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FACTION OR FICTION?
Fellow Skaters... What a bitter dis-
appointment it was on July 4, 1985
when Faction and the Drab did not
show up for their scheduled gig at
the Elks Lodge in Atlantic City.
We (Crunch Brothers) took a large
chance on booking two largely un-
known bands on this date and the
crowd showed it. There were only
120 people all told, but guess what,
they were
skate rockers
maximum. Too bad the young
knuckleheads in both bands de-
cided to blow the gig off. We didn't
lose too much money because our
scene (growing) understands the di-
lemmas of dealing with bands who
don't deliver. My biggest nightmare
came true that day, so it was a good
leaming experience for me person-
ally and I want to thank all the cool
people who didn't take refunds so
that we would have a chance to con-
tinue our revolutionary spirit. Yes,
things are fresh over here in A.C.
and so far we haven't succumbed to
the evergrowing knucklehead ex-
periences I've seen from D.C. to
N.Y.
No, not even a manly phone call
from the supposedly top skate rock
band in the world to tell me to fuck
off. We didn't pursue it any further
(we face great adversity on all fronts
anyway) as the Crunch team is
always looking to the future. How
ever, let it be noted the Factions
phone number was given out to
those 120 skate rockers who came
and we'll hold off calling until the
bards get back on home turf. When
the phone number changes our pro-
test will be complete. We can do no
more.
Ralphy Crunch
Ps. Thanks to the Screech Boys for
showing up and playing every song
known to a punk band.
NO RULES GETTING EMPTY
POOLS
What is the skate turf that real
skaters are after? Pools. Skating
ramps is like eating dog food. And
parks? What parks! Get your photo-
graphers ready because the Bay
Area, from S.C. county to Marin and
C.C. county are going to have many
pools. The Lafayette fire was ex
pected to spread farther...but we stil
got a few pools. Lost Altos Hills bag
ged us quite a few nice ones. Los
Gatos/Lexington Res. shifted the
wrong way or we would be rich with | SCRATCHING OUT AN IMAGE
pools. We've got more fires plan-
ned, though. No one (B.A. skater)
can say that '85 was a bad year.
We've definitely got more fires plan-
ned. It's not too hard, and it gives
you a good rush at first. Once you
get the hang of it, it's just routine.
We've made many more attempts
than actual fires, but a lot of it is just
paranoia. It takes guts to throw a
burning flare out of a car window on
a well-travelled street. We've tried
other methods, but skaters, arm
yourselves with flares and liberate
pools by the dozen.
Hey, I know we aren't the guys
who cover your pages with
McWhatevers or Whocareswhat
Airs and we avoid photos and fame,
but we do love to see photos of "lib-
erated pools. So listen to the news,
buy lots of film, record history and
maybe we won't kill any of your
photographers.
NEVER CRY, WOLF
Skate Ng
No WAY! I'm sorry! A few months
ago I wrote in to THRASHER and
talked about how shitty Palmdale
was. The scene here has picked up
so much and there are a lot more
ramps and things to skate. There
are a lot of skaters mad at me and
out to kick my ass for what I said.
The Antelope Valley area is surely a
great place to skate. I am ashamed.
Wolfe,
Palmdale, CA
DRESS FOR SUCKCESS
We are writing this letter about all
the kids writing in and complaining
about all the trendies in their town,
such as the dude who wrote the let-
ter in the July issue entitled "Tacky
Trends. We're sick of all these lot-
ters about how many trondios and
how many real skaters there are in
their town. Why can't they stop wor
rying about other people's dress?
Just go out and skate. We think
BLACKHART said it best, "Poseurs
will be poseurs." Quit judging others
and go get aggro. Hope this will help
end all these stupid letters about
trendiness. Who cares.
I just wanted to tell you about the
scene in Evergreen. A lot of trendys
are running around saying that they
can do handplants on curbs and
stuff. One kid wanted to buy a board
so I said I'd sell him mine. He said,
"Sure I want to get one, but I don't
want it to be scratched." Then about
a week later, he got a new deck and
put scratches in it with a screwdriver
so it looked like he skated.
I have a friend who has a half-pipe
conntected onto his room, you crawl
out of the window and drop in from
his window sill. There are lots of
ditches, banks and such, so the
west side skaters are set.
YOU LYING DOG
Steve Smith
Evergreen, CO
Hey Wolfie (and friends), me and
friends just got through reading your
letter in the July issue, what a total
joke. You say that there's nowhere
to skate in Palmdale except the ditch
and Carl's Jr. drive-thru. There's de-
finitely a scene here. There's five
very shreddable half-pipes and
more. So pull your head out and
keep your eyes open and don't be
afraid to ask where these spots are.
How you've gone through life una-
ware and so uninformed is beyond
me.
