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Selects: How Skateboarding Works · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, folks, this is Chuck. It is in Selects
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: time March. That's what we're throwing back to today because
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I picked out How Skateboarding Works. Boy, this is a
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: great one. This is a sort of vintage stuff you
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: should know all about skateboarding, full of stories about our
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: own skateboarding adventures as young posers that we both were.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: And uh, it's good stuff. We talked about the history,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: we talk all about and you know, of course it's
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: about a thing that some people are experts, and so
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: we get a lot wrong, but we get it mostly right.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: And it was a good episode. So please to enjoy
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: How Skateboards Work. Right now, welcome to Stuff you Should Know,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a production of My Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and Charles W.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant's with me. So stuff you should know. And Jerry,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: of course is here, who just celebrated a birthday. Yeah,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: happy birthday, Jerry and Valentine's Day run our Indian sweat
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: lodge that we call a recording booth. Yeah, man, it's hot. Yeah,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: part of it's this thing. You want to turn this
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: off because this it really does put out a tremendous
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: amount of heat. Yeah, Josh's we have a lamp on
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: our table that we used to see. Well we can't
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: see any longer. Oh well fly I'm blind. Yeah that
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: did make it like three cooler immediately. Yeah, it's that lamp.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: It's the lamp. And then like you know, just people
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: generating heat in here. Yeah, podcasters were a balmy bunch,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the blusters a herd of oxen in the corner. And
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: that doesn't help. It has been the best intro ever.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: I think you think so, I think so, you're not
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: being facetious. No, did you know the word facetious? What
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: do you got for me? Well, when I was younger,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I knew the word facetious. It was a word that
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: my dad used a lot, so I used it in
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: like regular conversation correctly. Yeah, okay, But I've never seen
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: it written out, or so I thought. And finally one
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: day I ran across in a book again this word
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: I kept coming up on, and I was like, what
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: is that word fastidious? Facidious, facious, And I was like,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: that's facetious. I don't know that i've seen it spelled either. Yeah,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: it looks like facinious, you know, it looks like facet
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: like a facet of a jewel or something, and then
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: E S I O U S. Yeah, there's no I
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: would have so bombed the spelling of that, right. But
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: the thing is, it's like I was using it correctly
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: in conversation, and I had seen it in books. I
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: just never put the two together until finally one day
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: it clicked and you had to get your tattoo changed.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Facetious across the back of your neck and in the heart.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: All right, So, um, skateboarding. Yeah, about the same time
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: that I realized the word facetious what it was correctly spelled, ass,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I was skateboarding at the time, So that's how it
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: ties in. That was a little skateboarder for a long time. Yeah,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: I was too. I did not. I'm not old enough
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: to where I saw all the different waves of skateboarding
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: of the four, but I saw I didn't see the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: first one. That's pretty funny. That would mean I'm dead. Um. Now,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: there's plenty of old borders out there, sure, Yeah, but
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I was of the age where I definitely had the
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: um small sort of plastic board with the single little
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: tail on the back only and clay wheels. No, oh yeah, yeah,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Clay wheels. It seems to me like that those the
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: skateboards from from biblical times. Clay wheels. That's what I
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: think of when I see clay wheels. What do they
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: even look like? Uh? Just brown? You know? Were they
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: super dangerous? Well? Yeah, and if you've seen the great
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: documentary um Dogtown and z Boys they go over. It's
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: a really good doc by the way, like amazing footage
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: that they have, even good music and highly recommended over
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the movie version The Lords of Dogtown was Val Kilmer
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: in that No, Heath Ledger was. He played the the mentor.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I can't remember his name. Skip the Zephyr crew, yes
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: skip skip skip went on to found Santa Monic Airline Skateboards.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah he was. He stayed on. It's like
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: a big influence in skateboarding. Looks good. So anyway, I
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: just wanted to point out that I have branched a
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: few different Like I started with a little clay one
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and then in high school is when I got the big,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: huge fat skateboard when they were super obnoxious. Yeah, let's see,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: that's when I came into skating. Eighty four had like
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: a nice Lance Mountain um, it was my first board,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: my first board, remember the Nash Tough tops. No, there
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: was it was blank on the bottom, there were no graphics.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: But on the top cut out in the grip tape
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: was like a star that looked kind of like a
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: saw blade, circular saw blade. And then the big difference
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: was the different colors of the board underneath, blue or
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: pink or yellow or what it was like neon green. Yeah,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: you're a big fat one. Yeah, and looking back like
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: kind of corny. And I think after that is when
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: like true skater started being like, you know, we don't
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: really care that much about like awesome graphics, like we
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: just want a good board, good board. You wanted some
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: rib bones on the side. Do you remember those underneath? Yeah? Yeah,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: But I don't think people like those now either. Oh no,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: not anymore real skaters. No, that that the whole point
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: of those I think it was, you know, to let
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: you rail slide or whatever easier, but I think it
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: was also to protect those graphics too. It totally was
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: because I had a little big plastic bumper under the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: tailpiece too, which is counterintuitive to the tricks. Yeah, but
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, like who cares about protecting the tail. It's weird. Yeah.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I was also a nosebone too. I was not never
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: very good. Oh I wasn't either. I don't mean to
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: give that. I mean I spent a lot of our
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: skating and I never got very good. I think I
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: pulled off one kickflip once, really once. That's good. I
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: thought it was pretty good too. That is the trick
