Cold war.

As any US public school attending student will tell you, the Cold War was when we beat Lewis and Clark at Pearl Harbor to avenge Custer's Last Stand. The spoils of that war, the Magna Carta and the Louisiana Purchase, are still encased in Fort Knox as we speak. It's all explained in the National Anthem, if you listen.

In actuality, the Cold War was the near half-century long stand-off between the USA and USSR over 'idealogical diferences', to say the least. Was this a difference of opinion on par with you and your friends herding-out over skate video parts? Nyet. It was the kind of power struggle that threatened the entire globe with nuclear annhilation. You know the crusty old Western movie saying, "This town ain't big enough for the both of us ..."? Well, the world in its entirity was deemed not big enough to hold both systems of capitalism (us) and communism (them). Since each country packed an intercontinental plutonium punch, an all-out war would just mean mutually assured destruction. Instead, tens of billions of dollars were expended in an arms race that ended when the USSR collapsed economically in 1991. The Cold War ended without a shot being fired.

On the outside, skating is just movement by way of urethane. On the inside, skating is war--you against self, self against cement. From solo curb sessions to do-or-die handrail media blitzes, just remember that even the Cold War burned red hot.