Stanley's Brother Likes to Brag
STORY BY MA GONZALES
I GOT MY FIRST SKATEBOARD two years ago. My
stepbrother skates, and for my birthday I had to go
to my dad's house. I hated going there because his
new wife was a goody-goody. On my fourteenth
birthday two years ago, my stepbrother picked out a
skateboard for me. It surprised me that my stepmoth-
er didn't make us wear helmets. My first board was a
Real Salman Agah model. My stepbrother's name is
Sequential slash
of Shogo Kubo
committing a
frontside grind bert
revert at Maring
Del Rey Skatepark.
Stanley, but I always call him Stanky, and it piss-
es him off. He's older than me, but I'm bigger,
so he never tries to fight me. On the first day!
got my board, I was as good as him. He would
do a trick, and I'd watch him, then I would do
it. I felt bad 'cause he took it so seriously. After
about three months had passed, I got really
good. I was doing all kinds of tricks. He would
say, "Try a switchstance," and I would. Just
about whatever trick he asked me to do, I'd
pull it. But the thing that I seemed to enjoy the
most was going fast and turning and swerving.
Well, that's what this story is about. Stanley
told me that I was old school. I had no idea.
what he meant, but then he explained about
pools, slalom and downhill the way people
skated in the past. Then to be a jerk, I started
yelling at him, saying, "I'm old school. Yeah,
I'm old school. Stanky says I'm old school.
Yeah, Stanky!" I was starting to piss him off. He
started chasing me around the house. I kept
yelling, "Wooooo Stanky, wooooo Stanky.
Stanky says I'm old school!"
But this is where it really gets deep. When I
got to the backyard and started running off
into the distance, I turned to see how close he
was, and then, pow! He had loaded his sling-
shot with a big rock, and it hit me in the head
right above my eye. Everything went dark. I fell
to my knees and then to my side. Finally I was
laid out on the lawn. I remember hearing voic-
es, and then suddenly I was dreaming, I had on
these small shorts that were so tight, I kept
pulling them down, and I had this small skate-
board-the nose came to a point. I was looking
around, and there were long haired skate
boarders everywhere. Then one of them yelled
at me, "Out of the way, man, I'm dropping in!"
And as I looked down in front of me, I was
standing on the edge of a fourteen-foot bowl.
I felt like I was going to fall in. I stepped back
and looked over my shoulder. There was an ori-
ental guy with super long hair. My head went
back, and I said, "What's up?" He put his hand
on my shoulder and whispered, "The beginner
bowls are over there behind the Pro Shop."
He continued to skate past me and dropped
into a bowl. I was afraid to move. I thought
someone would run into me, or I'd fall into a
bowl. Slowly I attempted to walk towards a
fence where a small group of people were
watching. This one guy with bright red hair and
braces kept looking at me. Finally I gave him a
mean look and said, "What's up? Why are you
staring?" Then he said, "You know who you
were talking to?"
I said, "No, who?"
"That was Shogo Kubo."
"Who's he?" I said. Then the kid just smiled
and pointed out to where I had just come from.
The kid said, "Watch out, man, he's the most
radical." I turned my head and watched him zip
around the bowl, making the harshest type of
sound I ever heard a skateboard make.
I turned back to ask the redhead what year it
was, but he was gone. And right where he had
been standing was a real pretty girl. I smiled at
her, but she brushed me off. It didn't matter,
though, 'cause next to her was another girl. I'm
not joking, she was sexy. She looked just like
Pamela Anderson. My knees got weak when
she smiled at me and said, "Hi." I tried to be
studly and said, "Hello there." Then she spoke
in this weird voice and asked, "Is this your first
time to Marina?" I looked right into her eyes
and asked, "What's Marina?" Then she laughed
and repeated, "Marina, Marina skatepark."
"Oh, Marina." I shook my head and said.
"Oh, yeah, Marina. This is my first time here.
How could you tell?" She pulled some gum out
of her mouth and stretched it out. "Cause you
have rental pads on." Then I looked down to
my knees, and I had these little pads on that
had the word "rental" written across the front
of both of them. I felt like a nerd with these
goddamn pads and these tight ass shorts on. I
really had no idea what was going on. Then the
oriental with the long hair came skating up.
and the girl said,
"Hey, Shogo, you
know this guy?"
He shook his head no and went right past
us. Then she looked at me and asked, "What's
your name?"
"Ricky," I said. "What's yours?"
"Tammy." She put her hand out to shake. I
shook her hand. Then she asked, "Where do
you live?"
I said, 'I don't know." Then she started
laughing again. I tried to correct myself. "Well,
I know where I live, I'm just not sure where it's
at from here."
Then she started laughing more. I wanted to
say something that would be serious so she
would stop laughing. I couldn't think. Then
finally I demanded to know, "What's so funny?"
"You are," she was still laughing. "What
planet are you from?"
"This one." Then she stopped laughing and
said, "Well, you could have fooled me."
I stopped looking at her and turned to watch
the skaters. This one guy was super tall. He
would drop into a bowl, and I could see his
head sticking out as he rode across the bot-
tom. In the next bowl over from him was a kid
who was riding on his knees, and she said,
"Oh, that's Todd. He's crippled from the waist
down." I looked over at her. She had the most
serious look on her face like as if she was let-
ting me in on the skatepark lowdown. Then out
of nowhere I asked, "So, where's your board?
Do you skate?
She quieted down and said, "Well, I tried,"
but then she shrugged her shoulders and said,
"Well, I just like watching." Then she nudged
me and said, "Let's see you ride. Go out there."
I looked down at the board. "I don't know,
this isn't the type of board I'm used to."
She looked up at me kind of confused.
"What kind of board are you used to?"
"Oh, I don't know. I'm just kind of scared.
This is my first time at a park." Then Tammy
suggested that I try the beginner bowls. So, I
put both my feet on the board and pushed
myself away from the fence in the direction of
the beginner bowls. It felt so strange. I felt like
I was tightrope walking and on each side of the
board was a hundred-foot drop.
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