"SickBoys" Forward by Toth

"Are you a poser?"
I heard those four words for the first time in the spring of 1987. I was finishing my first year of middle school at Lewis and Clark in Omaha, Nebraska, and I had watched certain seventh and eighth graders with specific interest. Skateboarding had gotten enough attention nationally, so that many kids in the Midwest began sporting the 'extreme' look. This year had seen Vision Street Wear shoes (with the rubber ollie-patch), lots of Hosoi Hammerheads and baby-Cabs, day-glo colored clothes (well before the snowboarders and eventually the skiers got to them), charm bracelets and of course, that skater haircut of all skater haircuts: the flop (long on top, shaved all the way around).

"What's a poser?"
Even at 12-years-old, I was smart enough to recognize some negative aspect of the word (middle school was all about being hip to what was 'in' and what was 'out'), but I also learned fast to call people out on whether or not they even knew what they were talking about. Seventh grade at my neighborhood school (as opposed to the magnet school I had passed on) was intimidating and disappointing. Whereas sixth graders are the top of the totem pole, first year middle-schoolers get a quick dose of reality in the form of labeling.

"He's a poser!"
Nerds, jocks, preps, punkers, burn-outs, rebels, sluts, teases, blacks, Mexicans and skateboarders all went to this particular school, and I still didn't know which one I was...but a 'poser,' I was not. I had watched skaters all year with a peculiar fascination and was beginning to realize they had what I wanted: the freedom to create in a way that was fresh, athletic and fun as fuck (especially to watch). As soon as I had enough money saved up from working with my Dad, I was picking up a skateboard...

Unfortunately, until then I had only invested my own dollars in G.I. Joe figures, so the only place I'd seen skateboards for sale was TOYS 'R' US. They had Nash, Veriflex and Roller Derby brand boards, and since I'd heard that Nash and Veriflex were 'poser' boards, I took my hard earned dollars from Dad and got a white Roller Derby with floral pattern print, black grip, rails, nosebone and tailplate.

My first clue, that I had in fact purchased a 'poser' board, I got at the big hill in my neighborhood. On the way to school, there was a perfect 'run' steep enough to get speed wobbles when riding at terminal velocity...that is, if you had a 'pro' set-up. As I was getting ready for my first 'bombing', another skater (obviously familiar with the territory) blew right by me and went straight down, indeed getting speed wobbles by the middle of his descent, riding it out to almost half-way up the next hill. With that, I embraced his model and pointed down. I didn't go very fast, I never got speed wobbles, and I came to an abrupt stop as soon as I ran out of slope. The other skater looked back at me from half a block up the street and yelled, "you need faster bearings!"

Yeah...and another board...
but I didn't get there until the following spring, after I gave up my Hasbro addiction and earned enough dough for a 'real' skateboard. Dad was paying me a dollar an hour, and in '88 a 'complete deck' was $150. I spent it on a blue and white 'Gator' Mark Rogowski by Vision. Steve Berra was a year older than me and worked at 'Steve's Skateboard Shop' on Dodge Street. He ripped some pink and purple grip-tape and did the job for me, explaining what was 'cool'. I listened…

I've been listening for the last 22 years...

Why? Because real skaterboarders KNOW what is cool.

How do I know that?
As it turned out, a 'poser' was a person (usually male) who sought to profit from skateboarding because of it's 'cool' factor without actually feeling passionate about skateboarding. Some posers got their moms to buy them skater 'gear' as soon as they decided to become a skater, and they would show up the next day at school, transformed by their new 'skater look.' One could tell the moment they gave up skating by when their wardrobe strayed from skater brands and moved on to Izod or inversely, tie-dyed Deadhead garb. Other posers were outed due to their infatuation with calling people 'posers' and consistently questioning the 'realness' of all newcomers. They lasted a little longer, but often dealt with depression later, still not knowing who they are...or at least finally realizing they, in fact, were the poser. Other posers embraced skating as affectionately as the media did every five or ten years...and were just as fickle.

Real skateboarders LOVE skateboarding.

As an athlete, each sport has variables. The variables of Adrenaline, Deftness, Hang-time and Drivability sum up what skateboarding is to this physical world (acronym intended). Skateboarding has no rules, therefore, skaters have no rules. Creativity can exist within rules, but the learning curve gets slighted, i.e. basketball, baseball and football players invent new moves every once in awhile, but it usually takes decades to see offensive ball handling change significantly. In the professional realm of skateboarding, every year is filled with watershed events that leave imprints on its history and often send it into a new direction. It could be because of it's birth in California, a land of liberal evolution, good energy and Love for fellow mankind, where new ideas are embraced instead of ridiculed, this sport has thrived. It could be that the skateboard companies, usually owned by passionate skaters, enjoy playing the purist role of being a 'quality company’ or 'locally owned' instead of being bought off by a corporate check, to inevitably lose their ‘hardcore’ allure. It could be as simple as an annual youth rebellion to the same old boring choices society gives us...or it could be ALL OF THE ABOVE.

I saw the skateboard Video "Sick Boys" in 1990, even though it came out in 1988. As opposed to Powell Peralta videos that were polished and directed or H-Street videos that were segmented into fish-eye lensed, team rider chapters, Mack Dawg Productions shot film of friends (mostly pro skaters) skating all the hot spots in California. The narration by Bryce Kanights gave any skater outside of Cali an idea of how to 'speak' skater. When I approached DJ Crucial about the idea of a "Sick Boys" skater rap album (twenty years after the original release of the video) based on our lives growing up as whiteboy, skaterboarder, rap listeners in West County St. Louis, he said, "sounds rad," as only Crucial can do. We spent the year of 2007 watching ALL of our old skate vids, searching for skits, samples and any kind of reference to that essence we felt as teenagers of what 'cool' was. It was easy. We're still both avid skaters with very child-like qualities. We've been filming our own skate vids every three years since 1994, and almost all our old skater friends still skate. Every new X-Games, every new DVD (no more VHS), every new trick I get to witness turn trendy, I smile...and I think "hells yeah, look what we did."

Without telling you exactly how I want you to interpret the album, I'll only say, it's yours, not ours, do with it as you may (no rules remember?) It's peppered with music, quotes and themes from videos by Powell Peralta, H-Street, Blind, Plan B, Vision, Santa Cruz Skateboards (amongst others) and of course the original "Sick Boys" (now out on re-mastered DVD from Mack Dawg Productions), but it's also got nuggets of pop culture from Chris Farley on Saturday Night Live to Sean Penn as Spicoli in 'Fast Times at Ridgemount High' to 'All Your Love' by the Animals. From start to finish, this album is the collection of our evolution, birth to now.



It's 'real' and it's cool...hope you agree...but if you don't, we won't take it personal.



Sincerely,
skateboarder for life,
Jonathan Toth from Hoth [co-signed by DJ Crucial]




Thanks for listening to:
“Sick Boys” by Jonathan Livingston Crucial




FREE LISTENS AT:
myspace.com/JonathanLivingstonCrucial
Copyright 2009




FREE "SICKBOYS" VIDEO AT:
youtube.com/watch?v=zRvdStu4usk
Copyright 2009