I used to buy Concrete Wave Magazine....that is until I discovered how hypocritical that magazine is.
They say they support all forms of skateboarding. Hmmm.....that's funny, cause I didn't see one street skating photo in that magazine unless it was a spot where there was natural transition. What they mean by all forms of skating I guess is bowlriding, slalom, longboarding and freestyle. So, you're gonna cover all of those, but not even sacrifice a few pages for street skating? Bullshit.
This recently came to mind when I was reading the latest issue of Thrasher Magazine (September 2006 issue) and I was reading this article by Michael Burnett about a skate trip he went on with Keegan Sauder, John Rattray, Stu Graham and legendary pros Jeff Grosso and Lance Mountain to skate a lot of the amazing tranny and bowl spots around the Oregon area.
When I read the part about the old dudes that write in and say that Thrasher has too many handrails and should be more like Concrete Wave, I started laughing. I'm pretty fed up with all these older dudes saying their trip is better. Tranny skateboarding is awesome, I love it.....but street skating is amazing too. I think all these old dudes are just jealous that they didn't take the time to learn how to street skate (or even ollie for that matter).
Also, that "I'm too old to skate street" excuse is getting more stupid every time I hear it. Steve Caballero, Lance Mountain, Rob "Sluggo" Boyce, Matt Hensley, Ed Templeton. All who are in their 30's or 40's and still kill it. I mean, Cab made a point to learn how to skate street when it became popular...he didn't just decide to quit like so many did. Lance Mountain learned how to street skate from skating with his son Cyril! Rodney Mullen just turned 40 and look what he's done for street skating....and is still doing it. One more example I'd like to bring up is Mark Gonzales. He can still kill tranny, and then you'll see him do a boneless lipslide down a 13 stair. Yeah, I think it's safe to say that the "too old" excuse is complete bullshit.
When you pass up a form of skating to learn, I think you're basically just limiting yourself and passing up more fun. I mean, that's basically the reason I decided to learn how to skate transition three years ago. Cause I wanted to have more fun and not be limited to just skating street.
Also, I think it's also a fact that street skating has now had just as big of a history that pool and vert skating has and it has come a long way too.
So, to all those older dudes whining about street skating photos, why don't you take some time to try to learn some tricks on a ledge. And if you think you're too old, just remember all those legendary dudes that were able to learn it. I think everyone else can do the same.
Jeff Coopman