ASK THE DOCTOR
Steve McQueen
took one of
Hollywood's
biggest slam
mos while try
ing to evade
Why does it feel so good to skate
without safety gear, but hurt so much to
fall without it? There's nothing like
cruising your favorite spot without pads
restricting your movement. Sure
enough, though, as soon as things start
heating up and you get careless, pop
the Heinies in
goes the elbow, boom goes the knee
"The Great
and snap goes the wrist. Suddenly that
Escape by stokem session turns to extreme pain,
leaping over a
and the disgust builds as you look over
barbed wire
at that bag of pads. Yep, nothing like liv-
barrier. If only Ing on the edge. Actually, when it comes
he had been down to getting down on the ramp or
wearing some pool across town, wearing those pads
decent safety will never make you frown. Unfortunate-
equipment. ly, I remind myself of this all too often.
Many tricks, especially of the ramp and
vert variety, literally cannot be wired or
learned without falling, and pads enable
you to fall over and over without getting
hurt. Knee sliding allows you to get back
up and try again. The less you hurt, the
more you skate. Dues have to be paid.
ankle-straining foot placement. There
are a few things that may help a little.
High top skate shoes support the ankles
but also restrict movement somewhat,
however I feel the added support out-
weighs the restrictiveness. Another
thing that helps an already injured ankle
is to wrap it with an Ace bandage, or
wear an ankle brace. The best thing for
any injury is giving it proper time to heal
and then to exercise and strengthen the
weakened area.
BACK TO BACK
I pulled a back muscle skating, waited a
week, foolishly skated again and re-pulled
it. This happened again another week later.
I want to skate real bad, so I wised up and
decided to rest my back. It's been four
weeks of resting and some of my friends
think I'm faking it. How long should I rest?
Rich "Ox" Martin
Orland Park, IL
Most scrapes, bruises and other skat-
I'm just blown away that after eighteen Ing mishaps usually take three days to a
years of skating my dues haven't out-
weighed the fun, the excitement, the
knowledge, the worldly experience, and
way of life that skating has brought me.
I will continue to spread that knowledge
and acquire more for years to come.
Skate safe today, skate again tomorrow.
TWIST AND SHOUT
In the past two months I have sprained
my ankle twice, one right after another.
What can I do to prevent spraining my
ankle for the third time? Thanks.
Ken Douglas
Fernandina Beach, FL
Ankles are very susceptible to injury,
especially since a lot of tricks rely on
20 THRASHER MAGAZINE
week to heal. Sprains, twists, and mus-
cle pulls tend to take much longer to
heal. This is when it gets tough. Reha-
bilitation and recuperation become
essential. Besides stretching and exer-
cising to get back in shape, you also
have to avoid making a bad injury worse
by skating. That's when you have to ask
yourself, do I sit out the next few ses-
sions or skate, fall again, get hurt
worse, look like a bigger fool and not be
able to skate even longer? Not to men-
tion being in more pain. Get smart.
Don't worry what your friends think.
Kick back, get well, stretch those mus-
cles before skating-do deep knee
bends, touch your toes, twist and flex.
Get warmed up before that first slam,
and hopefully it won't be your last.
FRIENDLY FIRE
My best friend is the coolest skate bro in
the world, but he does have one problem. If
I get scared to do a trick, he'll sit there and
say stupid stuff like, "Even when you
become pro, you won't be able to do...", or,
"I hope you'll never learn that trick since
you can't do it on a little ramp like ours." 1
just ignore it most of the time. I don't want
to whine, but I can't take it any longer. Give
some advice, please!
Lost
Onley, VA
Well, I can see how some people
might get offended by this type of atti-
tude or behavior. It certainly isn't like
skaters to vibe one's fellow skate com-
panion. As a matter of fact, I have
slipped occasionally and said some-
thing like, "Yeah, why don't ya revert
that next time, you pussy." I was
ashamed. How could I be so rude?
Yeah, right. Wake up, kid. If you can't
take a little verbal abuse, I'd hate to see
you take a mean body slam. It's all a
part of skating. Maybe when you're fed
up with being scared, you'll actually try
to pull it off. Just try. That will shut 'em
up for awhile. In the meantime, don't be
scared, stop whining and go find your-
self. Vibing and heckling has been
known to heighten the skill level during
many heated sessions from which
numerous tricks have been originated.
NOSE BONE TO PICK
I can ollie onto curbs, picnic tables, etc. I
skate a board which has very little nose. I
was wondering, can my ollies get any high-
er if I start skating a board with a big nose
(like the new Hawk)?
Rob
Ft. Drum, NY
Don't you mean a board like the Jake
Phelps model, a deck with a tail where
the nose used to be, or basically a tail at
both ends? Dual directional, switchfoot,
fakie, nose, tail, it's all the same thing.
For the ultra-rad tricksters it seems this
is the progression, mainly because so
much more state-of-the-art skating is
done on the nose. So, why not have it
shaped and kicked just like a tail, even
more so on some boards? Does this
make it easier to ollie? Hell, yes. Why?
Because the nose grabs the side of your
foot sooner and gives you more lever-
age once the board leaves the ground. If
you can ollie onto picnic tables now,
you might not get higher, but you'll have
more control and won't have to exert as
much effort to get there.
-Rick Blackhart
LIFE IN THE BIG CITY...
There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it doesn't become any of us
To talk about the rest of us.
NEW BRENNAND SCHOEFFEL PRO AND LIMITED EDITION
LIFE SKATEBOARDS 1991
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