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: that you most often see kids not landing driving down
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the street. If you ever see a kid like I,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: rarely see a successful kickflip just on the sidewalk. Oh yeah,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: if you see somebody who pulls off a kick flip,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the chances are there somebody filming them because they know
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: that they're going to be able to pull off the
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: kick flip in l A. Actually I would see more,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: you know, obviously better skaters out there in New York. Yeah,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: all right, skateboarding. Should we get going with little history? Yeah,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: let's talk about the history of this. This this is
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: so close to my heart. Man. I fell down the
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: rabbit hole the day watching like old skate videos and
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: like checking out old Powell Perelta boards. That was my
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: jam was Powell. Well, we mentioned that there have been
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: four distinct waves of skateboarding starting in UH nine and
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: each new wave like it's it's just wayne and popularity
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: here and there, and then come back strong or and
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: stronger or due to either uh advances mainly in like
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: skateboard technology right and trickery, yes, and um parental acceptance
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: because it never really goes away. Skateboarding is either ever
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: since its inception, it's either been mainstream or else forced
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: underground and like practiced by juvenile delinquents who kind of
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: kept it going and advanced it quietly until it came
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: back into the mainstream and parents were like, Okay, you
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: guys can skate again. But the true origin of the skateboard,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: the first one that came out, first commercially produced one
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: was in nineteen it's called the roller Derby skate Yeah.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: And before that, you know, if you've seen the movie
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Back to the Future, when Martin went fly rips the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: little milk crate off the front of the homemade wooden scooter,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: that was where skateboards really came from. You just you know.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: It was a sort of a homemade deal with like
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: a peach crate as the front of your scooter, a
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: couple of handles, yes, steel wheels, from roller skates. Yeah,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and that was super dangerous, right. But like you say,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: if you take the peach create off and take the
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: handles off, you have that two by four with the
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: roller skate wheels. And they don't know exactly who did it.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: They think actually several people probably did it simultaneously Marty
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: mc in the right in the forties. They think surfers
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: in California did it. There are kids in France that
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: were seen doing it in the forties. So it kind
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: of spread. It happened, it arose independently around the world
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: at about the same time. That's called the zeitgeist, that
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: is my friend. So now we're in the nineties, early
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, and it was I mean it really took
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: off like a rocket in the first few years of
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties, like, uh, fifty million skateboards were sold
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: in those first three years and it was everywhere. Yeah,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: it was like the hot new craze. Well it was
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: like also like hula hoops and things like that, Like
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: it was America was in a crazy mood, a craze moody,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: like whatever the big thing was. Yeah, and skateboard fell
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: into that big time. The problem is, uh, they were
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: pretty dangerous. There wasn't a lot you could do with them.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Now they because again there's steel wheels there. It's basically
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: two by four on steel wheels, ride down the street
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and you could fall off of it exactly. That was so,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: and I think because of the safety concerns, overnight skateboarding
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: just went away in like nineteen five. It was over,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: but it's still kind of stayed somewhat popular as a
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: thing to do among surfers. When the waves weren't breaking, um,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: they would just kind of sidewalk surf is what they
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: called it. And they never really saw it as anything
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: bigger than a supplement to surfing. It was just kind
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: of like it wasn't its own thing until uh the sixties,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: the late sixties or the early seventies, when clay wheels
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: came about. You could do a little more stuff. I think, well,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: clay was better than the wheels, but still bad, right,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and that's hit a rock in the road your toast,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: and like that's when people started dying from skateboards, which
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: kind of led to its decline again. Sure, and then
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: some surfers the Zephyr Crew are the ones who like
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: broke skateboarding out once and for all. Well, Yeah, thanks
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: to uh Frank Nasworthy's invention of the Eurothane wheel in
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two. Yeah, he founded Cadillac Wheels, and all
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, it was like a smooth, like, steady,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: silent experience on a skateboard for the first time. And
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: then you changed everything it did because it could grip. Um.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just that it wasn't rumbly any longer. It
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: was like the you're a thing could grip like concrete
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: or could go over a pavement, yeah, instead of just
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: stopping and um. Yeah, all of a sudden, there were
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: way more surfaces that could be skated. And that plus
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the invention of the truck yeah, which is basically an
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: axle for your wheels that not only allows the wheels
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: to revolve more smoothly, especially when you add a set
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: of bearings, Yeah, but it also allows you to maneuver
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: to the left or the right, which is a big deal.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Kind of opens things up there, twisty. And then the
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: kicktail also changed everything. All these kind of came together
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: at about the same time. Yeah, And you mentioned the
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Zephyr crew in nineteen seventy five that held the first
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: um uh basically competition in Delmar, California, and that's when
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: and if you've seen the documentary, it's pretty great. I
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: mean they had sort of the holdovers from the sixties
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: doing like handstands and all these sort of square, antiquated moves,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: and then these little punks came in there and just
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: like toward the place up in like the judges didn't
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: know how to judge them at the time because they've
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: never seen anything like it. Yeah, it's pretty cool. It
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: was a pool. They were skating in pools right, well,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: at least. Yeah, the pool thing came a little later
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: because they there was a big drought in the mid
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: seventies in southern California and water was actually in short supply,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: so people would drain their pools or not refill them
