34
INSURANCE GROUP
M
Jay Smith, Cherry Hill, R.I.P.
Tom lays back an aerial while Chuck Treece throws a slide beneath him on the Groholski backyard ramp
Photo Bob Groholski
CHERRY HILL This park was really too
much for the averaging skating. Skaters
went nuts going to this cement paradise.
Two of Philadelphia's skaters, Mike
Jesolowski and Jami Godfrey totally killed
this park like it was their own.
"Hey man! Skating is cool again, and we
have the best park in the world." A local's
favorite line.
But NOOOO!! Poor management and a
piss poor attitude put the park right under.
It's really too bad how parks come and go.
Well, with CHERRY HILL thrashed.
Philly skaters had to start all over again.
Jami Godfrey and friends constructed a
way to cool ramp. The ramp was in the
suburbs of Philadelphia and far from the
city. So that put some shred back into
Philly skating. At this point, skaters were
kinda dying out. We were too spoiled to
even compromise. Jami's ramp slowly
declined after a year of skating. The
suburb is not a cool place for a ramp. So,
with no ramp skating, street skating was
the only choice left. It seemed impossible
at first, but after a while SKATE CORE
popped up. These guys are totally
determined to skate anywhere they can.
Three shreddable skate spots have been
found by Skate Core. The Sundial. The
Bank, and Afro Building are the cool Skate
Core skate spots to have fun at. These
spots provide plenty of intense skating for
the intense skater.
Skate Core is unruly and definitely hot in
more ways than one. Art, music, and
skating combined together is Skate Core. I
dropped in on them about 9 months ago
and they showed me all the cool skate
spots. We are always on the hunt for
abandoned skateparks also. So far we've
found a park in Reading, PA, and one in
York, PA, and both parks are killer.
Well, with Skate Core in South Philly and
myself in West Philly things got to be
hectic. Riding the Septa Subway all the
time got to be real boring. I noticed there
were no skaters around my area; so I went
on a West Philly skate mission. So far, 3
skaters (including myself) have thrashed
streets, cars, curbs, sloped areas, and lofty
pressure drops all over West Philly. We've
already been bothered by police to stop
skating our local spot. We don't listen to
those meat heads anyway. The skaters
that I ride with are Dickens Green and
Jason Franks. These guys are 14 years of
age and they've been skating for about 5
months now. They are totally stoked on
THRASHER, hardcore, and thrashing their
decks and themselves.
There are also skaters in the colleges of
Philadelphia. Here are a few of the
colleges: Drexel U., Temple U., and Penn
U Even the hardcord bands in Philly are
skate thrash bands. Flag of Democracy is
a semi-skate band. The bass player Zeik
Zeagar skates and so does Mike (singer).
Another skate thrash band is Crib Death.
Their drummer just recently got into
skateboarding. Philly is definitely a
skatecore scene, no matter what. The
skaters are very united now, so we will
always be a force to reckon with.
We'll be here as long as you are there, or
maybe after, too. POSITIVE SKATING
RULES!!
Chuck Treece
$1,000,000.00!!!!
is the size of our insurance policy for
spectators when we give our 4-H skate-
board demos. For five years now, we have
been giving five-day demos at the
Middlesex County Fair, and one-day
demos several times a year in different
parts of Central Jersey
This winter we had many new skaters at
our ramp and they all want to skate at
demos. We have two lined up so far, and
will probably do 5 or 6 others
I read in THRASHER mag that people
have problems with insurance for skate-
boarding We formed a 4-H skateboard
club. The Northern Air Skateboarders," in
1979, and have given many demos. We
have never had an injury to spectators due
to the fences, nets, safety ropes, etc..
which we install-sometimes under a large
tent. If any group has problems with
insurance. I suggest they contact their
local 4-H agent and see if they can set up
a club to give demos at county fairs, etc.
Over 50.000 people came to the Middlesex
County Fair in East Brunswick, NJ. last.
year, and most of them saw and enjoyed
the performances
Bob Groholski
North Brunswick, NJ
NEW JERSEY
SKATE SCENE
The New Jersey skate scene has been
ripping for a long time now, and is even
more these days! With about six or seven
parks opening and closing over the years.
leaving scars on the face of skaters and
the scene in general, it has helped weed
out the "men from the boys"!
One of the best (if not the best
skateparks in the world was here in New
Jersey. Its name-CHERRY HILL
SKATEPARK! Under this now warehouse
roof, mass amounts of energy were
produced and shared by skaters all over
the world.
Needless to say, a lot of good times went
down at the Park, but now they're all
memories. Due to idiot owners and poor
management, the Park was closed with no
warnings at all, an overnight abandoned
park, with no explanation.
Skating took a big loss at the time of
Cherry Hill's closing, but with hardcore
skaters, we managed to rebuild the scene
to what it is today-a highly competitive
scene yet very underground at the
moment
One group of skate-rats started a
skateboard team club called "Northern
Air. This group puts on demos at malls,
fairs, etc. Reuniting skaters, promoting the
sport, while having a great time doing it!
With so many ramps all over the state,
it's impossible to keep track of them. So if
you have a skate spot, let's hear about it
Write THRASHER Let us know in Mail
Drop
Skaters, thanks to THRASHER, are
uniting and sessioning all the time here in
New Jersey
Tom Groholski
SKATE EDGE
Familiar to thousands, skated by few. Neil Blender dallies up onto the vert at a "mall" in Orlando
SEARCHING FOR
SOMEWHERE IN FLORIDA
Well, this is how it goes. The Kona
contest was over so I offered some
Californians a ride to the Orlando airport
As it ended up, it was Billy Ruff, Neil
Blender and myself. I was then talked into
taking them to Melbore' to stay with SIO
Barry for a few days. On the travel Neil
asked about the building with the
transitions that was pictured in Skate-
boarder about 3 to 4 years ago. I was then
talked out of another day of work and into
finding the building with transitions.
We slept at SIO Barrys that night and
woke up a little late due to Neil sleeping
through an hour of the alarm buzzing
within 2 ft. of his head. We got off to a
late start
I knew the wall was somewhere in
Orlando, so we drove in that direction.
When we reached Orlando, we stopped at
a convenience store to get a map and a
phone book. I knew that the wall was at a
mall so we looked up the malls in the
phone book and headed to the closest
one. On the way we stopped at Albertson's
to eat and get film. Neil went searching for
Bo Berry cereal as Billy and I ate donuts.
We then again proceeded to the closest
mall. We got extremely lucky as the first
mall was it. We could have looked all day
and never have found it. The wall is at the
Bundines' end of the fashion square mall.
It was perfect with about 7 ft. radius
transitions. The only drawbacks are that
you have to push from a rough parking lot,
up a wheelchair ramp, onto the transition
(which is made of bricks), which have a
bumpy surface, which makes it hard to hit
the wall with speed, but we made do.
We were quick to skate as we knew we
would not be allowed to skate long. Billy
and Neil were doing door jumps, inverts,
airs, and many other manuevers. After
about 15 minutes a mall security man
came around the corner so we started to
skate away and then another security man
drove up in a pickup and kindly escorted us
away from the mall.
Paul Schmitt
TR
45