Washinton DC Words by Keir Johnson. Photos by Chris McDonald.

Chocolate City USA, the dirty district, the Nations Capitals, all AKA’s by which the District of Columbia is known. For all purposes D.C. was designed primarily with the Federal Government in mind, but don’t let the political side fool you with the buildings, monuments, protests and scandals. As the mid space in between an abstract Venn Diagram of Maryland and Virginia, D.C. has always maintained a strong and unique culture as part of the infamous “big east” cities, and it is with good reason.
The world of skateboarding in the D.C. area most likely goes back to the 60’s and probably earlier to a time when civil rights was a major influence and the forming of new trends like surfing and punk rock music were making their way across the country. There were probably lots of Vans slip-on wearing rippers cruising D.C. streets on banana boards in the late 60’s. However among the first people confirmed to have skated around in D.C. were actually punk rock illumanries Ian Mackaye and Henry Rollins. Known to have rolled around the city back in the mid 70’s, Ian Mackaye still rides occasionally today, and to make that just one step better, he’s STILL riding that cruiser you can see on the cover of the old Minor Threat album!

Fast-forward to the 80’s and a new generation of riders would make their mark. A young Sean Sheffey blazed his way into skateboarding stardom through SHUT. Soon after, people like Chris Hall, Brian Tucci, Lance Dawes, Andy Stone, Pepe Martinez, Scott Johnston, Darrel Vaughn, Eben Jahnke, Joe Pino, Carlos “Pooch” Kenner, Jimmy Pelletier, Wayne Cox, Hojin Chang, and many others would make a mark for D.C. in their own time. The paramount spot that would help manifest their legacy, a marble plaza on 13th & E Street known world wide cohesively as Pulaski Park and
Freedom Plaza.

As the 90’s progressed, Pulaski became more of a bust and the entire city and surrounding areas became even more popular to skate. With the advent of superior video technology, skate videos became more popular and created a new generational movement in the D.C. skate scene that helped gain exposure. New names like Reese Forbes, John Igei, Sean Mullendore, Paul McElroy, Matt Willigan, Greg Harris, Sean O’Brien, Jeremy Owens, Jimmy Yancy, Adam Graham, Tyler Tufty, Dave Lim, Mark Bullen, Jake Rupp, Sam Weintzen, Alex Hansen, Dustin Charlton, Andy Honen, and more were, among those who helped D.C. transition from the late 90’s into 2G’s. Its also important to note that in the 90’s D.C.’s first big time skate company was Capital Skateboards. Who, along with companies like Nicotine Wheels, 22 Skateboards, True Mathematics Clothing, Guerilla Tactics Skateboards and in addition Cali based Element and People Skateboards, all had D.C. as their epicenter of the time.

Finally a new generation has really come into their own in the past few years in D.C. With people like Bobby Worrest, Zach Lyons, Darren Harper, Sean Gregoire, Wes Bell and Daniel Kim among the hordes of new rippers, the people you see featured on these pages are but a few of D.C.’s elite. With generations of sick D.C. coverage now implanted in the skate world and with the popularity of skating world wide right now, more and more kids are trying it out. The D.C. area finally has its own shop within the city in years - Palace 5ive Skate Shop. In Maryland, Pitcrew and Vu Skate Shop are helping to hold things down, while Elite Board Shop looks out for Virginia. Also, it’s only right to shout out the whole Fight Club crew, the Catalyst Skateboards crew, www.theforgottencity.com, 29 Films, Guerilla Fist, Victor @ Red Bull, Brad Rosado, Allen Danze, Chris McDonald and all the filmers and photographers, the local skateparks, and finally all skaters young and old and anybody we forgot, peace!