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: or whatever for the summer, and so they started busting
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: in the backyards and skating and pools. Yeah, and they
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: would bring their own pumps and hoses to drain like
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: all the muck out entirely and then just like skate
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: that pool. And there was um at one of those pools,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: a kid named Tony Alva who was in that Zephyr crew.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: It was Tony Alva, J Adams, and Stacy Perelta, yeah,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: among others. Yeah, right, but those are like the big three.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Tony I was your guy, right, Stacy Perelta, Oh, I
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: thought you were like a huge Tony Alva dude. Okay, No,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: I respect for Tony Alba, but no, I was always
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: pal Perelta. Um. But Tony Alva at one of those pools,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: kept going and going and pushing himself harder and harder,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: and then one day he cleared the coping of the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: pool and like caught air, yeah, with his hand at first. Oh,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: he did like a hand plant. Yeah, that was how
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: that original it came about. But he did leave contact
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: with the pool, right, and no one had ever done that,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: and everyone's like, and that was like the creation of
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: vert style skateboarding UM. And Alva went on at like
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: age nineteen to found his own skateboarding company. He was
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: the first one to use some Canadian maple Veneers, which
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: we'll talk about um. And it was like really innovative,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: especially for a nineteen year old skate punk from southern California. Yeah,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: they all were. Yeah, it's pretty amazing, like this collection
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: of kids were and it most of the ended up
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: being like very savvy, like wealthy businessmen. Yeah. And and
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: right after the del Mar competition, the Zephyr crew kind
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: of scattered to the wind and went in and found
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: purchase and and expanded skateboarding as a sport and as
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: a theme. And one of the things that they brought
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: with them from having been part of a crew is
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: to form their own crews um of people that they sponsored,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: which made those people old pros. And those pros would
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: go on tour. And when those pros went on tour,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: they were skating say Palm Pearl to skateboards and showing
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: local kids what could be done with the skateboard, and
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: those kids would go buy pal Parrel to skateboards and
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: go out and skate. And it that whole idea of
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: doing demos on tour with pros who were sponsored by
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: skateboarding companies really helped expand skateboarding in the eighties and
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: and created that third wave where skateboarding you just became it. Yeah,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I mean it was big in California and Florida. Like
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: my cousins were way into it in Florida early on,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: but it really took off when kids like me and
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Georgia and you and Ohio, we're skiing, you know, skiing
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: skating up my like steep driveway and trying to do
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: a little one eight turns going back down like it
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: was a wave. And I was, you know, it was
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: one of those silly little kids, like was so caught
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: up in it at first. Well, I had a kid
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: who lived across the tracks for me, who had a
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: half pipe, like a good half pipe that his dad
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: built him. UM, And that was part of that rise
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty three. I think that third wave where UM,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: because I should say we didn't really mention UM. In
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: the late seventies, after Alva Skateboards was founded and and
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: pal Perelta was founded and all that, UM, skateboarding took
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: a hit mainstream wise, and it became associated with punks
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and like just like like just punk kids, yeah, the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: bad kids and who literally gave skateboarding a bad name. UM.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: And so it was kind of driven underground again. And
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: then in the early eighties that experienced another rise and
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: its image kind of changed a little bit thanks to
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: the pal Perealta team, the Bones Brigade, who were actually
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: like they were all young kids and they were skateboarders
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: and all they cared about was skating. But they were
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: also like kind of clean cut as far as um,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: as far as skateboarders went, like, they didn't do drugs,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: at least they didn't publicly do drugs. Stacy Peralta was
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: a good kid, yeah, um, And so the kids that
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: he sponsored, like Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Steve Caballero, Christian Hassi,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: all those kids were good kids too, and they had
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of influence on the the skaters who
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: were into them. And so it kind of changed skating's
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: image a little bit too. It went from like being
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: something that like punk kids were into to something all
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: kids were into. Yeah it Um, it did go into
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: another four year lull towards the end of the seventies
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: before it started coming back in the mid eighties and
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: BMX had a lot to do with it that became
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: more popular, and um, you know, some skateboarder magazine shut
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: down or changed names to a different you know title,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: and it, just like you said, it never went away
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: to the adherents of like like the true underground skateboarders, right,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: It's always there's always somebody who's been skating at some
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: point ever since the ninet but in the mid eighties
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: is when it definitely came back, uh to the big
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: time mainstream. Yeah. And I can't tell if it's just
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: nostalgia on my part or else if that was when
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: it like really exploded, But like that was that was
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: my wheelhouse. Remember the videos Man Bones Brigade videos. Yeah,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: and that was another thing too. That one of the
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: reasons why UM skateboarding was able to spread as a
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: sport or recreation or whatever UM was in part the
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: access to cheap VHS players because the Bones Brigade made
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: videos and people bought them, Like you could go to
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: your local skate shop and buy like a Bones Brigade
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: VHS tape for like twenty five or thirty bucks. You
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: kind of had to if you wanted to learn the
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: cool tricks, right, That's like the only place you could
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: see him at the time. Yeah, And then they were
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: produced in a way like you'd want to watch them
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: again and again, Like they think the fourth one, the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Search for Animal Chin, actually had like a plot and everything. Yeah,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: So you would watch these things again and again. These
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: guys became like your heroes, and not only were you
