i grew up here in mar vista and pretty much everyone skated. stacey peralta was actually in my sisters class at venice high. i used to go down to mdr skatepark pretty much everyday after school in like 5th and 6th grade. truly the good old days for me. i remember watching hosoi rip marina up when he was still too young to drive and his dad would just hang out at the park. god damn i'm feelin old...

no way!
we used to skate mike mcgill's park in oceanside all the time, and when it closed he just gave all the ramps away. my buddy was his neighbor, and his dad trucked the mini to their backyard. i wish i would've had a semi flatbed, i woulda taken that vert ramp... i was about 14.

I never could get the hang of riding a skateboard. riding a bike is easy.

I think people make way too big of a deal of riding fixed gear. you turn the pedals around, and the bike goes just like any other bike. The fact that you can't stop pedaling is no big deal. Just don't stop. it's not like the bike will let you forget.

I jacked up my hand, knee and ribs falling off my longboard today after work. Wish I could say I was doing something cool, rather than not paying attention to what was on the ground in front of me like an idiot.

at 27, I still skate, and I'm better than ever. I also snowboard and do the "new school" skiing thing. I ride fixed gear too. All these sports are good "cross training" for each other. Riding a fixed gear has given me enough stamina and lung power that I can go from Cleveland one day to ripping fresh pow in Colorado the next day from first chair till closing time without missing a beat.

of course, i'm from oregon...newberg, burnside, lincoln city. a far cry from the piece of plywood we used to lean up against our front stairs as kids. i have to say though, with my early twenties fast becoming memories, i appreciate the fact that i fall off of my bike much less often. any of you from pdx, i was one of those dudes at the department of skateboarding whenever it was raining, skating only the bowls, and sweating. profusely. god bless the cement park revival.

I used to skate. I miss it sometimes.

I skated for a long time, I still bomb around once in a while, I stopped skating vert a couple of years ago because me knees ached so bad I felt like a really old man (hoped my fix doesn't do that to me).

I have also been a pretty serious snowboarder since I was twelve, and I have found that knowing how to ride in the trees has translated really well to nyc traffic; find that line and thread it.

hope that tree door dosen't open on ya.

been skating off and on since I could put one knee on the board and scoot. thats also how I knocked out my front 4 teeth. anyway, bad knees got worse and I could only goof around on a deck for 30 min to an hour before my knees would hurt/swell. I got back into cycling and now my knees seem stronger than ever. Ill probably skate this week end. the 15 decks I have about 5 feet from me are collecting a ton of dust.

summer vacation since '85...

yes.

what was teh question again?

Do everything you possibly can to get this ramp built. and when you do, post pictures!

been skating for 5 years and i'd have to say as far as translation between the two sports its more mental that physical. because i skated i know how to move through traffic and how to look ahead for a gap. i love biking to skate which is why i opted to buy a larger bag at freewheel last time i was in sf, which coincidentally happens to be the funnest city for skateboarding i've ever been in. either way they're both brakeless and they're both ****ing fun.

I feel for you on the east coast. you have to fight for everything you have, or want. an apartment, a job, and on down the line. hard workers over there... so focused. so pissed. so disappointing. the rest of the states don't have that problem, more relaxed, and that's where tricks come from. I don't see kids doing crazy skids in transit, but it does help time pass waiting for your next tag. and what's wrong with a little better balance? I'm sure that helps a riders overall skills. last time I was in ny we all were riding around, then went to see the mash preview at the film anthology. after that all the kids were going crazy riding all bmx style. so get used to seeing tricks in your neck of the woods. that video changed a few things. I think there are millions of skaters and only like 30k track street riders, so you have about 3 more 10 year cycles before nike gives you a fixed series. as for fashion, your right it's a terrible weapon. ugly trend jumpers. they will jump again, and we will all still be here. see you then...

hey! that's our own Scoundrl in the picture! there in the middle with the pink wig!

http://members.aol.com/Jasanch/kleenfrontside2.jpg
So, does this mean that we should organize a Chicago FG Wilson park meet 'n' greet?

so seeing the photos here the thing I'm most pissed about is that I was usually the guy with the camera, not the guy in front of the camera. I've got two photos, one is a feeble to fakie on a quarterpipe when i was about 13, and one is a k-grind on some weak looking curb when I was 17.

12 years of skateboarding and 2 weak photos to show for it?

(btw the above transfer is pretty sick)

ooooh! ooooh! I got a couple pics!
http://bettybitty.users.btopenworld....rrier.Kick.JPG


http://bettybitty.users.btopenworld....Nollie7set.JPG

very sweet.

if jesus boarded, the photos would look like that.

fsnl
sparky

Yea, the guy who took those was a great photographer, too bad he gave it all up for paintballing.

Yeah, I was a skateboard kid from age 13 to about 16. After that, falling down seemed to hurt more. I fantasized about getting a new board as recently as about 3 months ago, but this obsession has completely taken over.

I am OK at Tony Hawk's Pro Skater III on Gamecube, btw.

Jason, anytime, brah!

To weigh in on the OP, I've never skated, nor desired to. I'm only just getting a SS/FG bike (flip-flop hub), because I'm attending college in upstate NY where it's flat, winters destroy bikes (I'm told), and I admire the simplicity and lightness and economy and theft deterrence and low maintenance of a single-speed bike, fixed or free. So a SS/FG is just a practical commuting/exercise bike, for me. And from test-riding a Pista, I can tell that a fixed-gear is a pleasure to ride, and feels more efficient and powerful than a freewheeler.

As for the fixie culture, I'd say I plan to ride a FG bike in spite of it, and certainly not because of it. To each his own.

I'm another skate rat gone fixie. I still skate everynow and again, but I should do it more often. Hmmm, it is pretty damn nice out...