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| Q&A: Michael Brooke - Publisher, Concrete Wave Magazine (7141 Posts)
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Pauliwog
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On 4/29/2003
michael brooke
wrote in from
(209.183.nnn.nnn)
Pauliwog...
you raise some excellent points
couple of things to tell everyone..
There is no doubt in my mind that the "retro thing" is fashionable and marketable. Quite frankly, I will never be the size of Thrasher or Transworld or Big Brother....although, if larry flynt wants to cut me a check for 5 million....well, maybe i'd consider it!
My model is really Surfer's Journal or Longboard Magazine. Highest quality with as little advertising as possible. (under 35%).
I know that the current crop of mags will start featuring more variety of skateboarding...I've already seen it happening.
The funny thing is that yesterday someone asked me if there was enough material out there for Concrete Wave to cover. I replied that my children, if they live into their 90's would still a ton of things to write about!
The bottom line is that for far too long, the mainstream skate media has ignored what Adam and the NCSDA has been doing, they've ignored the great longboarders out there, the superb freestylers and amazing slalom racers.
They have completely snubbed their noses at non popsicle board manufacturers. God help you if you make different kinds of trucks or wheels too!
We have been ignored for too long....so it will be a welcome change to see some new stuff in there.
This will help create snowball effect and current crop of young skaters will see that longboarding, slalom, freestyle etc is cool.
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Bahne Team Captain
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On 4/29/2003
Jack
wrote in from
(207.114.nnn.nnn)
And the winner is Michael Brooke.
The t-shirt, DVD and the you know what are on the way!
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"pinky and the brain"
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On 4/29/2003
michael brooke
wrote in from
(209.183.nnn.nnn)
My God!
the brain has it nailed perfectly!
"I think the concept of the all around skateboarder will be important to pros again, which will in turn promote the more "underground" disciplines like Freestyle, Slalom ect.... I think we might even see a new interest in old disciplines like Barrel Jumping, High Jumping, Pipe Pasting, Wall Riding etc"
WELL SAID BRAIN
This is exactly what I have been trying to explain to fellow skaters, shops, the media and anyone else who will listen (oh, the patience of my poor wife!)
The current skate myopia...tunnel vision at its finest is about to be smashed to bits... in a nice way.
like water hitting a rock....over time the rock will change appearance....
can you smell regime change???
PINKY
(trying to take over the world...eh Brain?)
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The whole "change" thing
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On 4/29/2003
Pauliwog
wrote in from
(140.211.nnn.nnn)
Hey! glad to see all the input.I really don't think anyone really will need to "try" to change skateboarding, every time something becomes overly homogenized it becomes really, really boring. Just like by the mid to late 80's when big airs where starting to look the same and all the "kids" said "vert's dead, don't you know?", I think the same thing is happening now as every flippity-do techno trick has the same aspect of a lot of talent behind it but the whole mental image of the tricks and the completely utilitarian (functional for what it's made for) popsickle stick is starting to bore people more and more. Yeah I'm 40 and I look like it when I skate, but I'm happy with what I do (slalom and vert). I'm glad for Concrete Wave and what it's come to represent for all us older skaters and honestly I'm fine if Thrasher, TWS, Big Bro and the rest want to ignore us, but they're already seeing now it's "marketable-cool" to rehash the old stuff and show the "old guys". There's an old chinese proverb that goes something like this:"When everyone sees beauty in the same thing, ugliness is already afoot". The Change has already started, we really don't need to push it, it will guide itself well enough. I'm just glad I've been skating long enough to "pass the torch" once already and I'm stoked about doing it again when kids ask me to do some old trick or better when they ask me to teach it to them. I'd just like to see techno stick around and not die (even though I don't do it) because it's labelled as uncool some day when the next new (or old) thing comes around.
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Mementos
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On 4/29/2003
Mike Moore
wrote in from
(66.196.nnn.nnn)
Do scars, scabs, and bruises count?
