82 THRASHER
REA
AVENT
Left: quim Cardona
grabs this nosebone
like it was a Uni-
Wide marker tha
he's racking from
an art store.
Below: Cincinnati's,
Jaser jams his nose into
Da concrete block with
The force of a graffiti-
covered freight train.
T
When he's not
bombing walls in
DC, Chris Hall
drops Wallie boombs
on urban decay
in the streets
of Bushwick,
Brooklyn.
P
000
Patient 2: "True 54"
As with any recovery, the first
step was recognizing that I was sick.
Sure, I skated all day and painted all
night, but I could quit any time I
wanted. I didn't need to go out skating
every day, I didn't need to go out and
paint trains and rooftops all over the
city-I just wanted to. Eventually I
realized that skateboarding and graf-
fiti are actually two strains of the
same virus and that I had contracted
both. The most noticeable symptom is
how the virus attacks the eyes. Since
being infected, I can never look at the
world the same way again. Every blank
wall has become a potential place to
piece, do a throw-up on or tag. Every
curb, bank and even crack in the side-
walk screams out its skateability. I
can't walk past a clean banked wall and
just note its agreeable architectural
aesthetic. I can only think of how high
I could carve on it, what flip tricks I
could do to fakie, and how visible it
is from the bus line if I pieced it.
But the virus doesn't rest in the eyes-
it spreads throughout my body, com-
pelling me to act upon it. It gets to
a point where I begin to experience
withdrawal symptoms if I go too long
without skating or painting. Like a bad
drug addiction, it will cause problems
in personal relationships; girlfriends,
parents and non-infected friends will
feel neglected and jealous of the time
and devotion paid to the virus. It
sometimes seems as if there is no cure
for my dual sickness, but, like a
cobra's lethal poison, the secret to
concocting the antidote is that you
must use the virus against itself.
Recently I have gotten the graffiti
virus pretty well under control, con-
fining its outbreaks to a few little
pieces, and usually the infections only
flare up if I come into contact with a
friend who is also afflicted. But this
is only because the skating virus has
become inflamed and out of control,
all-consuming and leaving little time
and energy left for the graffiti virus
to act upon.
MOP
RES
tRu
AKB