The Official Soul Strut Skateboard Thread

minneap

This is for the OG heads and new jacks. I know there's some dudes that frequent the Strut that can enjoy themselves on a piece of wood aside from myself. This is for anyone that's out there skating on the daily and dudes thinking about gettin back into it.Right now I'm on an Instrument deck, Indy's and some shop wheels and bearings. It's cold as fusk out here in Chicago so I haven't skated in a minute but I'm lookin forward to spring.The question is, where the skaterats at?

holmes

Guilty, although it seems this thread comes up every few months. Don't get out to skate anywhere near as much as I'd like/should/used to these days though. I came up skating in the late 80s & still have a soft spot for stuff from then through to the mid-90s.

Controller_7

I would love to see people post old videos of themselves skating. I have one somewhere, the only remaining copy I have. I recently left it in the vcr and the timer was on and I recorded over it. I had transfered part of it prior, but lost the majority of it.

I skated almost daily from about 9-21. I'm too old to keep up now and the idea of paying a medical bill from falling off my skateboard seems stupid at this point in life. I just play Tony Hawk or Wii Fit instead. Booooooo.

I've skate about 5 times in the past year. I can still ride around fine, but my confidence is no longer there. I can still do kickflips, nollie flips, heelflips, and a few other tricks, but at the same time I am kind of shook to just roll down the street fast and ollie up a curb. I'm old.

SmallAxeRick

Off and on for a long time. Mostly off for the last couple years.

Ham

you guys can enjoy yourselves on a piece of wood.

rain103

Skate 2's intro video

rain103

of course i didn't even notice the skate 2 thread

street_muzik

I'm 37 years old and I skate more than ever before. At least 3 times a week, but usually 6. I know some dudes in their 50's that kill it so I don't want to hear this old business.

minneap

Skate 2's intro video

Reda narrates that shit? Now I need to play this.

karlophone

my heyday was basically '85-'95 but i still get on the board when i can. here's some pix of me from the glory days... jump ramp = early 1987, big ramp = summer '89.

Snagglepus

I've been skating since the mid 80s. My skate every day lifestyle probably ended in around 2002 and I slowed down to pretty much zero in the past few years as a rock band, grad school, girlfriend, etc ate up most of my time.

I bought a new complete this past fall (a new Matt Hensley ... couldn't resist) due to my realization that I live within a ten minute drive to three free cement skateparks. Hell, my home town of Wethersfield even has one these days. I don't torture myself in ice cold weather like I used to so I'm guessing the only skating I'll do until spring will be on my new XBOX (which I bought for the singular purpose of playing Skate ... a ridiculous game).

I'm looking forward to warm weather.

age

Yeah Karl...JUDO AIR!!!!!!!![/b]

age

I recently left it in the vcr and the timer was on and I recorded over it.

I think I have footage of you T***y, lemme double check in the next couple of days.

My skateboarding started during the early to mid 80's

My brother & I were luckly enough to get get hooked up at an early age.My aunt's friend, good friend worked at Go-Skate in San Jose and we got free boards for starting out(Mine was a Lance Mountain).

We could never afford theses things and I had to work super hard to get my first paid deck (which was a Steve Steadham on Powell) My first hand me down was a Duane Peters,it was beat to shit & I loved it.

My brother and I were pretty fortunate to grow up with some friends that were really good and My older Brother went to school with Simon Woodstock and he took us under his wing(about a couple of years later I would start working at both Winchester Skate Shop & Gremic)

As far as good, I can do tricks and understand them, but I really had a consistancy problem and It took me a long time to work out lines. Basic tricks like kickflips, pop shove-its(front and back) and so on, not a problem. My brother I'd say was the better one out of us.(was sponsored and was more of a compition guy) Even though one time I did enter a contest once and was 1 point[/b] away from making the final cut, this was Scotts Valley in the late 80,s

The last techincal tricks I learned were Kickflip backside Tail slides and it was at Safeway ledge on Branham and switch backside 360 ollies.

I'll always endorse skateboarding, but as far as riding one.I bought a deck not too long ago and just an ollie, I can feel it in my ankles and legs. I just buy decks for my nephews and live through them and get excited watching them on "their stunt woods and get ill!!"

I have some photos around, I'll dig them up(of both my brother and I).

Also, I have a video of just all bay area skateboarders(mainly San Jose,Los Gatos & Palo Alto cats) that my boy and I are almost done with. We are trying to have a release party for it somewhere.

Allot of it was footage that I filmed for 411 and other various companies.Some footage never got to see the light of day.

