The Future (Build to Enjoy)

Dillin @ Brooklyn Skatepark

Dillin's old school.  He carves around the bowl of the Brooklyn Street Skate Spot on a thrashed 70's skateboard with shaky trucks.  Despite the sketchy gear, he is pretty fluid and gets a solid run in before getting hung up on a rocks to fakie.  Dillin has been skating this spot since "day one", meaning November 2010, when the park opened to the public. 

Sam @ Brooklyn Skatepark

Brooklyn Skatepark came into existence when Portland skaters reclaimed a little patch of industrial dead-zone and built a skatepark.  Although the city approved their plan, no bureaucracy was involved:  The park was funded and constructed entirely by skaters.  The bowl is a tight squeeze between the railroad tracks and the pedestrian overpass, but it was crafted well, so the runs are pretty solid and  interact in creative ways with the existing architecture.  It's a simple design, but it's life where once was dust and rubble.  It's in these rough patches of the grid that culture thrives; the underground that, like Dash Snow, "forgot more than you'll ever know".  The people that grow up here, like Dillin and Sam, may someday make big money skating in Dew Tour.  Or they may ditch the skateboard and become an engineer or an architect.  Maybe they'll be a graffiti artist or rock & roll, hesh for life, and skate until their knees collapse.  These spots that we salvage from disrepair are where the future is made, where friends come together and build to enjoy.  The act alone shapes senses of possibility and I think that is truly rad.  Be free and skate.