CHRIS SENN
Inbil TALKING ED
Back in the
USSR, Adom
seum
BAD BUSINESS
With so many small, skater-run
companies out there today, you would
Krohn casts a think that the climate at contests and
dueling sessions would be less uptight, with
reflection out good-natured vibing going on and
side the more hooting. You know, former pros
Olympic Cell talking all chummy about past rival-
ries, epic sessions and the future of
Moscow. the sport while the young, sponsored
Reforms may charges rip it up and take over. But,
soon give a no000. It seems that whenever those
boost to the sessions go down with new pros and
Eastern Bloc young tycoons in attendance, the
skate scene, atmosphere gets thick enough to
but they'd do grind on. The vibe is serious, the talk
is slanderous and the snaking is
vicious. Young rippers know that
almost any thirteen-year-old kid with a
good ollie tail grab can get sponsored,
turn pro and get a model. The current
pros know they could get a better deal
tomorrow from the next new compa-
ny looking for a signature skater.
Some manus are so jealous of their
competition that all they can think
about are ways to bring them down,
steal their skaters, or just talk shit. If
well to learn a
lesson from
bod vibes in
the current
American
scene. Mean
while, in what
was once
Yugoslavia, a
revolutionary
pack of skate
rats battle the
streets and
ramps and
bowls in
Slovenia.
4 THRASHER MAGAZINE
you spend most of your time thinking
about what everybody else is doing.
can you run a successful business?
more haven't
ple years ago) is its affect on the gen-
eral skate population-the dollar-
waving skate fans that keep us all
(yes, even Thrasher) in business.
When kids worry more about T-shirts
or board graphics than looking for
new spots, building ramps, fighting
harassment or even skating itself,
then we're all in trouble. All the
"manus" have gotten so wrapped up
trying to gain the biggest slice of the
pie, that meanwhile the pie is being
burnt to a crisp with the lies, high-
prices, bad product, rip-off scams,
broken contracts and shattered
dreams of skate stardom. All the
fighting and one upsmanship that
goes down weakens skateboarding as
a whole and gives the real kooks, like
cops and politicians, a bigger boot in
the door to bust skaters and pass
anti-skateboarding laws. Skaters quit
skating, companies go out of busi-
ness. Making a little money can make
you feel like a new person, but when
the first thing the new person wants is
more money, it's called greed.
Just remember, skate companies,
skateboards, wheels, trucks, T-shirts,
shoes, stickers, fame and all the
material trappings eventually wear
out. But the feeling you get from rid-
Well, some have managed; many ing your skateboard lasts a lifetime.
Enjoy it, have fun with it, but if you try
and cheat it or sell it out, you slam.
The sad thing about all the company
mud-slinging (other than reminding
me of the lame McDonalds versus
Burger King commercials from a cou-
Send Money,
Kevin J. Thatcher
THRASHER
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THRASHER (ISSN 0890692), December 1991, Vol. 11, No. 12.
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