I'm Not A Cool Guy Anymore, As If I Ever Was Before - The Descendents And Skating
I was put into the way back machine reading this post by @boxcarblue this morning. It brought me back to my youth growing up, hitting the road, skating and listening to music, especially punk rock.
During my high school years there wasn't a band more influential on me and my friends than the Descendents. Finding them was like finding crypto in 2011. They were pop punk in the fucking 80's and they were our secret find!
The Descendents were the soundtrack for Southern California teenage angst and skateboarding! They were different than most other punk bands though, they sung about love, relationships and they were actually good at playing their instruments, not just 4 power chord punk. Have a listen.
The Band
The Descendents were formed in the late 1970's in Manhattan Beach, Ca. by drummer Bill Stevenson(also of Black Flag), bassist Tony Lombardo and guitarist Frank Navetta. In 1979 Bill's friend Milo Stevenson joined as their vocalist and one of the most iconic punk bands ever started belting out classics like "Silly Girl", "Suburban Home", "Wendy"(Bach Boys Cover), "Pep Talk" and "Kabuki Girl", the latter of which probably subconsciously helped me meet my wife.
Bands like Green Day, Blink 182 and others have cited the The Descendents as major inspirations. You can hear The Descendents in most pop punk bands, after all they pretty much started the genre.
The band has been recording and performing since 1978 with hiatuses in-between and a side project called "ALL". ALL was the brainchild of drummer Bill Stevenson and formed when Milo took a break. They were a bit more poppy, but at the core were they still The Descendents.
The Descendents are still touring. Unfortunately I just missed them in Orange County back in March and they won't be back until next year it looks like, but they may be coming to a town near you. They are getting old so if you want to check them out now would be a good time before they retire. Tour dates can be found on the Epitaph Records website:http://epitaph.com
Skating
As I mentioned The Descendents were our soundtrack as we skated our ramps, that is as long as the ghetto blasters had batteries and/or a runaway skateboard didn't knock them out of service. Between my 3 friends, Jake, Jeff, Phil and I we built over 20 half pipes in and around Murrieta and Temecula, CA. Our most famous ramps were our spine & 7'. It was almost a skate park when we added another ramp, the Haden's ramp, which we cut in 3 pieces and relocated on a flatbed truck there! Fucking punk man!
We built them behind our houses on land that would later become an apartment complex. Until then though, it was ours and anyone could come skate them.
Professionals like Danny Way, Mario Rubacabla and others would occasionally come and skate. Danny once did a photo shoot for Power Edge magazine on our spine ramp. I had pictures, but when I moved to Tokyo I must have lost them.
All was not fun and games though, we actually got nailed by one of the housing developers when they found out we had stolen some of their wood to build the ramps. We ended up having to do 1 day of work for them cleaning up their housing tract as payback. We got off easy though as we probably had well over $1000 in wood between the two ramps.
I had a great childhood, carefree, good friends, good music and good times. Thanks for bringing back those memories @boxcarblue.
And to my high school friends, Dave, Big Al, Chris, Liza, Phil, Jake, Jen, Marissa, and Tara Roll down your windows! Guys! Roll down your windows!
Haha great
Good old days stealing plywood for your ramps and listening to punk. I was more into the Dead Kennedy's type of punk back in the 80s rather than pop type but it's pretty catchy. I will have to check some more of them on youtube
@viraldrome yes!
I enjoyed DK, GBH, Bad Religion, etc.too, I just liked The Descendents a lot. They were goofy in a way that a teenager could relate to.
Congratulation rt395! Your post has appeared on the hot page after 31min with 93 votes.
That self-build skate park is astonishing.
Ya, we just kept adding to it. Why not, materials were free and land was plenty!
My last project was a 10 foot high, 24 foot wide ramp down the street. I am so bummed I don't have any pictures of that. It was my crown jewel.
Thanks @fr3eze.
Shame, you should record the whole thing down and that would make a good DIY construction series.
damn, it s awesome you guy, lest rock again😎, absolutely yes yes yes
Thanks @mrday. Did you ever surf??
