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I recently wrote this article, which was published in the new issue of the Concrete Wave magazine.  The magazine has been sky-rocketing in popularity, so space was at premium, so understandably they couldn't print everything.  The following is the full "un-edited" version, without some of the photos that were printed.  As you will see, I've been skateboarding non-stop for a long time.  At times, I feel that I've seen it all, then I realize that I have seen very little.  Life goes by quickly.  You can choose to watch it, or you can choose to savor it! 

"This is the way I've lived it!   Enjoy!..."

10,000 Days

By Lynn Cooper

Lynn Cooper - Layback Air, Trinidad, CO.  2003

Photo by Josh Bower

“Ask not what skateboarding can do for you, but rather ask what you can do for skateboarding!”

DAY 10

As I lay upon the ground, blood dripping from my knee, I glanced back at my small wooden Black Night skateboard.  I could see where my board had stopped once again, dead in its tracks, from another small pebble that had lodged between one of the clay wheels and the sidewalk I had been skateboarding on.  As I proceeded to pick myself up, I could see several little ball bearings, glistening in the California sun.  The bearings had dislodged from one of my wheels once again.  It was important to find them all, so I could re-assemble the wheel on my skateboard, otherwise my day of skateboarding would be over, until I could obtain the proper number of ball bearings again.  As I searched through the dirt at the edge of the sidewalk, my bloody knee continued to drip, but I didn’t care.  I had to find that last bearing!  I remember smiling as I pulled the last bearing out of the dirt.  This was my life around 1975 and it was just the beginning of the best days of my life!

DAY 100

I can remember how excited we were, when my brothers and I heard that there was a Skateboard movie playing at our local Brookhurst Center movie theatre, in Anaheim, California.  The movie was called “Freewheelin” and starred a youthful Stacy Peralta.  I remember scenes of skateboarders riding up and down the walls of an endless concrete full pipe, as well as flatland tricks that we had never imagined were possible.  After the show, a skateboard team was on hand, putting on a show in the parking lot.  They were spinning 360’s, performing handstands, spacewalks, kick flip variations...  Everyone was going crazy!  We had never seen anything like it.  We had no idea that skateboarding could be taken to such levels.

They held a raffle at the theatre and my next door neighbor won the Grand Prize, a fiberglass Hobie skateboard with polyurethane “plastic” wheels!  We raced back home and took turns riding down the street.  Yes, we could actually skate in the street, carving sharp turns with the new plastic wheels.  The feet numbing vibrations we experienced from our older “clay” wheels were virtually eliminated!   We took turns attempting the tricks we saw the Pros perform at the demo.  We nailed a 4x8 sheet of plywood to an old sawhorse and learned our first kick turns on our makeshift skateboard ramp.  Our skateboarding skills had reached a new level!

DAY 300

At long last, I was successful in selling the required number of subscriptions for the Orange County Register newspaper to earn my first Fiberglass skateboard with the new “Cadillac” urethane wheels.  It was so cool to be able to see the newly designed precision bearings through the clear urethane wheels.  The new bearings and wheels rode so smooth, as they propelled me to new heights on our newly built, six foot high skateboard ramp.   My days of searching in the dirt for little ball bearings were behind me now.  The precision bearings had changed my life forever!  Higher and higher I skated, as my confidence continued to grow!  Then it happened, my first backside grind!

As I laid upon the ground, blood dripping from the rip in the knee of my jeans, caused by the nail that had dislodged from our masterfully crafted ramp, I glanced up to see my dad who had returned home from work early.  We had already been warned several times to stop skating that ramp.   My brothers and I were busted once again.  We received our sentence.  Skateboard restriction, the worst kind of punishment!   My bloody knee continued to drip.  I couldn’t feel a thing.

The next day my dad went to work as usual.  What can I say?  The ramp called us!

DAY 1000

I had just entered High School and skateboarding was in full swing.  The 70’s concrete Skate park era had just taken off!  “The Concrete Wave”, “Skatopia”, “Fountain Valley” and other skateboard parks were popping up all over Orange County.   I remember many times, waiting in long lines for hours, just to have the opportunity to session the Concrete Wave skate park.  The Concrete Wave had this awesome tight snake run that emptied out into a bowl, as well as a high bank that we dubbed “The Wave”.  Skatopia had a super long half pipe with virtually no flat bottom.  There was a lip on one side that butted against a brick wall.  The big trick was to see how many bricks high you could skate and if you could avoid hanging up on the lip on the way back down into the half pipe.  I remember watching in amazement, as local ripper; Ray Bones Rodriguez pulled Front side Airs out of the half pipe on his Aluminum Quicksilver board.  Fountain Valley skate park featured several concrete runs, as well as a narrow clear Plexiglas half pipe.  It was basically a big “U”-shaped ramp.  The California drought also provided us with backyard pools, such as “The Sign-in Bowl”, “The Fruit bowl”, “Swan Pools”, “The California Bowl”, as well as ditches, like Santa Ana’s “Flower Street ditch”, Anaheim’s “Salk School ditch” and Fullerton’s “Euclid V” just to name a few.  Other skate parks continued to pop up all over Southern California. 

