Hubba used to be just a slang word for crack. That's how hubba hideout in San Francisco got it's name. It was a really tall sloped ledge in downtown S.F. that got really popular in the skate world starting in the early 90's. It was also where crack heads would hang out, thus, hubba hideout.

Soon, hubba became a slang word in the skate world to describe a tall sloped ledge and just recently, as of a few years ago, it became the name of a wheel company.

Things like this make me think, wow, skateboarding is so weird, but weird in a good way. Skateboarding has also started many of it's own fashion trends. 70's....tube socks and short shorts. 80's....really loud clothing and painters caps, 90's...extremley baggy pants and shirts. Right now it's either rocking really awkward tight clothes or really baggy clothes.

Even skateboarding period had trends. In the late 70's, really skinny boards with huge wheels and skateparks were big. In the 80's, big boards and crazy accessories that made your board weigh a ton and street was just coming about, but vert and pools were still the main thing to do. In the 90's is when skating street was huge....but however the wheels and boards werent....but that pants were and as time went by, skating progressed more and people starting going bigger and bigger with street skating.

Right now though, I think you can skate any way you like and it's accepted. You can choose to just ride street, just ride bowls or pools. I mean, look in the mags. One page you'll see Reynolds frontside flipping over a big handrail, and then you turn the page and see Jeff Grosso doing a layback grind. Skateboarding is great right now....but it's still weird. How is it weird? To the people that don't do it...we're always the weirdos.

You know what I'm talking about. Ever been looking at a skate spot you've never seen before, feeling the ledge or checking out the spot or whatever, and someone walks by and gives you that "what the fuck is up with this person" look? Or talking to someone about skating and someone else that doesn't skate wanders into the conversation that has no clue what you're talking about. You may as well have been talking chinese according to that person.

That's why it's weird.....that's why it will always have an underground quality to it....and that's why it will always be fun.

J.Coops