Tait Gota Boneless through the corner.

\Zarosh Backside Nose Blunt.

Zarosh Crail on the Cinderblock Wall.

Zarosh Takes A Test Run Off The Concrete Forms.

DIY: The Cachagua Effect

Pete Gunn and I had been around the central coast in the summer, and built a few quarter pipes around town. The concrete was pretty basic, we just built against some walls in some abandoned lots, but you always had to be looking over your shoulder for cops, trying to squish our fun. Animal Chin cruised by one day to check our progress, and mentioned Cachagua, a place where we could build the most fun trannies we could dream of.

What he was saying made sense; he explained that skateboarding was born from sidewalks and banks. He showed us that the simplest brick bank could be so fun to carve, a curb cut could be so perfect to boost off of, but if we made our own, they could be even better. He was so right, and I think he foresaw that by building what we were going to skate, we would be able to fulfill our desires. “The only thing you need,” he said, “is to know what you want to skate. It doesn’t matter if you know how to lay concrete, just don’t wait for someone else to do it for you.” that was back in 2004. We learned that Cachagua meant ‘hidden water’ and we also found that it was a Native American town way out in the hills, so far you couldn’t even get a cement truck out there without the product hardening up on the drive out.

We made a connection with a dedicated surfer, Raboon, who lived way out there but made the trek every single day to check the surf and get in the ocean. He seemed to have been waiting for us. I think Animal Chin had kind of set the whole thing up. He led us to a mountaintop and some how flattened it off to expose the naturally occurring decomposed granite.

We sat on the idea for a while, but it wasn’t until Washington Street finished its course and our friend Luke went out to the spot with a tent and a shovel.

Skaters started showing up to help us dig and bring out any stray parking blocks they found. It started off with one-quarter pipe, then we would just add on to it. Since then all kinds of ideas have sprung up that we’ve been able to create out of cement. The vertical pool blocks, parking blocks surrounded by transition, a quarter-pipe with a tree branch for coping. We are still trying to build an elevated sidewalk bridge, a working manhole room, and a small replica of the beautiful San Onofre. I’d like to think that once we cover the whole hill with concrete, that Animal Chin will pay us another visit, but legend has is that if your having fun doing it then he’s already there.

I hate public skate parks. Some might be fun, but they are not epic. Most of these parks are not designed or built by skaters. The transitions are too boring or too mellow, and that fucking silver coping! Whatever lines are either go back and forth or lead you in to a fence, and look out for the kids riding other devices that have any sort of wheel on them. Last time I checked, skateboarding was still shunned and completely illegal. For just standing on a sidewalk with a skateboard I’ve been physically attacked by cops and security guards. Now they want to build us parks? Something is wrong here. The same people that throw us on the ground and try and take our boards now want to build us public skate parks. They tell us where we can’t skate. Now they want to tell us where we can skate? It seems like we’re sleeping with the enemy.

The main problem is we have Zach Spermsnout spraying the most repetitive square parks in city after city, so the only thing those kids have to skate for the next hundred years is the same boring transitions. If you go to the next town you get to skate the same damn park. Skateboarding is about fuck you. I don’t play your jock games, and I’m completely obsessed with this shit. It is not some sport that every city needs an area for, alongside baseball and basketball. Skateboarding was born from the streets and the back yards. That’s where it belongs. I’m not saying to never go to your skate park, but instead of going there every single day, shape something out of dirt that looks fun, and pour some concrete on it. Just have the idea of making your skate scene a little better. That’s how it all starts. Burnside went up in 1991. Have a good look at Burnside. Some skaters made a bank up to a wall under the bridge. Now its covered in transitions and every inch is skate-able, and the lines never end. Look at Washington Street, hundreds of feet of concrete coping. Copy them. Do exactly what they did. Mix your own concrete, fight the city for the use of their land, build your own ledge, just don’t let the authorities tell you where to skate.

Concrete is a mix of burnt limestone, sand, and aggregate. Mixed with water, the ingredients begin to set up and harden for the next 120 years. Skateboarding is a byproduct of this. It doesn’t really even exist. Skateboarding culture starts underground. We built our own industry, made our own ramps, and we choose our own fate when we step on a board. Skateboarding has gotten soft these days, there’s a whole generation that shops at the mall and only go to skate parks. Well, I say harden the fuck up, go buy a bag of concrete. Every four dollars is one 90lb bag of concrete. Take that money you spend on trying to look cool and buy your own pavement. Take all that energy you spend at the park and build your own scene. There is an unlimited amount of fun to be had out there depending on how we use our creativity. Go ahead and copy something that looks fun. That’s what its all about, that’s why I’m writing this article, to tell you to do the same thing. Those skater built bridge parks will forever stand the test of time, because their epicness is laid in concrete.

THANK YOU:
Bills Wheels, Peter Gunn, Hippie Chris, Glen Wagner, Joe Pino, Luke, Soup, Jp, Tait, Murphy’s Lumber, Birdo, Justin Iwanicha, Taylor White, Abe, Bodhi, Raboon, Forrest Rasberry Sage, Brooke, Sweeters, Washington Street, Burnside, Hidden Water, Dekline, Death, Consolidated, all the places who gave us your loose parking blocks, whoever figured out concrete and urethane, and all the local kids who got sick on the ride out only to exhaust themselves mixing our concrete.

NO THANKS:
Spermsnout, quit spraying your same boring bowl in every town. If you gave a fuck maybe your parks wouldn’t suck. Holiday, go to bed. All the cops giving kids tickets for not wearing helmets, do surfers have to wear wetsuits? We just want our freedom, isn’t that what America’s about? It’s not right that a kid still in grammar school could have warrants out for their arrest from not going to a public skatepark. Leave us the fuck alone!