SKATEBOARDING IS NOT A CRIME
I never knew why all the skaters called it the “Santa Monica Courthouse” even though the real name for this spot is called the “West Los Angeles Courts Building”. Weird. Either way I got some sad news for everyone in the skateboarding community today. If you don’t know about this already then you can say goodbye to the Santa Monica Courthouse spot. We stopped by this classic skatespot to try to session it but to our surprise, EVERYTHING was “knobbed” and “skateproofed“, including the stage. You might remember this place in alot of your favorite skate videos back in the early 90′s such as Love Child from World Industries as well as some of the more current ones with PJ Ladd for instance. (Check out the 0:15-0:25 time mark.)
It’s just a shame to see the city putting an effort in trying to stop street skating. Why? We are just trying to skate. I guess “SKATEBOARDING IS STILL A CRIME“? Back in the day, I remember being a little grommet and catching a 2 hour bus ride from the Lines 1-4, all the way out in Chinatown to Santa Monica, just to skate this spot. Those were the days, rockin huge BLIND pants, Adidas Shelltoes, GAT & Fresh Jive t-shirts with our baseball caps backwards. The Santa Monica Courthouse actually allowed us to stay out of trouble and find a spot to gather and meet heads throughout the west and east part of Los Angeles. Where do we go now? The skateparks that you created for us to be monitored and caged-in like animals? No thanks. Nothing beats pure street skateboarding and using your imagination in what obstacles you want to skate.
As we were walking back towards the car (somewhat bitter), I was conversing with my boy George and tripping out on the impact that we have (as skaters) for the city to deconstruct their architecture just to make it non-skateable. Just imagine the possibilities if we all got together to make something happen? Maybe build a Los Angeles Skate Plaza like they have in Ohio? Just some food for thought.
West Los Angeles Courthouse
1633 Purdue Ave.
West Los Angeles, California 90025
Mapquest Link
The 4 up and 4 down. Still skateable.
The Fountain – OUCH. They replaced it with about a million pounds of dirt and knocked down the wall just because…?
Knobbed All Day
Skatestopped
The Stage – There was a concert venue going on that day.
Skateproofed
This was the only ledge that was skateable there.
We ran into this bum passed the fuck out and rolling all over the place. He must have been “thizzing” that day cause I wanted to get a closer shot of his face and saw only the white part of his eyes. Haha, damn.
Thizz-Face
GO SKATEBOARDING
