The Bones Brigade

"200 years of American technology has unwittingly created a massive cement playground. It took the minds of 12-year-olds to realize it's potential."

I began skateboarding sometime during 1986, the golden age of the skateboard video. Being 7-years-old, I had no idea what I was witnessing at the time. Now that I think about it, I don’t think much of the older generation realized it either. I was exposed to Bones Brigade Video II: Future Primitive shortly after Tony from BMX Country sold me my first pro-model, a Powell Peralta Steve Caballero deck, Independent trucks and Rat Bones wheels. I will never forget that setup (one day it will be tattooed on me). Future Primitive and The Search For Animal Chin turned out to be huge influences on me.

When we first started skating, my cousin Chris and I were on our own. There was no one around to show us the ropes; we had to figure it out for ourselves. Picture a caveman being placed on a basketball court and handed a ball. We must have looked like idiots. Luckily, Stacy Peralta bailed us out. The first few Bones Brigade videos taught me what skateboarding was about, and I couldn’t be more grateful, because what was to come a few years later was a load of shit.

Bones Brigade Video 6: Ban This is one of my favorite videos of all time and it marked the end of a skateboard era. Skateboarding fell apart in the early 90’s. The wheels got smaller, the tricks got shitty and the pants got fucking huge. I remember showing up to Woodward Skate Camp one year, 91 or 92, and being referred to as the “old school” kids. We were outcasts. Two friends I had made the year before, Scott Arnibold and Anthony Furlong, hooked me up with a “new school” setup. I liked my old board and my favorite trick was a boneless, but I was young and I wanted to fit in. I wasted the entire week trying to learn pressure flips and I’m pretty sure I never even landed one. I still don’t get that trick, fucking pointless.

Skateboarding really went downhill at that point and so did the videos. I still don’t think there are many videos that compare to the early Bones Brigade videos, maybe none at all. Sure there are plenty of videos out there with incredible skating, and don’t get me wrong, I watch them, but there is something special about those first six Bones Brigade videos. They captured something that few videos since have been able to do. They captured what skateboarding is really about...having fun with your friends.