Ben Wheeler, Peter Medlicott and various others are pictured skating those essential items: bits of old ply and brick banks. It’s our world; we enjoy it.
The skaters take the spaces the others ignore. They use the junk the builders leave lying around. They explore and enjoy their new surroundings, they don’t feel threatened by them. It happens now as it has always happened: the neat little figures on the architect’s pretty sketch are replaced by real people doing real and often different things. In another real world. Our world. Enjoy.
CAPTIONS:
In the indoor market there are these tables… Peter Medlicott
So much building going on, so much space in yet-to-open car parks, so much ply lying around. Ben
2 responses to “The raw materials of skateboarding: banks and bits of ply”
Man, these were the days!
I’ll never forget the day that TLB called to say he wanted to hit up the streets of Telford (of all places!!).
It was then time for a hectic call round to make sure that every man and his dog would be out for a skate – which in those days was no real problem as there were just so many people skating.
Tim drove down early one Saturday I think and we arranged to meet at the Oakengates banks – a set of various sized banks under a fly over. Within no time Rueben and Ben were tearing the place up (putting us to shame to be honest, but hey, that’s not the point of it!)
As the day progressed we toured the spots around Oakengates, including the retro 70’s bowl (which still stands to this day) and then we hit the market – little did I know I’d get into the mag – You can’t imagine how stoked I was when it came out! – just check out those rector gloves and old skool Airwalks, plus there was a huge crack through my board.
So as the day progressed more and more people tagged along and at one point there must have been around 30 people skating – and what were we skating? that huge pile of shitty plywood! that was like our skate park, just set up in the middle of one of the Telford retail parks – these days they just get torn down but for some reason back then, no one minded.
It was a brilliant day, topped off at the end when Tim pulled out a new G&S Danny Webster deck and gave it to me as mine was screwed – again, super stoked!
What a great day and one that will stay with me forever – cheers for putting up the shots Tim
Those were great days for me, too. The part of the magazine I enjoyed most over the years was going to all those different places, each with its special skate scene.
I still have a very bizarre notion of the geography of the UK, mapped out in terms of car parks and obscure banks rather than tourist attractions.