This is skate rock - The Faction

In the early '80s, skateboarders' reputations as artistic misfits and misunderstood troublemakers were growing. So was another cultural phenomenon: punk rock. The new sound meshed perfectly with the attitude of skateboarding. To both, the rules were simple: "There are no rules."

The faster and louder you skated or played, the better. It was a match made not in heaven but in the places where suburban kids who sucked at football and baseball congregated. You didn't just skate; you didn't just listen to punk. Skating and punk became your outlook. Your opinion. Your big middle finger to the status quo. It was your life.

The connection between punk rock and skateboarding is undeniable--a symbiotic relationship. You really can't have one without the other. Maybe it's the omnipresent boom box blaring from the deck of the half-pipe during the backyard ramp jam. Or over the PA at the skatepark. Or from the car stereo while a curb session is in full grind.

San Jose has a long and rich skateboard history, churning out some of the world's best pros. Steve Caballero was one of the top pros who put the city on the map in the early '80s, and he still rips today. Jeff Kendall, Mike Prosenko, John Fabriquer, Corey O'Brien (who started the San Jose-based Sonic Skateboards with brother Gavin) and countless other old-schoolers made the city proud with their talent on a skateboard.

And from that pool of artistic aggression surfaced the band that best represents the punk-skateboarding connection known as skate rock: the Faction. They were skateboarders, and they made music for skateboarding.

Though the lyrics of only two songs in their entire discography dealt explicitly with skating, the Faction was still the pioneering force in this punk rock offshoot. After all, they composed the quintessential skate-rock song, "Skate and Destroy."

The band was literally thrown together during breaks at the daily ramp jams in Caballero's San Jose backyard in 1982, and no one had a clue how far the Faction was going to go--or that two decades later, how skateboarding and punk rock would leap from subculture to pop culture.

In their brief existence, from 1982 to 1985, Caballero (bass, then later guitar), Gavin O'Brien (vocals), Ray Stevens (bass), Russ Wright (guitar) and Keith Rendon (drums)--along with former members Adam "Bomb" Segal (guitar) and Craig Bosch (drums)--toured the United States twice, recorded five records and played shows with fellow skate-rock legends JFA, Fear, Los Olvidados and Drunk Injuns (Stevens also played bass for the latter two).

After just three years, personalities began clashing over songwriting, and the fun was gone. So the Faction just broke up. "The band had run its course with Adam 'Bomb' Segal on guitar, and the direction he was trying to lead the band," Stevens says.

"We were all good friends," O'Brien adds, "but it wasn't fun anymore. It was no different from being at the end of a relationship that had run out of passion and understanding." In 1989, the band reunited for two sold-out shows at the Cactus Club (with local pro skater Jeff Kendall filling Segal's vacancy).

But a full-fledged reunion was still far off. O'Brien's life was too hectic, and he couldn't devote the time. For the next 10 years, Caballero and Stevens badgered O'Brien to get the group back together. When fellow San Jose punkers Los Olvidados reunited at the Rockin' Rob Dapello tribute show in March 2001, Los O's guitarist, Mike Fox, laid down the gauntlet to O'Brien, challenging him to get the Faction back together. Fox had done it; now it was O'Brien's turn. And he finally caved in.

"[Fox] ground me down for three days until I called Stevie and Ray," O'Brien recalls. "I told them I'd be willing to do it as long as there were no metal riffs in the band."

The band members were surprised to find themselves playing music together again. But the prophetic message on the back of the Epitaph (IM Records) album--the Faction's last release--read, "We'll be back." And indeed they are.

On July 14, 2001, the quintet stepped onto the stage together for the first time in 12 years. It was a sold-out reunion show at the Usual that looked like a who's who of San Jose skateboard and punk-rock lineage. The band killed it. That show was supposed to be just that--one show--but the Faction was having too much fun playing together again.

As a testament to its rekindled musical fire, the band is recording a new set of songs, just finishing the first session with longtime friend Randy Burk at his Stout Studios in Oakland. So far, the Faction has completed three new songs and one cover. And the guys couldn't be more stoked. While the old songs were strong, production quality (for virtually every early-'80s punk band) left a lot to be desired, the new tunes are full-on wall-of-guitar punk rock.

O'Brien says "Cut It Out" is about "waking up out of your reality distortion field and accepting life for what it is." "The Whistler" is inspired by an old joke his friends use to do on the phone. "Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?" is a cover song from the mockumentary Hardcore Logo, "probably the best rock & roll movie of all time," in O'Brien's opinion. The fourth song is as yet untitled.

