The Timothy McVeigh Tapes

While grotesque in appearance the biography of Timothy McVeigh’s convictions through hundreds of hours of recorded cassette tapes on MSNBC offers a telling expository narrative of a post traumatic Desert Storm veteran. Skilled and cunning McVeigh was indoctrinated by non other than the American armed forces during Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. After viscerally living a life of combat against terrorist forces, McVeigh found despondency returning to the continental United States. A mundane life of daytime television and fast food could not meet the expectations of a tried and true war veteran. After suffering a year’s tenure of depression and post- traumatic stress, McVeigh in a futile attempt began to conceive his own vigil based upon the mistreatment of the Branch Dividian followers of David Koresh at the Mount Carmel property near Waco, Texas. In McVeigh’s eyes the 168 human beings murdered during his bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building were martyrs intended to represent the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims persecuted by an increasingly fascist American government. Posthumously his own execution was a Socratic touché vehemently objecting to his own hypocritical indoctrination during the United States military’s war against Iraq. It was a plea for peace.

Gordon and Smith Skateboards

It is highly recognized the Gordon and Smith continued carrying the torch for a flexible skateboard deck. While the original Zephyr board actually may not have flexed because of its heavy glass and resin construction, the G&S boards did. Skip said the rocker design was meant to keep the dense stiff fiberglass from cracking under weight. Whether the rocker profile changed the glass and resin structure is speculative, but it seemed to solve the problem simultaneously creating an ergonomic slalom-styled deck. G&S began creating decks that actually moved in response to the rider’s weight. They were dynamic creating a new responsive deck that interacted with the moves of the rider. The G&S Fiberflex became the Cadillac of skateboards during the late l970’s, and its model never has been replicated. Gordon and Smith customized their Fiberflex with newly available Bennett Trucks and World Industry produced Road Rider wheels. This was the second school of the original Sure Grip truck and Cadillac wheel. “Mr.” Bennett used aircraft aluminum to create a highly technical truck that was tall, sharp-turning, and efficient returning the hanger to center after it had been torqued in a turn. The Road Rider easily replaced Frank Nasworthy’s Cadillac wheel mostly because of its new sealed precision bearing. The Cadillac wheels had open ball bearings that could spill out and crash the rider if too much weight was placed on the wheels. Likewise they could get dirty and rusted easily if not cared for properly. The Hoover bearing set the standard for sealed precision bearings and although originally found in vacuum cleaners made the transition to carrying people easily. The combination of the G&S fiberglass deck with Bennett trucks and Road Rider wheels revolutionized the skateboard production industry.

The "Carve"

The key to skateboard “set-up” or design is an intuitive geometry or feng shui among its components. In the Old School control turning predicates a ratio between axle length, wheels width, and board width. The efficiency to turn the board via torquing the truck on its bushings is achieved by this magic ratio. The variables can be very different. Any combination of short vs. wide can used as long as logic is applied to the size the components. A narrow width board could demand a wider truck to create stability. A wide board could demand a narrower truck to create a tighter turning radius. Three elements fully must cooperate in the conceiving of a functionally operating skateboard. 1) The width of the board. 2) The width of the hanger and/or axle, 2) the width of the wheel. There are some proponents insisting the wheels cannot extend beyond the edges of the board, but how is one to visually see his “balance beam” without seeing the total extension of the wheels and axle? The ability to “carve” the board is what is created with the magic ratio. Carving is a stylized turn created by weighting and un-weighting on a pivot axis rather than merely tilting the board forward or backward over the front and back trucks. Carving is what demands perfect symmetry in the cooperation of these three components.

New School vs. Old School Skating

First a few thoughts on vintage skate paraphernalia. For street cruisin’ 7 ply concave top decks are not the way to go. Transportation means long distances traversed on four wheels two feet. A concaved deck is not copacetic with the arches in the feet. Only a few deck manufacturers seems to have picked up on this bit of ergonomic information. While for skate rats adhering to the motto “Skate and Destroy” concave decks may offer heightened control for Ollie tricks, a flat top is more suited to long distance travel. Imagine hours or miles of friction created by the opposite geometry of concave vs. convex. It just doesn’t make sense. “Old School” and longboard manufacturers seem more in tune with the concept of traversing long distances, carving mellow banks, and rolling over rough concrete and asphalt. Flex, rocker, or “give” in the board offer a more comfortable ride, especially to those over 30. The concept of pumping the skateboard has experienced a new awakening, and this equally can apply to both longboards and shortboards. As with any aesthetic the boundaries become blurred, and the connoisseur fully must understand the intent of their craft. A carefully chosen stick can satisfy a number of requirements. Sadly the art of slalom skateboarding has been overlooked as the root of LBP or “Longboard Pumping.” In the seventies getting through the cones quickly meant not only being able to turn or carve on a dime, but weighting and unweighting as one navigated the tightly spaced path. A “tall,” narrow-width axle, and loosely-turning truck was conceived for such an act. Not many people seem to realize the Jeff Ho and Skip Engblom designed and built original Zephyr skateboard served such as purpose. The conception of this watershed design is what allowed Dogtown’s Z-Boys to devise and develop their personal surf-oriented skateboard style. While based upon Hobie’s rockered and railed fiberglass Super Surfer model, the Zephyr board included the Sure Grip truck and Cadillac wheel as needed customization. Only so much performance could be eked out of compressed nut shells wheels and open ball bearings. The combination of these four elements produced a skateboard equally qualified for slalom, carving banks, and achieving speed by pumping the board. The rocker shape contoured to the body compressing into a turn, the rails prevented “wheel bite,” the somewhat tall Sure Grip trucks provided a tight turning radius, and the urethane wheels both gripped and slid on pavement when necessary. It was a catharsis, one that would not have occurred had it not been for Skip Engblom and Jeff Ho. While the stylistic roots of skateboarding had been pioneered in an earlier decade based upon other board sports, this configuration is what allowed skateboarding to flourish fueled by the talent and devotion of Dogtown’s Z-Boys. To understand the nature of skateboarding at its core, an examination of the Z-Boys style crucial. The New School of skateboarding, while in some ways similar, is quite different. The requirement of intricate balance is not such an imperative. The boards have a lower center of gravity, have concaved edges, and have longer noses and tails. In comparison to the surf shape they almost qualify as balance boards. Therefore a clear delineation must be made in choosing one’s aesthetic and one’s board.