42 THRASHEK MAGAZINE
lengthy ollie at the slight-
est hint of trouble.
Here comes a rectangular
slab of missing blacktop at
least three feet wide,
stretching across the road-
way. Without slowing
down for one blonde hair,
the pair tap tails and sail
over the foreboding
impediment. Catching sight
of their flight, the rest of
the group knows some-
thing rough is coming. Like
a pack of trained poodles,
each pops and traverses
the danger zone. It's just
another ollie over another
canyon of death in the
downhill road race arena.
Catastrophe can come
suddenly and severely, like
a flat-fisted smash in the
face. An unforseen crack in
the sidewalk takes its toll
on Alfredo. He tumbles like
a snowball, collecting
burns and gouges as he
cartwheels down the road.
Right behind him, Monti
swerves in sudden slalom
mode to dodge his friend's
board and body lest he
endure a similar fate. At
the back of the pack, traffic
is rudely tail-gating the
stragglers, and an old
Chinese man sits on the
horn of his black Mercedes.
Bert and Ernie pay him no
heed as they jostle back
and forth, trying to keep
enough space in their
immediate vicinity to
throw the slides that
separate fast fun from
pure speed wobble hell.
Wheels scream around a
tight corner and a wide-
open straightaway comes
into view. Both sides of the
street feature a step-like
succession of banked
driveways descending the
hill. Launching long and
tall ollies, time slows down
within each rider's dimen-
sion as the weightlessness
of the pop carries him up
and away from the tyranni-
cal pull of gravity. These
momentary interludes of
flight and freedom inter-
rupt the hub-bub of the
endless urban sprawl.
In the rush of the mob,
the rumble of hard wheels
churns like phase-shifted
distortion on an electric
guitar. Each skater jockeys
for position through the
straights, around the
curves, over the humps
and between the cars. The
fast-forward tracking is
kept at a constant radical
clip until the very bottom,
where the hill runs out and
the grinding drudgery of
pedestrian life begins.
Salvation waits only for
those willing to endure
another short wait at the
bus stop and a long ride
back to the top.
Riding on a crest of air above a
luxurious slope of cement, the
bottom drops out while Jonah
Schmidt grabs some lofty tail.