I no longer ride but HBPD did not like my HD with some compression, cam, and Thunder Header. Got ticketed on PCH heading south on PCH out of Sunset Beach at the Warner Ave stop light. Did a little “speed run” to the light to the beach access for the state park and got nailed on the slowdown to the cliffs. Ticketed for 65 in a 50. After were we’re done he asked if I made a 100 by the light with a smile on his face… I admitted to 110 and he said kept down thru town as he could hear me coming that why he raised the radar gun. Farther south over the Santa Ana river into Newport they still have signs posted on loud pipes just like Laguna…
Hello, Yes, So Cal also had the same starting point with wooden slat milk/vegetable crates. The larger grocery stores stopped giving them away. But, each neighborhood had smaller mom/pop grocery stores. (pre mini marts) that continue to give them away. They had to break them down for disposal, so we did that for them by taking the crates off of their hands. The larger stores also had to break them down, but as my older brother found out as young worker/box boy, part of his job was spending time in the outside parking lot breaking them apart to stack neatly for disposal. no recycling back then. Jnaki When we got the completed, but empty crates, all we had to do was to nail the 2x4 planks on the bottom...YES, NAILS... and attach the steel skates with the up ridges, flattened out. Once nailed, and the wheels on, they were top heavy and fell over. The wider wooden bar served as handlebars and we cut them down to be covered with bicycle grips. now, the behemoth crates with handles were all scooting down the sidewalk on steel skate wheels. It was a lot of fun, but unless we were at the nearby elementary school smooth concrete sidewalks, our sidewalks were uneven at some points due to tree roots and that was a big problem. Taking a face plant with a steel wheel 2x4 was not as bad as taking a face plant with the larger crate with wooden handles. Talk about an accident with sticks for spears... Those crate scooters were the beginning, but did not last long. Once they fell out of favor, those 2x4 skateboards took over and there was no stopping the history of creative skateboarding until the early 80s. Note: Creative skateboarding was a conglomeration of different companies and designers finding different ways to add to the development of skateboarding. Narrow trucks, wide wheels, bearings instead of friction tubes, actual shapers using oak planks to shape the custom skateboards, etc. Creativity at its finest. The downhill boards were different than the daily use boards. Then the industry took a nose dive. Through elimination, the three major companies that made and supplied 90% of the actual real skateboards for the individual shops, sporting goods stores and some department stores started to make the boards all the same sizes or about three general shapes. Multiple plys of wood = the basic shapes. So, despite the graphics on the boards, they were technically the same board, only the paint jobs made them different. "No, you are wrong a skate shop owner would say. We customized each board." That may be partially true. But, they all had the rounded corners, basic length shape, same plys of wood, but were loaded with graphics like fancy art work to make them different. It sure seemed like that was the downfall of skateboarding for the general public, and the proliferation of constant injuries + lawsuits... Despite all of this, as time moved on, the Razor Scooter put a clamp on skateboarding across the world. YRMV Today, skateshops still exist and custom boards for different ways to ride are out there, as are the components. So, customization is possible. Somebody learned something along the way... YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
