On The Lamb

I first heard about Jay Dords of Bogginzine fame from my good friend Josh Einsle who is currently living in Northern Ireland. On one of Josh's return visits to Oregon he told me about this headcase he'd been skateboarding and surfing with, who also does a zine. Anyway, Jay and I exchanged a couple of emails and stories, so I decided to post this classic tale of travel, adventure, pilgrimage and evading the US INS. Hmmm, a celtic lad coming to America to skate a legendary skate spot only to have his mellow harshed by the INS? Sounds vaguely familiar. Josh, if you are reading this, bring more copies of Bogginzine please.

ON THE LAMB
by jay Doherty aka raoul ramirez


‘….if you ever see me comin’

and if you know who I am,

don’t you whisper to nobody

‘cos you know I’m on the lamb…’



I’d been on the lamb for 9 months, living a sort of day to day, looking over your shoulder existence with no assurances and no certainty. Trying to remain invisible in the eyes of the law, a person that on paper doesn’t even exist. Whether or not I even had the right to exist and scrape a living in California was of no consequence-if the powers that govern had caught on, I’d be on the first plane back across the pond, most likely after a lazy weekend break in the local cooler. On the lamb, on the run. I was a wanted man for sure, but that’s a different story altogether.

The chief informed me of their arrival by email that afternoon, they’d been in my local bar asking questions, demanding information. They came in search of ancient rough transition, of desert bound adventure, of backyard pools. Four strong now was our Irish contingent, four more shoulders to be looked over. 4 Paddys ….ON THE LAMB!

Ok so now reinforced with a 3 man 4 man crew, I was ready to do some damage to both myself and to some crete. Mount Baldy, high in the hills of Upland is surely the most famous surviving pipe of the 70s fullpipe era. The Badlands pipe lies amidst an arid desert near the summit of Baldy, guarded closely by hoards of snakes and rats, tumbleweed and scrubland. For years it had almost been out of commission, nearly too rough to skate, til a crew of east coasters made the pilgrimage, much like many other old school skaters, only this time armed with buckets, trowels and cement. Before their stay was out the whole end section of the pipe was refurbished and ready to roll on, smooth as in days of Waldo Aultry in the 70s. We got there shortly after one of the few rainstorms of the year in LA, the basin beneath the pipe (the gap you have to jump over), was full of water, rats floating on the surface, and a trickle of water running through the pipe itself. Tradition holds that you must leap the gap of doom on your first visit to Baldy. There is a wee barrier bridge across one side, but to impress Lord Salba a real man has to jump the 10 foot chasm. It’s as far a jump as I’ve ever made, and I’d say for my compadre in arms The Black Knight, probably a foot or so further than he has ever leapt. ‘Too close Knight, too damn close, look at those dead rats in the filth below you man, and hang in the air another second.’ The pipe itself looked to be unskateable, at least til we hit the local pet store for a mass of cat litter, the pool driers best friend. This stuff is magic; it sucks up water like a sponge. We swept and scooped with buckets and brushes, til we had left a semi dry pipe, with a damn of litter and mud holding back the oncoming flow of rain water. We skated a total of 20 minutes, maybe 10 runs a piece hitting 9, 9.30, ten o clock news with Trevor McDonald. What an epic session, 2 boards and nearly one man down into the pit, we left our own wheel marks amongst those of Salba, Lance Mountain and Bob Burnquist and a host of other legends of the past 3 decades. Now we are really part of it. We returned the next day with ropes to rescue the lost 2 boards, and with the Black Knight with a trail of bruises from the dead arms he received the previous night. Quiz question for 2 points- how many boards does the Black Knight need for a session at Baldy?, Answer- at least 3.

There are a few places in this world which live up to their promise, and fewer still that exceed your wildest fantasies. Now for someone who has spent his skateboarding life dreaming of skating Californian pools, The Ox could maybe have dreamt a perfect abandoned tiled pool, with smooth transitions, a mellower deep end and a tight fast shallow end with quick corners. For The Ox, we did have such a pool, only this one lay at the top of the Malibu Mountains with a backdrop of mountains and countryside and right down to the beaches and surf of Malibu and across the dark blue Pacific. Breathtaking spot to house a few grimy Irish skaters for an hour or so. Get in there and do your worst, for it will surely be a long time before another such opportunity presents itself. I’d love to rhyme off a trick list, but this is pool skating. Carving and speed was the platter of the day. Higher up the transition each time, closing in on the lip, scraping the occasional grind. So simple, so innocent – perfect.

