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Instructions for Posting or Commenting

Hi and welcome to ElderSkatesmen.com!

As you can see, this site is pretty new but we're hoping that all you elder skaters out there find your way here and stop by regularly. If this is your first time here, have a look around and tell us a little about yourself. You can either POST your own story or COMMENT on an existing post. Here's how:

To POST, simply click the "Blog This" link at the top of the page. We hope you'll take a moment and sign in as a member, but you may also post anonymously.

To COMMENT, just click the "comment" link at the end of the article you're reading.

Gotta go grind. Cya,

ElderSk8r

Dude.....Where's my deck????

Not to start this whole thing out with a sad story, but bad news sells so here's my tale of woe:

Christmas of '78 I get my second deck - a custom made board I had put together for me at Green Street Skateshop in Havre de Grace, MD. Check this out ->> Bunger fiberglass deck (picture a thicker Fibreflex), Tracker Full trucks and 70mm, bottle-green Kryptonics. This board was the best thing you could ask for in '78. Needless to say, I'm in heaven and it was on this board that I came into my own as a skater.

The board served me well into my teens until a Mustang replaced it as my primary mode of transport. Although my skating was slightly less frequent as my newly acquired wheels made it more feasible to pursue my other love - playing in bands, I still rode in my neighborhood and cherished my still killer board. It came with me to Berklee College of Music in Boston where it again became my primary mode of transport around town (and was a welcome helper in transporting drums cases through the hallways).

Fast forward to the early 90's and I'm moving back to Maryland. This is where it gets ugly. Somewhere during the move, the board is lost. To this day, I know not how, when or why it happened, but my board never arrived in Maryland. I know it was not left in my Boston apartment. I'm sure of it. All I know is somewhere during the process, we were separated.

The realization of my loss was slow, as each unpacked box revealed everything BUT my beloved board. Once it hit me, I went into an immediate state of denial, almost as if I never had it to begin with. This was much easier than confronting the reality of the loss. Whenever a memory of it would come back, I would shove it out. This behavior continued for years until an unlikely event gave me hope that I might be able start over and get back into skating.

I was on a 2nd (and gladly, final) date with a gal I had recently met and we decided to take a day and have her show me around the area where she lived - Maryland's eastern shore. One of the places we visited was an old farm where her friend had been involed with various enterprises, namely as a manufacturer of skateboard decks. His company was called Naked Skatz and had gone under a few years earlier. Upon learning of my skating past, he graciously handed me a dusty old deck he had built some years earlier that had been buried under boxes in his barn. It was 90's new skool, much wider than anything I had ever ridden, but it was pristine and had never been mounted. I accepted the gift and prepared myself that someday I'd build a new skool deck and get back into it.

Inspired by my new acquisition, I began searching Ebay looking for cool artifacts from skateboarding's past. In short order I had in my possession another great, NOS deck; this one a wooden Seabreeze from the late 70's. If you squinted, it could pass for my old Bunger deck. Not long after, another 70's Seabreeze had a new home, but this one was a completed deck with Oak Street trucks and 60mm flourescent green Kryps. It wasn't close to my old board but would make a nice surrogate until I had found all the parts to build a NOS version of my lost board.

Fast forward again to today and I'm still skating on Seabreeze #2 while I search for parts for my new and old skool deck projects. The recent find of something I as a kid figured would be my 3rd deck - a mint Fibreflex, insures that when it's all said and done I'm gonna have a great collection of boards. I'm still holding out that someday, the Bunger will show up on Ebay in some form and then I'll be able to reclaim it. And when my future son/daughter asks why there's no money for college, I'll direct them to this post.

And in case anyone is wondering what my first deck was, it will come as no surprise that like so many others, my first board was a plastic Nash. It was a gift from my brother (and mother, I suspect) for my birthday in '76. It served me well until the arrival of the Bunger two years later when it was clear that I needed a superior board if I was to progress. Yes, I still have it and gladly so since I no longer have the brother. The Nash is now a proud retiree and a great reminder of where it all started for me.

Having unloaded all of that, I'm way beyond psyched to be back into skating. I'm considering putting together a team of elder skatesmen here in Baltimore to see where it goes. In the interim, feel free to use this blog to recount any stories you see fit to share.

Mahalo...riders of the concrete wave,

ElderSk8r

Welcome to Elder Skatesmen!

As the Eminent Hoss around here, I guess it's my duty to provide a formal welcome and to set the tone for what goes on around here. So here's the deal: I wanna hear from anyone in their 30's/40's who got into skateboarding back in the golden age. Whether you kept at it and are still grinding or whether you gave it up for Lent back in '81 and never looked back, this is the place for you to wax poetic about:

your old deck(s)
your new deck(s)
your fav skate music
your worst wipe-out
any brushes with greatness from the DogTown era
any tips or techniques
your local scene, wherever you live
any killer NOS finds
your want list
any items for sale
Skateboarder magazine

...pretty much anything as it pertains to your previous or current skate life.

While I encourage posters from anywhere, it would be most kewl to meet some local elder Marylanders who are up for a skate.

I'll be posting pics of some great vintage pieces (some mine, some not) for everyone's collective drooling.

Thanks for stopping by. Please tell all your skate buds about this blog so we can see it grow and have it be a kewl resource for all of us elders.

Cowabunga!

ElderSk8r