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| Q&A: Michael Brooke - Publisher, Concrete Wave Magazine (7141 Posts)
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Skateboarder
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On 8/7/2003
Brady
wrote in from
(66.21.nnn.nnn)
Michael,
How`s about an article the REALLY stirs the pot? Remember the one you posted a while back about the woodshops in So Cal and the next wave of short board production coming from the far east? Maybe a little satire on the corporate side of skateboarding and that we skate to REBEL against the corporate mongers.
On a side note, I have those slides for you and need a mailing address. Have JJ contact me and we`ll wrap this up with TP and AG at OW.
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Skateboarder
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On 8/7/2003
Brad
wrote in from
(20.137.nnn.nnn)
Ranting? you have every right..I have a 3 year subscription to Skateboarder as I got a good deal on it while helping out Special Olympics...it is but a shadow of our beloved Skateborder from the 70's...no heart...no "funny foto", no Mellow Cat...very few good articles..they still manage the "who's hot" section, but how hard is that? The only part I like about it is letters to Mike Vallaley and the "skate anatomy" page....the rest is stair rails and ads...and they are all DC/adio shoe ads...and "Popwar" boards...the ads suck too....big co's in it for the cash.
let 'em have their "pure skateboarding"...take it as a compliment....chances are they are going down the toilet anyway...even kids get sick of the same garbage every month....
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100% skateboarding....
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On 8/7/2003
michael brooke
wrote in from
(209.29.nnn.nnn)
So, I was in the local bookstore yesterday and I happened to spy the latest issue of SkateBoarder...
very interesting.
It seems like the folks down there liked my idea of 100% skateboarding so much that they put 100% Pure Skateboarding on their cover. I guess adding the word "pure" makes it that much different.
I am sorry for ranting here...I just KNEW however, that the mag was going to start stirring things up. I just didn't realize that there would be such a blatent rip off of my masthead logo.
Well, Primedia (the company that owns SkateBoarder, Surfer, Surfing and a host of other mags) is bleeding tons of red ink - millions and millions. Quite frankly, they lose more in one week than I will make my entire life.
I guess their bleeding creatively as well.
My reason for putting the words 100% Skateboarding is that Concrete Wave is the only mag out there that showcases ALL types of skateboarding. For them to come along and slap the word "Pure" in there is a big insult to everyone who doesn't ride a short board...
This is just the beginning of a huge shift in skateboarding. They are a little bit concerned...By "they" I mean the cartel...the folks who want things controlled and maintained at status quo.
Well, I don't play those games....
We are busting through...there is a new day dawning...but SkateBoarder missed the boat, the train has left the station and ripping off the little guy is just another nail in the coffin.
Sad.
But, that's why I do Concrete Wave. 100% skateboarding. 100% dedicated to all types of skateboarders.
Do me a favor...if you see CW on the newsstand, buy a copy and move Skateboarder to the back of the skate section!
cheers
michael
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1978
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On 8/6/2003 Pauliwog
wrote in from
(208.135.nnn.nnn)
1978? I guess I missed that question from earlier. I was still in good 'ol Cheyenne Wyoming. The main thing was a drainage ditch I loved so much I would have married it if I were of legal age plus the occasional hill, carwash with a bank, I think I had a 1/2 pipe (maybe?) and just riding all over town. Equipment? That was a big transition year of a lot of stuff including an E.H. Wallboard (from Boulder, CO), Red and Yellow G&S YoYo's, Blue and Green Kryptonics, ACS 580, Lazer, Tracker Midtracks, Gullwing Phoenix, and hand made decks made in woodshop driving my woodshop teacher nuts by staying after school to make them. My first "wide" board (Pig) was modelled after something I saw Lonnie Toft riding around the 1978/1979 period. I LIVED for skateboarding back then with an OBSESSION, I always wanted to skate so bad, it hurt. Man, those were the days. I was so into it I made an 8-wheeler I still was riding every once in awhile. I think skating had died back a lot by then, and in red-neck Cheyenne there weren't many of us to begin with - yeah I was one of those "freaks" who kept it going when it was dead and "not cool". Around then I started losing skater friends to drugs and alcohol, plus a few non skater friends as well so the hardcore skater straight-edge was brewing in me, there just was'nt a term for it yet. I drank some, but basically skating back then was such a positive thing for me and my anger back then, I feel damned lucky I had it when I did when I see where some of my so-called friends went. I ran across a few other similar souls: Scotty, Brandon, and Steve H, all young longhair straight edge metal heads obsessed with skating, best wishes to you bros wherever you are. Okay, I'll stop with this lengthy novel of an entry, oh yeah, Pat C - You and your 46 y/o achey back were fly'in through the course lookin good as did the "Mitch". Later- Pauliwog.
