At 15” in width, the El Cochino deck takes most people by surprise the first time they see it. After all, it is monstrously wide. But as you can see in this photo, it’s quite possible to do frontside airs with the El Cochino. Many years ago, boards were 5” to 7” in width. Wes Humpston and Jim Muir started tinkering with deck sizes and skateboarding wound up with 10” and 12” decks. For vert skaters in the 70’s, the wider boards were just more functional to ride. As many of you know, decks haven’t just changed in width, they have also changed in length. The resurgence of longboarding has meant not only an influx of new riders but a return by many folks who left skateboarding. Wheels have gotten quite a bit larger than the 39mm from the early 90’s. The demand for wider trucks has also increased.

O N E R O A D , M A N Y S T O R I E S , 100% SKATEBOARDING There’s a lot of talk these days about “divisions” within skateboarding. There are some who believe that if you’re not sliding down a rail or grinding coping, then you’re not really a part of skateboarding. In my opinion, exclusion and intolerance are absolutely everything that skateboarding should NOT be. At Concrete Wave, we’ve chosen a path to tell a variety of different skate stories. While I am quite aware that not every vert skater wants to see photos of freestyle or slalom, and not every speedboarder is interested in street skating, the fact is ALL these types of skateboarding exist and are thriving

Concrete Wave readers who find themselves looking at other skateboarding magazines might have seen the series of ads that we ran in TransWorld Skateboarding. If you missed it, we’ve reprinted them here. While most would find it unusual or somewhat frivolous for a skateboard magazine to advertise in another skateboard magazine, my reasons were extremely strategic, as you will soon see.

In June of 1961, East German leader Walter Ulbricht set things in motion for the
creation of the Berlin Wall. On August 9th of that same year the Wall was erected
and it became the most famous symbol of the Cold War. For someone of my generation
(born in 1964) it was inconceivable that the Berlin Wall could ever be torn
down. But in November of 1989, the wall actually did come down. The history of the
Berlin Wall is both fascinating and tragic. I am publishing this photo because I want
to clearly illustrate what happens when walls do in fact come tumbling down.

BUSTIN BOARDS Bustin originated in Maryland as a grass roots idea brought to life by a group of friends. They set out to create not only original, progressive deck models, but also a collaboration movement between the artist and the customer. “We pressed out some unique and functional shapes and people got stoked,” says co-owner Ryan Daughtridge. The Bustin Boards crew spent nearly three years refining their shapes and their one-of-akind printing shop that enables them to print each board according to the creative inspiration of individual customers. Using their interactive Web site customers can design a personalized board based on a variety of fresh graphics from diverse