First an OCR health warning: the text below has been extracted from the scan using Optical Character Recognition. So there are likely to be some horrid mistakes. And maybe some funny ones.

This also means that the effort involved in keeping this project going has increased again. So the year has got off to a bad start. On a more up-beat note, yesterday I was wandering along by the sea at Tankerton, near Whitstable in Kent and stumbled across one of the current generation of skateparks.

Every time I see one of these, especially one getting a lot of use as this one was, I am both delighted and astonished. I look on these things and marvel. This is what we had scarcely dared dream about in the days when the words below were written. The dreams did come true and, judging by what I saw yesterday the dream turned out to be as imagined and not a nightmare.

The park at Whitstable reminded me of Livingston (bowls with metal pipe coping and almost Andover type banks) and that in turn reminded me of an earlier trip to that part of Kent made by Iain Urquhart who was there officially to study some shopping centre (I think) in Chatham and unofficially to take a look at the Black Lion park in Gillingham. His pioneering work in establishing that councils could provide free, unsupervised facilities lives on in Whitstable’s park and in the disclaimer sign next to it — as well as dozens (hundreds?) of other parks across the UK.

Enough of that. Read on for Derry Thompson announcing his departure from the ESA, hints of my mixed feelings about government schemes to clothe the youth of the day in the uniforms of entrepreneurs and a passing reference to Spike Jonze as street BMX pioneer rather than the photographer of same (who I greatly admired) let alone the film maker (ditto).

LUGHOLES
Listen out for Dobie on the Peel Show, he’s just recorded a session for them but forgot to tell us who he was backing; or when it’s going out. More rumours flying about in Livingston: seems like an indoor park is& expensive, but an extension to the existing one is a possibility Talking of Livingston, are the Scottish Pool Championships taking place on August 27th and 28th? The SSA presumably know, but they aren’t telling. Update on incestuous Taiwanese: last month it was copies of Pacer Maniacs, this month fake Transmissions hove been spotted in Dunstable. Simple rule: you get what you pay for. El 6for a complete board does NOT get you lot. But does £170? Not if it’s Powell deck with Pacer undercarriage. lt’s said that the same establishment asks E20 for each Vision Blur and S4.50 Thrasher. We print no names: we’d like to think that to do so would be libellous, though we hove a horrible feeling it’s all true. Check the prices in the adverts in here before you part with vast quantities of cash. “Skateboarding is Not a Crime” Sez who? The Police Review devoted a page to the subject coming up with various examples of legislation a skater might fall foul of. If they want to nick you they’ll nick you Groholski’s riding for Street Wear now Shoes, shoes, how about signature model shoes? Are Vans talking to a couple of high flying pros? And is one of them holding back to see if the other wants to take up the offer? A real Gentleman It’s not oust watches: Swatch are talking about something similar: siggy PopSwatches as well as ordinary ones. John Grigley was the name being linked with this tale. Vision have got lots of new things on the way. No sooner do the first VexCons appear than they come up with an even newer concave with a big upturned nose, steep tail and double kick also killer new shoes a bit like Air Jordans and new minimalist graphics all round @Todd Anderson and Pete Augustine are on Redline Craig Savage Flower and Love Tree Grasso also off to pastures new, rumour has it. New bike street tricks: Lipslides on a bike. You go up, do a rolling endo on your front wheel, pull your rear calliper and as your wheel hits your momentum makes you slide Spike Jonze is your man
DERRY TO QUIT ESA
The filthy rumours that Derry Thompson is to resign from the ESA are true. Dews been running the skateboard association virtually single-handed for years now, and he feels that it’s time to stop. For too long, he feels, the Association has reflected the policies of one person and now Ws time for a change. He also wants his life back.
Derry plans to resign at the next Executive meeting. What happens then will be interesting to see. We’ll certainly be watching closely. I was actively involved in transforming the ESA from an organisation run by career sports administrators to one run by skaters, back at the beginning of the eighties. Maybe that trend is about to be reversed.
Watch out for proficiency award schemes, merit badges. national and regional teams, full pro gear for freestyle and much. much more.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
Has to come from the Kentucky comp (the one which delayed the Powell Team’s arrival in this country). This was the chant taken up by the skate brats as the pros sessioned:
‘STOP skating -START signing’
Fortunately during the Powell Tour the skating was allowed to take precedence over the autographing – when the weather wasn’t getting in on the act.
SKATETREPRENEURS
Latest unlikely recruits to Thatcher’s other army of young businessmen are Jamie Blair and Davie Philip. They swapped Poizone gear for suits and ties and, armed with the obligatory cash-flow forecasts, applied for various government grants. Imagine sitting through interviews with a panel made up of pillars of the Glasgow business community and explaining about skateboarding …
But they did it. Mustering evidence from such unlikely sources as this magazine (last month’s poster: “There’s our market, look at all those people”) they made their case successfully. The, is Clan Skates Shop 45 Hyndland Street, Partick Glasgow (near Kelvin Hall Underground). should be open for business now.
Jamie and Davie were a bit worried about what the reaction from Glasgow’s biggest existing skate shop, Quarterback at 28-32 Union Street (fair?) might be, but they seem cool about it. The Scottish scene’s smoking: there’s plenty of room for more than one shop~
RAMP ON OFFER
Across the land local papers are lapping up skating with pieces ranging from the ‘Well guess what, skateboarding’s back ho ho’ gibberish to stuff about skate crazed hooligans vandalising flowerbeds and terrorising peds. Skateboarders Ate My Poodle Alive! may yet appear as a real headline.
Some are even approaching the matter in serious fashion. As for example in a story sent to us by Guy from Tombstone Skates in Thornbury, Bristol. His local paper ran a piece about skaters looking for a new home for their backyard mini because of noise problems with neighbours.
HORSE-EYED AND HOMELESS
The luckless Dave Currey is temporarily on the streets minus all his worldly goods in sunny CA. He’s just been evicted and had all his gear impounded. His offence? Sustained and serious partying of the type liable to cause a breach of the peace. It’s been a very wearying time for him.

Pictures of the Whitstable skatepark which show what I’m getting at here. If someone can provide me with a better link for more, I’ll add it later. Thanks.