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time warp
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On 8/6/2003
cfavero
wrote in from
(69.3.nnn.nnn)
78 riding hobei park rider with red krpto 60's and fulltracks.spent some time with my cousin in lomita and used to go to shadyacres in lb...i think
88 i rode a ton of street,the turf reopened and sma came out thier longboards and that was that.....
98 50inch powell....cf
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'58 and '68
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On 8/6/2003
Pat Chewning
wrote in from
(12.206.nnn.nnn)
'58 Virginia Beach, VA: I was 1yr old and I think I could walk, but not board yet.
'68 Oakland, CA: I could ride a unicycle and a 2X4 with a steel-wheeled roller skate split in 2 and nailed onto the ends. '78 boards were MUCH better than this. 2003 boards are not that different than '78 boards.
Paul: You should be able to figure out how old this "Old Man" is who beat you at the last race!
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Eighty Eight
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On 8/5/2003 msk
wrote in from
(172.198.nnn.nnn)
In '88, I had been out of skating for about 8 years. I quit skating seriously in the summer of '80, due to serious injury, too much other stuff on my plate (college, work, etc), and the implosion of the sport. I used my board for basic transportation for about another year or two, before hanging it up completely. Music became the driving force in my life for the next 8 years...
I had just quit my last band, having gotten sick of the "style over substance" attitude that permeated the music industry (thanks a lot, eMpTyVee), and started my first job in the bike industry (at Santana Cycles), doing, among other things, bulding bikes for Greg Lemond. A few months after I started there, we moved our warehouse a few miles, to the Claremont/Upland border. I recall thinking "wow, we're just a few blocks from where the old Pipeline park used to be", not realizing that the park had survived the crash of '80 and was still going strong. They finally tore the park down right about the same time I left Santana. I still mentally kick myself for not at least checking out the old site. Had I done so, I would've discovered that skating wasn't as dead as I thought it was, and might have gotten back into it then, instead waiting another 12 years. C'est la vie...
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Can't add
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On 8/5/2003 Sasha
wrote in from
(67.74.nnn.nnn)
See, I'm showing my age-still can't add. I meant '93....
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1988
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On 8/5/2003 Sasha
wrote in from
(67.74.nnn.nnn)
Ok, Here's a funny one... In the summer of 88 I was about 6 months old and therefore, not quite ready to skate yet :)
I was living in Healdsburg, Ca. on 20 acres with lots of farm animals and riding along on the 3 wheeler with my folks on hunting trips a few times a week (his parents have property that borders Lake Sonoma so perfect for that- and close by).