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freestyle
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On 4/29/2003
michael brooke
wrote in from
(209.183.nnn.nnn)
There is no doubt in my mind that freestyle, like slalom will see a resurgence. It's just a question of time,
I wanted to get back to the idea of "skater for life." At one point in my career, I had a picture of the bones logo (remember the skeleton ripping through something) on my office wall. It may not have been seen by many folks, but it stood their, guarding the door and was a constant reminder of what my past was.
Any of you bring skate momentos to work?
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freeze style
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On 4/29/2003 psYch0Lloyd
wrote in from
(198.160.nnn.nnn)
Now I remember that trick where you almost scrape your chin on the ground...
...beard sweepers!
Yeah, I used to be one of those freestyle monkeys.
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Sequential photos
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On 4/29/2003
Duane
wrote in from
(64.223.nnn.nnn)
Michael, if you haven't seen the sequential photo links posted by no-comply on the speedboarding page, check them out. I saw some sliding shots done like that some time ago, same guys did them, absolutely great shots. I have never seen anything like that in a skating mag, done so well. It would make a great centerpiece of an article on sliding.
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Freestyle/New School/Slalom/ The Future
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On 4/29/2003
Brian "TheBrain" Morris
wrote in from
(149.151.nnn.nnn)
I think skateboarding is entering the new wave. The new generation of skaters are stumbling on slalom and longboarding through NCDSA and other websites, and pool and pipe riding are making a huge uprising due to teams like Team Goon ect....... I think the concept of the all around skateboarder will be important to pros again, which will in turn promote the more "underground" diciplines like Freestyle, Slalom ect.... I think we might even see a new interest in old diciplines like Barrel Jumping, High Jumping, Pipe Pasting, Wall Riding ect...... The old school is changing from a novelty to everyday riding, and now the kids are seeing it as a style to go by. I don't know how many times where kids see me working on some freestyle or some slalom and the kids are amazed that boards look that wierd, and its so oldschool. Kids are riding around on pigs again, with the new Vision, Powell, and Sector9 lines, and longboards are more popular than ever.
Skateboarding is seeing a new day!
TheBrain
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Freestyle/lunchtimes/spots
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On 4/29/2003
Geezer-X
wrote in from
(149.2.nnn.nnn)
Hey Ratty. I wish I was at Genentech. I'm in Gaithersburg MD, which along w/ Boston and SF is a Biotech hotbed. Plenty of big new parking lots, and the economic downturn is keeping them free of cars.
I'm gonna get one of those Fibreflex teamrider reissues and put mids on it and some oldskools, and I think that will be a good aproximation of what a freestyle board is to me. I sacked at it then, and I'll be happy if I reattain that level of suck before I'm (ouch) 44..
Any "mature" skaters in my area who want to hook up for parking garage/freestyle/carve/hill sessions, let me know...
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Freestyle
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On 4/29/2003
Mike Moore
wrote in from
(66.196.nnn.nnn)
Freestyle is alive and kicking. Modern street skating is freestyle with obstacles. Rodney Mullen's bastard children are everywhere. It is amazingly difficult...yet incredibly boring. It is static. There needs to be an injection of style and flow. In the Chaput/Howell/Page era of freestyle you had this, then somewhere along the line it became dancing robots.
Let the flames begin.
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freestyle
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On 4/29/2003 Sasha
wrote in from
(64.156.nnn.nnn)
John-
I am one of those women/girls who is into freestyle skating. About 4 years ago I met a guy we call "old school" Aaron. I watched him and watched him and tried desperately to copy his moves. I was hooked.
I study Rodney Mullen videos like schoolwork. I did a Got Milk? demo last year with "Dr. Skateboard" Bill Robertson who makes it his mission in life to bring the old school style to the new generation. Check out his site at drskateboard.com. (there might be a period after dr-can't remember).
Anyway, I also ride longboards and love it. I can actually boardslide rails better with longboards. There are few females around her who skate, so can't comment on whether they prefer long or short boards, but Isabelle Caudle always rides a Gravity deck at least 36". So there's one, plus me,plus Denise who runs Push skate magazine and frontsidebetty.com.
I found this winter when I went snowboarding, there were a TON of females up there. I don't know what appeals to them more about snow than skate, just thought it was interesting. I wonder if snowboards can qualify as longboards.........