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: watching them, do their tricks and and you know, watching
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: their videos, but like you also wore their t shirts,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: like you got there deck and it said a lot
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Like I had a Mike McGill deck. I really was
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: into Mike McGill. Yeah, I had a Lance Mountain deck.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Was really into Lance Mountain. And I like Tony Hawk
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: and everything, but I never had a Tony Hawk deck
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: like that. You identify with the skater based on your
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: personality type of yeah, and your style. Yeah, style had
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: a lot to do with it for sure. Uh. Then
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: there was another law in the early nineties because um
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: of the recession is what everyone seems to blame it on.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: And I don't know, I thought it was weird. I
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: don't remember that happening. But now that I think back
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: late high school, early college, there wasn't a lot of
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: like skate stuff going on in that world. And I
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: wasn't skating at the time, but I was still just
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: young enough to pick up on that fourth wave. In
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: the early mid nineties. Well, thanks to the X games,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: that's what really brought it back big time. And Tony
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Hawk too, Yeah, he kept it going. His video games
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: definitely helped spread that fourth waves too. Um and I
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: guess it's never really gone away. Now is bigger than
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: ever skating. Yeah, yeah, Well another thing I think that
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: helped is that eighties nostalgic craze. Yeah, you know that
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: how the eighties inform everything today. Part of that was
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: that the I guess re exploring that third wave of
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: um skateboarding. So like if you're going into a Vand store,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: they're all like old Powell decks are old like UM Vision,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Vision streetwear decks Vision, Yeah, and slime balls. Yeah. I
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: have and I still have a pair of Vans old schools,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: the black and white checker No, no, no, those were
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: this I can't remember the name of those, the slip ons. Yeah,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: the old schools are the black. They had the low
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: top in the high top that has the little sort
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: of white wave on the so yeah, but um, yeah
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: I still wear those shoes. Yeah. So chuck out. We're
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: going to talk about the skateboard itself. You promised. Yes, Um.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: There are three main parts. You have the deck, you
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: have the trucks, and you have the wheels. And like
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: we said, the trucks connect the wheels to the deck
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: and they service the axles on the front and the back.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: It's a little t shaped thing. Um, and I remember
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: definitely like taking a lot of time to get your
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: trucks the way you wanted. Some people like them really
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: loose and some people like them a little tighter. If
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: they're looser, you can turn more aggressively. Yeah, but you
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: also get wobble wheel, and you can get wobble wheel.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: But um, yeah, I like my little tighter too. Yeah,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: like you want to be able to turn, but you
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: also I like the stability of a tighter truck. Yeah. Um,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: you've also got your wheels which have a set of bearings. Yea.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: And the wheels haven't changed too much. They're still polyurethane.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: They've changed in size a little bit. But it's the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: same basic concept, right, And again it still depends on
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: your preference. Like you can buy a pre made skateboard
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: that's all put together, but as you know, any skate
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: worth its salt buy's the deck, buys the trucks, buys
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the wheels that they want, puts it all together. You
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: might as well just go to like a department store
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: by your skateboard if you're just gonna buy it all together, yeah,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: with a little outfit that comes with it. If you're
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: skater one on one out yeah. Um. So the last part,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: arguably the most important part, well one of three most
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: important parts is the deck. Yeah, and the deck has
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: evolved over time. We talked about how the tail kicked
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: up in the early seventies and yeah, that allowed a
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: lot of like tricks. Um. And the if you look
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: at a skateboard from the top or the bottom were
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: you're looking at the outline, that's called the plan. And
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: then if you look at how the tailor the nose
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: is kicked up, and then the concave to the interior
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: of the skateboard, which allows more control and stability. Um,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: that's called the concave. So you've got the plan in
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: the concave and those are part of the deck. They
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: informed the shape and size of the deck and Um.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Then on top of that deck you have the grip tape,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: which I thought that that would have been a recent innovation.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Apparently grip tape was invented all the way back in
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: for scooters. They did it back then, and a guy
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: named Ferdinand's switz Offer invented it nice. Yeah, and they
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: changed the name from switz offfer tape to grip tape. Um. Yeah,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: and in the eighties to the the thing now is
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: your whole board is covered with grip tape. In the
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: mid eighties, I remember I just had like there were
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: graphics on top, so I said, tape at the front
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and the back, and it really didn't make any sense,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: like you the whole thing should be grippy. Yeah, but
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, like again, the Powell graphics are pretty awesome.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Steve Cavallero head that your dragon or like at least
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: you had the bones. Guy. Uh. The decks are not
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: a solid piece of wood. It's actually thin layers um
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: of veneer and they are laminated and then you spread
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: adhesive and you just you know, like with a lot
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: of furniture, it is just many layers of thin wood
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: compressed together into a mold, and it's a hydraulic press
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: that just smashes it all together until you've got your
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: really solid piece of wood. Yeah, and it's definitely a
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: lot stronger than just the sum of its parts, yeah,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: for sure, from being molded plywood. Um. And then you
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: cut that plan out yeah uh. And then after that
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: you spray it with some sealing because you don't want
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: to accidentally all into a puddle or a fountain or
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: something like that and have your boardwarp or purposefully right
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: allie into a fountain and then the graphics are put
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: on and then the grip tape. I get a sense
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: that graphics aren't like super cool anymore? Am I wrong?
