"We Suck"
By Daniel Brockman

My vast knowledge of skateboarding encompasses almost nothing, so I set out to increment that, by finding some experts. It was a fabulous blue-sky day in San Francisco, with plenty of sun, with temperature a little cool and a light breeze.

I went to Justin Herman Plaza and there introduced myself to three fellows. Each wore a black T-shirt and blue jeans. The skinny fellow with straight black hair had nearly perfected a technique of rolling along on the rear wheels with the front wheels aloft. I approached him and began talking, learned his name was Luis. One of his pals, Pablo, a massive, muscular, olive-skinned fellow with a big grin and a bandanna around his head, came rolling up. Luis carried most of the conversation, while Pablo practiced tricks, occasionally contributing a comment. The third, tall and athletic with light brown hair, whose name I learned was Kyril, attended to intense practice fifty yards away.

Q: Hi! I'm writing an article on skateboarding. Will you talk to me about it?

Luis: You don't want to talk to us. We're no good. Those guys over there are better. They're like pros. Why don't you go down to Pier 7?

Q: Yeah, I saw some people standing around down there, doing tricks and all. You don't feel like you're in their league, eh?

Luis: No.

Q: Do you do competitions?

Luis: No, we don't.

Pablo: Between us (laughter).

Luis: Not real competitions.

Q: You say you're beginners. How long?

Luis: Like four or five months. I can do pretty much basic things like. That's pretty good for a beginner.

Pablo: It takes like six months to do flips.

Luis: No. Like four months to do flips. Just practice a lot.

Pablo: One-eighty! One-eighty!

Q: What do you call this trick you do with balancing on the rear wheels?

Luis: Like that?

Pablo: One-eighty! Oh NOOO-ooo! (laughter)

Q: Yeah, like that.

Luis: Manual. There's like normal manual --

Pablo: Oh!!

Luis: -- or nose manual. That's a one-eighty right there.

Luis pointed as Pablo leaped while switching positions of his feet.

Luis: That's a one-eighty.

Pablo: Oh! Ho-ho-haaah! I stand on the board!

Luis: Look at that! Then there's kick-flip.

Pablo: Lookit that! Lookit that!

Luis: When you're real good, you can do kick-flip. Kick- flip is done this way, where you start your foot from here to over here to make it flip. A heel-flip is where you lean out.

I couldn't quite detect what "foot from here to over here" meant.

Pablo: Lookit, lookit. Wanna see a one-eighty?

We watched Pablo do a one-eighty.

Q: What are you best at?

Luis: Riding it, manual.

Pablo: I'm best at riding it -- ha ha -- and manual.

Q: The three of you are wearing black shirts and blue jeans.

Luis: Coincidence! It's a coincidence!

Kyril rolled up.

Kyril: Where are you from?

Q: I write. I'm writing an article for CityAthletes.com .

Kyril: We aren't athletes.

Pablo: He's a break-dancer. He could do a free show right here.

He didn't.

Luis: You know about all the skate parks? You should go to 14th Street and Mission. There's like an old abandoned building and steps there. Lot's of skaters out there.

I said goodbye to Luis, Pablo and Kyril, and went over to Pier 7, the wooden pier with the antique lights. There I found thirty or forty skateboarders along the Embarcadero, practicing their craft or lounging on the benches. I approached three of them. These guys were older than Luis, Pablo and Kyril. All were about the same medium height. We introduced ourselves. Ryan wore a plaid flannel shirt and a ball cap, Rick a white T-shirt, and Orin an aloha number.

Q: I wonder if you guys could tell me a little about skateboarding. I don't know anything about it. I've been watching you out here on your skateboards. One thing you do, you roll up to the pedestal, jump up on it, roll on across the top and then off the other side. How long does it take to learn to do that?

Ryan: It takes a long time, actually, because you have to adjust your muscles to get used to doing that kind of trick. And when you try something else, it's completely different.

Q: How long does it take to learn to skate like this?

Ryan: I started about a year ago.

Rick: About the same.

Orin: Me, too.

Q: What's the board made out of? It looks laminated.

Ryan: It's wood, seven ply, with glue in between to keep it all together when you press it. It's got its own shape. Every board has a different kind of shape.

Q: Do you like this style versus shorter, longer, wider or narrower?

Ryan: It's cool. This one's fine. It's just one style. You've got old school where it's got no nose, and another looks like banana shaped, good for doing tricks.

Q: Do you guys do competitions?

All: Nah!

Rick: We suck.

Q: That's what everybody says. Everybody I'm talking with says "Nah! We're no good at this!"

Ryan: I'm going to do some tricks.

Ryan and Rick skated off.

Q: Seems like it used to be the police handed out tickets for skateboarding.

Orin: They still do.

Q: I don't see a lot of police around here handing out tickets. Is this kind of special? Are they cool about this zone?

Orin: I guess. We've gotten tickets for skating here.

Q: Where else do you like to skate?

Orin: We're not from the Bay Area. We're from Fairfield. We just drove up here today to visit. So I don't know too much about what's around here.

I took Luis's advice and hopped the Mission Street bus to 14th and Mission. I stood there on the corner by the old brick Armory and looked around for a while, but I didn't see anyone on a skateboard. Maybe it wasn't the right day or the right hour.

There must be somebody in San Francisco who has some ability at skateboarding, someone who doesn't suck who could tell me about the experience of doing it well. I'll make another exploration soon. Check the CityAthletes articles again in a few weeks.

--end--
1035 words.

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