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Terrain is the key.
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On 4/29/2003 Jophn Gilmour
wrote in from
(209.6.nnn.nnn)
What's it gonna take to change the direction of skateboarding?
Who knows? Perhaps we should take a look at what has changed skateboardings direction previously?????!!!!??
But I do feel that Longboarding is a key ingredient to current change- however how minor. Many kids I talk to got into longboarding for two reasons..... either..."It feels like surfing down the street" or "Its good for transportation".
Longboarders all get the feeling of crusing and carving. Those ones are more likely to enter slalom skateboarding.
--------------but-------------- ----
Flatland Freestyle skateboarding- all this talk of slalom- but little of freestyle?
Why would a Steep hill slalomer like myself bring up Flatland Freestyle? Because it is completely accessible to all skateboarders anytime even without a car or bike. In the 70's skateboarding seemed to be the most popular when flatland freestyle was the rage. Any kid could do it in his driveway or street. (sounds familiar to the poor mans pogo stick?)
I sort of expected flatland to make some sort of comeback after most of the skateparks closed in the early 80's but being stigmatized as "uncool" it did not come back.
Flatland freestyle seemed to be going in the direction of sports like Gymnastics (Russ Howell, Chris Chaput, Skitch Hitchcock), ballet (Dan Gesmer), - with a few jumping events like in ice skating. Then Pool riding supplanted it. And when the parks closed, some of the ollie and grind techniques were transfered to rails and stillretained a hardcore image left from poolriding.
There are some women skaters who longboard. Of the women skaters who longboard- how many of those would be into flatland freestyle now? I bet there would be few.
Flatland- not all skateboarders have hills. Not all skateboarders have parks near them (though more public "skateparks" are built everyday -many seem to me to be sorry attempts, but suitable for very young kids-. But nearly every potential skateboarder has flatland nearby. If we want new growth from skateboarding it might just come from a renaissance of flatland skating - and perhaps the cyber slalom might be an influence in the slalom division. Flatland downhill? Well....no, but perhaps we may see a few unusual "1/4 Miler racers" on electric boards- though I would expect the distances to be 1/20 of a mile.
In the ] 70's Poolriding was easy to cover and shoot and concentrated the skating talent for photographers. Now so many people have access to inexpensive camera gear and video editing suites. There is no reason to need to concentrate the skaters near a few media photographers (no offense Glen D., Maria C., Kenny M., you guys are tops). Hopefully we'll see skatings direction change as online media diffuses acessibility so that skaters from anywhere can get more exposure for their talents.
-----the next wave---------
Part of the next wave will be terrain. The first terrain was the local street, the next was the neighbor's backyard pool, the next was "The SkateClub" ie local membership skatepark, the next was created by the skaters who could build their own terrain, followed by Urban skating of previously "Unskatable" terrain, at this point I think the cycle might begin again in the flat streets. It won't look exactly the same- but it will still be fun.
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kids, answers, questions etc...
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On 4/29/2003
michael brooke
wrote in from
(209.29.nnn.nnn)
Well, it's all coming together very nicely. I am glad people are digging this forum. Should have contacted Adam long ago to do this...but, as I always say, everything in it's time
Couple of quick things to clear up
Paul St. Pierre was the captain, Jack!
you know where to send the tee...
As for kids, I have three. My two sons (ages 7 and 2) have gone mental for skating. In fact, ethan aka "sparky" wakes up and demands that I take him on the board. My daughter, is not that into it...That's cool. My approach has been to let my kids try a lot of different things.
If your kids don't get into skating, there is no need to push...they'll either get into it, or find something else. I think what's important though, is that whatever sport or activity they get into, you support it 100%.
Why do I say this? Well, I recall when I was 11 or 12. I was amped on skateboarding. I would ride my board for hours. My parents were somewhat supportive, but boards and related equipment were given on very special occasions (ie birthdays, holidays). I always said that if and when I had kids, I would not treat sporting equipment as toys. (ie to be given out on special occasions only).
This is not to say I didn't get the fibreflex with bennets and road rider 4's. I did get it..after 1 year of pestering!