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: That it's sort of like it's a matter of I
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: think it's a matter of preference. It definitely isn't like
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: in the mid eighties it was like they were so obnoxious.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, remember the gator one m It was like, um,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: kind of like, uh, I guess a vertigo thing, but
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: it was made out of different spikes. You would recognize
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: it immediately. He saw. Yeah, I definitely had the stickers
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: on my car, and like it was a thing. We
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: had a shop in a Stone Mountain called surfs up
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: in Stone Mountains. Stone Mountain. Yeah, that was obviously open
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: for like, you know, four and a half years, and
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: they had like skate gear in surfer gear and for
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: all us like you know in in inland living people. Yeah,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: it was like you used to have to initially at
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the early wave in the early eighties, like you had
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: to go to like a ski shop because skiing was
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: already established, and then like they'd open up a little
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: section for skateboards, and then eventually got a little bigger,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden there were actual skate shops.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: All right. That is the actual uh skateboard in all
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: its three parts. Um, And I guess we need to
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: talk about how to ride this thing. Um, Yeah, because
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the fourth part is you. That's right. Although it looks
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: cool just hanging on your wall. If you want to
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: impress the ladies, sure, like check out my skateboard. Yeah,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: that was all into that, Um. But it is like surfing,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: and the reason they compare it to surfing is that
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: it's sort of like a smaller version. You have the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: side stands, just like on a surfboard. And if you
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: heard our surfing podcast, you heard us talk about regular
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: foot and goofy foot. Is there a mango foot on surfing? Tea, No,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: because you're not pushing off of any Um. Regular foot
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: is your left foot forward, and uh, you're using your
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: right foot to push. Goofy foot is the opposite of that,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: your right foot forwards. You're pushing with your left just
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: does not feel right now. And I was a mango
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: foot and I never knew it until I looked this up. Um,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: that is when you're left foot is forward. I'm sorry,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: your your right foot is on the board, but you're
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: using your left foot to push and your foot is
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: at the rear not the front. Yeah, and I just
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: that just feels supernatural to me. But um, not supernatural,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: but very natural. But um, apparently mango foot is is.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: I think you're sort of frowned upon as a person,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: but by real skaters. If your mom will be like, layoff,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I've watched two. You can't even kick flip, so you
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: pay attention to how you stand. That's what you say
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: to people if they give you guff about being mongo foot. Well,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: the problem with mongo foot is you have to shift
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: your feet a little bit once both are back on
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the board. And uh, I guess you can't like bust
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: a move immediately with a trick. Uh. Which matters if
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: you're like competing for half a million dollars, but not
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: if you're like on your way down to the seven eleven. Yeah.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: If you've never skated before and you want to try it, um,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: I would advise to not start with mongo foot at
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: all if you don't know any better, because you know
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: you won't be made fun of right. You know, maybe
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: is that what kept you back? Maybe you'd be like, right, now,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: that was what it was. But I've never seen this before.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: It makes sense if they if you don't know which
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: foot you're prominent with, although I would say if you're
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: right footed, you're probably gonna be a regular foot, and
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: if you're goofy foot footed, you might be goofy foot.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: I think it has to do with handedness. So like,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: if you're right handed, your left foot is gonna be forward.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: You're gonna push with your right foot. If you're left handed,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: you're gonna be goofy foot. Where your right foot's forward,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: you push with your left foot. I think you push
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: with your foot in the rear of the dominant hand
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: side or foot side, right, Yeah, but I think your
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: dominant hand is typically your dominant foot as well. Yeah,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: it seems right. And then if if if you if
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: somebody came up and pushed you, Yeah, that's the test.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: The foot you put back to steady yourself, that's the
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: one you want to use to push with before you
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: crow hop and punch them in the fair what what
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: the h man? Yeah, So I've never heard that. That's
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: a little trick you can do. Yeah, And I guess
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: you're not maybe surprised somebody, because if you think about
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: it too much, like all right, push me, you try
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: to put both feetback at once and you end up
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: just hopping. Uh. So there are a few different quite
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: a few different things you can do. Back in the day,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: it was all about like the downhill slalom, which is boring. No,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, super speed is not boring. Scary it is,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: she said. I I suffered a pretty decent head injury once. Yeah,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I got the wobble wheel going downhill, and I was like,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I got a bail out, and right before I went
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: to go jump on the grass, the boar went whoop,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: and I went forward and landed on my head and
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: skidded on my head entirely helm at all. Right, No, yes,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: it's like right, and uh yeah it was. It was something. Yeah,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: I remember I have not been the same sense. Most
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: neighborhoods have one hill you know that you don't dare
