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ric_a5
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I started skating when I was about twelve, everyone had stopped skateboarding (apart from Stephen Fitzgerald, who was a couple of years above me at Pimlico School, he was the last skateboarder standing at South Bank around 1980-81) and one summer me and my mates all decided to get quads... There were about ten of us who used to skate at Battersea Park and South Bank, Sundays we'd be back and forth between both spots multiple times at breakneck speeds, old bill trying to grab us as we went past parliament, was so much fucking fun...
We started the second street hockey team in London, The Cruisers were the first, we, The Speed Merchants (lol) were the second... There'd be massive free-for-all games where the British Genius exhibition had been at Battersea, up to fifty kids chasing one ball around, it was mayhem!
Most of the other skaters were soul heads, cut-off Muscle™ sweat shirts, silky running shorts and legwarmers, boxing boots for skates, hanging out looking beautiful and dancing to tunes but we were all in combat pants, Bauer Turbos and leather jackets, spiky hair and jumping off steps and flying down hills as fast as we could, no one else was doing that at the time, we were deffo the odd ones out... I'd take my ghettoblaster down and we'd be listening to The Birthday Party, The Gun Club, The Fall, The Cramps and The Ramones... Hehehe...
I kept two sets of wheels, a set of black Kryptos and a set of black Sims Street Snakes, and bought a pair of boots and trucks for them in the early 00s, but I felt like a massive plonker so gave up on it...
Right before I came to Oz I finally decided to let go of the dream and left the boots and both sets of wheels on top of the bins outside our flat... They were gone in five minutes, hope they got some use...
Anyway, massively cool story... Great times as a teenager, I get very misty eyed about them...
PS Who remembers Slick Willie's? There were two branches, one above Our Price on the Kings Road and the other next to Kensington Market on HSK...
PPS My rig was Bauer Turbos, Variflex plates and Kryptos or Street Snakes on NSK bearings... Smooth as silk...