, my first pro wheels. I had a mini Natas (w/ the kitten) for about one day before breaking it by dropping my launch ramp on it while trying to move it. My new board was focussed by a fucking launch ramp. Or rather, gravity and a lack of physics planning. (Wedge vs. fulcrum vs. counter-weight.)

So I kick myself about those old boards I vandalized. More on that note later when I shaw/talk about an old Greg Martin board I have that looks like drift wood. Not many people would understand what it means that I want to frame it professionally. To me, it is the symbol of passion and endurance in the face of a lack of means.

Q.

ROLLING IS KEY.

Regardless of who or what, makes getting this blog going easier. I think early era with no affinities should to the trick*. I'll have a better photo of this day later down the line, but have to go into the Old Man's slide vault to do so. For now, just know that these 2 dudes (first 2 frames) rode bikes (yes, bicycles) from somewhere in Southern California up the coast on HW101, and that day stopped at Cannon Beach OR to do some radical shit. This was the first built-to-skate thing I ever touched down on. It was the Chin Ramp as far as I was concerned. And yes, I brought a freestyle board too, to make up for the fact that I could barely skate the bowl thingy. I think dropping in and kickturning was my whole my bag.

*I'll give a prize to whomever can name the "trick" in frame 2. 

Take the plunge

Just like dropping in for the first time, you gotta be stupid and just take the plunge. (My first drop in story will come later...think early grab Christ airs on a 4 foot in the woods. No, I didn't do the airs...)

There's no perfect way to start this BLOG. But that brings up a good question: How/why did you start (skateboarding)?

I saw the videos "Possessed to Skate" by Suicidal Tendencies, "Devil Inside" by INXS, "End of the World as we Know It" by REM, and saw a dude do a handstand all the way down a hilled parking lot of of Wheaton Way in Bremerton. Then I stood on a banana board, and rolled down a hill. Then someone showed me Animal Chin. That was it. From there on out, standing on a skateboard and rolling was like mainlining. From what I hear...

SKATEBOARDING IN 4 STEPS

Found it in a random Men's (Dude's) magazine.