luchaskate magazine
Blue collar. Skate life.
This issue:
Memphis Spotlight
V 1.1
Wrex Cook Rufus Skates ShoveIt Designs
cheapskates Serving Memphis for 27 years
1576 Getwell Road Memphis, TN 38111 (901) 744-1312 Hours: Monday-Saturday 12:00 - 6:30 Closed Sundays
Luchaskate Volume 1 Issue 1 Editor/Publisher David Thornton Contributors: Edward Pidgeon, Wrex Cook, Kim Cook, Lindsey Rowland, Dawn McKay, Brian Sneed, Christian Johnson, Christian Westphal, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Dan Pinder, Ron Hale and Matt Eckelberg Contact: luchamag@yahoo.com Additional Content: luchaskate.com The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher. Submissions are accepted digitally at luchamag@yahoo.com.
About the Cover If skateboarders left skatepark design and construction up to the general public, the world would be covered with bland, no flow, awkward skate spaces. Skateboarders all over the world realize they need to involve themselves in the skatepark design and construction process to ensure quality and creatvitity in the skateparks and skatespots that are given to most of us. Wrex Cook is no exception. Being a motivated part of a growing machine was something he learned early on from his mentors that taught him the ropes in a skateboard scene rich in history, Arizona. So much so, that kids today still look up to the old guys that made Wrex work for every backyard pool and ramp session with them. And he continues to give back to his first love, skateboarding, by taking every chance he can get to get his hands muddy, dried up, burned and calloused to build something for all of us to skate. If I had to choose a motto for him, it would be "Create, then Skate"...Wrex just finished up a six week job in humid heavy West Point, Mississippi. As seen on the cover busting a frontside ollie in the south's newest public skatepark designed and constructed by him and his fellow crew, Grindline Skateparks. -Kim Cook
Blue Collar. Skate Life. A primary purpose of Luchaskate Magazine is to offer an outlet to the dedicated, everyday skateboarder, and the skater owned/run companies that want nothing more than to live the stoke. By keeping the magazine paper-free we’re able to produce a quality magazine without the corporate price tag that keeps the small company owner from gaining recognition. The content is always available online for FREE. The magazine is based in Memphis, Tennessee and the first issue is dedicated to the Memphis scene. However, we’ll be moving nationwide in issue two. Submissions from everywhere are welcome. Email queries and submissions to: luchamag@yahoo.com
West Point, MS Photos by Kim Cook
contents About the cover….1 First Word…..pg 6 Memphis V.I.P...pg 8 Al Town………..pg 12 Luchastoke...pg 18 Local Co….pg 22 ShoveIt designs Rufus Skates Cooper Skateboards
Special Thanks: Outlaw Skateboards, Dead Skates (coming soon), Lindsey Rowland, Christan Westphal, Kim Cook, Dan Pinder, Wrex Cook, Chris Johnson, Dawn McKay... ...and too many more to mention!
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Contact luchamag@yahoo.com
First word:
In the beginning... In 1962 my brother and I built our first board. We got an old drawer face and shaped it with a hacksaw and a belt sander. We used the front trucks off a pair of bolt on steel wheeled roller skates. This may have been the first skateboard in town.
or ’67 even though Sears started selling 10 year old Edward with manufacbrother and surfboards tured I went to school with a kid who was a boards sponsored amateur roller skater that around did figure skating. Yeah, you read that 65. We liked ours better than the store right. He had precision trucks, bearbought stuff. Those hand me down ings, and those amazing clay wheels. roller-skates had better parts. All in all, He would give me his old stuff and my there were three of us along with a brother and I made skateboards out of couple of weekend warriors. Our home them. hill was on S.Perkins in front of 741 where we lived. The tribe was small. In fact, I never saw other skaters until around ‘66 Ed today
Surfing the sidewalk was tough. Every expansion joint was an obstacle, and if you made it to the bottom of the hill, man, you had done something special. We would spend hours trying new lines and weight placement to make that hill.
was10 years old, but I had my first and only sponsor I guess.
As surfers, we skated to fill the long void between trips to the beach. We used skating as way to hone our surfing moves for East Coast competitions. We tried to involve our friends in the In 1966, we got sent 2 boards manu- scene, but very few were interested. factured by Hobie Surfboards. My We stood tall and carried on. From brother and I surfed the East Coast about ‘69 to ‘75 skating changed and had a friend with a Hobie shop quickly with the shortboard revolution where we spent our summers. Pete in surfing and the urethane wheel in Smith, the owner of the shop had these skateboarding. It was much later when boards sent to us from California. In Dogtown was born, and we sat back the box was a letter from Hobie Alter and watched them rip. asking us to give the boards a try and let him know what we thought about Now its time for the next generation to them. I didn't realize it, after all I resume the story. Edward Pidgeon is a long-time supporter of Memphis/Mississippi skateboarding who dedicates time and effort to keeping the stoke alive in his community.
60’s super surfer skateboard courtesy of Brian Sneed
Mike Lasiter and Pat R
Memphis
V. I. P. Contributors. Lifers. These are two of the men who make the Memphis skate scene happen. Ambassador of stoke Mike Lasiter has had a hand in nearly every skate project this city has seen for over a decade. Skatepark advocate Aaron Shafer was critical in seeing Memphis gain Tobey Skatepark in October of 2011. Thank you, Mike and Aaron, for all you do. Mike Lasiter. Ditch session.