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: go down. And my best friend, his name was Chuck.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Actually at the time in mid high schools, have been
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: very confused. He had a hill like that, and I
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: remember standing at the top of it and thinking there's
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: no way I should be doing this and getting on
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: the skateboard and trying to go down, and like you said,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: bailing out into the grass was always Uh, if you're
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood a nice way to go about things.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Is that what you did? Uh? I think I went
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: all the way down actually, but yeah, it's a little scary,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: you know, no way I do that now. I remember
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: a car was driving past and stopped and went, oh
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: my god, are you okay? I was like, wow, is
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: that bad? Huh? And they finished their beer and drove
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: on through their can abby. So you also have freestyle,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: which is um doing tricks and things on a flat surface. Um.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: And we're gonna get into the tricks a little bit
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: in a minute, which if you are like, what's a freestyle,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: it sounds stupid. Look up Rodney Mullen or parawellnder Yeah
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: on YouTube. Check out some of their especially their eighties
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: stuff the early mid eighties. They were doing some pretty
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: cool stuff, and some of it is like that stuff
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: that you were saying the California dudes doing, like handstands
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: on moving skateboard or just the three sixties, like standing
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: in one place with a nose in the air, but
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: then they would take their hands and like flip their
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: board sixty degrees eight times and land on it. They're
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: pretty good. Yeah, pretty great stuff. And it takes creativity
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: for sure. It's definitely like choreography and a skateboard. Well,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: and I have a feeling you're about to say vert skating.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: I wasn't, but I will. Are you ready, they didn't
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: give rise to vert skating. Skating well, vert skating, Yeah,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: it kind of that came out of those dogtown guys
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: in the swimming pools. Yeah, because a pool is considered
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: vert skating. Vert is short for vertical, right, because you're
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: skating on vertical services like a pool or a bowl
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: or a half pipe or a quarter pipe or whatever.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Or if you're like me to milk crates in a
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: piece of plywood, did you do that? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: the Josh pipe it was not that stable. Uh, it's
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: a vertical is when people started leaving and catching air,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: leaving the side of whatever surface they were on, which
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: was really exciting at the time. Yeah. I can't imagine
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: having been there, and it's only gone up and up
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: since then, you know. Uh, and then you've got street skating,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: which um is if you've seen uh, ladies and dudes
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: on the street like jumping up the air onto a
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: park bench and grinding that park bench or a railing,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: or smashing themselves trying to grind a railing. That is
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: uh street skating. Or if you've ever played the Tony
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Hawk video game, did you ever play that? Yeah, the
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: first one. Yeah, if you play that enough. People who
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: have played that enough, now I'm talking about you start
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: walking around in life and everything you see you think, oh, man,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I could grind that so hard if I could really skate. Yeah,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: not in real life, um, but yeah, so so street
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: skating kind of. I guess you could say it combines
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: freestyle with obstacles, using obstacles in the um built environment.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: That's street skating. Yeah, And that's the stuff that usually
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: you'll see like frowned upon by businesses and people thinking
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: like these hooliguns are out there right, which skateboarding is
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: not a crime man, although if you use the skate,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: go to jail. But to combat all that crime stuff,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of cities built skate parks in the seventies.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: What they didn't realize is that, um, when those kids
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: fell and cracked their heads, their parents were gonna see.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: And so all of a sudden, the insurance premiums four
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: skate parks went through the roof and all the cities
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: shut them down, and they went away for a very
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: long time. And then I guess there was some changes
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: in in liability laws that allowed skate parks to come back.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: And so now skate parks are back, but they're very
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: frequently put up by cities. They're like, we'll build a
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: skate park, and they don't ask the skaters how to
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: build a skate park. So they build like a terrible skatepark,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: and the skaters don't use it, and the cities are like,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: use skate punk kids use the skatepark, and they're like,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: your skate park sucks, and they're like, no it doesn't,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: and yes it does in this gate away um or
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: they do it well and it's too crowded. Well. If
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: there's one thing I know is that for every skate
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: park in any city, there will be a group of
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: skaters saying this place sucks. I remember when we shot
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: at a skate park. Remember these local kids and it
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: was a new skate park. One of them, that one
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: kid was pretty good. Yeah he's all right, but Um,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: I s him. I was like this is great, right,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: this is new and it's indicator, and like they're like
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: it sucks. Yeah. Well then that one kid lied. He
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: said he lived from like a Ceder part of Atlanta.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Hit us up for bus fair and somebody. Yeah, one
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: of the crew saw him like go into his house
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: like a block away in this very nice neighborhood Decatur
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: and hide his skateboard in his backyard. Um, if you
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: and they can be different, they can be like uh
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: smaller half pipes and ramps and rails and things and