I will make a trailer asap and keep you posted!!

ktc

LS x Woes or Chocolate Deck - 7 5/8.
Indy
Ninja Bearings
Spitfires

vinylstalker

Yeah, the vinylstalker is a skater. 4life.
I'm 38, got my first real board x-mas of '84.
Silver Steve Steadham with black gullwings and pizurple vision blurs.

I was fortunate to grow up with Sal Barbier, an early H-street and
PlanB pro. We came up together, and in the '80s we used to road trip
to crappy vert contests around the gulf coast. Dude was always
years ahead of me, but skating then was much less about ability
and more about raging and shredding whatever you could find, and
anyone who skated was instantly your dude. Good times.

Still skate weekly, never stopped.
In the tiny wheels, low ledge, huge pants days, I moved to
texas and skated nothing but ditches. That whole era really
turned me off, and I skated solo mostly for the next 10 years.

In the 'aughts, with concrete being poured everywhere, I have
collected a new group of friends to skate with at the park.
Glad to see kids respect pools and bowl skating again, and
anyone who says it was ever better than now is crazy.

Free 50,000 sq. ft. concrete park 30 minutes away?
No pad rules?
13 ft. bowl, real pool coping?
Free?

The best time to skate ever is now. You don't have to
do any "tricks" to zoom around these new parks.

The houston park they just opened looks super killer.
Road Trip!

calkuta

that Gonz board was the first i ever had!

djkingotto

the good old days... i skated a lot in the mid 80s... then i got a car. but for about 5 years i skated for hours every day. this was my favorite board - the fogtown beast, bought it in virginia beach 86...

flatblackplastic

I'm 37 years old and I skate more than ever before. At least 3 times a week, but usually 6. I know some dudes in their 50's that kill it so I don't want to hear this old business.

this is pretty much me, except im 33. i pretty much skate everyday these days. a couple of my friends have a skate/sneaker shop and we play games of skate all the time there. in the past couple ofmonths ive leaned a lot of tricks i could never do when i was younger; heelflips, nollie shoveits both ways, fakie frontside shoves, kickflip variels fakie and regs, backside flips, fakie flips. it really helps that i get to skate with some amazing people.

heres a few pics from 2 summers ago, ive lost about 25 pounds since these were taken, with my only exercise being skating and ping pong.

Lucious_Fox

I have been on board since college.

There's a serious skate hangout on 161st where the Old Lou Gehrig Plaza used to be. It right in front of my crib.

I would never think about joining all the skate-rats out there, but the urge just to cop a board just to get from point A to B in the city has been on my mind for a good 4 years.

bassie

any of you ever come to Toronto - let me know. Man has the best skateshop in the city.

Lucious_Fox

any of you ever come to Toronto - let me know. Man has the best skateshop in the city.

Maybe ill have to order from ya'll and have the rest built here in nyc.

bassie

decks

this is not nearly everything...you wouldn't want to see it first? I guess if it's for transportation only, it's not as essential to have it in front of you.

age

Speaking of NYC, Do any of ya'll NYC heads still skate the Brooklyn Banks?

Always wanted to go there, place looked mad fun.
We had a similar place here in San Jose, 11th street banks

DJFerrari

Been skating since 88... peaked in the mid nineties while living in Chicago for high school. Josh Kalis was living there at the time and I used to roll with him and the rest of the locals... Jesse Neuhaus, Nate Lyons, Mike Rusyck, etc. Some great spots in Chicago, but the weather made it real tough to really come up. Came out to California for college and skated the Santa Clara campus daily until I came back from Thanksgiving break my junior year to find all the ledges capped and repainted. Doh!

I haven't been skating much in the past 5 years... my college crew all lives in Seattle now and I'm just plain too old and fragile. Getting hurt sucks now! I do miss it.

NateBizzo

I used to skate my ass off, but slowly faded during college. However I was working on my method this weekend in Utah. Crushing it.

Descry

CousinLarry

I skated in middle and high school, but I was never very good and didn't try very hard. Having a bleeding disorder made me timid about going big on anything. I spent a lot more time doing drugs and smoking than I did skating. That said I still enjoy going out and just cruising around every once and a while.

CBear

Day One:



Only other photo I have (maybe 1993?):

Okem

Yeah Karl...JUDO AIR!!!!!!!![/b]

Awsm pics Karl

street_muzik

This was my first real board except it was maroon.

karlophone

Yeah Karl...JUDO AIR!!!!!!!![/b]

Awsm pics Karl

i have to credit our... er 'skate betty'??? (HS friend who hung with us and wasnt like the other girls etc) who was actually a gifted photog and had a fisheye lens, at just 16 years old. Kudos to Misa Martin, who went on to... other kinds of photography...