Category: skateboarding

All-Around Skateboarding

I’ve been having a conversation with some of the guys on NeverWas Skateboarding about freestyle skateboarding and how back in the mid-late 70s and even early 80s skaters were more prone to being all-around skaters. By all around, I don’t mean “I skate transition AND street”.  I mean skater who did vert, banks freestyle, slalom, downhill, as well as just skating in the street.

You’d have guys like Doug “Pineapple” Saladino show up at a pro pool event and place in it, then the next weekend he’d win the Oceanside pro freestyle contest. My friend Paul was on the local Wizard Skatepark team. I used to see them practicing. They all practiced everything. The legendary Jeff Phillips was on the team, and I remember vividly being at the park on a Friday night and the team was all in the freestyle area doing their routines one after the other, and I saw Jeff doing his.

In 1978-79 Skateboarder Magazine published a series of “Quivers” articles, showing the board setups of a number of current pros like Stacy Peralta, Gregg Ayres, Mike Weed, etc. They all had a range of boards for different purposes, including freestyle.

That’s how it was. I suppose as each form of skating became more difficult and more advanced specialization came more to the forefront.

The all-around era was really the formative era for me. As I could only go to the skatepark for 2 hours a week, freestyle and bank skating (at local spots near my house) were most accessible for me. It was easy to practice freestyle at the nearby school parking lot. The banked driveways in our alleys were my bank skating training ground. Occasionally one of us neighborhood skaters would build some shitty little ramp. But all-around skating was always my goal.

Skate Clips Gallery

I have taken my experimental static website and moved it to a subdomain of this blog.

https://skateclips.concretelunch.info

I think it looks like an art gallery.

This new gallery is not technologically connected to this main blog. There is are no comment fields there. I want it to be a more oldschool organic thing. If someone wants to comment, the email address is right there. It can be easily followed using the RSS feed, which is shown on almost every page.

Setting Up Board

I’m looking forward to setting up this new Cockfight Skateboards Matt Money deck. It’s 9″ x 33″ with a 15″ wheelbase. Should be really good for parking lot style, ditches, and parks. I’m going to put Indy 169s and some 54mm 99a Bones STF on it. I’ve got a bunch of bank tricks I want to work on. Of course, we’re about to have an “arctic blast” hit the DFW area, so it’s going to get really cold. I always pick the best times to set up a new board. I also got some new New Balance skate shoes that I’m currently breaking in, before my current one fall apart.

Cockfight skateboard deck
click for full size
Cockfight skateboard deck
click for full size

A New Board

I’ve had this Cockfight Skateboards deck for a few months. With the death of Frank Gardner I for some reason found myself compelled to set it up. Thanks, Frank. Seriously. I will seek to honor you with every ride on this beast.

Setup – can’t remember what they call this shape. Indy 169s, 1 thin riser, 54mm 95a OJ Nomads.

This will be a damned good board.