Waiting to shread, MacWood skate shop in Campbelltown NSW Australia. Circa 1990 when i was 16…
I’m no great skateboarder but I love it. Now I’m in my early fifties I’m not such a maniac. 5 years back I made a few long/cruiser boards out of planks of mahogany and oak. It’s kind of amazing how Bear trucks and Monster Hawgs screwed into a plank of oak rides like a dream though my fave is a bought Landyachtz Tugboat. My 10 yr old kid rides a regular Element board and learned to ollie at 8 a few weeks after getting it - I was super impressed. We made slo-mo videos so we could see what he had to work on to get it down.
My girlfriend joins us on a long board sometimes too. We live on the edge of a big nature area not far from Amsterdam and there’s a perfect asphalt road with very limited car access that cut’s through the countryside here so we can all enjoy cruising a few peaceful km’s together. Here’s a pic of my boy when he just started - out on his knees…! and my other babies…!
Loved going through this thread! I skated a lot in my high school / teenage years and still hang with many of the friends I made in that time through skating or being in bands. We were pretty terrible skaters but we had good times and it was just a really big part of me growing up. Hanging out at skate spots, meeting other kids, getting into new music, having my first beers. I kinda quit bringing my board after I broke my collarbone on a ledge and couldn’t play guitar for a few months. Didn’t think that was worth it.
Got back into it in the last few months during covid to get some exercise. I’m 36 now so it’s been over 15 years. Got a nice cruiser and basically just been riding around. A little rusty at first but I was surprised at how quickly things came back. Having so much fun just cruising and trying an ollie here and there.
I feel like getting a board just to cruise around and maybe hit the local skatepark to learn how to ride a kidney pool. Where does one start from nowadays?
That looks gnarly as hell!
I like how the words “gnarly” and “stoked” are so prominent in skateboarding english. I practicaly discovered them when I started growing interest in skateboarding, they seem almost absent in regular talk while they are omnipresent in this culture. Funny how language works.
Was skating about 12 years but broke my bones too often… the last time i broke my left foot and a year after that (had wires (?) in it) i started again but was too scared to break it again so i quit. Now i am 37 and started skating again but no more tricks for me 
Still scared to do ollies and stuff.
Back in the days all my friends were skateboarding - miss that times…
30+ years and counting on a board. I mostly just skate tranny now and rarely leave the ground on purpose these days 
Great thread. I spent my life on a board through the late 80s and early 90s until music started taking over my spare time. Still ride every once and again and keep a board in my trunk just in case. That said the last time I went to a park to skate I was sore for a week so there is that… Still love to buy some reissues from time to time. My favorite being the Mike V signed and numbered Barnyard double tail.
Don’t forget Rad…you gotta go back far enough tho
I dunno now many people on the forum are from SF but, I saw this live one time walking back to my temp housing when i was in proc of relocating to SF. I was in a hotel at the top of Nob Hill…and I was waiting at a light. And at first I couldn’t believe what I was seeing…a dude was flying down the street to the crest of the hill…it’s MAD steep. I used to do hill slides but would NEVER in a million years consider Nob Hill as a ride. This dude blew the light and did NOT put a foot down, down the whole freakin hill. I thought I was gonna have a freakin heart attack watching this dude go down. Blowing all the lights, risking all the cracks. I’ve never seen a skate going so fast in person. I’ll never forget that. Craziest thing I’ve ever seen. I gotta say the skaters in SF are probably the most aggro on the planet.
Something like this…
The streets are tite, cracked, busy and steep as hell.
I gotta add this follow up…madness
SKATE
That’s frickin’ crazy - hyped though!
I’m blown away by how much of a response this thread has gotten! Don’t have time to individually respond to everyone but thanks for sharing, this is amazing!!!
oh man… my heart rate jumped just watching that vid!! Crazy ass shit going on right there. I’ve lived in the Netherlands way too long. Just looking at a photograph of a hill in a city like that gives me the freaks!
HELL. NO. Those hills are nuts. I was never good at recovering from the wobbles, I learned my lesson.
You lean out over the front trucks. That kills the wobble. But if you hit a crack or a pebble…it’s over.
According to Frank Gerwer you go dead weight like someone is trying to pick you up and you don’t wanna be picked up. I haven’t bombed a hill in a while so I can’t confirm.
I did years of hills…if you weight the front the truck will track better. People usually start putting weight on the back leg when getting speed. The front truck initiates the wobble. I think Gerwer is talking about upper body. You can’t resist. If you fight it, you’re done.
Weight the front and let the body be dead.
I used to call it “going Gordon” (Gordon Lightfoot).
Fu**ing wobbles. Oh man. I’ve had my share of deadly falls cuz of a momentary lapse of concentration.
This is one of my all time favourites: Flip - Sorry. Age-wise I’m more a Bones Brigade kid. But this was on heavy rotation when I started skating again during studying
All parts are great but Geoff Rowley really nailed it
Jesus those slams at the beginning…
What a legend!