A few other matters... the new mag has shipped and hopefully my mailing house hasn't screwed up...it should be at subscribers doors by next week.
Adam, thank you for your kind words....hard to believe that the skategeezer homepage started up in 1995! That's almost a decade ago!
keep the questions and comments coming...and remember, the mag is only HALF way there!
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bahne team capt
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On 4/28/2003
Steve Marinak
wrote in from
(67.34.nnn.nnn)
Jack...Dennis Shufeldt? I could go look, but that's not as fun. If it's not Dennis then Bob Mohr. Ok, I'm ruining it by guessing twice right?
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New Concrete Wave Issue
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On 4/28/2003
Brian Garner
wrote in from
(216.105.nnn.nnn)
Michael,
When is the next issue of Concrete Wave due out?
I think I have 4 issues now and I'm looking forward to the next one. Will you be sending subscription renewel requests out soon?
Thanks,
Brian
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41 year old punk skateboarder that wears baggy clothes
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On 4/28/2003
Arab
wrote in from
(24.24.nnn.nnn)
One of my Job Stewards has it in for me, the guy despizes me because I live my life like I'm still 15.
He gives me s#@! for skateboarding wearing shorts that cover my kneecaps.
While he has 25 year old cordaroy OP bunn huggers crawling up his ass, I heard him comment to another of the bun hugger brigade one day that his wife had problems finding shorts for him in this day of age that had a 5 inch or less inseam.
This is the guy that just got off temporary disability for Tennis Elbow, He also sprained his ankle one day while golfing, last year he got thrown out the back of his boat when his drunk friend gunned the boat as a joke, the ski rope got stuck around his leg and he got a rope burn that put him out of work for 3 weeks.
Another head honcho on the job keeps telling me I'm not 15 anymore, I said how much do you make? he lied and said he made 125 K last year,(he made 90k) I told him that there is 16 year old pro skateboarders making more then him, LOTS MORE! and that Tony Hawk who is in his mid 30's makes in exess of 10 million a year. When I told him that there is a handful of slalom racers that are over 50 and that the average age is about 40, he laughed and said you guys must realy look stupid, I brought in one of Mollicas slalom tapes, He pretended he wasnt interested, but I caught him checking out the tape later in the day. He has missed more work from Golfing injuries then I have in the last 2 yrs slalom racing. In fact the only days I have missed is the days I took off to race, not from injury.
On any given day I lead a crew from 2 to 80 guys, half are older then me, some are young enough to be my kids, None of them young or old can grasp the fact that I travel all over to race skateboards.
I dont need to act my age, I live it! How many 40-50 year olds would give there left nut to do what they did when they were 15 again.
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Various...
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On 4/28/2003
Tom M.
wrote in from
(12.222.nnn.nnn)
Nick:
Send me the answer -- I'll give you half the T. <g>
Co-workers:
Only (quiet) place to skate at work, is a fairly flat back drive area. The younger co-workers think I'm a tad nutty (guess they don't see a point in flatland pumping away my lunch time), ones close to my age (49) marvel at me as they attempt to walk off their lunches, and the older ones (probably) wish I'd disappear.
Skating with son - MB:
I think the 34-year difference would be a stretch for this to happen for me. I haven't been carded in a few years...
Skating with son - Harry:
My son had a strong interest in skateboarding for about 2 years. His interest slowly waned from street to parks/street, to street, to an occasional longboarding session, to nil. I don't push him. I make every effort to make it easy for him to pursue the art/sport. I've bought gring rails, built ramps, offered to drop him and a friend OFF at the park (rather than have me along), etc.
Kids have their own mind. IMHO, I'm having fun, and I'd really like him to enjoy skateboarding, but that might not be in his nature right now.
Give you kids some time. If they see you having a blast, maybe they'll take the dive.