In mid-August, the Faction traveled to Seattle to play the Hey Punk! Festival at the Experience Music Project Museum and, more importantly, celebrate their inclusion in the EMP's permanent section centered on something the Faction helped create: skate rock. Along with pictures and fliers, there's a video loop on a hanging television showing the Faction playing at CBGB's in New York on its 1985 U.S. tour.

"It really put things into perspective for me," O'Brien says. "Because I never felt the Faction was anything special. But the EMP thing was a sign of respect and recognition of our contribution to the scene."

This is an era of one-off reunion tours where homage is being paid not to the music but to the dollar. The Warped Tour ranks high in the top-grossing tours of the year along with Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys. "Heaven Is a Halfpipe" can be heard on mainstream radio (OPM had to pay Consolidated Skateboards' Alan Petersen to do all the skateboarding in their video. Read: not skate rock).

What is so refreshing and significant about the Faction's music? It is timeless. "Skate Harassment," "Tongue Like a Battering Ram," "AUK" and the rest of the Faction library could have been written last week. This is not some nostalgic throwback to the '80s, since the music and the lyrics are just as relevant today. Whether they're intending to or not, they're here to set the record straight. This is skate rock, and the Faction does it better than the rest. And they should. They invented it.

Original Source: Metro Active, By Paul Wotel

Longboarding, transportation trend among adults

"Hey, Dad, can I borrow your skateboard tonight?"

If that's a sentence you have never heard, you probably haven't heard of longboard skateboards. Longboards are the hottest thing in skateboarding for adults. At the basic level, longboards are exactly that: longer skateboards, from 42 to even 80 inches in length, compared with regular boards that are 30 to 38 inches. The biggest difference is these sidewalk surfboards are designed for comfortable riding, not X Games-type tricks on the halfpipe or at the skate park.

"A general rule of thumb is 'the longer the board, the older the rider,' " says Ken Perkins of Arbor Snowboards and Skateboards, whose Hawaii-influenced designs are among the most popular sold.

"It's not unusual to see 40-year-olds commuting on them. During the recent New York transit strike, I saw some Wall Street types riding their boards to work."

Longboards are more stable and smoother riding because the board is more flexible and the wheels are made of softer plastic, allowing them to roll over pebbles and rough concrete that could cause a trick boarder to crash.

"About 85% of skateboarders leave the sport by the time they reach 18," says Michael Brooke, publisher and editor of Concrete Wave, a magazine dedicated to longboarding. "The high attrition rate is due to the true difficulty of doing the tricks. They're very technical and sometimes dangerous."

In 1998, a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission study said 80% of the then-11.4 million U.S. skateboarders were under 18. Seven years later, a report by Transworld Skateboarding magazine said skaters 6 to 17 represented only half the nation's 16.4 million skateboarders. Hence the trend toward longboarding. It has become the No. 2-ranked skateboard activity in North America, according to a study by Label Networks, a Venice Beach, Calif., company that tracks youth culture trends. Street-style trick skating is first, and vert-park skating (half-pipe style tricks) is third.

"It is more utilitarian," Kathleen Gasperini, senior vice president of Label Networks, says of longboarding. "You can use it as transportation or have your dog pull you around the neighborhood.

"Girls (whose participation levels in longboarding are 2% higher than boys) love it because it is easier than dropping into a vert ramp and a lot more fun."

Transforming trends

As with regular skateboards, longboards have their gnarly roots in surfing. In the early 1600s, Hawaiian surfriders used 18- to 25-foot mahogany and balsa boards. The modern 8- to 12-foot surfboard emerged in the 1930s. Today's highly maneuverable plastic-foam boards are as small as 6 feet in length. Skateboarding went through a similar but more accelerated metamorphosis. Skateboarding was created in the late 1950s by bored surfers looking for something to do until wave conditions improved. They bolted skate wheels to planks and cruised beach roads and sidewalks, sometimes setting up slalom courses in parking lots. In the 1960s, however, Tony Alva and his merry band of Dogtown surfer-skaters developed a skateboarding style that mimicked the swooping cutback moves of real surfing. Boards got smaller to accommodate their use in empty swimming pools. This evolved into halfpipe ramps and street-skate parks that emphasized riding on rails and ledges.

