Tony Roberts pops one in his Peru discovery.
Inset: Traditional Peruvian wave riding vehicles.
ISRAEL
Story and Photos by Spidey
In April 1988 I went to Israel with my mother. Geographically.
Israel is much like Southern California. The weather is better,
though, because there is less air pollution. I spotted plenty
of fully skateable spots as I travelled around from town to town.
In Tel-Aviv I met up with Ruby, the kingpin of the skate scene
there. He gave me the lowdown on
skating in Israel. Ruby was the rip-
pingest guy I saw during my stay. He
worked at Tel-Aviv Intersurf, the
most well stocked skate shop in the
whole country.
The Israeli skate scene has been
kicking since 1978, but no skate-
parks have ever been constructed.
Therefore, like everywhere else, the
skaters have constructed ramps. As
far as money goes, a modest ramp
(16' wide, 6' tall) would cost $7,000 American dollars. Obviously,
not everyone can afford ramps. So there's a ramp park in Tel-
Aviv at the marina. The park consists of 3 ramps, a half-pipe
(20' wide, 12' flat, 10' tall, 1% vert), a mini (16' wide, 6' tall)
and a plexiglass ramp (8' wide, 8' tall), plus a freestyle area
and assorted launch ramps. It's open from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.
daily and the cost is $4.50 (American) per day.
Ruby tells me that skating started to lose it's popularity in
'85. Then Philadelphia skater Chuck Treece came over in '86
to do demos and got people stoked again. It's been rolling
and growing ever since.
In Haifa, a port city in
Northern Israel, there are
many spots: Carmel Beach
Banks on the boardwalk
(concrete banks with 10'
wide roll-out decks and
stairs as a channel to grind.
over), the playground banks
on Route 43 and the college
banks on Route 92. In
Haifa's open air mall there
are the pyramid and planter
banks just south of the
Carmel monastery. The mall
also has a stocked skate
shop that's very up to date.
There's also a skate shop in Jerusalem. A good spot there
is Mt. Zion banks. Across the street from these banks is a public
park with a big flat smooth concrete area where all the
freestylers and street skaters hang. People set up launches
and hold contests here.
The jewel of the whole excursion was the central bus sta-
tion in Jerusalem. It reminded me of Lloyds banks. It was the
best place I rode besides the park in Tel-Aviv. If you're plan
ning to go to Israel, bring your skate, read up on Israeli money
and customs and keep your wits about you because the
political climate in this country is sketchy. I'm certain you'll
have a blast.
Tel-Aviv skatepark and two other examples of fine Israeli terrain.
PERU
ONE FINE PERUVIAN DAY
Steve Price and I had a good morn-
ing at eight to ten-foot Penascal Point.
We were three weeks into our surfing
vacation in this dusty wave-rich land
Today we wanted to skate, so we
hoaded for the concrete jungle of
Peru's capital city, Lima.
The cars in Lima know no laws
Horns blare as each car shoots for
hole shots" and signals are ignored.
There is almost no middle class in
Perd, and this fact is especially evi-
dent in the city Suit-and-tie business-
Story and Photos by Tony Roberts & Steve Price
men share the sidewalk with grovel-
ling aimless wanderers.
We plowed through the crowded
sidewalks and scurbed some curbs.
It felt great to be back on a skate, but
we were looking for something bueno
Making our way through rush hour
traffic, we spotted a cement con-
figuration. As we got closer, we realiz
ed that it was an empty fountain It
was four feet high, square-lipped and
round-bowled-carve heaven. Two
cops across the street were watching
us curiously, but that didn't stop us.
In minutes we were carving ourselves
silly. Pedestrians stopped and stared
as we screamed and hooted. This
was the first time many of them had
seen skating. Judging by their en-
thusiastic responses, they were fully
Stoked!
We sessioned until we couldn't,
then said adios to our new friends)
The cops across the street blew their
whistles and hoisted double fisted
thumbs-up, it was a special feeling to
realize that in many places skating is
seen for what it truly is FUN