Skateboarding
"There is a perennial classical question that asks which part of skateboarding, is that that makes it great. Obviously to ask that question is to look in the wrong direction, for the greatness is every part of it. But just as obviously to ask that question is to look in the right direction, for the greatness is every part of it."
"When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process. That is fairly well understood, at least in the arts. Mark Twain's experience comes to mind, in which, after he had mastered the analytic knowledge needed to pilot the Mississippi River, he discovered the river had lost its beauty. Something is always killed. But what is less noticed in the arts...something is always created too. And instead of just dwelling on what is killed it's important also to see what's created and to see the process as a kind of death-birth continuity that is neither good nor bad, but just is."
The above two passages are taken from one of the world's most famous books - there's a couple of minor alterations that make it more relevant to this page.
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TODO: ...import data from backup...
I've been skating since 1977 - that'll be 32 years in September 2009!
- Sept 1977 - UK gripped by US skateboarding craze - shortly after a visit to relatives in London where my cousins had these wheeled toys, I received my first skateboard - hooked!
- 1980 - UK is gripped by US BMX craze - skateboards become an obstacle to bunny-hop over - nobody else skates anymore. I become obsessed with BMX and only skate the driveway outside my friend's house doing kickturns and 360's.
- Mid 80's - Freestylin' magazine shows amazing skate sequences, old friends come out of the woodwork, skateboarding picking up again.
- Mid-to-Late 80's - The Bones Brigade Video Show is released - Manchester is gripped by Bones Brigade fever - skate shops start opening again. Crown Square, Oxford Rd, Ardwick, Warrington, Wigan
- Late 80's - I move to Nottingham to go to Trent Poly - the first night I meet up with local skaters and skate slab square and the Broadmarsh banks. I move into a house with Rich Holland from Worcester and we meet Pete Rose and Julian Bray from Mansfield
- Back home in Manchester Goshen Leisure Centre in Bury opens an amazing ramp built by Dave Arnold.
- Chillwell Olympia mini-ramp!
- Rollersnakes mini ramp!
- St Annes mini ramp!
- Bestwood indoor skatepark!