Once a season, usually in Spring, the publisher of Concrete Wave charters a jet from the Great White North, zooms down to SoCal, rents "something appropriate" with chrome rims and plenty of horsepower and then variously hits the links with the Corporate at Torrey Pines, rips Swami's with Breamo, skates Surf City with the Mad Professor and even drops in on meaningless hacks before scootin' on up to O'side to check in with Buddy before the run up to El Lay. We asked him to write it all down this time and this is what you get...
A Canuck in So Cal
or
"What I did on my Spring Break."
My very good buddy, Buddy Carr and the world's greatest all-around longboarder, Mr. Brad Edwards of Gravity. There is no doubt that Brad tears up pools, parks and streets with the rage of a bull in a china shop. Only it's not china - it's smooth concrete and asphalt that gets him going! As for Buddy, he is the niche distribution king...and he shares his kindom with his queen - Queen Traci of Indaba.
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Ben Lukozek and Tony Palagyi of GromBiz. Ben has an amazing story and has lived a lot in such a short period of time. You'll learn more about him in the next issue. My sincere thanks to both of these very generous hosts.
Khiro Bob poses with a Black Widow. We all know that Khiro makes great bushings. What you make not know is that he has what I would describe as a vice like handshape grip. Bob is a true gentleman. He has a very good business sense along with a great sense of humor. Spiders, however, need to be dealt with carefully, as you can plainly see. Lou Anne, his wife, had found this spider in the back of the warehouse.
Jerry Madrid outside his offices in Huntington Beach. Man, this place is BUSY! Jerry is now entering his 4th decade in the skate business. We had a very constructive meeting with Alex and plotted all kinds of ingenious schemes! Special shout out to Angela Madrid and Roger Hickey.
Abec 11 moved into their new offices last year. I thought they were still at their old offices. The new offices were actually the hq of Pocket Pistols...but they moved. Confused? Not as much as I was. It all worked out! Mischo Erban, Sara and Chris Chaput strike a pose.
Neil Stratton has been through hell and back to bring you his Carver truck. You have no idea just how much blood, sweat and tears this guy has put into making Carver, his company, work. Thankfully, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Over the years I've gotten to know Neil, I have found him to be one of the coolest cats in skateboarding. He is an artist, designer and dreamer. He also runs his diesel car on veggie oil.
The King and Queen of Indaba/Tailtap land...Buddy and Traci Carr. This is where CW has their secret headquarters. I guess that's not so secret anymore! Ask them nicely and they will make you some t-shirts or give you some stickers.
Dale Smith poses with a CW mag and one of Duke K's surfboards at the Calif. Surf Museum. Dale worked hard creating the skate side of the museum - photos of which will appear next issue.
Brad of Altered Skate allowed me to demo a number of his electric skateboards. While I had tried these before, it was nothing like the demo I got. Their parking lot is PERFECT for cruising on. You can hit over 25 miles an hour on one of the models. Scary and fascinating at the same time!
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