Weekly drawing: Friday night at Prahran ramp

Prahran skate park, Melbourne was such a popular skate spot it would often get overcrowed which I would negotiate with a skate or die attitude. However I discovered that on Friday evenings (maybe it was dinner time) the park was mostly empty, so this became my favourite time to skate.

I also discovered this was when some of the best skaters would skate. I'd often see local hero Chris Paine riding the big 12 ft steel ramp. I'd imagine when I get the confidence to drop-in "one day I would skate like him". He would do amazing tricks with the greatest of ease, my favourite Chris Paine skate trick was called an eggplant.

We never actually spoke to each other but he would point to me from the top of the ramp to have another go. I would start at the bottom of the ramp and work my way up. Soon all my practicing paid off and I could backside kick turn grind on a 12ft ramp and was considering attempting to drop-in. But unfortunately we moved to Sydney and skate parks were far and few between. So I became a Sydney street skater instead which I also loved.

The thing I loved about these nightly skate sessions was that it was purely about enjoying skating and not really caring about anything else in the world. I'd spent the last few years in three different schools because of my Dad's work and I was in my first year of high school in a new school again and I felt like an outsider especially at this school.

Luckily for me Melbourne is an amazing city for anyone into skating. The Alva team visited my local sports shop in Elsternwick, The Bones Brigade toured with Christian Hosoi doing a skate demonstration at Prahran ramp, I attended the premier of the fourth Bones Brigade movie Public Domain and I was happily in the middle of it all.

Tommy Guerrero deck, Bullet 66 wheels, Thunder trucks, Cockroach riser pads and Borgy copers

There's not much online about Chris Paine but I did find this which I thought was interesting.

Author	budgee ®
Date/Time	28 Oct 2008 10:13:43pm
Subject	Re: Band Called Killing Time

"...CHRIS PAINE
Before Killing Time Paine was actually a very successful skateboarder, featuring in magazines and publications across the country. Word is the three original Killing Time Melbournites were your regular skater punk kids. Paine was somewhat of a mascot for the Prahran skate shop of the time known as "Cheap Skates". The shop was just a stone's throw from the local skate bowl and many of the skater kids from the area congregated there to watch their local hero Paine do his thing. Music came along to this crew when iconic Melbourne store Fretted Instruments turned the Cheap Skates building into their Prahran store. This became the store from which Killing Time/Mantissa bought most all of their equipment throughout their career. "

http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx?b=3&m=334984

Weekly drawing 66: Skate ramp in the bush at StIves

Anthony and I needed a place to skate so we built a ramp in the bush at St Ives

This weeks drawing is based on my early teens.

When I was 12 years old, my family moved from Melbourne to Sydney. 

Unfortunately for me as a keen skater, Sydney had very few skateparks or ramps.

Thankfully, I'd heard a local rumour some older kids had built a ramp in the bush near my house. The only problem was the ramp had been destroyed a few years ago by a local skinhead with an axe and everybody was scared of him. However, I was sure we could salvage some pieces and make something skateable. I wasn't to sure about the skinhead, but it was worth the risk.

My best mate Anthony Bangel showed me were it was. Then we built a new ramp from bits and pieces we'd found at the spot. After that we skated most afternoons.

I love that we used anything we could get our hands on to make the new ramp such as a DMR road block to support one of the platforms. While the other platform was supported by the actual dirt bank. These were great times.

It was even better that most people from St Ives rarely ventured into the bush to discover our handy work. I actually wish more people in St Ives did venture off the beaten track. They live in an amazing place. At it's best it's a beautiful area of native Sydney bushland, which is also the start of Middle Harbour.