Send all infe, Compliments and Criticisms
for Mall Drop, THRASHER Magasine
P.O. Box 24392, San Francisco, CA 94124.
ICE SKATING
I'm writing you about something
new, the skate scene around here,
well it sucks; they just tore down the
only skatepark for three hundred
miles, so I'm stranded. We are very,
very, very desperate for a rad place
to ride. Here's some background on
our situation. We've had one quarter
pipe about five feet high, but only
three feet wide. Not much, I almost
broke my hip when I tried to thrash
a cement sewage ditch that had a
stream in the middle. We put a board
over the stream. I went to the top
(which was about 20 feet high), hit
the transition and flew off my board
(cleared the stream though). There's
about a hundred or so radical board-
ers in Pittsburgh, but nowhere to get
radical. The local skate shop was
going to buy a warehouse and put a
halfpipe' and a roller rink in it, but that
fell through. I am trying to get money
to buy! a small or med. halfpipe in
my backyard. But I have to get this
thing called a j-o-b so I don't think I
can
Winter is not that bad here. But
the road salt beats the shit out of
polyurethane. lce, on the other
hand, is fun as hell. Like 360's with-
out lifting your wheels. But our favor-
ite is rock & roll ice sliders. You ride
at medium speed next to a strip of
ice, turn into it like a regular slider
and slide.
As you can see, there is nothing to
do but street ride and freestyle, but I
don't like freestyle that much, or
street riding. If any company or per
son with a lot of money is reading
this I think it would be smart to put a
skatepark in Pittsburgh.
Sesame street rules.
Blinky & Iceman
Pittsburgh, PA
REGGAE SKATERS
Down here in Atlanta (really the
suburbs) the skate scene is really
heatin' up. Ramps are goin' up
everywhere. But the only music
most everybody listens to is Punk
Punk is rad as hell but I need a break
sometimes so when I'm feeling good
I crank up some Reggae (Tosh, Yel-
lowman, Mutabaruka, etc.).
One of the local ramps got tom
down by the city (sucks) but a dude
that wants to start skatin' is setting
up a ramp in his backyard; he's pret-
ty hot for being new but give him
time and he'll be shredding away.
Mo Fleshal
Marietta, GA
P.S. Punk heats it up, Reggae cools
it down.
ANOTHER LETTER
FROM CALIFORNIA
This is Velly from Mill Valley, Call-
fornia and I have got to admit no-
body shreds like us. As usual, there
are still quite a few that carry their
skates, possible reasons being: fear
of our local P.D. (nothing to worry
about), lack of experience, or, they
like to be seen with a skate (pub-
licity).
We have a few not so crappy
banks, a pit and a couple of half-
pipes. I hear we have a quarter pipe
but every time I hear about it it's in a
different place, so I don't know. We
also have "The Mountain" for heavy
duty downhill. Skaters come from
miles around to skate Mount Tam.
So, to summarize this whole letter,
our town is basically the same but
the skates are one of a kind. So
whatever, wherever and whenever
you skate keep it up. Def Leapard,
Van Halen, Ozzy-none of those
shit heads will make it out here.
Loren "Velly" Carnevale
Mill Valley, CA
WAY OUT THERE
Skating in Montana might be
shocking to a lot of people, espe
cially those who live in California.
Although Haure (population about
10,000) is pretty remote, the skaters
here are very energetic and enthu-
siastic. We are in the process of
completing a halfpipe; it is 12 feet
high, 16 feet wide with 15 feet of flat
bottom and about 3 feet of vertical.
We have a quarter pipe, but bikers
hammer it out.
No skateboard shops. I bought a
business license so we can order
wholesale. As soon as the ramp is
up we'll send some pictures (if it
doesn't snow first).
Later,
Dave.
Haure, MT
P.S. J.F.A. and Los Olvidados are
real popular out here.
SOBERING THOUGHTS
The skate scene here in El So-
brante, California is O.K. Me and my
friends Steve and Roger skate regu-
lar. Roger just finished a halfpipe.
We go out and turn on tunes (usually
Metallica, heavy metal is what we
listen to) and jam on his ramp at
night.
1 live on a big hill and skate to
school every morning. My neighbors
have a nice kidney pool. I'm going to
drain it when they go on vacation.
Street skating is really hot around
here. There are two large hills and a
few small ones. The cops never
really hassle us, the people get mad
when we thrash their steps but so far
no busts.