We were out of control, getting busted climbing backyard fences at night with Coleman lanterns, emptying pools with trashcan after trashcan of stagnant water, just to skate everything we could.  I guess you could say, we were living the California dream!   It was paradise!  We were living in the right place at the right time. 

DAY 1400

Then there was Brookhurst Community park, also known as Moon park and eventually dubbed SADLANDS.  Sadlands, aptly named by Skate Legend - Neil Blender was probably one of the craziest skate spots.  In the early days of Sadlands, your wheels would turn black from skating over the olives that would fall from the tree, in the center of this moon crater.  The park wasn’t actually designed for skating, but no one could resist skating the sides of the crater.  Eventually the olive tree was replaced by some small palm trees.  The City of Anaheim tried to stop all the skateboarding, by adding some huge rocks inside the crater.  The rocks hung over the sides of the crater, with the intent to stop the skaters.   As skaters always do, we adapted to the rocks and used them to launch tricks off of.  Without knowing it, the City officials actually enhanced the skating experience for us.  Most of the 80’s Pro skaters rode Sadlands at one point, or another. 

After a decade of skating Sadlands, the city finally dug a trench around the crater and then covered the entire crater with this rocky concrete mixture.  It was awful, they ruined the crater.  Today, the buried crater still stands as a memorial of an era of skating that once was.  Amazingly, last year the City of Anaheim built a new skate park, just a couple hundred yards away from the crater.  What goes around, comes around!  I could write a whole chapter on Sadlands.

DAY 2500

In 1981, my friends and I entered our first skateboarding contest, at the Marina Del Rey skate park.  The 1981 series of California contests were put on by the Association of Skate park Owners, aka the (ASPO) series.  Several of the skate park owners banned together and several contests were held at several Southern California skate parks.  Back in 1981, skateboarding was really an underground sport, there was no real media extravaganza that you see today, just a few photographers capturing images for the small skate magazines.  I remember watching some of the top Amateurs in the Pool event, Chris Miller, Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi and others flew effortlessly around the park.  We found these two small Plexiglas quarter pipes and we put them back-to-back and practiced tail taps over the top.  This may have been the first spine ramp ever built. 

One of the goals of the series was for skaters to try and become “overall” state champions.  The contests focused not only on pool/bowl riding, but also on other events, such as banked slalom, tight slalom, freestyle…  Basically, if you wanted to try and attain overall status, you needed to become proficient in all aspects of skateboarding, not just one area.  This was a real challenge for most skaters.  I remember they told me that I needed to learn Freestyle, if I wanted to be competitive in the series.  I didn’t know much about Freestyle, other than a few demos I had seen up to that point.  I remember taking a jigsaw and cutting down my old Eddie Elguera pool board to make my first Freestyle board.  I practiced hard and entered the 1A division at the 1981 Magic Mountain ASPO contest.  I actually took 1^st place in both the Freestyle and Slalom contests there.  I couldn’t believe it.  I was a Pool skater, how could I win a Freestyle event?  I didn’t argue.  I grabbed my plaque awards and headed to the parking lot with John Lucero, only to find my truck was stolen.  Luckily, the Police found it at the other end of the parking lot, although it was bashed in and stripped of all my stereo equipment and cassette tapes.  I was still thrilled about the contest though.

One more thing, there was this kid I saw at the Magic Mountain contest that entered the 3A Sponsored division.  He entered the Freestyle contest and just tore it up.  Absolutely incredible!  Later, I saw him win another Freestyle contest in 1982, at Skate City.  This time I was ready.  I brought my 8mm film camera and captured both of his runs.  The talent this kid had was unreel.  No one knew what to think of the guy.  He had lightning fast footwork and showed off some of the most technical flatland moves we had ever seen.  He won both events, hands down.  These were the first images I ever captured of Rodney Mullen.

DAY 3000 – the 80’s

Skate parks continued to be built and the contest series just exploded!  The ASPO Series became defunct and was quickly replaced by the California Amateur Skateboard League (CASL) series, which has been promoted and led by Sonja Catalano for over 20 years now!  Also, Frank Hawk and other industry leaders formed the National Skateboard Association (NSA) series.   In the 80’s, contests were being held everywhere!  Again, we had to focus on all aspects of skateboarding, so we had to be proficient at Pool/Bowl riding, Ramp riding, Freestyle, Slalom, High Jump and Downhill skating.  We had to skate everything, in order to become California, and/or National overall CASL, or NSA series champions. 

My friends and I practiced hard, we were really competitive, but always ensured that skateboarding remained fun.  Many of them grew up to be some of the top Pros and Skate Legends that you know today.  You can see many of them featured on the  www.skatelegends.com website. 