Back into to town there’s talk of another abandoned pool, this time in the blissful suburbia of Santa Monica. Housed in the backyard of a partially built mansion, a smaller tighter pool, green paint, dusty as hell. Another session ensues with the now confident pool posse; a few attempts are made at carving over the light, a few slams into the dirty pits beneath. A few sketchy makes over the light, we are now men, we are pool skaters I tell you, if only for these few days. The sound of a distant siren startles the crew, then we laugh, surely not. A minute or so later we are over the back fence and running like the fugitives we are. The cop car had pulled up outside and not a word need be spoken from the skaters, they just knew to bust. At least one of the crew had too much to lose. Later we would high five each other in the unlicensed car. Back on the road towards an evening of 40s and a Father Ted import. A small bit of Ireland to wrestle us back to reality.

Now my man Rockabilly Rome is a different bread of cat altogether. I think he has invented a new style of skateboarding for himself, for if you ever have the chance to bear witness you will see a man with a tricktionary unlike now other. Tricks with no name, and with no history. Rockabilly Rome awoke us the next morning anxious to visit a pool we had heard rumours of on the grapevine. Another mountain climb in the ’86 Golf, up Topanga mountain this time. Like a scene from Herbie goes to Monte Carlo, we dodged cars around hairpin bends up the steepest mountain roads. Too close to the edge of the ravine at times. Ignoring the guard dog signs we jump the fence and begin to prowl the abandoned grounds of a ramshackle mansion, again at the summit of another Californian mountain. Rumour had it that the guys from a major shoes brand had taken over the land and were about to pour some fresh crete into an ancient transitioned pool. Reality had it that they had not only began but had also got too close to completion to hold us back from our 3rd pool of the mission. The pool was now an almost perfect kidney bowl, metal coping and mosaic tiles as décor. Smooth as the cream in a Twinkie, and a makeable deep end light to carve over. Now this is where rockabilly Rome breaks out his magic. After a series of slams and rolls he throws his ginger quiff out around the deepend light and back to the shallow to continue a run of berts and slides. This was Rome’s hour, this is standout chapter in his story.

Into the evening we skated the pool, sometimes trying old miniramp tricks, almost forgetting what a gift we had just stolen a part of. Sometimes it did became just another session with friends. Mostly though we would just shake our heads as we sat in awe of spending another night on the west coast of the USA skating pools. It may not be an ideal way to survive, on the run, trying to keep beneath the radar. Far from ideal true, it does scare the hell out of you, but there’s magic there too. It’s times like these that keep us, not just living but truly alive and savouring every heartbeat of the day.

Click here for Jay's video. Pogues soundtrack = golden.

(Street)roots

Streetroots Vendors get seventy cents of the dollar you pay them to buy the paper.
Outside the office in Old Town.

On Tuesday I worked at Project Homeless Connect, sort of a bi-annual fair, where homeless people can connect and familiarize themselves with the various services on offer to them in Portland. I spent the day representing the program I work for but was fortunate to run into an old friend who I haven't spoken to in what must be years... Israel Bayer is the Director of Streetroots, Portland's newspaper for low-income and homeless people. Well, its more than that, but check it out for yourself.
As a middle class white male who has never experienced homelessness I still owe Streetroots a lot. They gave me the opportunity to work as a volunteer reporter and later as a columnist, both of which opened doors to me for employment in social services and experience in journalism. My Column was called 'Coming To America,' after my zine at the time. Here are a couple of columns I wrote shortly after the US invasion of Iraq. It is a bit strange to read them now after the State of The Union address last night and the continual horrors that go on day after day in Iraq, almost four years later.
My brief talk with Israel took me back to a more politically active time. I'm glad he is still fighting the good fight as I wallow in political apathy.


I
It has been over three weeks since the ‘coalition forces’ commenced their bombing campaign on Iraq. In three weeks the U.S. led allies have marched along the paths cleared for them by massive aerial bombing and into, what was once the cradle of civilization, Baghdad. It is almost unfathomable, how a country can be invaded and occupied in such a short period of time. This is a true testimony to the military might of the United States. It is also very telling of the military capabilities of Iraq. Just how much of a threat, were they anyway?

