Dartford Tunnel
25 September 2008
24 September 2008
23 September 2008
Old Haunts Pt 4
The last part of the old haunts is 'The Field'. Some time in 89 the local youth club we used to go to and play on the BBC micro and table tennis table bought us an old wooden quarterpipe. If I remember right it came from a BMXer who lived in Danbury and had it in his front garden and we used to be able to catch glimpses of it as we passed on the school bus. Anyway, for some reason they decided to place it in the corner of the playing field.
The ramp was in this corner, as you can see here:
For some reason they originally put the ramp on the grass, not so good for skateboards. Luckily for us (although not the developers) they were building a housing estate around one side of the field so we 'borrowed' loads of wood and nails and made a runway up to it. After a while we added a flat banks and quarterpipe opposite, it was like the Chin ramp. Kinda. I think we got sick of nailing the warping chipboard runway in to the grass so as soon as they built the new carpark we pretty much took that over. As a sidebar story, they were going to build a concrete park back in the corner where the original ramp was placed and asked for people to submit designs...nothing ever came of it and they ended up just tarmacing it with a basketball hoop. You can see it in the first photo with the banked dirt...I guess they were close to making the bowl at some point and then bailed.
The surface back then was smooth concrete and we cut down the original quarter and over a period of months built driveways, jump ramps, banks, rails...loads of things. People used to travel from Chelmsford down to skate the street course. Sadly the neighbours started to complain and one day the council came down and took almost all the ramps, end of an era.
Long after everyone moved away or quit skating the parish council built a perfect mini ramp that many of the old Bicknacre locals have since come back and skated. It's weird to go there and skate a ramp you would have killed for back then but to be honest, no matter how sketchy the ramps were, we built them and made something happen from nothing. Amazing times.
The ramp was in this corner, as you can see here:
For some reason they originally put the ramp on the grass, not so good for skateboards. Luckily for us (although not the developers) they were building a housing estate around one side of the field so we 'borrowed' loads of wood and nails and made a runway up to it. After a while we added a flat banks and quarterpipe opposite, it was like the Chin ramp. Kinda. I think we got sick of nailing the warping chipboard runway in to the grass so as soon as they built the new carpark we pretty much took that over. As a sidebar story, they were going to build a concrete park back in the corner where the original ramp was placed and asked for people to submit designs...nothing ever came of it and they ended up just tarmacing it with a basketball hoop. You can see it in the first photo with the banked dirt...I guess they were close to making the bowl at some point and then bailed.
The surface back then was smooth concrete and we cut down the original quarter and over a period of months built driveways, jump ramps, banks, rails...loads of things. People used to travel from Chelmsford down to skate the street course. Sadly the neighbours started to complain and one day the council came down and took almost all the ramps, end of an era.
Long after everyone moved away or quit skating the parish council built a perfect mini ramp that many of the old Bicknacre locals have since come back and skated. It's weird to go there and skate a ramp you would have killed for back then but to be honest, no matter how sketchy the ramps were, we built them and made something happen from nothing. Amazing times.
19 September 2008
Old Haunts Pt 3
Another very important skate spot when we were growing up was our old school which was just across the main road. Years later it I would skate out front whilst waiting to be picked up by Kev on the way to go skate Chelmsford or wherever in the Dogmobile. I digress. Anyway, back then schools weren't prisons with paranoid caretakers assuming everyone had evil deeds planned when trespassing so we would skate there all the time.
That smooth bit out the front gate, nollie pressure flips, hello.
The stairs were probably the most skated aspect of the school, I know, me, skating stairs. Go figure that one out. But yeah, we all learnt a tonne of tricks down the 2 and then down the 3.
Steve Wilson recently sent me this old photo I hadn't seen in forever, it shows how the stairs were originally. No idea what I'm doing but the G&S Heinzman board dates this as about 1990.
This was the ledge spot, really. I remember learning a bunch of stuff on here and it was fun because it went from high to low. I remember someone had stolen a huge candle from church one time, it was like a canon shell, and spent the day waxing it to the point of doom. There were also some flat bars around the back where the bins were.
Another non-spot but this was fun for learning nosebumps and ollie over to pivot tricks.
To th right is the library and hall entrance, the hall where we would dance to Wham at school discos. Beyond that is the playground.
