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Concrete Wave
Back in the early 80's I used to drive for hours to Long Beach Vancouver Island
for some rainforest camping and wetsuit surfing action. The ocean is something
powerful, and floating upon it is a feeling that can't be explained, almost
spiritual. The experience was intensified when the wave curled and the board you
were riding on moved faster and you took to your feet.... surfing. Over and over
I would battle the forces of the ocean to get that one ride. It was fun until
the wave from hell grabbed me and took me down. The string that was tied to my
surfboard ripped from my leg. I remember waiting to surface…. waiting and
waiting, being pummeled and thrown about. The salt water rushing into my lungs
and blasting out my nose, I was coughing underwater for what seemed like
eternity. GOD chose not to take me on that day and crapped me out onto the
beach. It was raining and I sat there looking at the ocean…. I was cold and
happy to be breathing air again. I chose to take the sign from GOD that my
spiritual experiences of surfing the ocean were over. On that day I decided I
wasn’t a surfer.
Skateboarding has taken off again and I find myself back on my skateboard
testing out muscles that I don’t usually use as well as beating up those lungs
that I used to fill with cigarette smoke. Skateboarding is great and parks are
sprouting up everywhere. I’ve had the fortune of testing a few parks over the
last few years and am happy to see bowls and pools and full pipes being
constructed. Once you get the flow of the concrete in your blood, you might
become addicted. I am. An afternoon flowing around a skateboard park is what I
try to do on my days off, heck I’ll even take days off work to skate a new
place. There is a fair bit of new concrete being poured these days and although
some of it doesn’t cater to my taste alot of it does! I will find myself inside
a concrete skateboard park with a towel drying out the puddles. Hoping that in
time the park will be dry enough ride. One of my favorite parks is new and
located in Burnaby just beside the Metro Town mall. The park is called Bonsor
and it contains three sections. A healthy street coarse made up of ledges and
rails, an old school wave area, and finally a full pipe pool/bowl combo slightly
vert area with concrete coping. My friend Harri and I had traveled many miles
and had taken a ferry to get to this park. We skated this pipe/pool/bowl section
for hours; it is where the best waves are!
Check the weather report…. It’s dry today 0% of precipitation…. That’s all I
need to go catch a few concrete waves! I have a group of friends who surf the
ocean, and from time to time try to get me back into a wetsuit. I decline…. It’s
too wet, too cold, and too much work for me to get that one ripping ride. Years
ago I surfed with John B and he is a natural at catching all the good waves, I
used to envy his ability to read the waves and know when and where to drop in.
He’s a born Californian surf punk. I dragged that old surfer and his kids down
to our local skate park this year. It was my turn to surf up to him and snake
his ride!!! HA HA HA… he lays there all sore on the concrete and I immediately
drop into another wave! No paddling out, no waiting, its just concrete wave
after wave, ride after ride, flowing, pumping, SKATEBOARDING!!
In my heart the ocean has conquered me but this concrete has not. Today I
decided I am a skateboarder!
-rickylong .
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bert in vicwest bowl
dryin off the surf
harri workin bonsor
ricky goin in the pipe
tasty orcas island waves
too wet hastings bowl
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