"That's when they threw the baby out with the bathwater," Brooke says.

Long days journey

Today's longboards are a return to those early days of road riding and slalom racing. Some longboarders are even going to extremes, in a laid-back, longboard sort of way. Adam Colton and two of his friends rode their longboards nearly 3,000 miles from Newport, Ore., to his home in Springfield, Va., last year. They skated more than 50 miles a day and had to tape their sneakers with thick layers of duct tape to keep them from disintegrating.

"The key to the whole trip was switching legs to push off, otherwise I would have had one huge leg," Colton says.

Colton, 22, and associate Adam Stokowski, 21, also from Springfield, are taking longboards in a completely new direction by choreographing dance steps to be performed on them. They are also taping promotional videos for a line of longboards.

"I hurt my leg doing tricks," the lanky Stokowski says. "My parents are really happy that I'm able to make a living with longboards."

Parents aren't a visible component of trick skating, but Gasperini says longboards are giving the sport a cross-generational boost. "In longboarding, you now have parents who used to do vert riding skating with their young kids," she says. "This is the first time that has happened."

Original Source: USAToday

Skateboarding as transportation

San Francisco, Ca. Everyday, unless it’s raining, Ramsey Garcia, 30, rolls his longboard (a three-foot skateboard with large black wheels) to San Francisco State or to work downtown. He rarely uses his a car and he doesn’t have a bicycle; the skateboard is his principle transportation from his house on Sloat Boulevard. “It takes a good portion out of my daily commute,” said Garcia, a native of San Clemente. “And it gets my heart rate up to keep me warm in a colder city.”

Longboard skateboards, different than those used for ollies, 360 flips and grinds, are becoming a trendy form of transportation. According to the San Francisco Skateboard Task Force, Garcia is one of an estimated 25,000 skateboarders who live in San Francisco. Many ride their boards as a form of alternative transportation although it’s illegal on city streets and many sidewalks. “Skateboard use, as transportation, on the streets and sidewalks of the city is rampant,” according to the Task Force’s 2004 Skateboard Master Plan. “While current law only permits skateboard use on residential sidewalks between dawn and dusk, real usage is going on nearly around the clock.”

For skaters like Garcia the ride can be a haphazard gauntlet of speeding cars, pedestrians, potholes and police. “Scary moments? I’ve had a few,” Garcia wrote in an e-mail, “a couple of close encounters with cars pulling out into traffic and not seeing me on the shoulder.” The law is another risk for skaters. When Garcia rolls to the east edge of the SFSU campus, he always tries to remember if it’s a protest day or not. If a protest is happening, he can’t ride through the sloped campus because University police are on the prowl, said Garcia. A run-in with the police could mean a ticket, a fine and possibly confiscation of his board. Garcia has been warned several times. “If I see them I try to hop off,” Garcia said. “Or I’ll have my headphones on and pretend like I don’t hear them.”

In California, skateboard law varies from county to county, city to city even sidewalk to sidewalk. State law allows “transit boards, public agencies, and local authorities,” to specify where skateboards can be used on public property. San Francisco traffic code states that skateboards cannot be used on any city street at any time, only on residential sidewalks from dawn to dusk. “When compared to other locales both in and out of California, San Francisco has the most restrictive code (as of January, 2004) to be found,” according to the Skateboard Master Plan.

The problem, said Adam Colton who in 2005 pushed his longboard 3,000 miles across the United States for charity, is that police don’t distinguish between street skaters that often damage property with their daring grinds and longboard skaters, which are usually harmlessly cruising. “Unfortunately, the law doesn’t allow for that,” said one San Francisco State University Police Officer. This results in skateboards being used for transportation throughout San Francisco “illegally as often as legally,” according to the Skateboard Task Force. But a few ‘no skateboarding’ signs and obscure traffic codes won’t stop skaters altogether. “Overall, this city has revived my passion for skating,” said Garcia, who has never been hassled by police for skateboarding outside of university grounds.

Original Source: Broowaha, By: DrSinValley

Outside Report: Oyama takes second at slalom skateboarding nationals

Skateboarding Judi Oyama of Santa Cruz took a second and a fourth at the U.S. Nationals of Slalom Skateboarding in Longmont, Colo., last weekend. Oyama placed second in women's dual hybrid slalom Saturday and fourth in the women's dual tight slalom Sunday. Both events were won by the current women's world champion, Lynn Kramer, who also won the women's overall title.

Original Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel