As the New Year approaches, some thoughts....

I've just been surfing and have come across quite a few of my old friends from way back in the days of OG Sk8ing. Big names like Harry Jumonji, "Big Jim" Moore, and Bruno Musso. These were some of the trendsetters and pathmakers of the NYC skating world back in the '80's and '90's. They made skating what it is now, whether they acknowledge it or not. And I was a witness to all of it, and documented a small bit of it for posterity's sake. What is covered by ESPN now, was done in the darkness of back alleys and abandoned warehouses back then. Then, we were chased by agents of the law, and now these new breeders are chased by agents of the Global Media. No matter what, the message remains the same: "Skate Free or DIE!!!" We lived by an anarchist code, we rode hard and took no prisoners. We did what we had to do, and sometimes we paid a heavy price, either with our sanity, our flesh, or mosttimes both. I still look at my board in the corner and think back to those warm summer days when we had the music in our ears, the wind in our faces, and the asphalt under our wheels. So I wish this new generation of skaters all the best, and hope they keep the old traditions alive and well. Shred hard, shred fast, shred deep. Later.