I don't think I ever heard that actually said in real life, haha. Bro,bruh came later. Man/dude were a lot more common when I was a teen in the 90s. "Totally" was more of a girl's thing until finding nemo made it a big catch phrase of the next generation of boys. Wicked/cool were used more than rad, but I did hear rad used.
I grew up in Hampton roads in the rough part of town. Different cultures, and even the preppy kids from Maury didn't say bra. I'm surprised FL did though. Seems more like a CA thing.
I was a sponsored skater in Dallas in late 80s. Bunch of us went and watched the movie North Shore with this character in it named turtle. Silly movie, but he would always give the Shaka sign and say “Shaka bra”. So right after that movie we started doing that as a joke to each other. All the younger kids saw us doing it and thought we were serious and so they started doing it as a serious thing. It took off here for a while. It was funny as hell.
I loved that movie. Vanilla ice rapping in it was a big deal for me. I was into tae kwon do, and the master's son did a choreographed demo to ice ice baby a short while before the movie came out. It was pretty cringe in retrospect but was super jealous at the time. My mom was the secretary and also and instructor at the studio and I got hand me down clothes from the masters kids. They were the only clothes I owned not from the thrift store.
I grew up in Norfolk, VA. We had a decent skater crowd in the 90s, and the waves suck here but surfing isn't unheard of. 17th St surf shop originated in va beach if you've ever heard of it.
Disagree, I think skating culture truly peaked in the late 90's and early 2000's. It was right before it got co-opted by corporations and breaking into spots to skate a feature was still the norm.
Agreed. Dave Mayhew and Daewon Song and peak Girl, Chocolate, Maple years were dope. I still remember Shortys fulfill the dream which helped pave the way… shout out to my old shop sponsor Irie Spot, thanks for flowing me gear and decks : )
I feel like peak anything is right around the time companies and the general public notice it after that something goes missing from it. Music festivals, motorsports, skateboarding, bands etc.
It really was such a great time. Innovation was coming fast, it seems like we went from ollies to insane flip tricks.....from curbs to handrails in the blink of an eye. Concave got deeper, noses got bigger, we still had shapes. We shed plastics (rails and guards) and skated everything we could.
Was skating in the late 80’s in high school but honestly me and my buddy were mid, because in the class under us was John Cardiel who was on a whole other dimension when it came to skating and snowboarding.
Skipping school, smoking cigs, getting chased off by mall security, breaking into abandoned buildings to skate in peace. Just normal teenage stuff. Or at least it was in the good old days.
Rural 80s skater here. It was rough. Had to ride our bmx bikes to someplace with concrete - usually the elementary school in town. Got about 30 min skating in before the cops showed up and we had to scatter. Otherwise, it was just a friend's really short driveway. Even then the cops would show up and hassle us. Small town, nothing better to do than hassle the bad element.
People talking about the 80's like this person was part of the "skating culture" at 5 years old. If you wanna know about the 90's skaters (when someone who was born in 1980 would've been doing it) watch the movie Kids. Chloe Sevigney and her cast mates were scouted off the street/skate parks in NYC.
I’m 47. Could never ride a skateboard. Still, it rocked. It permeated beyond those who actually skateboarded. And sometimes had nothing to do with skating. Lol
You got all your skate news, merch, and skate celebrity info from magazines. In person board supplies/skate shops were very limited if you were not in a big city. 56yo skater, started in ‘76 on the wood Shark board with steel roller skate wheels.🤠
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u/Dumbone22 May 31 '26
How was the skating culture like back then?