{"id":130,"date":"2006-03-28T08:59:24","date_gmt":"2006-03-28T08:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whenwewasrad.co.uk\/?p=130"},"modified":"2006-05-08T16:18:27","modified_gmt":"2006-05-08T16:18:27","slug":"ears-news-page-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whenwewasrad.co.uk\/index.php\/2006\/03\/28\/ears-news-page-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ears – News Page Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ears,<\/a><\/p>\n

NEASDEN GONE<\/h2>\n

London’s just lost it’s hottest unofficial skate spot. The empty open air swimming pool at Gladstone Park in Neasden has been filled. For years this huge expanse of smooth, smooth concrete was the ultimate semi-secret spot in the south. It’s fame spread throughout the world as visitors came, couldn’t believe their eyes, sessioned and went home babbling incoherently. Even now the pictures they took home are beginning to appear in American magazines.
\nAs time went by the numbers skating went up and up, but apart from accumulating litter and one bit of graffiti which appeared late this summer, this activity was kept as discrete as possible. Relations with the parkies were just about workable: every now and again they would turn up and go through the ritual of throwing everyone out, but that was about it. Who knows? Maybe they recognised the positive side of a disused facility turning into one of the most popular attractions in the park?
\nThen disaster struck: a young kid drowned in the water which had accumulated in another empty pool (fat chance of that at Gladstone Park). The council quickly decided that filling any unused pools was the only way to prevent another tragedy. And that’s what they’ve done. Neasden is gone, buried beneath a mountain of dirt. The sad thing is that even the men doing the work appreciated the waste of it all and seemed to regret the necessity of what they were doing.
\n
\nIn the context of that kid’s death any criticism of the council’s action is going to seem lame, but we can’t help wondering how much it cost to fill the pool in? Probably enough to pay someone to supervise the place and open it up for skating. Certainly enough to build an outrageous ramp. But no mere ramp could be any substitute for a unique skate wonderland like the Neasden Pool. <\/p>\n

Team Wales vs Skate Camp USA Round Two<\/h2>\n

In which Ben Schroeder pays a flying visit, more new rippers appear, while southern Californian ramps cower beneath the threat of yet more litigation.<\/b>
\nThe last couple of weeks of skate camp went by somewhat slower than they had previously. There were some major staff changes with Zack Grove, Omar Hassan and Ray Dillon drafted in as skate counsellors. Malba was resident pro for the penultimate week and for the final week H Street Pros, Danny Way, John Sonner and Matt Hensley mingled with the campers.
\nOne camper who put some of the much-hyped-up skaters to shame was young Wade Spiers. Wade is a Danville\/ SJ Warehouse local whose vert moves include big airs of all kinds, combined with unique lip moves like Feeble Grinds to Fakie (travelling the wrong way) and frontside Ollie Shuffles — he’s definitely a name to watch out for.
\n Also making an appearance after a month of hell raising with the Welsh colony in Mission Beach, was Ben Schroeder, with his cohorts, Jason Ellis and Steve Salisian. Because of several ‘disturbances’ caused by the Schroeder family at skate camp last year, the camp directors gave them ten minutes to leave. This was long enough for Ben to show his mastery of all terrain. He pulled a 50\/50 round three quarters of the bowl and an Ollie from the bank to grind down the hand rail and then left.
\nEvening sessions on the big ramp were radical. Brent Fellows and Gary Valentine were both going off — they had some hot doubles routines going, doing three ‘under\/over’ tricks in one ride. Gary had to leave to go back to Oz: he’s opened up a second Snake Pit shop with partner, Gregor Rankine, in Melbourne. Good luck, boys!
\n So that was skate camp over for another year. The rules and pettiness are hard to believe, but the skating always makes up for it. It’s been a fortnight since skate camp finished and our Welsh gang are all currently penniless and homeless. Skating in southern California is so hard at the moment — Tony Hawk will now only let his personal friends skate at his ramp since an accident involving a kid breaking his arm at Tony’s ramp (the parents are suing). On hearing this, Tobin White’s dad decided to end all skating at Fallbrook and the ramp will be destroyed.
\nThe focus of action is now Lynda Vista (which recently added a medium sized ramp) and McGill’s (which we can’t afford to skate). The great things here though are the weather (of course) and the abundance of excellent natural terrain. There are ditches, bowls, pipes and curbs all over the place! <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

RUMOURS AND TEAM CHANGES<\/h3>\n

John Schultes on Dogtown. Ben Schroeder off Dogtown and on Lucero (maybe because of the above?). Tony Hawk, Ollie to Fakie travelling backwards over the channel. Way and Hawk, frontside Gay Twist Revert. Reese Simpson, Alley-oop frontside Air Revert, Fakie Foot-plant Revert. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEASDEN GONE London’s just lost it’s hottest unofficial skate spot. The empty open air swimming pool at Gladstone Park in Neasden has been filled. For years this huge expanse of smooth, smooth concrete was the ultimate semi-secret spot in the south. It’s fame spread throughout the world as visitors came, couldn’t believe their eyes, sessioned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue-81-november-1989"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whenwewasrad.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whenwewasrad.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whenwewasrad.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whenwewasrad.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whenwewasrad.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.whenwewasrad.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whenwewasrad.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whenwewasrad.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whenwewasrad.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}