Buy bueno.

I just read Michael Sieben's "Trick Tip" article. (Take this in the same spirit as the article.) First off, my immediate response as a skater for 32-plus years was, yeah, flippy. Let us see you do a 540 manual on the bank! How about a 270 slide to 270 flip out? You should come on out to old-school Sunday and watch this grandpa here pop shove-it the bank on your ass! This 46-year-old can pull off that kickflip. Oh, and by the way, it wasn't way back in '94 when I did it. Try more like the year 1976 when I first kickflipped that set of stairs. Of course, I flipped it from a quick hop to parallel stance back then. Who knew ollies? Alan hadn't invented them yet! But then I guess that means I started skating about the same time your father was born. And while we are talking about no hope of making a trick here, just how many hundreds of thousands of times have I seen in contests, or just tiding for fun, teenage Johnny Badass try a kickflip to the rail, fail, try a nollie to the rail, fall, try a 50-50 to the rail, fall, try a frontside boardslide on the rail, fall, launch the five-foot ledge acid drop, fall, get pissed, curse, and throw his board? What makes that easier to take than old fart on the bank? Like I said, that was actually my very first response. With some thought, do not get me wrong, street rocks. That is some of the hardest, nasty crash, sickest, hardcore skating out there. Total respect, but it's not all there is in the world of skating. Now, I do not know how it is where you are skating at, but hit the streets, drop in the bowl, carve, try the vert ramp, go to Olliewood, and drop the low side. And if you can't do really that much? Well, us old guys will make you feel welcome and right at home. Bomb some huge downhill at 40 mph. Try a sample of the various four-mile long New Mexico ditches. Barge an empty backyard pool. Hell, do some old-school freestyle moves in your garage on a rainy day. It's all skateboarding and it is all fun. Do you remember fun? Sometimes I think you may have forgotten why you started in the first place: fun. That's what the old fart was doing on the bank, having fun. I will give you this, the part about beer in the parking lot is all true. What is the problem? Did you get carded or something? It sucks, don't it? There is a King of 'Crete contest at OSP next weekend. Two runs in the pool, two big runs in the bowl/flow course, and two more runs in the street; and the best run in each combine to make up your final score. And all I see on the guestbook/ forums are skaters who whine, "But I can't skate any transitions!" Boo-hoo. Now me as proud dad kicks right in, "Gee, my son, 19, sponsored am, excited as all hell because he's picking up his own pro model deck tomorrow, isn't worried. He skates it all!" Anyways, this rant is now over. Keep on skateboarding all of you and remember to grind for life.

Dan Murray

Coral Springs, FL