The slacker files or I was a late blooming skate punk part two

Did I give up skating after breaking my thumb? Are you kidding? I started skating more than ever. I started going up to Nashville to skate various spots there. We found a parking garage over by Vanderbilt and we proceeded to tear through it every weekend. It was at least five stories tall with a handy elevator at the bottom. There were no cars and no rent-a-cops, until one nice day after we had taken our first downhill run we hit the elevator button and to our surprise a security guard was inside. Insanely we got into the elevator. The silence was broken by the guard as he quietly told us to take one more run and then split which was pretty cool. We had worse luck at the unused KOC square pool. We spent one morning cleaning out the thing and had a decent day of skating it although square pools are fairly lame. The picture is Marky, Toby, and me faking an injury that day. We decided to hit it a few weeks later and once again found the bottom full of debris. After a good half hour of cleaning we were about to start skating when an obese blowhard came walking up screaming at us to get out the pool. Then he started telling us to give him our car keys and that he’d called the cops. I guess he thought skaters were stoopid or something. There was no way in hell he was getting our keys. We just ran to our cars and went on our way after sending some nice strings of cuss words his way.

There were plenty of great spots in downtown Nashville to skate like the courthouse and the War Memorial Auditorium plaza area. Toby and I found an awesome downhill curb to do slides and grinds on right off 2nd Avenue under an overpass. There was always the fun of skating the Tennessee Tower which had transition at the base of it. It was a fast ride, but it was a blast to see how high one could climb. The best was riding down the hills beside the Tennessee State Capitol. Keep in mind that these hills were not paved so these were very bumpy and fast trips where we would try to make it to James Robertson Parkway at the bottom without falling off. We once even did some 50/50 grinds on a train track behind some place near the National Guard Armory. It had a sidewalk that ran right beside the train tracks, though it was weird having to keep a look out for trains.

If you’ve ever skated I’m sure you find yourself looking for spots to skate. Toby and I also liked to go creek fishing so we’d always find ourselves riding down the road going – look at that skate spot or look at that creek. Your mind just gets trained to look for the proper terrain. Toby lucked up one day on the most secret skate spot in Murfreesboro over in a section of town with some old factories and warehouses. It was a simple loading dock, but instead of being the usual ramp with vertical sides and no transition; it featured a side running the length of the ramp that was about 60 to 90 degrees of transition at its peak. The maximum height at the top was around 4 foot. Nobody ever seemed to be around the place and we spent many days there just transition riding. Eventually we’d bring our own parking block to put on the ramp so we could do more tricks. It’s the place where I really tore my ankle up good after deciding to put my original “Gonz” deck back together. I just wasn’t used to such a short board.

I didn’t really go through too many decks. I had the original “Gonz” model, another “Gonz” model that had the artwork of the man and woman, a Kelly Rosecrans model, a Steven Steadman that I later sold, a Reese Simpson, and then I ended up with the Mark Gonzalez board that parodied Powell Peralta (the first day I rode it was the best I ever skated – it’s the day I ollied over one of those huge industrial trashcans that are about 4 foot tall). There are probably a couple more that I don’t remember. I’ve got an ancient Tom Knox Santa Cruz that Toby gave me and I sometimes ride down the driveway on it popping little baby ollies.





So what were the Murfreesboro skate spots? The pictures I’ve included date from 1990 and they are from the Wal-Mart parking lot. Wal-Mart had moved so the strip mall was empty except for a couple of stores. We mainly skated around the long abandoned Bojangles since it had the long yellow rail in the lot. The downtown area was also great with lots of good curbs and no hassles since everything closed in the afternoon including the skate shop I worked at for a short time. I’d be around the skate culture all day at work and as soon as I got off I’d hit the curbs. M.T.S.U.’s Peck Hall was great as long as could dodge the campus police who were always up for hassling skaters. Jeff Bailey’s house had the 6 foot half pipe. One kid, Devin, ended up with a bunch of ramps from a closed skate park so we’d sometimes drive out to his house in the country. The greatest spot of all was the pool I’m pictured in on this site.

Jackson Motel pool skating was just a stroke of genius that I wish I could claim. The fact is a couple of M.T.S.U. students I barely knew noticed it was almost empty of water. The motel was selling the small plot of land the pool was on so these guys hatched a plan. First they drained the pool and started to skate it. Some other skater noticed and soon huge snake sessions started even though it was late winter and cold. The plan bore fruit when the first wave of police came to investigate. The students knew there would be no way to hide the skating so they developed this story. “its okay officers, we’re friends with Larry Sims and he said it was okay if we skated here since the pool is going to be covered up anyways.” The Sims realty company was selling property, the guys had never even met Larry Sims, but the police always believed the story and let us keep skating. I’d like to brag and say I could really tear the pool up, but all I did was ride the walls and do some fakies. There just wasn’t enough time to get to where I could match the skills of the youngsters. Soon the land was sold and a Checkers hamburger joint went up on a now sacred piece of turf.

As the 90’s progressed I began to skate less and less. I usually went skating with Toby, but after he started dating one girl exclusively I only saw him on Sundays which was fishing day. I got to a point where I couldn’t progress. I could do shove-its, but somehow I never could apply that to ollies so kick flips and disasters just weren’t happening. I met my future wife in 1994 so the skateboard became a thing just used to get around the M.T.S.U. campus. It wasn’t just me because I noticed fewer skaters on the streets. Skateboarding was going through its pre-X-Games lull. I still kept up with it even if I wasn’t skating as much and I still do today even when the board only comes out once every few months. My poor aching knees can’t take the pounding today, but even at 38 I’m still a skate punk.