I'm coming out of retirement...

That statement is really applicable to most aspects of my life at this time but I'll focus on the area relating to the cool photo above(which was taken by the great Glen E. Friedman and hastily edited by myself). I'm itching to do some "real" skateboarding again for the first time in years. I never lost interest in it, but I haven't skated more than a day or two a year for some time now. Reasons for this renewed interest are numerous but include feeling like getting back to my roots, having friends that are into it/back into it, needing some exercise, missing the feeling of skating, availability of good decks and wheels again, the explosion of cement skateparks, and the movie Dogtown and Z-boys.

Having said that you might find it strange(if you're an obsessive old-school skateboarding nut like me) that I chose to have someone other than Tony Alva, Jay Adams, or another of the infamous Z-boys pictured above. I thought this was a very cool photo of a great pool-skater, and he is riding an Alva board. Not only that but it reminds me of the time I was skating at the best ditch in the world(or at least Dallas), whip 'n dip and some smartass "new school" skater kid thought he was insulting me by calling me Steve Alba because of my "dated" skate-style. I'd be willing to bet that in the 15-ish years since then he has either got a clue and loosened up his trucks, quit skating( because how fun can it be to ride on a board that doesn't turn), or become a roller-blader(yechhh!). It makes me feel fortunate to have been exposed to real skateboarding just before the advent of the new-school. The guys I skated with were old-school even for the time. Their trucks were so loose they were about to fall off, and they had little or no desire for their wheels to leave the ground. It was a real education in carving, grinding and riding ditches and parking garages. Thanks especially to Dave and Mandon.

I also skated with some guys that were more into street-skating and that was fun too but I'm glad I got the foundation I did by just riding a skateboard the way it was designed to. There's a kick-ass new cement skatepark in Allen which is about 30 minutes North of here that I'm dying to ride. I've got to get a good set-up before I do though. Right now all I've got is a 4-foot long Powell longboard, and a popsicle board and neither of them would do for carving transition. I'm currently researching all the "pig" boards I can but the Factory 13, Deathbox, and Alva boards are looking pretty good to me. I really don't care what I ride as long as it's fat and feels good when I'm grinding coping. I'm actually on the lookout for ditches and abandoned pools a lot lately as I drive around. I wonder if I can wash my salty, smelly old rector pads?

These here are related linkage:

Pretty cool article I stumbled upon...
http://www.thelandofplenty.org/skateordie.html

See this before LORDS OF DOGTOWN...
http://www.sonyclassics.com/dogtown/

Best Skate mag around...
http://www.concretewavemagazine.com/