Concrete Wave Articles

The following is Rod’s story and history in skate- boarding as told to me. He’s been skateboarding since the mid-seventies and through the years he has played a major role in the New York and New Jersey skate scenes and in turn in the global skate scene. He’s one of the true unsung heroes and architects of modern skateboarding. And those who know him and have been lucky enough to befriend him and skate with him will tell you without a bad word one, that Rodney Smith’s fingerprint is on all that’s good about skateboarding. And no doubt it will be for a long time to come.

A tribute to the downhiller Mecca Mary Hill. Covering the history of this pantheon of speed.

The documentation of downhill sliding, it's growth and the people involved. Information about retail slide gloves. Companies that support sliding and the next levels it is reaching.

But it goes beyond just increasing the number of female skaters. We’d like to see to see increased prize purses and coverage. Currently, the gap between male and female prize purses is absolutely enormous. Take the X Games for example. Cara-Beth Burnside took first place in vert and was awarded $2,000. Pierre Luc Gagnon also took first but wound up with $50,000. In fact, if you look at the overall prize purse for the X Games, male skaters had a total prize purse that was twenty times that of females. ($343,350 for the men vs. $17,000 for the women.). Thankfully, things are changing. Thanks to Burnside’s dedication, she has been able to get prize purses increased (most recently at the Slam City Jam).

The single engine Cesna was in obvious trouble as it buzzed the race course. Racers watched the plane lose elevation as it tried to sputter over Vail Pass, headed for the big digger. Theplane flew around a bend in the valley and went out of view. One minute later, the highway patrol and firefighters that were on hand for the Timeship Racing Vail Pass Downhill were off to a more urgent plane crash rescue. And with that bit of drama...