OTICE
HOCK
OUR
HEELS
84 THRASHER
HICAGO
BLOG 2
Clockwise from left: Ryan Bobier
puts his ass into a backside lipslide at
the new So-Cal hotspot. Neal Hendrix
does this trick late in his runs, so 15
walls in the fakie hurricane fakie
rears its head. So relaxed and
friendly, muster be Buster,
Halterman that is, airing the
channel at a feel-good
encampment of positivity.
COLAB
handed it across the counter. It was an old Mark Gonzales pro model.
There were funny paint-pen drawings on the grip tape, of little men with
small bodies and big lips, exactly like the drawings Chuck used to do. Then he
saw that it said "Skate a Salisbury Steak," and it all came back to him.
"Wait a minute... this is my old board!" Chuck said. "This is one of the first
skateboards I ever had. Where'd you get this?"
"At a garage sale over on Edwards Street, from some old Russian
lady," Ernesto said, with a big grin on his face. He was glad that some-
one liked his skateboard, especially Chuck, who was one of the best
skaters in town.
"That's Mrs. Peletin. I used to skate with her son, Uri Peletin. I gave
him this skateboard like 12 years ago. It's probably been sitting in that
garage since he left for college."
Looking at the board made Chuck remember how much fun he and
Uri used to have skating around. They'd go downtown at night and
skate for hours. Uri wasn't the best skateboarder, but when you skated
with him, you always had fun. He made up all kinds of weird tricks
and gave them funny names.
"Why does it say 'Skate a Salisbury Steak?"" Ernesto asked.
"Because one time we were skating in front of a 7-11, and from out
of nowhere Uri whipped a frozen Salisbury Steak package out of his
front pocket. He heated it up in the 7-11 microwave, ate half of it, and
then did tricks over the other half."
"That fool was trippin," the Pope said.
"Yeah, he was probably the funniest, weirdest guy ever. He also had a
trick that he named the Salisbury Steak. I might be able to still do it."
Ernesto, Frenchie and the Pope followed Chuck out of the shop.
Chuck stood on the board and pushed around carefully, going easy on
his ankle. He carved around on the sidewalk, popped a couple of little
ollies. He remembered how excited Uri was when he first learned ollies.
Everyone else had been doing them forever, but Uri didn't care. He was like
that it didn't bother him that he couldn't do the hardest tricks-he just
loved the feeling of skating around and doing his own thing.
Chuck checked carefully for traffic and then rolled off the sidewalk into the
street. He made a wide turn, came back, and popped a no-comply on the park-
ing block, over the small gap and onto the sidewalk, landing in a manual and rid-
ing it out for a few feet. For the first time in months, his bad ankle felt stronger.
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