Kids in Burlington Suck
(Burlington, WA., That is.)
Ed: Okay, so I'm too lazy to write
stories for this site anymore. I wrote this one for the school newspaper,
which should sufficiently explain it lameness, but putting up new pages
makes me look good, so I don't care.
“You have to go to new parks the first day at shut all the local kids down,” said Eric Castro when Drew Steadham and I picked him up to go skating from Alliance Skate Shop.
Drew is the asshole... |
Castro is the Skate Team Manager for the shop during the summer months, and is generally the guy who’s always fun to have around. He carries a boom box with him to different skate spots and has been known to skateboard with a Mexican flag hanging out of his back pocket. Today he had his dyed-black hair in cornrows.
He was the main instigator of our trip, our destination, the brand new Burlington Skatepark. Steadham, a lanky Chilean kid with dark hair, had agreed to go skateboarding with me the day before, but at that time, we didn’t really have a target park. When we consulted Castro, he had decided for us.
Ryan Gray, who looks like John Malkovich, and Malcolm Benskin, a kid who I didn’t know could talk for the first few days I knew him, were also supposed to go on the trip with us. They showed up shortly and agreed to follow us to the park in Gray’s car.
Steadham rode shotgun in my Saab, and Castro sat in the back. They argued as they tried to pick out something to listen to. I grabbed the cheesy pop mix I made using Napster and put it in. “You guys are going to love this,” I said.
I could almost hear them shudder as the notes of Britney Spears’ “Stronger” resonated through the speakers. I laughed as Steadham scanned through the tracks trying to find something that was less offensive to him. He finally settled on a Puffy Daddy song that had been in a skate video. After the song ended, he ejected the CD and took charge of selecting music for the rest of the trip.
When we arrived in the town of Burlington I turned to Castro to ask if he knew where the park was.
“It’s on Section Street,” he said, waving a postcard with a non-detailed map of the town on it, “Off Highway 20.”
We pulled into a 711 to ask for directions and pick up some refreshments. The man running the register rang up our water, Gatorade and Red Bull, but had no idea where the park was.
We set off again, hoping if we followed Highway 20 signs, we’d come across the park eventually. Pretty soon, our two cars got separated in Burlington traffic. Now with no one following us, we stopped at a grocery store to ask for directions. A kid pushing shopping carts in skate shoes had no trouble pointing us in the right direction. A few minutes later, we pulled up the crowded skatepark.
We were happy to see some of our friends from Bellingham were already there. Max Hendin skated up to us. “There is nothing wrong with this park,” he said. Hendin says this about every park, but he seemed especially stoked on this place.
In the far corner, someone’s boom box blasted hip-hop. Tons of people, many whom I recognized from the nearby Mt. Vernon skatepark, skated in all different directions. There were little kids with their parents; and a group of girls in tank tops and bellbottoms sat on the edge of the park in addition to all the skaters. These people only added to the confusion.
People were colliding left and right, and we received glassy stares from the locals as we walked up. It was obvious this place didn’t have the friendliest atmosphere, despite how much Max liked it.
Steadham, Castro and myself immediately skated off in different directions. I made my way over to the bowl section of the park. A quarterpipe wall and a spine made up a snake run that weaved across one side of the park that seemed right up my alley.
The two guys went over the skate the more street oriented side of the park. Here a quarterpipe led down to a fun box with a rail on top, and a hip. To the right of this was a small pyramid, and another quarterpipe. At the far end of the park was two ledges set onto of each other like stairs. At the bottom was a small transition that had a channel in the middle of it.
They popped huge ollies, and did all sorts of flip tricks I can never aspire to do. Castro was especially excited about the corner on the bank. “If we had one of these at our park, I’d be a flip-trick master,” he said.
Malcolm is the nice guy. |
Awhile after we got there, Gray and Benskin finally pulled up. They joined into the session; pretty soon though, Gray had cut off one of the less-friendly locals. They argued in the corner of the park, while everyone else tried to calm Gray down.
I rolled into one of the banks and smashed into a little kid. “Sorry,” I said.
He flashed me a dirty look and skated off. This was the final straw. I let my passengers know that I was ready to go. Every time I attempted to drop in, I would collide with someone coming from the one direction I hadn’t checked. I walked over and sat down on a ledge. Me knee ached from an earlier fall, and I really didn’t feel like skating.
Pretty soon, more of the Belligham crew arrived. Benskin’s brother Alex showed up. He skated for a while, and then walked over to the ledge where Steadham, his brother and I were standing. ““I need to have that warm fuzzy feeling inside when I’m skating,” he said “And I don’t get it here.”
I had convinced Steadham we should go, but first he wanted to drop off the highest ledge on the edge of the park, down about four feet, to the foot of transition below.
He called Castro over to let him know we were leaving right after he landed this bomb-drop. Castro decided he wanted to stick around and catch a ride back with someone else, but he joined into the bomb-dropping session. Malcolm Benskin was also ready to try it, but he opted to drop where there was no transition underneath. He didn’t hesitate, dropped in, and skated away.
Castro tried to do the drop and slid out. Steadham went next and kicked his board away. The next try, he rode away from it, as did Castro. “That was the most fun thing I did all day,” Steadham said.
Satisfied that he had shown up the local kids, Steadham skated across the park to my car, and we were on our way.
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