board and carving. You can't flip
your board or anything. All I do is
pretty much cruise down the line
and do a few cutbacks and stuff.
I'm not trying to be some rad guy: I
just like having fun.
-Mike Prosenko
Most skaters don't realize how
burly it is to get stuffed by a wave.
Let's ignore the basic facts that surf-
boards are really pointy and the
fins are sharp as hell. To
recreate a wipe out at,
say, the Banzai
Pipeline, in
skater's
terms, imag-
ine a twelve-
foot ramp with
six feet of water
Skating is more dangerous than
surfing unless your surfboard hits
you in the head. Concrete is harder.
It's going to hurt every time you fall
just about. It just hurts longer.
-Natas Kaupas, out with a broken
fibular bone (from skating)
Surfing and skating will always
share the adventure aspect.
Wave pools were sup-
posed to bring surfing to
the masses like ramps
and parks did for skating,
but there will always be a
few looking for the virgin
A
on both sides. We'll ignore
eating it on twenty-five foot waves at
Waimea with forty-five foot faces
because that's incomprehensible.
After lofting a healthy frontside air
you decide it doesn't feel right and
bail. Your momentum carries you
past the ramp, where you think to
yourself, "No problem - I've got six
feet of water to land on." Well, below
the water is a coral reef as sharp as
razor blades, so you try and hit kind
of flat. Then the ramp rears up and
lands on you. If this sounds too far-
fetched, remember that a cubic yard
of water (three feet long, three feet
wide and three feet deep) weighs
2,000 pounds!
The ocean is just scary. It's always
changing and you're dealing with
Mother Nature, so sometimes you
got to pay your dues. You don't
have any control over what it's
going to do to you when it gets
out of hand. -Scott Oster
So, the ramp pounds you on the
reef, smashing itself to bits, then the
whole mess (with you in it) rears up
and pummels you again. After about
three trips over the falls, the ramp
holds you under water, pinning you
to the reef until you can't hold your
breath anymore. So you claw your
way to the surface, just in time to see
another ramp bearing down on you.
This doesn't happen all the time, but
just because it's water doesn't mean
it's not hairy.
56 THRASHER MAGAZINE
terrain that wasn't de-
signed to be
ridden.
That's why
it's such a
blast to find
and ride!
I love surfing. It's my way of life. I
surf in the morning, come home,
eat and relax, skate in the after-
noon and rage all night. If there
are waves, I'm out. Even if it's
small, I take my longboard (9'0").
A longboard is like driving a
Cadillac limousine, and a short
board is like driving a Ferrari.
-Eddie Reategui
Yeah, surfing is borrowing a lot
from skating right now, mostly
because a lot of hot people do both.
The list of crossovers is endless,
from Bertleman, Jack Waterman,
Tony Alva, Jay Adams and Steve
Olson, through Vince Klyne, Jason
Jessee, Tony Hawk, Keith Meek,
Christian Fletcher and Kelly Slater.
It's just good. You're out in the water,
and there are no laws out there. If
anyone gets in the way, you can
fight them. You don't see that
many cops out in the water. It's the
best; it's probably the closest thing
to skateboarding. It's like a weird
freedom.
-Jason Jessee
The lines between surfer and skater
become more blurred everyday.
Whether it's a skateboard, surfboard,
snowboard or skimboard, air is air
and only the moves, not the medium
determine which is better.
Cranking backside on pool coping just the same as if it were surf,
a four-wheeled fiberglass plank Sequentially slapping a surf-
SKATING IS
PAYING SURF-
ING BACK
TENFOLD IN
THE AIR/LIP
TRICK
DEPARTMENT
DON REDONDO
Scott Oster (above) keeps his head way below coping as he slashes a grind over the box of death. David Hackett (left) takes the skate/surf crossover one step beyond on
bome ollie, Kelly Slater (below) merges the elements of air and water with a healthy helping of aggressive fire.