TALKING ED
SKATERS ARE THE CREATORS
I've been skateboarding for a long time. Now, I'm not telling you this as
an historian on skateboarding, or all the when's and where's and who's
who's. I'm telling you this as someone who has skated since the earliest
days and hasn't let up since.
I've witnessed and been involved in numerous sessions, with the
heavyweight pros, the hardcore locals, and the common everday skaters.
I've helped build parks (and helped destroy them) and ramps, cleaned
numerous pools, swept out ditches and spillways and driven thousands of
miles in search of skate terrain. I've been busted, fined, warned, chased,
yelled at, paid, ripped off, rewarded, and commended for skateboarding.
I've broken fingers, fractured a thumb, slammed top to bottom in 12 ft.
pools directly to the hip, twisted both knees several times each, skull bon-
goed (with and without helmet), smashed elbows, wrenched a foot, and
otherwise slashed, gashed, and lacerated myself all while skateboarding.
Not to mention going through hundred of pairs of tennies, shredding brand
new clothing, and smashing wrist watches against the coping.
My examples might be considered a little extreme for some. But, most
of the skateboarders that I've met, skated with, or dealt with in any way,
could probably match me line for line, grind for grind, as far as skate stories
go.
When you're a skateboarder, you're part of a brethren that knows. You
don't have to ask questions. Wherever you go, when you meet other skat-
ers, you've already got that much in common. Sometimes that's all it takes..
I like to think that anybody who reads THRASHER is a skateboarder
also. I don't even care if you own a skateboard. It's not that easy. You don't
skate for anybody else but yourself and getting a skateboard because
someone else has one, doesn't do you or anybody good unless you enjoy
riding.
The point I'm trying to illustrate here is: skaters are the creators. You
skate what you create. A lot of newcomers and park bred skate rats are
just now learning what it really means to ride a skateboard. Really skate. I
don't expect everyone who wants to take it up to go out and dredge the
scum out of somebody's pool. No. To skate you must go out and get on the
stick. From the streets and tennis courts to pools and ramps, and back to
the streets again. And once you try it, and really enjoy it, you're going to
want more. Before long, you'll be looking over fences for pools or building
ramps on your own. Nobody's going to have to tell you what, when, where,
or how to do it.
Skateboarding has never been called the great, new sport/art/lifestyle
that is for everybody. But it's available for every person to choose, not for
the pleasure of others. If you do a kickflip or a handstand on the street, and
people clap and say, YAY!, they might think you're doing it for them, for
their enjoyment. But just turn around and do a harsh, loud, bare axle curb
grind and watch 'em scatter. They think you're outta control. They can't
handle it. They don't enjoy it. They leave, you keep skating.
THRASHER Magazine is for skateboarders. Skateboarders created
THRASHER Mag. As a participant as well as an observer, I've come to
conclude that skaters are of a different breed. Not a breed apart. A breed
that exists within a steel, asphalt and concrete framework. A breed that
has found a true form of free expression that probably relates to some
basic primal urge in mankind. An urge to stay on the edge of the confine,
and to go over that edge and come back again.
It's skateboarding, and it's fun.
"Dig the new breed-THE JAM
Kevin J. Thatcher
MAT
DROP
Send all Info, Compliments and Criticisms
to: Mail Drop, THRASHER Magazine,
P.O. Box 24592, San Francisco, CA 94124.
READ, SKATE & DESTROY
I would just like to comment on "Skate
and Destroy and THRASHER in general.
As a first generation skater (circa 1963)
and surfer, I have never stopped, and have
seen the transition the surf magazines
have taken from irreverent and loose to
stuffy and much too serious for the majority
of the real surf hounds that read them. The
same problem inflicted SKATEBOARDER
before its early demise. THRASHER has
the pulse of today's hardcore skater/sur-
fers in its grasp, and an article like "Skate
and Destroy displays the editorial heart of
the magazine.
As a 32-year-old "Old Goat" skater/
surfer, I might not be your average reader,
but I still get more pleasure out of reading
the CRAZINESS of THRASHER and
seeing those nice B&W spontaneous
photos than all the glossy slickness of the
other trash on the newstands. Keep up the
good work and don't mellow out.
Pete Pant
Rhode Island
RAMP CONSTRUCTION
In your ad for back issues I happened to
see an issue with a feature article on
RAMP BUILDING. I have no idea which
volume it is, but I hope it isn't one of the
sold-out copies. If it is one of the sold-out,
I blew it, issues, could you send me any
kind of plans by which I could build a ramp
(halfpipe). I need a ramp because the only
thing to skate around here is hills on which
my friend broke his collarbone and now I
have no one to skate with. Besides I want
to skate a halfpipe and the closet one that
I found is in New Jersey and that is 120
miles away. So if you guys at THRASHER
can help in my halfpipe dreams I would be
thankful and that there. Enclosed is two
dollars for the back issue; if it is sold out
then just use the money for any other kind
of ramp plans you guys can dig up, or just
send me the address of where I can get
plans, or just send me any back issue of
THRASHER, or all of the above.
Thanks indefinitely,
Ken Hensel
Weatherly, PA
Check this issue for Part I of our revised
Ramp Building plans. Our August '81
issue, featuring an article on ramp con-
struction, has indeed sold out so hold on to
this issue.-KT
The Best Is Within Reach
GG.S
The New CHUCK WEBB Madel
THE ULTIMATE In FREESTYLE DESIGN
Webb
Gordon & Smith Skateboards!
Si Santa Fe St. San Diego, CA 92109
619 488-3230