Remember when this war was about ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons? Have the coalition forces actually found much evidence of said weapons, they were so convinced they would find only a month ago?

Remember when this war stemmed from the ‘War On Terrorism’? The last I heard, thousands of young Arab men were volunteering to go to Iraq to become potential suicide bombers. These are young men who have become radicalized by the pictures they have seen on the news of children with disembodied feet and people with skulls that have been blown apart. Has it ever been any clearer how U.S. foreign policy plants the seed of fundamentalism and terrorism?

Remember when this war was meant to stabilize the region? With stray bombs flying into Iran and threatening postures being made against Syria, stability seems to be slipping further beyond the horizon. Furthermore, while the world’s attention is focused on Iraq, Israel has seized the opportunity to force further illegal settlements in Palestinian Jerusalem. Not to mention the growing anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East. American products and fast food chains are being boycotted, American and British embassies have been shut down and white westerners have been stoned and targeted in various Arab nations. This is not stability.

Now, they insist, that this war has always been about liberating the people of Iraq. Whether the Iraqis like it or not and despite the fact that hospitals are now overflowing with victims of U.S. bombs. Iraq, will no doubt, soon be liberated from the totalitarian grip of Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party but to what? To military rule under the British and American armed forces, until the U.S. can secure power for Ahmed Chalabi, who they have hand-picked to rule Iraq. This is a man whose reputation for embezzlement and fraud precedes him and who no doubt, cannot wait to hand over Iraq's oil to the multinationals.

It boggles the mind as to how much the world has changed in these last three weeks. This country’s role on international stage has been rearranged almost as quickly as its reasons for forging this war in the first place. U.S. allies in the Middle East are openly expressing their opposition to the conduct of this war instead of blindly obeying orders. Europe has become a deeply divided continent as a direct result of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s alliance with Bush. Even on the home front, the atmosphere is turbulent, to say the least.

This country has not seen this level of protest in a long time nor has it seen such a militant police response to protest in a good while. I read today that the police used rubber and wooden bullets against peaceful, non obstructive protesters who were picketing a shipping company in Oakland that ships munitions and arms supplies. In response to criticism, a spokesperson for the Oakland police said, “We gave our dispersal order. We gave them ample time to disperse. When we give our dispersal order, that's pretty much it.” This does not really answer the people with baseball size welts on their heads who did not hear the warning and it does not answer why ‘less than lethal’ ammunition should be used on a picket line to begin with.

Here in Portland, huge efforts have been made to curb free speech and assembly. After, the Burnside Bridge was shut down during the day of the bombing protest, the police have made vast efforts to ensure it will not happen again. So vast, that any peaceful assembly of more than a handful of citizens will be accompanied by dozens of riot police. So vast that stepping into the road during a protest has become an offence worthy of a face-full of pepper spray or a weekend in jail.

Three weeks have drastically altered what it means to live in America, from those outside looking in with a disapproving glare and for those of us who live here and watch our civil liberties crumble by the day. May Day is just around the corner and will hopefully be a day when people can re-group and try to re-strategize in response to this Brave New World that awaits us.

II
I remember back before the American led pre-emptive attack on Iraq, reading and listening to arguments in favor of the war and thinking to myself, I must remember these arguments so I can remind the pro-war purveyors, in the coming weeks or months, how horrendously wrong they are going to be. It never made any sense to me how this war would make the world safer for Americans or rid the world of terrorism and as predicted, it has not. Leading up to the war George W. Bush said, “The United States and other nations did nothing to deserve or invite this threat, but we will do everything to defeat it.” Well, if people failed to make the connection between the World Trade Center attacks and U.S foreign policy, it should be blindingly obvious by now that an increase in rampant U.S. imperialism is proportionate to a rise in militant opposition and inevitably, terrorist activity. To put it plain and simple, the pro-war proponents’ argument that the invasion of Iraq would make the world a safer place was flat-out wrong. The country is yet again on heightened alert and it is becoming increasingly dangerous to be an American in the Middle East, as we have seen with the loss of American and European lives in Saudi Arabia and Morocco recently. Apparently, last Wednesday, a tape was broadcast on an Arabic television channel, with a message from a high up al-Qaida leader calling for another 9-11. The vicious cycle is in full spin.