The playground was where we learnt to skate flat ground plus we used to bring over ramps or old lockers to skate as ledges. I remember we invented a great game, it was a mix of S.K.A.T.E. and British Bulldog. The person in the middle would do a trick, anyone who could land it would get to go over to the other side and anyone who didn't had to 'run' to the other side without getting tagged. Although in this game 'run' was changed for tic-tacing. You weren't allowed to touch the floor. Cue hilarious scenes of swarming tic-tacers. We need to play that game again.
That smooth bit out the front gate, nollie pressure flips, hello.
The stairs were probably the most skated aspect of the school, I know, me, skating stairs. Go figure that one out. But yeah, we all learnt a tonne of tricks down the 2 and then down the 3.
Steve Wilson recently sent me this old photo I hadn't seen in forever, it shows how the stairs were originally. No idea what I'm doing but the G&S Heinzman board dates this as about 1990.
This was the ledge spot, really. I remember learning a bunch of stuff on here and it was fun because it went from high to low. I remember someone had stolen a huge candle from church one time, it was like a canon shell, and spent the day waxing it to the point of doom. There were also some flat bars around the back where the bins were.
Another non-spot but this was fun for learning nosebumps and ollie over to pivot tricks.
To th right is the library and hall entrance, the hall where we would dance to Wham at school discos. Beyond that is the playground.
The playground was where we learnt to skate flat ground plus we used to bring over ramps or old lockers to skate as ledges. I remember we invented a great game, it was a mix of S.K.A.T.E. and British Bulldog. The person in the middle would do a trick, anyone who could land it would get to go over to the other side and anyone who didn't had to 'run' to the other side without getting tagged. Although in this game 'run' was changed for tic-tacing. You weren't allowed to touch the floor. Cue hilarious scenes of swarming tic-tacers. We need to play that game again.
16 September 2008
Old Haunts Pt 2
Once Jim and I were bitten by the skate bug we would skate almost every day, our BMXs quickly forgotten. We had a few regular spots we would skate and begin to figure out our first tricks.
The bridge was where we pretty much learnt to push, carve and tictac. I guess it was a little smoother than the rest of the estate or something.
One of our main spots was the shops, we would always swerve round the bollards on the way there from out street.
The shops was a heavy, regular spot back in the day. There used to be ledges and walls outside that were great for learning tricks. More importantly, the shops was where I first learnt to ollie. We would take turns lying on the floor and the other person would try to ollie and the person on the floor would give you height measurements! We would also buy our skate magazines here and had a love/hate relationship with the owner of the newsagents who would routinely ban us from the shop and try to kick us out. Our continuing battles even made it in to the Essex Chronicle newspaper.
After a while we would learn how to skate curbs, the curb outside my old house was, back then, heavily waxed and skated all the time.
The bridge was where we pretty much learnt to push, carve and tictac. I guess it was a little smoother than the rest of the estate or something.
One of our main spots was the shops, we would always swerve round the bollards on the way there from out street.
The shops was a heavy, regular spot back in the day. There used to be ledges and walls outside that were great for learning tricks. More importantly, the shops was where I first learnt to ollie. We would take turns lying on the floor and the other person would try to ollie and the person on the floor would give you height measurements! We would also buy our skate magazines here and had a love/hate relationship with the owner of the newsagents who would routinely ban us from the shop and try to kick us out. Our continuing battles even made it in to the Essex Chronicle newspaper.
After a while we would learn how to skate curbs, the curb outside my old house was, back then, heavily waxed and skated all the time.
15 September 2008
Old Haunts Part 1
Between 1984 and 1993 I lived in a small village in Essex called Bicknacre. All of my teenage years were spent there and it's where some of my life long friends come from and it's also where I learnt to skateboard.
This was my old house (the one on the left), I suspect there are still Star Wars figures in the hedges
This is the entrance to the street
The Westerings. There is a stream by those trees where we used to play and where I first met my oldest friend, who I learnt to skate with back in 1986
This bend was the location of our first experience with a skateboard, we started off jumping out of the curb cut, then we tried to roll around the corner and do the little jump and by the end of the day we learnt to bomb the hill, carve the bend and hop out of the curb cut on to the rough street. We were hooked.
This was my old house (the one on the left), I suspect there are still Star Wars figures in the hedges
This is the entrance to the street
The Westerings. There is a stream by those trees where we used to play and where I first met my oldest friend, who I learnt to skate with back in 1986
This bend was the location of our first experience with a skateboard, we started off jumping out of the curb cut, then we tried to roll around the corner and do the little jump and by the end of the day we learnt to bomb the hill, carve the bend and hop out of the curb cut on to the rough street. We were hooked.
