E
ight years later and the wheels are
still screeching and the Hamm's
beer still flowing at the famous and
dangerously fun Burnside skatepark
(you may have seen it in Free Willy 2). It
might be safe to say the park is complete (but you'd
have to talk to Red to find out for sure), and with the
resurfacing of the original big bowl (thanks to the
giant pockets of jiggedy JNCO), Burnside was in
tip-top shape for its annual birthday
party/Halloween get-together. Contingencies
from as far away as San Diego lurked onto
the scene for a whole lot of the kind of stuff
that goes on there, and the skating raged on
despite, or rather alongside, pit bull battles,
sluts, cops, costume contests, hurt feelings,
barf eating, car crashes, flying
elbows and one dude in
repelling in from the highway
above. Fuck yeah. Fuck
yeah. Fuck yeah.
94 THRASHER
HAPPY
THDAY
Clockwise from top left: Sage
summons up some snowboard
style for a stinker tweaker over the
hip. Sam Hitz used to skate pools at
a skatepark that was once a titty
bar, but now he has to be content to
skate pools at a skatepark that would
like to be. Al Partanen drank his own
urine to avoid paying me the $50 he
owed me. Backside Smith. The
Undertaker stands at the ready to
take Christian Brox away if he hangs
up on this pivot fakie. As if the smell
inside of a Porta-Potty weren't
enough of a deterrent, the masked
guards make it almost mandatory
to piss outside. Bailey rode up
from San Diego in the back of a
truck. He put the luggage on top
of himself to keep warm. Feeble
rock on the cinderblock wall.