You might also remember Bush, while trying to gather support for his War on Terrorism, saying, “This nation and our friends are all that stands between a world at peace and a world of chaos.” I wonder what the residents of Baghdad have to say about that at this present moment in time, as current estimations of the civilian death toll look like they could be around 10,000, while gun battles rage throughout the streets at night and while people are still without running water and electricity. The mainstream media is quick to point out how Iraqi artists are now free to paint what they want and drama groups can put on political plays without fear of being shut down and rounded up by the Baath party. Meanwhile, hospitals are still terribly under equipped because the decade old international sanctions have still not been lifted. Yes, everyone is glad to be rid of Saddam Hussein but Iraq is beginning to look scarily like occupied Palestine and much of the world now sees the U.S. as the one standing between a world of chaos and a world of peace. Not to mention the continued lack of evidence connecting Iraq to al-Qaida terrorists and its possession of weapons as mass destruction.

So while, those of us who wrote to our congress people, those of us who wrote letters to the editor, those of us who blocked traffic, those of us who battled the police and those of us who were willing to become human shields, could smugly sit back and say, “we told you so”, we have to understand, that the likes of Bush have a strikingly different sense of logic. Here is another Pre- Iraq invasion Bush quote, “There’s still an enemy lurking around which hates America. And they hate us for what we love. We love freedom, and we’re not changing... And so long as we hold freedom dear, there’s an enemy lurking around out there which will try to cause further harm on the American people- that’s just the way it is. That’s the clear reality we face.” This quote is worryingly reminiscent of the words of Joseph Goebels at the on set of the Second World War. It is a line of thinking that posits that there is a fundamental clash of civilizations that cannot be redeemed, until “we” can make “them” see our way of thinking, our idea of freedom and that we should prepare for permanent war until that point. What it fails to consider, is that the very reason the United States is so vehemently distrusted, in the first place, is a direct result of the way it has tried to perpetuate this illusion of “freedom” across the rest of the world. Militant young people on the streets Beirut, stone throwers in Baghdad and suicide bombers in Riyadh do not hate “freedom”. They hate double standards inherent in American foreign policy. How is a young woman in Kuwait supposed to believe the U.S.’s motives for liberating Baghdad, when they support a brutal totalitarian regime in her own country? A U.S supported regime that denies her the vote and locks up and tortures her brother for spray painting political graffiti.

It seems to me there is little purpose in pointing out all the, now blazingly obvious, flaws in the pro-war argument. It does not serve their agenda, whether it is to satisfy the arms industry, the oil corporations or to win Bush a second term by “uniting” the country against the “lurking enemy”, to acknowledge the logic of the foreign policy-anti-U.S. terrorism cycle. It is increasingly obvious that all the instability in the world serves those that run this country just fine. As we sit back watch history repeat itself over and over, we can only wonder how intentional the whole thing is.
-Spring 2003

Recommended listening: God Bless Our Dead Marines by A Silver Mt Zion

Nevermind The College Of Urban Affairs

Issue #3 of Wend Magazine has just come back from the printers and should be on the shelves within a couple of weeks. I wrote a story on 'Parkour' for this issue. It was a great opportunity to expand upon some of the themes I touched upon in the last story I did for them, in terms of radical urban theory. While I was intially unsure how I would write about Parkour, after following around a group of Portland Traceurs, it became obvious that they were re-interpreting and re-defining the urban enviroment in much the same way skateboarders do. In a sense, what they do is more radical than skateboarders, in that Parkour is largely about 'escape' and 'over-coming' obstacles. While they are mainly concerned with physical escape, I focussed largely on the symbolic implication of escape from the confines of the modern American city.

While Wend Eds Stiv and Ian and myself all took photos this day, I'm not sure who took this one. Ian was the one getting down and dirty, laying in water fountains and such, so it is most likely one of his shots with a fish-eye lens. I liked this image largely because it is in front of PSU's College of Urban and Public Affairs. I like to think these lads were challenging some of the ideas that the lecturers might be throwing at students in the confines of this building.

La Plage Dystopique

Feeling like the city is caving in on you? The 9 to 5 rat race making you feel empty? Feeling like you need to get away from it all and experience the rejuvenation of the great outdoors, but you don't want to deal with the inconveniences of nature?