I didn't start skating until I was 5. So when the question gets around to what were you doing in 90, I'll have something exciting to say:)
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1988/Pat Chewning
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On 8/5/2003 Paul Howard
wrote in from
(208.135.nnn.nnn)
Hey! 1988 I was probably riding a Schmitt Monty Nolder bomb-tail with Tracker 6-tracks and Alva Speed Skins, living in Yankton South Dakota (after leaving Wyoming and all my good skater friends there and northern Colorado). I never knew Pat Chewning when I and He lived in that skater region, but slalom racing has brought us in contact in the Portland OR/Vancouver WA thanks mostly to Pat and his spearheading a Portland Grassroots slalom race series- Thanks LOTS to Pat, he even beat me in the last race (pretty rad for "the old guy"- just how 40-something are you anyway?)- thats in the present. Back to 1988, I used to skate with Dana, Noel, Jim in Yankton and Dave "devil-band"-Doty, the Omar brothers, Babbs, Todd Wold, Stanton and a host of other skaterbros in the Sioux Falls SD area. Dave Presently lives in Castle Rock CO so I, he and Rob Miller (from the Northern Colorado old days) all got together and rode the Vans park after the Breckenridge High Peaks Drifter. Just as fun as the old days. So anyhow, Dave and Rob met incidentally, talked about the old days, one of them brought up my name and the other said "no-way,we used to skate with him". Thats what I love best about the late 70's thru the mid to late 80's is that skating was still small enough that if you got around and skated enough and had enough skater friends, every one seemed to know everyone directly or indirectly through a chain of common friends even when separated by multiple state distancs. I'm really digging the new slalom thing happening now as I've run into people I haven't seen since the 70's and 80's plus making a lot of new friends from the same era and occassionally meeting someone who knows someone I knew back "then". The mainstream skate mags (you know who) pretty much ignored all of us and now I'm sorta glad as there's the NCDSA, Concrete Wave, so theres an avenue for the rest of us, not just the skategeezers but also a site and mag for everyone of all ages who does skating in a way that other sites and mags don't want to cover (i.e.- anything that's other than a handrail, gap stairs). Skate Hard, Have Fun and keep your skater friends in contact. Later- Pauliwog
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'88
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On 8/5/2003
Steve in AZ
wrote in from
(130.13.nnn.nnn)
Between '84-'87, I was on tour with various DCI Drum & Bugle Corps all over the US & Canada, more prominently the Velvet Knights of Annaheim, CA.
I put the Waldo cloud away after my last year at Arizona State in '87, and '88 was the first full year COMPLETELY out of school. Rode road bikes a bunch, stayed thin, tan and single, having the time of my life. Never really got into the Pig movement until I got back into the scene 3 yrs ago.
-=S=-
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numbers racket....
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On 8/5/2003
michael brooke
wrote in from
(209.29.nnn.nnn)
i started in 75...
but numbers have always fascinated me
history fascinates me...
25 years since 78....
15 years since 88
a lot has happened since 98...
in fact, that's what is so much fun about doing the mag...you can see our history unfold.
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1988
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On 8/5/2003
Henry
wrote in from
(68.63.nnn.nnn)
Well, I was 4 in 1988, I was doing pre school, and I was riding a Cozy Coup (the plastic toy automobile you could get into.)
I hardly ever post here, but I wanted to say that Concrete wave is truly a great peice of print, and I enjoyed a lot of the earlier copies, cool layout and typography imho. Mike, please keep up the fabulous work you're doing!
Mike, I have some excellent pictures of me from Da Farm wearing attire of a questionable nature, so if a Da Farm 3.0 article is done, see if you can fit one in. You might know what I'm talking about. If not, email me.
h
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88
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On 8/5/2003
Brady
wrote in from
(66.21.nnn.nnn)
Lemme see....
Spent most of the year on Demoral and Diladas...
Got ran over by travel lift in july `87 and didn`t get off crutches until `89. It took better than 2 years for the 32 pieces of my heal to fuse together. Heck, the cast was on for a year. Three times during, they had to rebreak and reset my heel.
From `85 to 87, I was into Power Boat racing. Until july of `87 that is.
Michael, what`s so special about the 8`s? Is that when YOU started skating? (78?)
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Dano...
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On 8/5/2003 Stubbs
wrote in from
(209.117.nnn.nnn)
Yeah, I know of PT's. I rep for a bearing manu (Terminator) so I'm not worried. Thanks for the info though.
