AURAN
Brett Bye has plenty of lumber to work with as he readies for the slap-in off
a frontside boost. Photo: KT
things man. People always look at you
and they say, "The Cadillac of skateboards,"
like you got it covered with shag carpet,
and everybody wants to try it. They try it
and go, "Man, this thing is real sucky. It's
slow, it don't turn right." Sure, you can't
do a McTwist on it...no, I bet someone
could do that. I'd never do it, but I bet
somebody could. Mr. Fuckin' Go For It.
At the retail price, 45 bucks, it's a pretty
good deal. It's an investment...but, hell,
you can always keep it in the trunk of your
car and put red Kryptos on it. Then when
you run out of gas out on the highway, you
can just push down to the gas station to
get your gas. Then push it back to the car
and be on your way. Because $45 to get
your car towed is cheap...unless you
have a friend who drives a tow truck.
I tend to ride really smooth wheels.
Hard wheels on long boards makes the
ride kind of unpleasant, because it's really
rough. Smaller wheels, wide trucks, little
or no riser pad...you want it really stream-
lined to the ground. So it looks like one
of those drawings you did when you were
a kid, of a hot rod car, and you said, "Yeah,
that's what I want to do, I want to ride that.
Can I try that?"
I remember the first time I tried a
longboard I said, "Wow man, this is just
like surfing." And I'd never been surfing
in my life. Right? I'd seen all the guys in
the magazines but I grew up on the East
Coast; surfing wasn't a big part of my life.
I developed the way I rode by mimicking
the pictures I'd seen of surfers and skaters.
But when you try a longboard it feels like...
now, I'm not a surfer...but to me it feels
like I'm bottom-turning on this big pipeline.
You know, getting into to the Zen zone
right there with my longboard. I can see
how it would be kind of like surfing. It's like,
you can surf down to the store, or you can
go to Santa Cruz and see all the little
surfers with their boards.
What else? What else does it mean to
ride something and just be comfortable?
I had one board, it was a thirty-sixer with
street wheels on it, and I rode it every-
where. I didn't have another board and
I never brought anything with me, just that
board. It was the best feeling in the world.
I didn't have to put up with no psychologi-
cal trip, saying, "Well, I don't have my
ramp board here," or, "I didn't have my
ditch board there," or, "This isn't my down-
hill board." I just alleviated all that and
combined it, all of it, into one board. And
the board I got was everything I'd always
thought about. It was smooth, responsive,
concave, light. And when you do an air
with it all you see is the board. You say,
"I can put my feet anywhere on this board
and I'm gonna take this baby downtown."
That's right.
You can really expand on it. A longboard
is not only for cruising, you can learn
everything you ever saw. I've seen people
get sick on them. I saw this guy, when I
went to Cherry Hill in like 1979, he rode
a 36 inch Sims taperkick sidestance with
Long time longboard guru, Jerry 'Taters' Hurtado, takes the drop in Morro Bay, CA.
both feet in the middle of the board and
had poles with rubber stoppers on them.
He was carving edgers in the egg bowl
like, "Ha... no problem. I didn't under-
stand. But he told me then, "It's the wheel
base." He'd go up on vert and plant that
pole, like a ski jumper-his feet right there
together, no bindings or nothing, just two
shoes. All he had was a little piece of grip
tape right in the middle. I went, "No way."
I didn't believe it. But people, when they
try something enough, get to the point
where they're comfortable with it. So it
all comes back down to the desert island
theory; if you're stuck...how can you lose?
A lot of people now buy boards that
everybody else rides, with their custom
graphics. I saw them at a contest and they
looked really hot, but it all boils down into
one big ball of pulp. Maybe some of the
specialty boards are different, but a skate-
board's a skateboard. They haven't
changed. It's the same idea, right? You get
on, you go.
My old friends, who I never met, but
I remember them-all those guys used
to ride yardsticks. Eddie Economy, Brad
Stradlund, Ray 'Bones' Rodriguez (Ray
Bones man, I mean not like he was boney,
but 'bones') and Jeff Tatum...flying
no-handed backsides right out of the pool,
tucked up, whssh, thk, crack.
When you're on a cross-town roll,
pushing for distance or even just a one
mile sprint to the local store, there's nothing
like the longboard. "Take the long way
home." It's just great for cranking a few
and going out. All your friends will be
a hundred miles behind you, because
their boards just can't keep up.
All the tricks, when you get there, just
take longer. When you grab it, man, you
can just bring it right to your body. Hold
it like a cannonball and then just suck
it right back in. Like you've never seen.
And when you drop in from the tail, you're
riding down like three feet before your
Filly of Sad
front wheels even hit. You're doing this
really mega-wheelie before you're even
touching down into the ramp. When you
do a fakie ollie you've got more of your
board to get out. And, because there's more,
it feels like you worked harder for it.
You get soft wheels, like 90's or 88's,
something that's going to really hold your
board on the ground. And you know what,
don't ever let one of them little punks ride
your board. You know, the ollie gang, don't
let those little rats ride your board, cause
they'll say, "This board's great." And then
they'll kadiff it all to bits, like, boneless
here and a little cracking an ollie there.
I've seen 'em snap right in half and then
have somebody go, "Hey, I'm really sorry
but, uh, I broke your board." If anybody
ever did that to my board, I'd really take
it personal. Not because they broke my
board in particular, just that they had
no respect, to realize that there are limits
to every board. Even a longboard.
You can fit three freestyle boards in
a good longboard, why don't those guys
save themselves some money? A freestyle
board costs about $30, right, and a long-
board costs $45. It doesn't take much
of a mathematician to figure it out...more
board for your money, honey. That's right,
more wood. In case it breaks or something
you can cut it down and redrill it; use the
kicktail, or make a cruiser out of it. You get
more board, more wood, more tree for
your money. So, next time you're shopping.
and you're talking to your parents and your
old man's really crabbing on you, saying,
"Look, I want to get the maximum invest-
ment for my money." And the guy at the
skateshop says, "Look, you want a Gator."
"No way," you say, "I get much more board
for the same price. And, I can ride double
on it in case I get a hot date."Think about
that, man. Then to all your little friends,
you'll say, "I've got my longboard, yeah...".
Some people say, "Ninja," "Z-28,"
Longboard.
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