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: obstacles to My recommendation if you ever visit l A
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: is to go to Venice Beach to their newish skate
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: park there, and it is like the Cubment Bowl. It's
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: like a huge series of connected swimming pools. And this
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: is where you'll see some like you'll see the old
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: school guys that aren't leaving the bowl, that are just
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: like carving it up as like sweet as pudding. And uh,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: then you've got guys that really know what they're doing,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: like catching air and doing you know, three sixties and
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: and there's a bulldog that rides a skateboard there too.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: I've heard of that. You should see him. It's quite amazing.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it is like you can't catch air or whatever,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: but just the fact that a dog is using a
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: skateboard is pretty awesome. So should we talk about some tricks.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Let's well, almost every trick on Earth is based on
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: the ali the trick named after Alan Alie gelfand he
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: invented it in the early nineteen seventies, mid nineteen seventies,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: And that is basically when you jump up in the air,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: and if you've seen skateboarders do it, you might wonder,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: how on earth do they jump up in the air
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: and have that skateboard seemingly attached to their feet. I
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: never was very good at it, I really no, I
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: could all be pretty good. I was more of a
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: sidewalk surfer than like a trick aerial guy. Yeah, you know,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: well I wasn't a trick aerial guy either, but I
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: could Allie. You know, well, explain the Alie. Oh well, okay,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: so the Alie is Let's say you're on your board
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: and you're on a flat surface. You kick your the
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: tail of the skateboard down really hard against the ground,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: and uh what this does? This this um exerted force
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: allows you to overcome the force of gravity. And since
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: you're jumping at the same time you jump into the air,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: um you're taking off your own downward pressure on the board.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: To the front of the board, the nose goes up
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: high in the air, and the fact that you slapped
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: the tail against the ground means the tail comes up
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: into the air until it's even with the nose and
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: the board's flat in the air and it looks like
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: it's attached to your feet if you do it right. Yeah,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: And all of a sudden you and the board are
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: four ft into the air and then you come back
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: down and you landed. That's an Alie. It's funny you
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: mentioned four feet the world record. Danny Wainwright of h
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: I think he's from England, Uh recorded a forty four
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: and a half inch Ali. Well, it's pretty amazing. Yeah,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: but it was that like standing still. No, you know,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: it's like, you know, they just set up something to
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: jump over. You keep adding layers until you know you
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: can't jump any higher, and then you've got like, you know,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: ten feet to get going, and then just pop up
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: and it looks like it's attached to his feet and
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: the allie is so integral to so many other um,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: so many other tricks that it's it's almost not a
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: trick any longer in and of itself. It's like the
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: basic mechanic of whatever other trick that follows. But like,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: you pretty much can't do anything without ali ing. And
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: that's how those those guys originally caught air convert skating
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: was to ali off of the coping the top, and
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: then you would catch some serious air because you already
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: had that extra momentum behind you as well. St Okay,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: we're back, Chuck. We're gonna talk about the names of tricks,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: different types of tricks, all right. So, if you've ever
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: watched the X Games and you hear the sort of
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: annoying announcers admittedly talking using all these words you've never heard,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: we're gonna explain what some of these words mean just
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: to help you follow along a little bit. That's right. Um,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: you might hear speak out front side there or whatever.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Front side is when you're facing the obstacle and performing
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: a trick, as opposed to backside, when you're back is
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: to the obstacle. Yeah, Like you're basically going backwards on
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: the skateboard. That's right. Yeah, um Let one eight is
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: pretty basic trick, but it's um, well, it's where you
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: ali and you and the board turn a hundred eighty
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: degrees to face in the opposite direction. Yeah, Like you
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: go up the ramp and then you turn the mid
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: air and you come right back down. You can also
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: do it on a flat surface, or you could one
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: eighty onto like a park bench or something and trained
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: it whatever. Um, but the one eighty also kind of
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: forms a basis for a lot of other tricks, especially
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: vert tricks like three sixties and five forties all the
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: way up to ten eighties and you can grab the
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: side of your board and just do all sorts of
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: cool stuff. Yeah. Tony Hawk famously completed the first nine
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: hundred degree turn and for many years they thought that
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: was it until a twelve year old named Tom Shar
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: in two thousand twelve pulled off the first ten eighty
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: and uh, they filmed it. It It wasn't in competition. The
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: first one in competition was a guy named Mitch Brusco.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: He did at the X Games, and that is three
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: full rotations in the air. Uh, And obviously you have
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: to land X successfully for it to count. And to
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: live and live and uh, it's amazing, man, three full
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: rotations in the air. These dudes are getting up super
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: super high. Now, Uh, you ever heard the word fakey?