Or perhaps you are troubled by the disappearing wilderness and don't want to be reminded of it on your vacation? Well there is no longer a need to concern yourself with pollution levels in the air or ocean. No need to worry about global warming. Hey there’s no scientific consensus on this ‘concept’ anyway, right? No more need to trouble yourself about oil spills, sand dredging, rising sea levels, species extinction and so on.
Hey, we know you love the smell of sun block but don't concern yourself with 'holes in the ozone layer' or UV hazards anymore. Never fear stepping on a hypodermic needle or having your two-year-old finding a washed up condom on the beach. Most importantly, you never again have to ponder your lack of interaction with nature and the subsequent effect on your well-being because you now have

Seagaia’s Ocean Dome!

For just $50 a day, you can buy a guaranteed perfect day. Perfect weather at a perfect temperature with perfect waves. Clean. Safe. Sanitized. Stress and guilt free fun under a harmless 'sun.'


Why get dirty at the real beach when just a mile or so a way lies paradise? Free time is so precious in this day and age, why risk the unpredictability of the natural world on your day off? There is no need for nature anymore. We've conquered and reproduced it for your pleasure. As the song goes 'Its even better than the real thing.'


Within, the next decade we hope every major city can offer an Ocean Dome to its inhabitants.


Your friends at Foulweather strongly urge you get away from it all and Go to The Beach!

All this perfection starting to agitate you? Well on your way back from Japan be sure to stop over in Dubai for some skiing to cool you down.




"A fundamental consequence of urban growth is the increasing alienation between mankind and the natural world. Natural processes seem no longer relevant to a society dependent on a technological fix... By building cities as we have, we are divorcing ourselves from nature. What contact is there with the seasons in a modern air-conditioned shopping mall with its built-in trees? We have banished nature from most of our townscapes and the resulting environment reflects only too well the assumption that urbanites are fast becoming an egocentric species thriving on human culture alone." David Goode, in Green Cities, as quoted in the Adbusters #68 article on architecture and urban design.

Redemption

Amazing how one good wave can make getting up before dawn on a holiday and driving seventy plus miles (ten of which were sheet ice), worth it. Lots of glassy waves in the three to five foot range, up and down the north coast in the early morning today. Surfed solo for most of the time. Good conditions didn't last long though... I'll stop now before this becomes 'yet another surf blog... '

In other news, it was MLK day today. I don't think we have many, if any, national holidays dedicated to historical figures in the UK. Anyway, I was watching the 'I Have A Dream Speech' and really listened, perhaps for the first time, to the content of it today. It was quite depressing to consider how little has really changed since the early 60s and how little King's Dream has been realised.

A couple of weeks ago a fourteen year old African American boy, who I briefly worked with, was shot in the head. He was shot in the mouth and the bullet never exited his skull. When the police found him, blood was gushing from his mouth and he was still alive. He later died in hospital.

So while I was worrying about getting good waves, in a neighbourhood a few miles north of me, kids were worrying about making it through the day alive.

Rip D.L.

Cold Reception

Top photo, Indian Beach, Ecola Park. (Ed the electrician is the surfer paddling out.)
Bottom photo, Stiv-O's Bryan Bates 9'6" single fin and my Ewaliko 6'4" quad.


I attempted to go surfing yesterday. It was my second trip to the coast in two weeks without catching any waves. Sometimes I'm not sure why I waste a whole day, pumping god knows how much carbon monoxide into the air, in a futile effort to attempt to do something I used to be quite competent at. Ever since I moved away from the sea, my surfing ability has steadily decayed. I can now afford more than one board and a good wetsuit but none of that helps.
Yesterday, I at least paddled out, only to get thrashed around in the frozen water.
I used to invest so much in my weekly surf. I used to say to myself, as long as I get a few waves I can handle whatever is thrown at me for the following week. I now know how dangerous that was, especially this time of year when my mental state is as fickle as the surf.
I think I'm being tested but I'm not sure why. Perhaps someone or something is trying to teach me the meaning of privilage and humility. Perhaps I took it all too much for granted when it was on my doorstep evey day.

As much of a loss as the day was, the snow on the beach did provide a zen-like atmosphere (if there is such a thing), almost as if it was a giant Andy Goldsworthy piece.

Let it go...

We've Lost

I found this image on Flcikr.com, not sure who is responsible or who took it but I like it because it is only a matter of time before Nike attempt to sponsor Graff Writers in an effort to further infiltrate urban culture.

