Past Infatuations With a Piece of Wood... - justin_guber

Past Infatuations With a Piece of Wood...

...with four urethene wheels and a really cool graphic.

There was a time when all I could think about was skateboarding. Actually, there were two distinct times when skating was the only thing on my mind.

The first was when I was a wee little kid in Malaysia, when I had just moved in to Damansara Heights. I used to hang out with all the other kids on the street and we'd switch between riding our bikes and our skateboards. Since there was no real way for us to be properly exposed to all the latest in tricks and decks, we just did what we could: roll around all day, bomb down hills, whatever.

I remember once some kid trying to tell me what a rock n' roll was. Since we weren't on a ramp (and since the kid seemed to think that it was a flatground trick) it looked really odd.

Sometimes we'd do the Back to the Future thing and ride behind other people's cars. I remember once during raya (eid) one of the houses on the street was having a gathering, and one of the guests drove a Ferarri. We waited until the guy was about to leave, snuck up behind and hung on with a grin.

Unfortunately our parents spotted us before the guy could even get into 1st.

There was one time where we actually went out looking for a skatepark. We heard about a park somewhere in the middle of the national park. Bearing in mind that our country is rainforest based, it was kind of weird in retrospect, finding a cement park in the middle of a jungle. We had no idea how to skate the thing, and it was the first time we discovered how steep a half pipe was.

When I left for England, I left my beloved board and pet turtle with a friend of mine. Last I heard, he broke the board in half and my turtle died. Then he moved out. Bastard.

The second time skating took a profound effect was a couple of years ago, towards the end of my final year. My flatmates had bought me a cheap imitation board from a toy store. Nothing proper, but it rolled. I went out with Andreas to a basketball court nearby trying to learn how to ollie. Then he snapped it.

But the thirst was reborn.

After that, I bought a really cool deck at a discount price with venture trucks and powell wheels. I can't remember the name of the brand of deck, but it had a hentai chick tied up bondage style and a steel grind plate. The grip tape was santa cruz and had a very hot chick printed on it. After awhile the hot chick got covered in mud. I named the board Anna May (anime, geddit?).

Myself and Andreas would go outside in the soon-to-be-summer sun and practice ollies for hours. Then our finals came, and we both had our last exam together, so we thought we'd celebrate together down at the union pub. After a couple of drinks, Andreas thought he'd skate in the pub. We got told off, so we went out to skate. Then he bailed pretty bad and whacked his head.

After that we went down to the some Aussie pub in Angel and I was in the midst of chatting up some fine looking blonde from Texas, when her friend pops over.

"Dude, you might wanna check on your friend."

"What's wrong with my friend? He's perfectly f..."

I looked out, and saw him trying to pop ollies in a very drunken state.

"...Fuck."

The bouncers wouldn't let him back in, and we walked home. On the way, we were accosted by Scotsmen. Andreas kept taunting them, I got on Anna May and rolled away.

A beat later, I saw Andreas running for dear life past me.

"What the...?"

I turned around, and saw the three Scotsmen running at me, fists in the air.

A few moments later I picked myself up from the floor in front of Angel station, slightly sore but thankfully not bruised, and Anna May was gone.

When I confronted Andreas about it he was too drunk to make a coherent sentence. I found out later he punched one of them in the face, then ran like fuck.

Wonderful.

Time for another board. This time, a Danny Wainwright Powell mini logo. Since there were no graphics I took to it with the marker pen and drew a sumo guy attacking a city godzilla style. Then I tried boardsliding one too many times and the dude got erased. Why I never took a photo of it I have no idea.

There was the time when Kul and I went to the Playstation skate park during the beginners session and got upstaged by seven year olds.

Then there were the times when we attempted ollie-ing twigs.

Or the time we made a make-shift ramp from bits of plywood at a construction site.

Before I knew it, it was time to go back to KL.

When I came back, I didn't know that many people, I didn't have a job, I didn't know what to do.

But there was a huge indoor skatepark in Mid Valley.

I spent at least three days of the week in that park, not skating well, but having fun. At one point I could even ollie two traffic cones on top of each other (sideways, obviously). Either way, I enjoyed it.

And once I got a job, I went buckwild on the proddy.

In 2002 alone, the amount of shoes (especially Vans) that I bought was more than I ever spent on shoes within a year before. Every couple of months, I'd grab something new. And new bearings, even new decks. I remember my 22nd birthday, Nadia and Maya bought me a Daewon Song Deca deck. They picked it because of the hawaiian print and red color. Little did they know who Daewon Song was.

When I started the band, I got Ariff, my drummer, into skating too, and we'd hit up Paramount (after Mid Valley's park closed) every other night, skating when no-one was around.

Slowly, work (and other stuff) ate up my skate time.

After awhile I didn't even touch my deck.

And I could feel the difference.

For a couple of months, my legs were jelly from lack of skating. Walking stairs was the weirdest experience ever.

The lack of constant excercise also did amazing things to my waistline. All the oversized pants I bought for their bagginess are now either a perfect fit or tight as fuck.

It's been almost two years since my last decent skate session.

And I've just bought another board.

25.10.04 11:51

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