Personally, I really enjoyed all aspects of skating in the 80’s and I continue to do so today.  I found that I was able to take what I learned from one discipline and apply it to the others.  My skating improved dramatically in all areas.  We were skating so much. One day I’d be skating at Lester Kasai’s half pipe, or Skate City, Big-O, Upland, Del Mar, Colton,  wherever.  The next day, I’d hang out and skate Freestyle down at the Huntington Beach pier, or Belmont Pool.  It was all about skateboarding!  I had some friends that just wanted to skate pools, bowls, ramps… and another set of friends that were really focused on Flatland skateboarding.  Most groups were really focused on one discipline, or the other.  Other than the skaters trying to win the overall series, there weren’t a lot of skaters trying to do it all.  Even within the Freestyle groups, there were some skaters focused on landing real technical tricks, while others focused on handstands, or other strength tricks, spins, style… 

DAY 4000

The second half of the 80’s became a time of transition for most of the competitive skaters.  As the years moved forward, it became increasingly more difficult for skaters to maintain their competitive edge.  Skateboarding was growing in popularity and gaining momentum.  There were so many great skaters rising up from all over the world.  Many of the world’s best skaters moved to California, to be as close as possible to the skate scene.  By the late 80’s, most skaters had to limit themselves to certain forms of skateboarding.  To remain competitive, skaters tended to focus entirely on a single discipline and apply all their energies to mastering their favorite form of skateboarding.   Rodney Mullen and Tony Hawk had positioned themselves as the “masters” of their disciplines.  Now, two decades later, both Rodney and Tony still skate and many argue that they are still the greatest skaters of all time.  Right, or wrong, you can’t argue their accomplishments. 

The 80’s churned out hundreds of great skaters!  While some made bank, others were left in the dust.  Some of the Pro’s partied their earnings away, while some took the risk of investing their earnings back into the skate industry, thus propelling skateboarding products and the industry to new levels.  One interesting note is the fact that several of the Pro Freestyle skaters started and/or managed, companies that are considered leaders in the industry today.  World Industries, Sole Technologies (Etnies/ES/Emerica), Ultimate Skateboards, Eastern Skate Supply, Dwindle Distribution, Blitz Distribution… are a few that come to mind. 

Day 10,000

I was fortunate to have skated, filmed and photographed most of the 80’s/90’s contest series and many other memorable events.  I never realized that “home movie” footage of old friends would one day be viewed as Skateboarding history.  A lot of skaters have been contacting me for vintage contest footage, for several years now, so I decided to compile some highlights and I released my “Wheelin’ in the Years – Part 1” movie a while ago.  Later, I built the www.Skatelegends.com website, so I could share some of the moments I’ve experienced through skateboarding and promote skate history the best way I can. 

Yesterday

As I laid my right arm upon the X-Ray machine, both elbow and wrist swollen from the slam I encountered yesterday at the Clement Skate park, I couldn’t help but think about the last 28 years that I have been skating, the amazing friends I’ve made along the way and the moments that will forever be etched into my mind.  Decisions enter my mind:  Should I teach another skate workshop this weekend, or enter the Breckenridge Slalom championships?  Suddenly, the X-Ray technician asks me if I can give him two autographs for his kids.  Luckily, I am left handed. 

How did I get here? 

Lynn Cooper

Skateboarding for 30 years 

Current Sponsors:  Reverse Freestyle Pro Team, Globe Team, Thrifty Sticks Skate shop, Equillibrium clothing, Tracker, Ninja Bearings,  Foothills Park & Recreation, and best friends!

I want to thank Michael Brooke for asking me to write this article.  I think the Concrete Wave is an awesome magazine and I look forward to contributing further in the near future.  If you are interested in purchasing copies of the Concrete Wave magazine, please contact us.  See details below...    

Contact Info:

Cooper Productions LLC

4950 S. Yosemite St.  F2-333

Greenwood Village, CO.  80111

Email:     cooperproductions@msn.com

Website: www.skatelegends.com

FEEDBACK:

Dear Lynn: I just finished reading your 10000 days and WOW what a great article!! It sure brought back a lot of old memories from my early years growing up in Colorado Springs and starting to ride a board in the mid 70’s. My friends and I used to ride an empty swimming pool up off of North Nevada near the dog track, and what a great time it was. Well now I will be 45 this July and have a son who is 10 and 2 daughters 12 & almost 14, my how life changes. I met you this past weekend over at Clement park as you were giving one of your workshops, My son Austin was there but he was on his rollerblades at the time. I Just wanted to thank you for doing what you do and for being so kind to others helping them with there sport and sharing a part of yourself. By the way I got out my old Kryptonics board and even went around the block with Austin, I don’t know if you ever give any workshops for us old guys but I am sure I have forgotten quite a bit and would love to just get together and have you go over some of the basics.

Thanks for lighting a spark inside and encouraging others like you did me.

Sincerely,

Brian S. Brickley

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