Before I start out this month I want to give big-ups and a shout out to my homie Dolo who now will be holding it down in the NYC. Sorry I missed the party but I was busy getting alcohol poisoning and a third degree sunburn down in Mexico. Keep your head up and watch out for the stick-up kids. Next time I'm in New York to visit family I will look you up and maybe we can hit up a session at Flushing. So with that out of the way we now can return to your regularly scheduled...

Take me for example, I remember the very first time that I learned a trick. I was about 12 years old, skating with two kids from my school( Chris Zie and Jeff Garven(R.I.P). We were just crusing around, until out of the blue Chris blasted a boneless. My jaw almost hit the pavement, I had no idea that you could do things like that on a skateboard.

"How did you do that?" I proclaimed with disbelief.

"Its not hard, you could do it." He responded.

With a few short instruction I was on my way to learn my very first skateboard trick. Once I had it wired I was hyped! It felt like nothing could stand in my way(I soon found out that not every thing can be bonelessed ,when I tried to hit a set of five stairs, and hit I did, right in the middle). I went home that night with a sense of unfinished business. If I was able to learn a boneless today, think what I can learn tomorrow. It felt like the flame was lit. From that day on I lived, ate, and slept skateboarding. I did everything in my power to learn about it. Read all the magazines, went to all the events (like the Aqua Jam and the H-street demo that was at the YMCA), and watched all the videos.

The very first video that I saw was "Ban This", it was made by Powell Parolta. The first rider to grace the screen was Frankie Hill ( I don't think I took one breath as I watched his part). It was so amazing, he was flying all around, grinding this and sliding that. It was so much information that my brain could almost not comprehend what I was seeing. I must have watched that video three of four times in a row. From that I was able to see how tricks were done. I would rewind tricks dozens of times, put it in slow-motion to see exactly were to put your feet and how to slide your foot up. It was an important tool in teaching yourself how to skate. That video opened my eyes, gave me a different angle to look at the world. Living in the mid-west it was hard for a skater to keep up with the every changing assortment of tricks that were being explored by the general skate community in California. So, the only link that we had was the videos. Keep in mind that in the early 90's videos only came out about every four to five months, and when they did there were mind blowing( now we are swamped with about six videos a week, with so many names flashing at the bottom of the screen that it is enough to give you a epileptic seizure). But, skate videos were not the only source of inspiration.

Minneapolis has (and still does!) produced some fine skateboarders such as Danny Jenson (backside one eighted the ruff 11 stairs at the U of M in 91'), Ryan Fabrey (feeble grinded the MCC 12 stair rail in 92'), Dave Cardwell ( switch 360 flipped the 10 stairs across from the Fed in 94'), and Justin Lynch ( who was known for being able to pull some of the highest airs to fakie). These were people that made up the local skate community. On any given day you could roll down the street and witness raw skateboarding. That is the best part, hooking up with the homies and sessioning downtown, pushing each other further. Learning from other peoples' techniques. Feeding off the energy and having fun! A lot of people today miss that point about skating, that it's up to you. There are no boundaries or limits to what you can do with that piece of wood. As many times that corporate America tries to label or repackage, paint it with new neon colors, and force feed it to the public as the new big thing, we true heads will see right through it. As far as I'm concerned, they can take my piece of wood and shove it up there ASSES!. It is your mind and imagination that really propel your skateboard. Once the switch is turned on and you board becomes an extension of your body, the possibilities are endless.