You can tell a lot about the state of skateboarding in 1988 from this list.
On the ‘big, organised’ front we have the AES competition series contests in Belgium and Prague. Coming up on the inside is ‘commerce discovers skateboarding’ in the form of the Rockit/Swatch Skate Tour in Narbarth and Newquay. But the ones which really speak of what was happening for me are “Street Sesh” in Church Square, Scunthorpe and the enigmatic “Meet 12 Central Library” listed for Birmingham on August 28th.
Skateboarding behind the Iron Curtain (then still just about hanging on) was a sign of bigger changes to come. So was the Swatch Rockit tour within our own little world. But, for me, it was the stuff in Birmingham and Scunthorpe which really mattered.
In fact I think I was delighted when I got caught up in traffic and missed the plane to Czechoslovakia. I hated all those big competitions and I’m not sure how I would have reacted to Western skaters discovering that they could afford to drink restaurants dry in the days before stag and hen parties became regular sights in Prague.
The roots of R.a.D were in the skateboard dark ages: the time when skateboarding was underground. Although we wanted everyone to share our passion and wanted everyone to skate, I for one didn’t really wanted the trappings which were to come with mass acceptance.