Ahhh...summertime.

That magical time of year when the humidity drags the sweat from your body, kicking and screaming, but hardly noticeable during a heated session.

In my town, spots are few and far between. But the locals become industrious, gathering materials and tools in an attempt to get that one meeting place, that warm up spot, to become a reality.

I can only remember a few years where there wasn't at least one place littered with launch ramps and grind boxes, makeshift wallrides and all-day sessions made to make the humidity an afterthought in the many summers I've been on board.

These fuckers are comin' hard out of the gate and
have a killer promo for their upcoming video.

Show some support and watch it at www.sundayskatebmx.com/promovid.html

We've all seen it chronicled in our favorite magazines from time to time; or for those old enough to remember, they witnessed something they love disappear almost overnight.

It was the end of the first skatepark boom.

The bust was here and everyone was scrambling to come to terms with the loss of their new found homes; the familiar place where they built skill and memories and lasting friendships.

The ire is raised quite easily, it seems with comments on society and general happenings in the skate world.
Some men defend to the death the right to say something, others become critics of critics.
Why then, is this happening?
Must be boredom.
I couldn't really explain it myself, because I tend to do other things in my sojourn from the real world these past two years, being too sick to get out of bed some days, others, freakishly energetic for the diagnosed condition.
But boredom was always dispensed with by other means; maybe watching a skate vid, building a flat bar, scraping rust off the underside of my jeep or even going to the creek to get pictures of birds; almost anything to avoid the idle hands and the maligned activities they tend to get themselves into.
But some people can't help it: they become obsessed with ruining other people's opinions, or telling them everything they say is wrong despite the fact that they still wouldn't dare tell them without the guise of an assumed name. Not only that, but in poor grammar, spelling, and taste.
The world is a free forum; and everyone needs to vent.
But maybe the triviality of their words is lost on them.
Maybe they're still too full of pride or drugs to suck it up and realize everyone's entitled to their own views.
Much like the skatepark monitor a couple of towns away from me that's on fashion patrol and the washed up shop sponsored alcoholic who thinks he can tell people how to act; these fuckers act like they're defending skateboarding from kooks, but just make more skaters want to hate other skaters and make their observations way more than harmless.
But we can delight in one thing: that observations are what they are; just what someone sees and calls people out on. If you want to be someone, don't kiss too many asses. If those people want to defend themselves that's fine, but don't go to bat for anyone but yourself; and leave the press releases for other .coms to puke back out.

That's one of the better words to use nowadays. It's really a description of what can happen when a person's sense of entitlement is actually justified; yet others disappprove.
I'm not too sure about anybody else, but I went to college to be a journalist.
After a few years, I received my diploma.
I figured, in my small-town naivete, that I would be able to parlay that into a lucrative skateboarding writing career; having skated every day for well over half my life; paying full price for product, and telling people to forget it when offers of sponsorship or free product came my way.
I never skated for anything but fun, I'm not a hyper-skilled skateboarder, but I realize what it takes to make it that far and I have always been enamoured with people who can make the pressure and constant physical demand seem like their duty.
There are a ton of people from my area of Canada who have made it pretty well as sponsored skateboarders, and I'm quite sure they're a little busy to constantly offer insight into whatever makes them sick of the scene, or whatever is great and pure.
The point is, after all these ramblings, that I believe my sense of entitlement not only comes from ability and experience, but the educational birthright that comes from going to school so that your opinion is actually something you have worked for.
It's finally stopped raining here. I'm going skating so I can sweat out the negativity.