In this post-globalized world, it might seem pointless to continue this debate but I still hang on to a little concept called 'ethical consumerism.' I was first introduced to it during the mid-90s campaigns against Nestle (due to their baby formula marketing in the 'third world'). Anyway, since I wrote my essay, Nike Vs Minor Threat: Is Cultural Imperialism a Major Threat? Nike have further soldified their presence in skateboard culture. As I feared, skateboarders simply no longer give a shit because you cannot escape the fact that Nike are making damn good shoes for skateboarding and have a respectable team of cutting edge pros. I recently came across this response to my essay on the Paying In Pain skate zine forum and took a little time to respond. (While I am no fan of outsourcing labour to foreign countries and the potentially unmonitored labor conditions associated with this practice, that is a complicated issue worthy of much more time and space, so this response was limited to the cultural implications of consumer choice.


"Werd" wrote:
wow, this guy has a lot of time on his hands. This type of shit is going to happen, and i dont think there is anything we can do about it. Its america, i mean, do you remember coffee before starbucks?? There is a lot of corporate mind- fucking backing its move to bangledesh, but those bangledeshians are gonna have some pretty fuckin good coffee. My first pair of Nike skate shoes were good, really good to skate in i loved them. My second pair sucked buffalo anus. I just spent 15 minutes reading this article, and i will probably go by another pair if they are good. I dont follow any molds, or reason with any stereotypes, itll never stop, just fucking skate, dont skate then bitch, then skate some more. Im sorry if im offending anyone, but when i first picked up a board it was cause i wanted to skate. Not because i was content with skateboardings current enviorment, culture, image, rules, standards, limits, or DIY punk ethic. Go ride, all this poopoo doesnt matter. DIY- does that mean do it yourself?; or do it yourself, when its cool with others, and you wont be steppping on toes, or walking on eggshells, and testing the water first? Shit. I hate these "standards for skateboarding," I used to think it was one of the only sports,activities, arts- whatever you want to call it, without politics.-WRONG.

My response:

First of all thanks to Joey for posting my essay. I didn't know it was on here until the other day. So I will now take some time to briefly respond to 'Werd.' First of all, you say I must have a lot of time. Well I wish I had more but instead of zoning on the internet or fucking around on myspace sometimes I choose to write and make zines. Maybe you consider that a waste of time, I don't know.
Second, you mention 'there is nothing we can do about it.' Well, there is a lot you can do. You can refuse to consume shit you don't like. You can buy 'Paying in Pain' instead of Transworld Skateboarding, you can get coffee from a local roaster ran by your neighbour rather than Starbucks. If you want one big homogenized global culture, carry on as normal. If you are happy to find a Starkbucks in Moscow or Dubai, continue drinking their coffee. If you prefer to see new things and expereince unique local cultures, support people who are trying to do that in your neighbourhood. PIP is a perfect example...
Third, I'd like to address the accusation that I am trying to 'set standards' for skateboarding. Well, that is one of the reasons I wrote that essay. I don't think skateboarding should have standards. I think when you travel from country to country or town to town, scenes should be unique. Nike goes against this. Giant corporations are trying to set global standards for youth culture. Its boring, uninspiring. Skate what you want, however you want.
Finally, I have friends who wear Nikes, and living in Portland, know people who work for them. I'm not down on them. It is stupid to alienate people. It is a personal thing. All I'd like to suggest is people consider the connection between their personal politics and their choices as consumers, and who and what forces dictate skateboard culture. Essentially Nike have won for now but its never too late to reclaim what is OURS. I like skateboarding because it is/was a unique culture created by the participants without giving a fuck about societal standards.

That's all.

Let's skate.

Finally here are some thoughts, from Dave Carnie, an insightful and beautifully demented skateboard 'journalist.' This was taken from Small Time Skate Zine:

