Slams: The Lifeblood of Skateboarding

Everyone who skates will slam at some point in their lives. Probably at least once every time they step on their board. Or is that just me? Weirdly, I enjoy a good slam. Not the kind where bones break or come out of socket (I’ve broken both of my feet skating and that sucks, especially after you turn 40 - recovery takes forever!), but the ones where you get slapped to the ground. It’s the jolt and the quick flash of pain that says “you’re alive!” and you’ve survived. When Josh and I visited the Spring Skatepark, just outside of Houston, there are these 2 moguls, just before you enter one of the ditches/snakeruns. I was looking ahead at the ditch entrance and not paying as much attention to the moguls. The first one was great, I was flying and then I topped the second one and somehow left my board, with my body following the same trajectory of upwards and forwards. I slid quite a ways on my right side (thank goodness for knee pads and wrist guards - though the keys in my pocket really stung!). And while this was surprising, it was also exhilarating - I couldn’t wait to try it again. Unfortunately, Josh didn’t get any video of this and the next several times I went over this area, I stayed on my board.

Josh’s gnarliest slam happened at the end of 2018, December more specifically. I wasn’t there to see it happen, and no one was filming, so you’ll have to take my word for it. This is how it mostly happened. He was out with his brother-in-law, Casey at one of the parks in Fort Worth. It was the end of their time skating, and thinking he was just going to do a couple of chill runs, Josh left his pads in the car. Just a little work on the transition, some fakie, some kick-turns. Well, one of those kick-turns turned out to be the deal-breaker, because Josh over-rotated and left his board on the wall, while he went down, arms-first into the flat. Taking a nasty blow to his elbow, he also wrecked his shoulder. As the weeks went by and his shoulder wasn’t healing, Josh went to the doctor and leaned that he tore his rotator cuff. After surgery and rehab, Josh is finally getting back on the board. It took a little more than a year, but that’s life when you don’t have that Nike SB money and doctors coming in to get back on the board sooner!

My brother, Brian, used to skate with Josh and me all the time, back in our home town of Wills Point, TX. At the time, we were the only skaters there, so we were always together. Josh was the best of us, followed by Brian, and I followed behind with whack skate abilities - my saving grace was camera operations. Anyway, behind the elementary school, there was a loading dock, which was about 30” high. We would try ollie and acid drop off it. Josh and Brian were pretty good at it and could land it fairly consistently, whereas I got good footage of them doing this. Of course the slam Brian took was one of the times I wasn’t filming (see a pattern here?). We were skating all over the schools, it was summer in Texas, so it was hot. Brian and Josh were getting in good runs off the loading dock when Brian decides to try something different. He was really good at the No Comply, and feeling brave, tried it off the dock. Now the board he was riding that day had a pointed nose - this is a key point. The board hit the ground tail-first, pointed straight up, causing that pointed nose to jam right into Brian’s nuts. He went down like a bag of broken glass. Since that day, he’s hardly touched a skateboard.

So what's the fascination with the slam? Jake Phelps, recently deceased editor for Thrasher Magazine, famously didn't bail, he slammed! The slam is just as important as the land. Why? Because it shows commitment. Sure, you didn't land, but you didn't bail either, you went as far and as hard as you could, and while you didn't make it this time, you learned something to do differently next time.

The slam will ultimately separate those who view skateboarding as a cool accessory to carry around and those for whom it is an addiction. Losing skin, hair and teeth is not something you do just for fun. You do it because this is who you are, with the people you love, whether it's on the street, in a park or on a ramp.

From our earliest days (starting in 1992), shooting skate footage on VHS, we've captured a lot of slams! This is a tiny slice of the all the slams we've seen - and amazingly, everyone walked away, with only minor scrapes and sprains!

So don't beat yourself up for not landing that trick, the concrete will do that for you. Maybe there’s a cut, scrape or bruise - no matter, these are your battle scars, reminders of what it takes to ride. Just roll with it and try it again. And maybe pad up next time!
- Nate R

Nate gave the concrete the Corporate Elbow in Frisco!

Josh lost some knuckle-skin in Lewisville

Jeremy took a nasty slam at McKinney recently