Commendante Journal Log #44566783432

Commandante Garcia Reporting F.T.B.I.T.F journal log #44566783432!


Its calm on all fronts, but I still expect a quiet STORM is coming soon.


It's 1:11 on First Try Fridays and they still haven't posted a video! Instead, they got some footage of some Berrics underling/hack job picking up some kids from the airport in the rain.


Really makes realize how much times have Changed.


I think back:


Warped Tour 1997 finals in Houston at some random performance hall off Post Oak road and the tollway.


The street course was some random bank ramps, wall rides and rails next to a wall in the dark. The only way you could navigate around was to skate sideways, like only back and fourth.


Everyone was there, and I barely made the cut (the pre lims were at South Side).All the heads were at the finals: Womack, Wil Taylor, Wayne Patrick (I tied with him in the finals!), Dan Mc Farlane, Robert Botello and even Jason Martain!


They had a manual pad leaning up against the wall and I remember doing some kinda free styled ally opp wall ridey thingy. This was right about the beggining of the whole East Coast explosion that was taking everyone by STORM (I was even wearing my powder blue Nicotine Ricky Oyola "Skate everything" T-shirt!!!)


At one point before the contest I found myself sitting on the ground on my skateboard right next to Friggin Duane Peters!


He turns his head to me and says out of nowhere: "all the kids in Ny were killing that wall ride!"


Then he proceed to give me unsolicited pointers on what angle to hit the same wall ride ramp which was up against the blackened concrete brick wall!!


I was so psyched! I well knew Dwane and his career(this was right before he got on Beer City skateboards).


Getting chummy advice from the man himself made the whole apocalyptic contest in the dark at the day concert on a crappy side of town well worth it!


I responded back to Duane, jubilantly: "Thanks for the advice!"


But then he thought I came off condescending and then he snaps back at me: "Well fuck you then!!!!!"


I felt as if I had been cast in to sudden hell! I felt so bad!


Just the sensation of having Duane Peters telling you to fuck off, you instinctively
feel a communion with some kind of true punk rock essence.


I wanted to tell Duane : "No I'm serious!! Thank You!", but trying to explain that further within that whole hyper-real atmosphere (I think at one point 311 was playing live) would have seemed even more ridiculous.


Dwane had the right idea though. That dude had gone pro. Lived pro and got chewed up and spit up by the industry until he was living in a ditch and addicted to heroin!


Who the fuck was I to vide this guy (if I really had vibed him)?


I'm sure it was a minor miracle in itself that he wasn't in jail- that he could enthusiastically share some of his expertise even in such deplorable settings on one of the hundreds of Saturdays of his life.


Moral of the Story: You cant be nice to children! They will most likely just walk over you and make a mockery of your establishment(I used to be a substitute teacher, this is my area of expertise).


It's really important to be extra mean to little kids with their un-rock n roll- rock n roll hair cuts, wearing underwear their parents wash.


Don't get me wrong though,I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with starting off in a poseur phase.


But please,just don't let the poseurs tell the OGS what time it is! That's all I'm saying!


And just cause you're younger doesn't automatically know whats cooler, anyways!
(In my day we had real manly man pros like Sean Sheffey, Ethan Fowler and Jason Lee. Whereas these new kids may claim Sean Malto, Jeremy Rogers and Sheckler.)


Anyways, If you're catering to children and moms, not only are hierarchies diminished, but you also come off looking kinda pathetic and desperate for acceptance. Its just defeats the purpose of being a cool pro or park owner.


And if you use the excuse "I'm just trying to pay my bills!"- I think that's a very poor excuse, because you are actually affirming that you are actively taking something away from Skateculture just for personal ends.







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