"i’m not a fan of nike or any other huge mega corporation, but nike has, after a few tries, succeeded in making good skate shoes. i’ve never worn them, but people say they’re great. and i’m friends with the team they’ve put together up there and they’re all good guys, you know? i’m not anti nike skate shoes, but i won’t wear them. it’s just not worth fighting it anymore. they’re actually helping skateboarding, they’re giving back this time, they’re SB division acts like a skate company, and this new generation of skaters loves nike, so why waste time hating on them. it’s kind of like hating on mcdonalds. yeah, it’s bad for you, they suck, blah blah blah, but do you know how fucking big that company is? what the fuck are you going to do? you’re not going to stop people from eating there. fast food nation may have persuaded a handful of people to stop eating there, supersize me probably persuaded an even smaller handful of people to not eat there, but really what the fuck is that going to do to mcdonald’s overall profits? nothing, and thus they’re not going to change. and i’m not going to waste my time crying about it. i just don’t eat there…very often…about once every couple months i get the urge for a sausage and egg mcmuffin.
and that’s the thing, in this day in age it’s increasingly more difficult “to do the right thing.” really i’d have to grow my own food and brew my own beer and ferment my own wine if i wanted to avoid giving my money to those big bad mega corporations. even if you support your local mom and pop restaurants, or stores or whatever, they’re still being supplied by someone bigger. like the burger probably comes from some fucking con agra subsidiary anyway. ketchup? jesus.
uh i’m wandering. there’s a certain someone in skateboarding who is super anti nike. like i said, i don’t like nike either, but i don’t really have any reason to go berserker on them. and this certain someone is going berserker. and he doesn’t even make shoes. and he’s also accepted a lot of money from another huge corporation, vans, in the past. and i believe his boards are made in china? so, it’s a little hypocritical. i mean if it’s skateboarding you love, you shouldn’t go into the skateboard business. but if you’re in the skateboard business you gotta realize, “it’s just business” sometimes. and it just gets crazy when you learn that he’s kicking people off his team because they happen to also ride for nike. he fired his graphic artist because nike was giving him work and paying him more than he was getting “at home.” it’s just sad because nike is hooking these dudes up. if so and so was paying them the same amount and taking care of these dudes the way nike is, he might have a point, but as it is he looks like a dude sawing his own dick off. which is a very peculiar image. instead of just turning the other way, and enjoying the residual benefits of having a bunch of his riders getting really good nike coverage and good nike money and going on nike trips, he’s having a temper tantrum and looking quite foolish in the eyes of the people i tend to hang around with. it’s sad because i’m friends with him and i empathize with the emotional side of the argument (“it’s our scene!), but i really want to say, “grow up.”
this is a huge subject and it’s one that bothers me a lot because you can’t avoid it and you can’t fight it. i don’t begrudge anyone for trying. i did. but it gets you nowhere. so i say do what you want, wear and ride what you like. i’m not going to tell anybody what to do. i live by example. and one example i like to set is that i don’t beat small asian children because they don’t make my shoes fast enough. i pay someone else to do that for me."

Read my original essay here or be my best friend and buy a copy of the zine. (Details in the sidebar)

Documentation

When I was about seven or eight years old, I had a paper round even though I was far younger than the legal age of eleven. My route was not far from home and I mostly delivered the South Wales Evening Post, (the same paper that Dylan Thomas used to write for) each evening after school. But on occasion I had the opportunity to do a weekend morning route, which was usually when all the magazines would get delivered. Sometimes these magazines were too good to actually get delivered right away. In other words, I often felt the need to hold on to them for a day or two before they were finally posted through the letter box of the rightful subscriber. For instance, at the time I collected dart 'flights' so if when I happened upon a dart magazine, I took it and studied it for a few days, until my mum asked where I got the magazine from and then insisted I delivered it.
It did not take me long to discover the surfing and skateboarding magazines amongst the newspapers. I think one of the big attractions of surfing and skateboarding, was the way in which the culture was documented as demonstrated by these publications. Surfers and skateboarders have always made great efforts to write about, photograph and film what they are doing in an artistic manner. The photos, graphics and stories immediately sucked me in. Bye bye Star Wars, hello Shred Sleds. Once I was hooked, people like Craig Stecyk III, had a way making me feel like I was at the center of the universe because I choose to attack life with a surfboard or skateboard.
In turn this is also why I started to write. The first short story I wrote, at about age fourteen or fifteen, was about intergalactic surf exploration and was a total rip off from a story I read in a British surf rag and it got published in the school literary magazine. I wish I still had a copy.

Anyway, the reason I originally posted this was to alert everyone to the availability of the first twelve issues of Thrasher Magazine in PDF format. Thrasher inspired countless youth to get out in the streets and engage in an activity that was physical yet artistic, unique and anti-authoritarian and, at the time, largely uncommerical. Thrasher is no longer as cutting edge as it once was but its history is deeply embedded in the history of alternative youth cultures. I hope writers, photographers and documenters continue to inspire youth to get off their arses and create their own scenes, whether its skateboarding, parkour, graffitti or whatever, and not willingly allow themselves to drown in advertising and/or become internet vegetables like myself...