72
MIKE CONROY
Mike Conroy is a long-time Virginia Beach local who'll stop at nothing to achieve
A
LOT
OF
PAIN
maximum rippage on any surface. He's a
man of few words and many tricks. Here's
what Mike had to say about...
...his origins as a skateboarder
"I first got into skating in the eighth grade. I
got a Santa Cruz Jammer for Christmas, and I
started riding this old torn down skateboard
park by my house. It's been non-stop ever since."
...his current skate schedule.
"I skate any day that it's not raining.
Sometimes I may go bike riding or play
raquetball for a couple of hours, but I skate
every day. I don't have any real responsibilities
other than skating. I wake up and do whatever
I feel like doing that day"
...his board set-up.
"I don't use riser pads because I use those
Gullwings that have the thick base plates. I
like my front truck really tight. The back truck
is loose so I can pivot better on it, and the
front truck stabilizes the board."
inspiration
"Tony Hawk inspires me. I look at all of the
stuff he's done, kick back for a little while, and
it drives me. I think he's rad."
...his style.
"I try to be strong, fast and powerful. Every
time I learn a trick, I try to do it as big as I can."
his favorite kind of session and his favorite
spot in particular.
"I like to skate with a lot of people. Not a
big snake session, just when there are a lot of
people having fun. Of course, if a snake ses-
sion is happening. I'm not scared to jump in.
I've never been knocked out or anything.
"My favorite place to skate is the Lynnhaven
ramp in Virginia Beach. The best ramp I ever
skated was the big spine ramp at the
Michigan contest last year. I street skate once
in a while with my friends, but usually I skate
ramps. The ramps I often skate don't have
much vert, so I used to have trouble adjusting
to ramps with lots of vert when I went out of
town. I can adjust better now"
...ramps with odd shapes at contests.
They're fun, but I don't think they're cool for
contests. Lots of times it's not fair to either
regular-footers or goofy-footers. You have to
get used to the ramp, you have to find a line.
and then you have to worry about all these
unexpected things in the ramp too. You only
get two hours of practice before the contest
and you're supposed to do all of that in two
hours. It's kind of lame at contests."
superstitions
"I don't talk about broken bones. I don't
drop in after people slam. I let someone else go.""
tricks and tricksters.
"Right now I'm working on some nollie
tricks and more tricks going backwards.
Nothing very special, just different variations.
I'm going to get the twist sooner or later.
Twists are the hardest, so are different grabs
and a lot of the lip tricks coming out right now.
Tony Hawk, Danny Way and Alan Losi are do-
ing a lot of new stuff in their runs. I don't think
we'll see a new king soon, but there are a lot
of new skaters coming up in the amateur
ranks who are really rad. Another two or three
years and they're going to be a couple feet
taller and couple pounds heavier and
stronger"
what's in store for the sport of skateboard-
ing in the nineties.
"A lot of pain."
GU
HOT
SHOES