Pandainabattlesuit

I was only just thinking about this the other day, and I am not sure what got me thinking about

As a 10-15 year old my whole world was drowned in basketball. My friends and I, if we had a party, it would result in going to a court or wheeling out a portable basketball hoop with a snap back rim for awesome dunkability of course to play some hoops, closely followed by a break with pizza (insert junk food of choice) some form of vanilla or cherry coke, and watching michael jordan films and Chicago bulls championship efforts taped from ABC (back when it was allowed to broadcast cool sports, and Public Enemy video clips were on from 0200hrs-0500hrs every saturday morning).

We would watch in order, Come Fly with me, then Playground, imagining that we were the kid whose ball he stole. Then one of our friends had “Air Time” and also MJ vs Larry bird for PC worstgameever, so if we were at his house we would take turns at playing that abismal excuse for a PC game. To be honest I don’t think anyone will ever know or remember what happened in the 1990′s. Never.

I have realised this happened with every fad my friends an I had when we were younger, I think I was influenced to do this by my cousins. I remember riding my BMX, with my cousins, all around the industrial area near* my house.

*by near I totally mean about 10-20km from my house.

We road around every business in that are asking for old plywood or sheet metal for free. Then one concrete tank manufacturing company gave us this huge Sheet of rolled metal sheeting. We carried it home balancing it between our four BMX bikes.

To give you some insight in to why this was happening? We had just watched ‘RAD’ the movie and also ‘Gleaming the cube‘, we wanted to make a ramp. We wanted to practice our ‘sweet air’ and flaunt the possibility of backflips on our bmx bikes. We made the ramp it was way too steep. We put a mattresss behind it and we road up and down it, off it, over it. Dropped in on it. Injured ourselves on it. And when we got even the slightest bit bored one of us would suggest we watch rad or bmx bandits which would give us a dose of inspiration. No one was injured during this period of ‘inspiration’ luckily. But we did trespass quite a bit through people’s property making ‘short cuts’ through peoples property back yards and industrial properties to make riding to and from school or another friends house seem more exciting like the movies. Come on, who didn’t like that part in ‘Rad’? When he went through the fence then did a back flip just go go and get the milk or some thing else mundane. I can’t remember but, fuck, I just wanted that to be me riding to school or stealing milk or doing the paper run, or what ever the fuck he was doing.

It wasn’t during this time anyone ever got injured or maybe we can’t remember because the government erased the 90s from our memory. It was after this. When those stupid roller blades were invented and ‘malibu’ inline skates were sold at kmart. These and underage drinking were the commencement of injuries in my generation. Oh and a bottle of OP rum and a skate board trick at 1am….. What you ask? Well, just to fit with the trends I had to fit in with my friends who had fallen off roller blades while sober.

Times are different now I guess. Kids look for inspiration in tv for reasons to play xbox. I don’t know of many kids that could care less about missing an issue of Australian bodyboarding magazine or Riptide, even if they did live 400km from a town that was 50km from the beach, or that hang out all year to go on a 3 day trip to ‘surf’/bodyboard at awesome Bondi Beach, and talk about saving up to go to ‘G-Land’ yes I was one of those country dwelling surf kids, sort of like the penguin from ‘surfs up’.

Social media and the internet is the cause for that, which I can’t blame cause I love it. But I do like to think that one day dangerously safe activities will burst back on to the hipster scene and kids will be tweeting whilst trying to do a mc twist on a home made ramp made of old 486 computers after getting inspired by watching Tony Hawk’s cameo on gleaming the cube. Streamed from YouTube of course, to their smart phone…of course.

Maybe one day.

God I am getting old.

$5 says you will be out on some sort of bike in tight pants after watching that. oh and by the way John farnham was all over the soundtrack for this movie,,”get ready to break the ice!!!!!!” like Maiden but John Farham? if that works. Second thoughts, forget I compared John Farnham to Maiden. Back away slowly.