Almost every weekend we all
drive into Berkeley and skate the
University of California campus.
They have some cool banks and an
excellent garage. Once in a while we
go to San Francisco. You should do
an article on the San Francisco
skate scene and local spots..
Thrasher is rad!!
Skate and Destroy
Rick Johnson
El Sobrante, CA
LOOK OUT
We just got your first issue (Vol-1
ume 1, #1) up here in Barrie, On-
tario, and we think it is "way radical
as you would say. The Gold Cup arti-
cle was very gnarly and happening
(happenin'). The latest band up here
is called "Kiss," maybe you know
them? They are too cool. Well, any-
way, watch out, all you California
skate "dudes," because (cuz) up in
Barrie we're getting "hot." Our skate/
surf shop just got in a shipment of
Urethane wheels. We'll get "radical
and "bionic" very soon.
Go for it and Party,
H.B. Willie Stickman
Barrie, Ontario, CANADA
YER BLUFFIN'
You and your mag are really cool.
If not for you guys, the art of skate-
boarding certainly wouldn't be
where it is today. In fact, it's to you
guys that I give half the credit for get-
ting into skating. The other half goes
to the only two hardcore punks in
Dead Bluff, CA. I am about to pur-
chase a fully loaded D.P. Santa Cruz
(right now I have an old 7" Hobie-
puke) so, I'll be thrashing the streets
before Feb.
Martin's got a good quarter pipe
with about 4 or 5 of vert, and Dave
lives right next to a great hill. Count-
ing me, there's about 10 people in
this town with boards, and just over
half of those skate. A few guys tried
to get into Cal-Skate in Chico) a
roller rink) but they got kicked out,
but that's O.K.-no banks in a roller
Thanks for the inspiration.
Keep slamming, or start jammin
James D. Fennel
Red Bluff, CA
WHAT'S GOING ON
DOWN THERE?
I'm writing from Australia and I
was watching TV, the other night
and I saw a guy do a fingerflip on an
ad. The ad was made in California
and I want to know if it was Mutt be-
cause it looked like him. On to other
things-I have nearly finished my
halfpipe. It is 9 foot high, 12 foot wide
and has 8 feet of flat. I scammed my
mum so I could have it. The deal was
I do the lawn mowing for the next
three years to pay it off. I used to
have a 8 foot quarter pipe but !
wanted a halfpipe. On the Gold
Coast there are a few half pipes to
skate, they are free because the
council made them. A skating rink
has a 9 foot capsule pool, it is near
perfect. We had a contest a month
ago there, about 25 people turned
up and it was a good day.
Skating here is on the rise; we will
skate my ramp every day but until
my ramp is finished we have been
street skating and I have just gotten
into freestyle. I thought it was stupid
but it is great. Next time Steve
Caballero and Mike McGill go on a
world trip again put Australia on the
list and come and skate my ramp.
Anybody is welcome. Please print
this because you don't hear of down
under in the mag much.
Darren Burford
Gold Coast, AUSTRALIA
NO WHINE
As a New England skater I'd like
to congratulate you for being so rip-
pin. Rarely are many people willing
to put out so much work for some-
thing that goes beyond professional-
ism. If it wasn't for you, I don't know
if I'd be skating today. You've been a
great influence.
The skate terrain in my area (Bos-
ton) is pretty cool. I skate a cool
quarterpipe; it's small and great for
learning and adapting tricks. Also
there's one great public pool with a
rippin' bowl. It has three feet of vert
on the side, no air here!
Bank riding is great; there's some
prime spots here. I'm sick of people
that say it's boring. I loved the arti-
cles in the January issue about
school skating. My high school has
long linoleum corridors, and a huge
rubber floored gym. Real fun, hats
off to Bob Denike and K.T. Hats off
also to people who keep the sport
going by innovating Building a ramp
isn't that hard! Let's not have any
whiners.
Alex Bushkoff
Cambridge, MA
P.S. How 'bout some reports on
the Northeast?
ALMOST WASHED UP
IN WASH.
Hi. I just got my new skate in the
mail, I'm really pumped cuz of read-
ing Thrashers. Oh, my friend ran
over me, in his car, so I was laid up
for a while, two or three months of
recovery. Now I skate twice as
much. Twice as good too. Thanx for
being there. We skate even when it
rains. Parking garages, basements
and covered schoolyards.
Vince
Tacoma, WA
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