Skatedork Issue #4 Fall/Winter 2000 $2.00 postpaid (free in skateshops) Skatedork Website Stephen Voss 221 Spring Ridge Dr. Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922

This particular issue is primarily filled with stories. These aren't stories about how to skate, or something that happened while skating, but instead stories about why people skate. It is fascinating that an entire culture has developed around a plank and four wheels, and the writings here illuminate what it is that brings these people together. Some articles are personal recollections about what skating has meant to the author, while others take a more fictional approach. A blend of both prose and poetry keeps things varied, but the true variation comes in the ideas of the value of skating. Sometimes, the appeal is the communal aspect of the culture: the bond between friends and the drive to push one another to ever greater heights (often quite literally). Other times, the attraction is the solitary nature of the sport -- the fact that this is an activity one can engage in without requiring anybody else. These contradictory rationales are as much a part of skating as baggy shorts and scabs, and they are crucial for communicating the importance this activity has for so many people. As for the writing itself, while there are no bewheeled Shakespeares lurking in these pages, the prose is as solid as what you will find in most independent magazines. One point that deserves note is that the 'zine's director, Steven Voss, manages to get some gender diversity into his pages. By including Anna Schall's "Flying", he injects a female presence into a sport typically dominated -- at least in its media presence -- by males.

A second key facet of skating culture are the politics of its practitioners. These ideas are represented here by two pieces. One is the standard "Man, cops suck" story, told through the reprinting of a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article from 1991. The other, by Jeremiah, is much more intriguing because it compares the relative values of skating as opposed to auto travel. For example, by contrasting the two million disabling auto injuries every year with the .049% of skaters injured, Jeremiah calls into question every skater's mom's concern that her baby is about to crack his skull open (although I have to admit that in my own experience, that skateboard injury percentage is way too low). Additionally, the article points out the obscene amount of pollution generated by autos. This green tack is refreshing, since skaters are usually associated with concrete jungles as opposed to green pastures.

Skate-art (primarily photos of people, you guessed it, riding their boards) is sprinkled liberally throughout the pages, with the remainder being filled by a gear review column and a "how-to" on cleaning your bearings. The reviews are somewhat terse, but given the reviewer's first statement -- "I don't know about product reviews" -- this shouldn't be surprising.

All in all, this is a good rag for people who skate. It's unlikely to be the entry point for the uninitiated, but serves those in the know well. In fact, it was enough for me to pull my own board out of the closet and give it a try after several years. Yes, I wiped out. No, I didn't bleed. But if this 'zine can get someone who is quickly approaching middle age to attempt to regain air, imagine what it can do in the hands of lithe youth.

-- Ron Davies