During three long days in
Chicago this July, I took In
the blues festival, the Bulls
In the NBA play-offs, numer.
ous downtown skate ses-
sions and the doomed MTV
Sports Festival. The follow-
Ing weekend there was Hot
Wheels party on a mini-ramp
at Shelter niteclub, and the
week after saw a well-
attended gallery opening of
skater-created artwork fes-
turing Mark Gonzales, Natas
Kaupas, Ed Templeton,
Mike Vallely, Chris Miller
and Thomas Campbell.
Chicago is a big city of
broad shoulders and
heavy traffic where
you cursat a great
meal, de live music,
skate till dawn, get
lost ape boat up-
all in the same
night Bank
Sinaus said it
best, Chicago,
mykinga'
North Loop De
Cgrid. Between every burding lean some of t
grid. Between every tall building lies an assortment of hips,
painted/metal curbs, handrails, granite benches, hidden
banks, marble blocks, underground car parks, twenty-story garages,
hoop-de-doo handrails, ledges, bowled walls, endless asphalt, brick-
work and paved street to roll. On any given Sunday posses of skaters
roam throughout downtown Chi-town practicing their religion. Any
skater spending a few hours in this urban landscape will come out a
better person for it.
You could divide the Chicago timeline into two eras, before
Sessions skate shop and after. Before Sessions, a man named
Sluggo (Brian Hidaka), along with Boyd Brunner, sustained the skate.
community by providing a shop with good product, reasonable prices.
and, best of all, an indoor mini, right in the city. Kids like Jesse
Neuhaus and Terrence Thompson ripped the custom-painted super-
cramped structure with abandon. On weekends and week-nights, the
older crew, Steve Dread, John Reed, King James Adler, Boyd, Ted
the Hammer, Chris Favaro, Ras Daniel Hernandez and Sluggo, flung
themselves around the bedroom-sized ramp. Before his shop (called
Sluggo's Skates), Brian organized some killer schoolyard street con-
tests, including the only contest to date supported and sponsored by
city government. Currently, Mr. Hidaka is making decks and putting
out a cool 'zine called 312, thus remaining a force in the local scene.
With the emergence of a younger street-wise crew in the mid-
eighties, the Chicago skate scene went through some changes.
Weekly trips to the Turf in nearby Milwaukee were no longer manda-
tory. Local bad asses like Eric Murphy started pushing the limits
wherever they skated. Visiting schoolboys Nels Grevstad, Ted the
Hammer and Peter Redgrave boosted the energy level where street
met vert. Finally, laid back little Jesse Neuhaus went over the top and
all the way pro, ushering in a whole new generation of street smarts.
Nowadays Jesse is back and ripping. Terrence Thompson is up
and rolling. Original street kid Chris Quinn is back on it. Sessions
board shop is the mecca of skate hang-outs, with resident persona
Matt Hensley way stoked on Chicago, and visiting degenerates and
ragers stoking the local crew with their "professional antics. Traveling
skate delegates usually crash on main man Dan Field's hardwood
floor above the Wrigleyville Tap. There are tons of young ripper-
38 THEASHER
YOU ARE NOW ENTERING
CHICAGO
POP 4,783,726 ELEV 595 FT
An unknown skater (opposite) flies up a curb on his way into skate town
Chicago. Chip, John Fonseca and Junior Gonzales (top, left to right) stalk the
city at night. Back in action down at Oak Street Beach, Chris Quinn (above)
twists a lipslide. The best known meeting spot (left) in town is Sessions.
39