CURB YOUR SKATE
Every skater, at one time or another, has
been a local at some street or ditch spot. My
friends and I were no exception. In 1980 Jon
Insco, Ronny Leavit, Caballero, Corey O'Brien,
Graeme Pattison, Clint Evans and I all started
sessioning these curbs on the side of a grocery
store complex. Winchester Skate Park was still
open, but sometimes we didn't have the cash
to get in, and other times we just felt like skating
curbs instead.
We called this place The Scurbs-curbs, with
an "s" in front which stands for "skateable.""
We held four contests there from 1980 to 1982.
Two dollar entry fees, beginner and intermediate
classes, head to head, Cokes and Snickers,
thank you. "Fast music by Black Flag and The
Germs" read one flyer. Beginners judged the
advanced riders and vice-versa. It was just a
piece of little-used pavement, but it became the
hot spot for local skaters-and skaters'
enemies. There's safety in numbers, so we
formed a gang, SSG, to combat harassment.
We skated every day, following our motto, "Your
board is your weapon...use it!" and the non-
skaters stopped bothering us. We were quite
happy.
While all this was going on, 400 miles to the
south the Whittier Skatepark locals were
assaulting curbs in the parking lot of Skate Ci-
ty. John Lucero, Richard Armijo, Neil Blender,
Hagop, Lance Mountain and Dave and Dan
Jones used to take curb breaks from the now-
buried pool, pipe and reservoirs. This mid-day
mayhem culminated in a raging contest that
was, unfortunately, cut short by the manager
of the park. His lame excuse was, "No pads,
no skating."
There's a place down in Huntington Beach
that the locals call "PO. Curb." People swear
it's one of the best curb spots ever, and reports
of twenty-skater sessions are evidence that this
place is happening! Another spot that has bred
it's own rippers is The Bank on the extreme
southern tip of San Jose. Aaron Bell and Ran-
dy Burk have been locals at this cement and
pavement wonderland for years.
CONTEST BUMMERS
One time, a crew of us drove up to San Fran-
Slapped silly. Pretzel contortion by the big man,
Cesario "Block" Montano handles a sick slap.
Oppostle Page: Ready to tug it back into the
street after a trash-clearing grind is curb master
Mike Archimedes.