Over the weekend (skate or die!) I ran into teenage skate punks around town and guess what, they all wanted to talk with me. Here’s what we talked about and what I learned:
Number one question of all time – can you ollie, immediately followed by can you kickflip? Demonstration mandatory. Personally, I’m not a fan of the kickflip, only because it is showy and totally pointless. Another note regarding all of this none of the kids I met could ollie or kickflip while moving. At least they didn’t show me that they could. Regardless, they all thought I could ollie pretty high which made me happy.
Teenage skatepunks seem to dig old school (that’s me) teenage skatepunks. Thank you Tony Hawk for being old and not sucking.
They want to know everything about your board and hardware. They think my wheels are big.
Cops still chase skateboarders around. When I asked this question to a kid he asked, “HOW DID YOU KNOW???” in a totally non-sarcastic way.
I totally suck when I first get on my board. I takes me about 20 minutes to warm up and remember how to skate. Bend your knees, old man.
The Slappy is the best trick ever. Ridiculous. Watch John Lucero. He’s super funny. Backside slappy at 0:52.
Ted–you should totally have yr own column.
Were you able to do a kickflip?
HeyPaula – I think you might be onto something.
HeyPatrick- When he asked if I could do a kickflip I laughed and told him I was too old to do that sort of shit (kids like it when you swear). I figure by next year I’ll have kickflips down, again.