I like to make things skateable. When I think about it I have been like that ever since I started skating. The first major modification I can think of was creating my flatbar out of rusted metal bars I found at my middle school. It was a big piece of wooden and metal junk and I am still unsure of it’s purpose. I asked the school officials if I could take it and they said it was okay, so my parents loaded it into our pickup and we were set. My Mom was welding at the time and she had to cut the main bars off of the whole contraption. We bolted the metal bars onto some wooden planks and I still skate that flatbar ten years later.
As I have grown I think I actually go out of my way to make things skateable. To me, figuring out how to skate something in a new way is a trick in itself, and I like those tricks. So it follows that making a previously unskateable spot skateable can be even better. With this attitude I spent a week shoveling rocks and gravel at my local skatepark to make a new spot. I am not sure but I think Kramer named it after me, and years later it is still called Bud’s Gap. I have done a lot of cool tricks at that park, but making a new spot for everyone to skate will always be my best trick.
Today I was working with quickcrete during my job. I have never worked with anything like it before, but as a skater I have always wanted to. Luckily my Dad is my boss, so when there was a little bit left over he said I could start a new spot. As soon as I got the okay I was as giddy as a teenage skate-rat. Working on it and smoothing it out was strangely fun despite the simplicity. I was going for a rough tranny to mainly make a wallie spot, but it looks like I will need a little more ‘crete. The only hard part now is waiting for it to be done!
So What is Skateboarding? 