Lots of time, it is peer pressure that controls them. Know any of his friends who skate? If so, maybe it is time for a sleepover/roadtrip with that friend. <g>
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Geezers
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On 4/28/2003
Chuck
wrote in from
(199.183.nnn.nnn)
Another tale from work...I was talking about skating at work a while back and the youngest kid in our department (didn't even know what a slide rule was until I made him learn it!) said "Aren't you a little old for that?" My reply..."No, but you are." I am the youngest guy - at 40 - amongst those I regularly ride with.
One day last winter at our ballet hill the po-lice showed up. Seems the security guards at the adjoining theater called 'em on us. The cop looked a little befuddled when he realized a bunch of grown men (older than him) were riding up and down the hill (yeah...ride back up the hill, don't walk...good training). Finally he said, "I got a call that some juveniles were skateboarding her..I don't see any juveniles" and he drove off.
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i will NEVER be one of THEM
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On 4/28/2003
richard marnhout
wrote in from
(198.81.nnn.nnn)
i am a SKATER FOR LIFE! i tried to be a straight suburban dad but i just cannot do it. i skate vert and walls and streets and i don't give a f#$% what people think. i am a father of three lovely kids and i will NOT teach them to skate unless they are willing to do it right, because what i do is beautiful and honorable and outlaw. and just as ol' bobby dylan said,"to live outside the law, you must be honest."
and i will NEVER AGAIN explain what i do for the benefit of the ignorant. if you don't know the feeling of hitting cope, oh well, i don't have time to explain it.
if there are any 40+ vert dogs in the bay area, look me up .
let's have a session at the new martinez park
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Subscriptions
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On 4/28/2003
Henry
wrote in from
(12.148.nnn.nnn)
Mike-
A few people may be contacting you with regards to the free 1 year subscriptions that you donated to my slalom clinic, just wanted to give you a heads up! Again, thanks for donating those! Keep up the good work, I love CW.
Henry
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New Old Skaters
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On 4/28/2003
Farid
wrote in from
(63.183.nnn.nnn)
Whether I'm at a park, a hill (w/ cones), or bombing around town, the youngin's always have a weird look on their face when a fat, grey haired dude w/ a board shows up.(Not completly grey @ 36, but my Dad was totally grey by 40. Full head of hair and full of s#*t at 260lbs though!) First, they can't belive I can skate. Second, I ask them if they remember 1975 (when I started skating)and of course they don't because most of them were born after 1988. I always tell them that I've been skating longer than they've been alive, it blows them away! I make sure I hassle them, in a good way, in the tradition that older guys pass down through the ages... they'll get their chance when they are older. But what trips them out the most is how fast I skate. I love going fast with big heavy carves and quick turns through the cones. They try to keep up and I blow them away. Sure, I can't do any rail slides etc, but they never thought about the lines I take. "Wow, that fat old guy can skate" is what I here them say to each other. They totally expected me to fall flat on my face. By the time I'm ready to take off, we've ended up hanging out like there is no age difference. We're just skaters. Skating rules!
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'75 Bahne Team Captain
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On 4/28/2003
Nick
wrote in from
(66.87.nnn.nnn)
I know it, but I'm disqualified...
Jack, check your Bahne mail. Do you want me to ruin all your contests?
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Bahne Team Captain 1975
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On 4/28/2003
Jack
wrote in from
(207.114.nnn.nnn)
Still no winner...
Who was the Bahne Skateboards team captain in 1975?
First correct answer scores a Bahne tee.
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skate dad?
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On 4/28/2003 Harry Bax
wrote in from
(64.10.nnn.nnn)
Hey Michael I was in the same situation as you skating w/ my son, he's 7 , I'm 39. Some kid asked if my son was my brother. I don't get it,I look my age man. I do have a quetion for you though. My son isn't really interested in skating and neither are my 2 younger ones. I can under stand the little ones maybe aren't ready. But my 7 yr old isn't at all into it. My wife ,who's in early childhood ed., says my approach is okay. So I know I'm not pushing to hard and I'm not a complete spaz (my skating okay).You'd think most kids would love to live in a skater house. Do you know other guys in my situation? If he doesn't want to skate , that cool ,really, we have plenty of other things to do.
Also, I heard you on the CBC the other day. Thanks for helping to save that show. Non-skaters just don't get and as hard as they try, they never will.
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