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88
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On 8/5/2003 dano
wrote in from
(208.200.nnn.nnn)
1988, year after i graduated high school, I lived(and live)in San Jose, CA. Lots of fun, had a buddy who was sponsored by santa cruz so we would get oj2s, slimeballs and various decks(ffej, kendall etc..) from him for slight amounts of green natural resource, my fav setup though was one I bought, a skull skates hackett street sickle with 159's and slimeball 92a's, worked great everywhere. We had some great ditches in south county(pit, pit2, uvas), yosemite and other banks, some ramps and lots of street spots so we had plenty of stuff to terrorize and lots of people to skate with. Found Yosemite banks again the other day(sweet), unfortunately, blew out my achilles thrusting an off the lip, pretty ugly. Oh well, killer spots to skate when i am back and I just found several of my old bros as well, having more fun than I have in years.Stubbs: have you checked out pleasure tools bearings? $10 for abec 7's, they are pretty cool.
Adios, Dano
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'88
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On 8/5/2003
G7enn
wrote in from
(212.35.nnn.nnn)
Was a great year for me as the video game we'd just completed (Populous) was a huge hit all round the world. The problem is, I wasn't skating. About a year later I fished my old board (Caster Strople, 169s and Alva Naturals) from my dad's garage and rode it around the car park for a bit. After that the board pretty much lived under my desk at work as a 'footrest' and ensured that I never went for more than a few days at a time without thinking about skating. I didn't actually get round to getting back on a ramp for another few years when another ex-skater colleague and I visited a local 8' halfpipe. I was impressed with myself for getting 3/4 of the way up it, he was pulling rock 'n' rolls half an hour after getting on a board for the first time in ten years...
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88
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On 8/5/2003
gavin
wrote in from
(195.194.nnn.nnn)
88 was a dream year. spent the back end of the winter on oahu living in a tent, driving a rusted out chevy pick-up and surfing every day (been trying to get back there ever since!!), came back to the UK and did the summer season in croyde, n-devon, (could check the surf from the grill i cooked breakfasts on), bummed about for a bit windsurfing through the autumn then when winter came i headed over to the canaries.
riders... a 6ft7 six channel great white (originally shaped for occy) and a 6ft 10 t&c pintail. skatewise i picked up a alva gibson with indy 169 and rat bones, i also had a roskopp three (50c in a yard sale) whilst back in the UK i had a zorlac gibson with tracker ultralights and oj2.
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78/88
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On 8/4/2003
Jordan
wrote in from
(216.68.nnn.nnn)
In 78 I had a red Fiberflex, Acs 651s and sims comps also later that year, I got a Kryptonics K-beam, Tracker xtrack mags. and Sims snakes. I learned how to olie up curbs on that board. In 88 at the ripe age of 23 I was retierd from skate boarding although I kept a Powell Gelfand, Sixtrack mags and Krypto. City/Streets in the trunk of my car for the occasional parking lot bomb or after bar closing late night empty street session.
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Summer '88 – Alberta
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On 8/4/2003 Monti
wrote in from
(161.184.nnn.nnn)
Summer of ’88…had just graduated from high school.
I was living in Magrath, Alberta (pop. 1500) riding curbs, a four foot high launch ramp and a 10 foot half pipe that all the skaters in town had helped to finance and build. We had some rad skaters and a cool vibe going in our small town. I’ve never felt as stoked as I did during many of those sessions with my friends. I’m sure you can all relate to the feeling of tricks going down and the special camaraderie of friends who share a common interest. We lived and breathed skating that summer, reading every Transworld and Thrasher we could get our hands on. I even remember younger skaters lifting new words from the mags for use in their vocabulary (remember "chagrin"?). We tried to make spots out of anything we could find – asphalt banks and underground parkades. The music going on was Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, Suicidal Tendencies, The Cure, and The Smiths. I was riding a red Cab. Boneite XT, white Tracker Ultralites (with copers) and blue and green Vision Blurrs. I had spent over $200 dollars on that board the year before–all of my summer wages. My parents were so pi**ed that they took away my driving privileges–a red 1964 Chevy Malibu convertible. You probably won’t believe this but I didn’t care. I’d found new friends and something I loved doing. I sold that car two years ago and built a half pipe in my backyard. No regrets.
P.S. Love the magazine, thanks Michael.