Photos: Rowland
Rakestraw
Legendary ripper, Brian Sneed with Aaron Shafer at the opening of Tobey Skatepark.
Mike L. hip ollie at Tobey Park
t i h s e m o s t e G Issue 2 photo contest on now! Get yer ugly mug on the cover of the magazine! Availa ble at luchas kate.co m
om c . e t a k s a h c Lu
Ride li ke a l u chador
Join the Luchaskate flickr group to submit your photos.
Al Town D.I.Y.
Chris Ulander. Always charging. Photo by Elizabeth Fitzgerald
“On in a
nce you understand the way broadly you can see it all things.� Miyamoto Musashi
“The journey is the reward.” Chinese proverb
Johnny. Work day. Photos: Rowland
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be� Lao Tzu
Jenks makes the most of sculpture born from urban decay. Photo: Rowland
Photo: Thornton
Publisher grind.
Photo: Rowland
“Ceremonies are the outward expression of inward feelings.” Lao Tzu
“Each generation will reap what the former generation has sown.� Chinese proverb
Garner Fisher
Photo: Johnson
Luchastoke.
Pat Rakestraw and Wrex Cook at the MLK Monument. Memphis
The skate photography of Lindsey Rowland
Photographs of longboarders often look like posed stills as if the skater wasn’t moving at all. Lindsey is able to capture the speed, attention and technique necessary to break traction at speed. Case in point, Jake Galloway (left) and Mason “Mayday” McNay (below).
Jenks. Al Town flip.
Wrex Cook. Inspiration. Doing what he does. Tobey Park.
Swamp. Scabs. Marion Skate Park.
Local Company special Feature
ShoveIt designs Memphians Shannon Cable and Dawn McKay of shoveIt designs transform broken skateboards into wicked wearable and livable art. This evolution emphasizes the boards’ colorful layers and rail-worn history. When the shoveIt team carves bangles, earrings, pendants, wine stoppers or wall hangings from broken decks, these everyday accessories become artifacts—evidence of a bigger story. Ride. A planter, ditch or handrail. Skaters see things differently. Similarly, Shannon and Dawn study each broken board and approach design as an emergent process.
Wreck. shoveIt designs are never made from new, undamaged boards. They use skateboards with history—boards that fought the good fight and deserve to be immortalized.
Reincarnate. Bright graphics, 7-layers of Canadian maple, battle scars—Shannon and Dawn take this raw material from skateboard to eco-fashion. Their process is OG woodshop. You won’t find any CNC machines in the shoveIt workshop—just some blades, blood and creativity.
Find ShoveIt designs On Etsy and facebook.
The karma continues. The boards are from Memphis skaters. Sterling silver wire is from a local shop. Stainless steel wine stopper bases are forged by a team in PA. The green finish contains 0 VOCs. Dawn and Shannon are committed to keeping it green and supporting small businesses.
Local Company special Feature
?
Who is
Swamp and Garner. Al Town.
Garner Fisher. Tobey Park. Ready to cut.
?
Inspired by the desire to rediscover the lost love of skateboarding, Christian Johnson (Chris Jay), built a mini ramp in his backyard and began to blog about the experience. Inspiration breeds inspiration. The mini ramp inspired an entry into the Memphis skateboard community which later inspired the creation of hand cut skateboards.
them to anyone that wants to ride. He describes the experience in food related terms, “...buying boards from local board makers is like upporting organic farming since that is what this is, sorta. I get my uncut blanks from a local guy. So support your Local Organic farmers which includes me.� However, the question remains: Who is Rufus?
Rufus Skates was born in the same back yard that houses the Rufus Ramp. Johnson hand cuts decks for several local skaters and sells
Cole Boren. Rufus Ramp.
rufusskates.com
Local Company special Feature
Cooper Skateboards , based out of Memphis TN, was started in may of 2010 and is owned by Christian Westphal. Operated by Christian and Grant Hopkins., their products are found in numerous shops around the mid-south. All of the products are made in the USA The crew at Cooper create all the graphics which are then pressed by a company in California which then applies the graphics and ship them to Memphis. Westphal says, “They do a great job with the graphics and the quality of the boards is right up there with big name companies.” He ads, “We do screen print all of our t-shirts and hope to one day have the means to do more aspects of the production in-house.”
Darius King. Smith.
The Memphis scene has been a core scene for a while, a lot of dedicated skaters but no one getting any recognition, so they decided to sponsor some local skaters and put them in a video with the hopes of helping them gain recognition. Additionally, they hope that it will help local Memphis artists and musicians gain recognition. “We are all about supporting local. We work with numerous local artists and have just started an artist spotlight series in which each round of decks will feature work from a local artist.” The folks at Cooper also support the local mom and pop skate shop. They decided not to sell any of products online, but rather put them in shops around the area that they believe in and want to support.
Zach Galinas. Nose blunt.
“We recognize through the years that there are companies in Memphis that pop up and don't make it, and we want to be the company that makes it. We are on our 3rd round of graphics and all but one person has contributed to the graphics.” “Memphis has a certain style to it. The city is different from anywhere else. Its rough and gritty but filled with culture and soul. We want to express that and try to represent the city.”
Darius King. Dumpster tail slide.
"We wanted to do something that was our own that hopefully people would dig.�
Mark. Tre Flip.
Next Issue: Dirty South goes nation wide Outlaw rider Dan Pinder Q&A : Trevor Brice Dead Skates Kanis D.I.Y. And much more...
Dan Pinder booster. Photo: Matt Eckelberg