SKATERPOINT
Lancaster Skaterz
I don't agree with Keith Staphon-
son, therefore I am going to "state
some facts as I see them." And this
is what I see: skating is thrashing
(skate: thrash), and to thrash is to
destroy and destruction involves
violence... therefore skating involves
violence. I'm familiar with two types
of violence. These are classified as
verbal and physical. The verbal
abuse which occurred at Del Mar
was simply a characteristic of skat-
ing. One could argue that it is not an
aspect of professional skating but
rather street skating. To this person I
would reply: look what happened
last time. I'm referring to the last time
skating attracted wide attention.
This leads me to the point: skating
Rob and Ben
is an underground sport. The
Skeeno, Nevada mainstream has difficulty under-
standing what exists beneath the
surface. This is as it should be.
WITNESSED TO THE BONE
The other day I was speeding
down a fast sidewalk run among
some townhouses. Suddenly
realized I was nearing the end of the
line. I decided to head straight on,
towards a patch of grass between
two little trees. Soon I discovered
the grass was quite wet and muddy.
My board stopped, I didn't. Unfortu
nately, I went headfirst and ab-
sorbed the force with my right shoul
der and heard a pretty little crack. A
minute later after trying to walk but
being grounded by the popping and
grinding noises emerging from my
shoulder, I was greeted by two
granny types asking, "are you OK?".
And here I am with a broken collar
bone and a harness type thing. My
parents said, "no more skating for
you, Doug." Shit.
Doug, done
Bloomington
Someone named:
One hundred and eighty-3
BURGER WARS
Me and a couple friends were
skating at a local McDonalds, just
minding our own business. Mr.
Psycho drives up in his car, parks
and gets out. The local skate scene
is low key so I don't know what the
dude's problem was. Anyways the
guy demands us to leave the lot as if
he owns it or something. After many
unkind words this guy has enough
nerve to tell us to wait until he's done
his meal before he can run us over.
There was even a crowd watching
this as this hick swerves the parking
lot trying to hit us. Follow thrashers
beware! These type of lowlife
nominds don't give up. The guy cir-
cled the lot and took one last swipe
at my friend. He came at him quite
fast so my friend jumped in the air
and landed on the hood of his car. A
couple punches were thrown and
the guy finally split for good. The
crowd ate it up, since this was prob-
ably the most excitement they've
had in years. When the dust settled,
my friends and I skated into the sun-
set.
Kelly Ross
Kamloops, B.C. Canada
OBNAUSEOUS
I noticed your magazine often
complains about the lousy treatment
skaters get. Well I think I know why
everyone treats us the way they do,
because there a lot of skaters with
incredibly obnoxious attitudes. I was
skating down the street in D.C. the
other day when these two skaters
walked by. Now I'm not the best ska-
ter in the world, never claimed to be,
but the little wimps started giving me
all sorts of crap about how great they
were and how I sucked. Had I not al-
ready been late for work, I would
have probably killed them, but I just
went after them to tell them what I
thought of them. When I caught
them they started their little wimp
routine, I didn't say nuthin! What's
your problem man?" Not only do we
have skatejerks in D.C., we have
them in New Jersey. The so called
Skate Rats' wrote a letter to a surf-
ing mag about how lame surfing is
and how skating is the best. Man, if
all you "great" skaters treat
everyone this way, you deserve to
have your ramps torn down and to
have cops hassle you. You're use-
less slime. Skating is great and in-
credibly cool, but you're not. Just be-
cuase you guys can crank on your
boards doesn't give you the right to
cut on everyone in the world. Re-
member, you sucked once too.
Craig Ellingsworth
McLean, VA
NOW,WAIT JUST A MINUTE...
Just wanted to give my opinion of
all these "skate hardcores" that I see
lately while skating. Perhaps I
should say "skate scum." O.k. I can
deal with guys who go around
breaking bus benches and knocking
over old men by simply ignoring
them. But shit, I pick up my August
issue of THRASHER and what do I
see? Some degenerate hurling a
dead cat in the air. If I was at that
contest I'd like to ask that asshole
how he'd feel if someone was fling-
ing his dead brother around. Sure
it's just a cat" but these days I
choose who I skate with by attitude
and morals. Some skaters care
only about skating instead of menial
human feelings such as respect for
life. I'm gonna go thrash, right after I
feed my cat
Drew
Chicago, IL
MAYBE SKATING ISN'T FOR
YOU
I have only one thing to say to all
the skaters everywhere and that is
skate to live, live to skate,
A Skater
Martinez, CA
Don't tell me, you freestyle. T-ed.
M
Willy Mayse in his days
Onis dated years
Demerate ending
Tmoreth thee ben,
کسم
Muscles and fast car
Famous cheeses of the past.
Reappear
K
CABALLERO
POWELL
PERALTA
501 East Gutierrez Strut Santa Barbara,
CA 9310000510620410