Bloneless. Hans "Bauta"
Gothberg boosts himself high
above the ramp at last year's -
Swedish Summer Camp
Underhanded. Micke Alba
reaches for the railand the sky as
he Indy airs from the low to the
high at the Palmdale ramp.
BACK STREET FLAIR
All the while the skaters
took it in stride. In most cases
the determined skater went
right back to the streets with
almost a sense of relief about
not having to deal with the
restrictive park scene any
more. "We started out in the
streets and we'll skate the
streets again" related quote.
But, was there air there?
Urban street thrashers from
the big city said "What? You
want air?" Most of the city kids
had scarcely dealt with the
more suburban park scene.
Inner city pools on empty are a
rare thing. Their brand of air
involved loading drops, wall
offs, stair jumps, anything and
everything was a source of
launch for the street skater.
Suburbans picked up on it, if
they weren't already hep,
using shopping malls as a
substitute for downtown
environs. Boneless ones and
booster air pop-up type
hand-grabbing thrusters
began coming out of places
where there was no vert and
sometimes not even a hill for
miles. Vert/street crossover
maneuvers became part of
everybody's repertoire. Even
freestyle adopted a flair for air
with Rodney mastering 3'-plus
stationary ollies.
In the meantime the
skateboard ramps, not new to
boarding by any means, have
pretty much taken the place of
any other vertical terrain being
skated today. Airs are getting
higher and more contorted
than ever. Overhead drops
are not uncommon for the
average street gnarler. Where
will it go from here? No one's
going to sit around and wait to
find out. Get out there and fly.
Going Off. Skater/thrashers just
can't seem to keep their feet on
the ground with or without boards
Sequential Suicidal (Tendencies)
leap at the Easter Front and
midflight flailer over a G.B.H
crowd, show some commitment.