Been to South Cal twice. An impression left in my mind has been that kids and teens were so into stake-boarding. There was always a park nearby with ramps of all sizes to practise or show off some stunts.
This is the first I've heard of the Descendents, seems to me they have influenced Green Day much.
Every time I think of South Cal, this song of Karvitz pops straight to my mind, not punk though.
youtube
@prch So.Cal has always been open musically in my opinion. I loved Ziggy Marley and reggae way back. The Lenny song fits right in.
When we were growing up there were no skateparks, except Mike McGils down in Escondido. So we had to make our own. Skating was looked down upon by most everybody because we were rebels, punks. Now it's been totally integrated with board culture and California. Surfing, skating, snowboarding and Mexican food, that's So. Cal for sure. There are skate parks everywhere there are kids. It's super cool now because my generations kids are old enough to skate so we encourage them.
It's sad though, the state is being ruined with politicians forcing shit down everyone's throat. It's almost unbearable to live here both financially and politically.
Great post, @rt395 ! It was really cool to read about your childhood which seemed quintessentially Californian at that time! While my friends weren't as good as yours at skateboarding (the most advanced trick that any one of us could do was an ollie, lol), I spent a lot of my free time in high school skateboarding in grocery store parking lots with friends.
We would drive around with our windows blaring Rancid and other punk rock bands. I wasn't super into punk like my friends were, but I loved the energy it just seemed to add to our adventures. Hanging around, goofing off, ribbing on each other... man, your post brings back some good memories!
You mentioned that you had lost some pics of your adventures, most-likely during your move to Tokyo. I'd love to read more about why you moved to Japan and what it was like when you came here! I have buddies who came during the bubble period, and hearing them talking about their adventures definitely makes me green with envy!
Apologies for my writing style. Whenever I post things on the fly my writing is horrible.
I wasn't so good at skating, but I had fun and could do some tricks my friends couldn't, especially on vert ramps. Some of my friends actually turned Am, Ryan Bartsma, Tuan & Tone and several others. Ryan was a little kid who I helped teach. He picked it up fast. It was awesome to see him transform into a damn good skater.
We were just like you and your friends man, skating the grocery store parking lots, etc. The only reason we had so many ramps was because we lived in a new developing area with lots of open space and wood!
I was actually writing a series about my journey to Japan as a DJ in my DJ Wednesday series. I hope to start continuing with that this week. I came over originally in the summer of 2001, long after the bubble. I also had a friend who was there during the bubble and he said it was pretty wild.
Honestly, Steemit really feels like one of those periods in my life I will look back fondly on in 20 years. I've met some great people and friends through Steemit. I've done meet ups and even a club night with some of them and we are working on another big event later this year.
We def have to keep in touch because I see you are doing quality content down in Osaka. Be sure to hook up with @miho who is the Osaka community leader for Steemit Japan.
Cheers 🍻
Cool!!! I used to listen to Ska and Punk music a lot when I was young!! I still like those kinds of music though. I like the title of your post:) Your post reminds me the movie "Lords of Dogtown!"
Yes! The Dogtown boys! I skated a pool once with Alva and some other guys. Fun times.
The music brings back good memories. It's not something I will listen to often, but it's good to have it back into the library.
I was into ska too, Let's Go Bowling, No-Doubt, etc. Ska was always fun music.
Cheers @koto-art. Thank you!
Oh!!! Talking about Ska and Punk make me happy:) Specials, Rancid,,, and more!
Good memories and bitter memories hahaha!
Thank you for your nice post!
Damn. Those are some serious ramps in a serious landscape. It was my dream to grow up doing things like that. Being from the East Coast, while doing similar things, living in California always seemed way cooler.
It was still the wild west out here, witch was good and bad. Where I lived it was boring as hell, so we skated, got into trouble and built ramps. Having said that I'm happy to have grown up here. I am sure you East Coasters had cool things we didn't, like seasons!
Yeah, we had a lot of fun too, and also pillaged wood and other supplies from new housing tracts. The landscape in your pictures, though, just makes me think of a lot of movies I liked as a kid and brings back that feeling of that’s the good life:)