In the
CROWD
"I don't get to skate as much as
I'd like," says skater/cartoonist Mark
Conahan. "Sometimes I'm tempted
to chuck everything, move to Upland,
find some shit subsistence-level job
and skate the combi pool until I die.
With over fifteen years of skating
experience under his belt, Mark
could quit tomorrow and be leagues
ahead of many of the still-active
skaters today.
Mark lost his innocence on a
metal-wheeled board in 1971 and has
been heavily involved in skateboard-
ing ever since. Raised in Southern
California at the height of the
skatepark era, Mark mastered some
of skateboarding's most famous
bygone terrains and carved a name
for himself in skate history. In 1977
Mark relocated to Oregon to go to col
lege, but he continued to skate, and
perfected a number of avant-garde
skate moves. (At the 1979 Dog Bowl
Pro in Marina Del Rey, he and Dave
Andrecht were the only two who were
pulling off Andrecht's namesake
invert).
"The worst thing you can do is to
protect yourself too much, to be
scared of getting hurt." says Mark.
"Everyone should hurt themself on
purpose occasionally so they know
that it's no big deal and that there is
life after pain."
In the Spring of 1982 Conahan
published the first issue of Bodyslam
zine, a well-done skate tabloid featur-
ing Mark's radical attitude and art-
work. Several of his stylized comics
have also appeared in THRASHER.
Mark now resides in Ipswich,
Mass. with his wife Carolyn and
keeps in touch via his artwork and
weekend warrior skate sessions up
and down the East Coast.
"Skateboarding is always trying to
be such an anti-sport," relatos Mark.
"Apart from a few perverts, no one
wants skating to be the next little
league. But in giving themselves over
totally to skating at the expense of all
other activities, skaters risk becom
ing as limited as their baseball or
football counterparts. To excel in a
physical activity only, oven to the
level of genius, is to be a jock."
JIMMY Z
MARK CONAHAN