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: I have? Fakey is um basically where you remain in
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: your regular stance, but you're going backwards. Yeah, so you're
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: doing like, um, you're going into a backside trick. That's right. Uh.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Pop shove it is when you do an ali with
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: the one eight, but your body isn't moving, you're just
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: uh popping up in the air and flipping the skateboard
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: around underneath you and then landing on it. And then
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: we talked about grinding. Um, there's a couple of ways
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: you can grind. A true grind is when you're on
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: the actual axles, so you've gotta be going forward. Or
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: you can go sideways and grind on your board, and
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: that's called a board slide or a rail slide. And
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: then the kick flip, of course, is the one that
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: you see people busting butt on which I've pulled off once.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: That's right, the famous Josh kick flip. And then of
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: course chuck. There's the manual, which is another way to
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: say a wheelie. I was good at those front side
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: manual backside manual I could do, Like I was not good.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: I think that's becoming clear. Like I thought it was
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: cool if I could do a little wheelie and do
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: a little one a D turn on the ground. Yeah, no,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: I'm with you, man, I understand I wasn't very good either,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: But Chuck I had years of enjoyment. Twice third Wave
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: and fourth wife loved skateboarding, love it like I just
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: love skateboarding. I think everybody should go out on skateboard
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: all the time. You're never going to be one of
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: those old men that's like, quit grinding my rail. Oh
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: well yeah, if I had a nice rail out trying,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: I'd be like, ghet the hell off of my rail,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: But I I would still it's not like a hate
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: skateboarding in general. Yeah, but you might chip in and
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: help build a half pipe in your neighborhood, maybe away
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: from my really nice rail. Right, that's a good idea. Uh,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: If you do want to try skateboarding, obviously these days,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: with the safety consciousness of people, you should get a
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: helmet and some kneepads and elbow pads and if you're smart,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: maybe some risk guards, although that might not be cool.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: Well no, actually, like there's a that's another reason skate
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: parks off and go and uses because there's local ordinances
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: that say you have to wear a helmet and pads,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: and of course skaters are like that sucks. Yeah, but
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: the wrist guards. That's a common injury because you'll you'll
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: often go to brace yourself with your arms when you fall,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: and they say to try and fall in your fleshy
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: parts of your body, but you're really kind of at
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: the whim of where gravity takes you. I think at
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: that point, well, you know, that was another reason I
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: think I wasn't ever that good, just because back when
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: I was a kid, they were all fleshy parts. It's
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: hard to get air. We should have been safe. It
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: was uh, you got anything else? No, man, that's it,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: uh skateboarding. If you want to know more about it,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: you should type skateboarding into the word search bar at
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. That's the first thing you
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: should do. You should follow that up by watching skate
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: videos and going to buy a skateboard and go skating.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah you know I want to get along board now?
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, that's the old man style. Yeah, just cruising,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: get on a flat surface and use it carving the
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: concrete waves a mode of transportation. Yeah, are you gonna
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: learn to do handstands on it? Uh? Let's see. Since
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: I said handstands and then laugh, that means it's time
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: for listener mail. I'm gonna call this Josh, what are
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: you hiding? And I'm glad to get this mail because
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: I knew I wasn't crazy. So let's just get into this.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: You know. Can I say I don't even remember this
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: most recent reference? All right, well, let's just explain here
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: what's going on. This is from Ben. Ben says, Hey, guys,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: I've been living like a trog globitic trug gloodt for
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: the past six years because I just discovered your amazing
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: podcast a few weeks ago. As Penance. I've been listening
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: to UH several per day and have since gone to
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: over one hundred. So he's binging. He said, just noticed
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: something in UH. During the Ken Cats Scuba Dive episode
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: not one of our best on August twelve, two eight,
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: Josh goes into detail about he was a certified scuba
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: diver and that the one time he was in open water,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: he not only got se sick, but also got a
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: slight case of the bens due to surfacing too quickly. Then. Uh.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: In two thousand thirteen and the Diving Bell episode, Chuck says,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: I thought I remembered many months ago you mentioned something
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: about getting the bens, and Josh quickly and confidently retorted,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: I've never had the bends. So I know this is
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: almost five years later, but it begs the question, what
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: are you trying to hide? Josh? You have answered some
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: of the greatest, long lasting questions in history. Uh, but
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: this is one of the few times where you simply
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: added another mystery into the pile of the enigma and
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: conspiracy that is our world. So have you ever had
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: the bensh? So? Uh? In I was skating down the
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: hill and I fell in him my head. Uh yeah.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: I would call it a mild case of the bens. Okay,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: So you just don't remember denying you had the Ben's okay,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: all right, well there's your answer. Yeah. Well, I not
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: only do I not remember denying having the bends. When
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: I denied having the bends, I had forgotten that I'd
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: had the bends before. And again, this is a very
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: mild case, but it wasn't just seasickness. It was directly
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: related to having just spent half an hour under water,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: you know, all right, so I would call that a
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: case the bens. I think that clears it up. Then
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: that is from Ben Helms from Mount Shasta, California. And
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: I'm sure Ben will be unsatisfied with your explanation of Ben.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: I just forgot. That's pretty much it. Yeah, let's see.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: If you want to get in touch with Chuck and I,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: you can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: You can join us on Facebook dot com slash Stuff
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: you Should Know. You can see us on our YouTube channel.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: Just look up Josh and Chuck on YouTube. Tons of
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: fun there, uh, and you can send us an email
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: to Stuff podcast and how Stuff Works dot com. Stuff
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's How
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.