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Summer of 88
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On 8/4/2003 Stubbs
wrote in from
(66.137.nnn.nnn)
I was riding several boards:
Alva - Chris Cook eyes
Powell Peralta - Cab bats
Schmitt Stix - Joe Lopes Backyard BBQ and a Yard Stick
Santa Cruz - Corey O'Brien
DogTown - Scott Oster
BBC - Jeff Phillips
Thunder trucks had just come out, the big ones, 170s and I ran them with 1st generation Grind King king pins.
Wheels? Santa Cruz Speed Wheels!!!! OJII's, Slime Balls, Big SLIME Balls, OJ Team Riders and Hosoi Rockets, all powered by GMN Bearings that cost 8 bucks a set.
Worked for Hi-Performance Sports in Oklahoma City at that time and I took most of my pay in product. I can still hear my wife saying "Greg!! We can't pay the electric bill with a Vision GATOR!!!!" he, he, he....some things never change.....ha,ha,ha,ha..........
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more fun with numbers...
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On 8/4/2003
michael brooke
wrote in from
(209.29.nnn.nnn)
Ok,
so let's fast forward a few years...
It's the summer of 88...
where were you...
what were you doing...
and of course, most important...
what were you riding?
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1978
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On 8/4/2003 Michael (octane)
wrote in from
(195.92.nnn.nnn)
78....just fished out my school report:
...It is only with the greatest difficulty that he can be persuaded to make the required efforts...
...inclined to daydream...
...he still needs much prodding I guess...
...he is a capable boy- but rather too full of himself for is own good...
...still struggling with the basics...
...his work has not reached a high level and has not improved...
...he must do better than this...
...he doesnt listen very thoroughly...
...rather disapointing...
...seems rather uninnvolved in whatever is happenning...
...idle and trying to opt out...
and my favorite,
...maturely independent, good to have with you on mountains...
I guess my mind was elsewhere that year. California?
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1978...May thru Sept.
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On 8/4/2003
Steve in AZ
wrote in from
(192.175.nnn.nnn)
Graduated from primary school (8th grade), on my way to High School in the fall (at the time, there were no "middle-schools in AZ). My Makaha LX 500 (with axle extenders and RR4 copies) had been stolen by my neighbor, but I couldn't prove it. I pined over Skateboarder magazine, and wished for the prize in the Tunnel ad.
I also went with my buds to what then was a new skatepark. High Roller in Sunnyslope (N.Phoenix) was the hottest park in the country at the time, with many of the Dogtowners and Skateboarder staff coming to check it out. TWO full pipes, Three slalom runs, clover leaf, two pools, LARGE banked freestyle area with a tiled quarter-bowl in the corner.
Van Halen's Runnin' with the Devil blarin' over the loudspeakers, and sweat runnin' down from my green Norcon helmet.
I turned 14 in July of '78, and along with my $35 downpayment, my folks came up with the rest of the money to buy my DREAM board from Sidewalk Surfer at the Scottsdale Civic Center. A Tunnel Waldo Autry Cloud model with Midtracks and 70mm Kryptonics Blue Series II wheels, Fafnir bearings and LOTS of Stickers on the bottom.
Today: I still have that board. The friends and HighRoller are all gone.
-=S=-
ps...I need copy of Vol1#3, and I have an extra Vol1#2. Anyone interested?
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when I was 17...it was a very good year......
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On 8/4/2003
Brad
wrote in from
(20.137.nnn.nnn)
1978....Probably the best teen year of my life...weekly trips to Chicopee(learned to pump a pipe there)Springfield (fiberglass ramps, points for height)and Cambridge(Zero Gravity...the world's largest halfpipe at the time)....the music rocked at all 3 parks, and it was like 1.50/hr to skate...skated downhill...standup on a 28" Fibreflex cutaway, first 40 mph run that year (how did we ride those tiny boards at that speed?) Friends' record was 47mph.....he held onto the car's door handle to get speed BEFORE descending the hill...crazy stuff..no injuries....remarkable.
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