Check out this kid Frank… absolutely nuts. I’m getting a freestyle board now.

No really… you don’t have any good excuses.

Hammond is a very laid back city (or town, depending on your perspective). We’re easy going, and for the most part… if you have a skateboard, you’ve got instant friends, thanks to the locals here. We really enjoy having visitors come from all over to have a taste of the skate scene we have to offer… we encourage any and everyone reading this to visit us, skate with us, and have a good time. We do have limits on what we accept, however… one of those things is theft. I’m not just talking about someone swiping a board, or someone walking out with someone else’s skate tool… I’m also talking about theft from any place here in Hammond… or anywhere else for that matter.

The breakdown: This past Sunday, a crew of skateboarders from Montegut, Louisiana came up to ride for a large part of the day. The crew seemed really cool… I skated and talked with everyone for quite a while… it’s always good to have new homies.

After a couple of hours, I noticed the crew was gone… then I found out something really disturbing…I was informed by one of our locals that one of the Montegut fellas stole a Snickers bar from the little family-owned grocery store by the park. Pardon my French, but that’s bullshit. I mean, I can almost understand stealing if you were starving to death, you had ribs poking out, and you were about to pass out from hunger… but what this kid did was just lame. I know it’s just a Snickers, but it might as well have been a car. The fact is that we go to that store every day… they have the coldest drinks in Hammond, and they’re a local business, not some huge megacorporation. I’m glad they caught the punk, and I’m glad they photographed him.

To the thief in question: I went to the store this morning to talk to the owner… I let him know that even though I didn’t know your name, I knew you weren’t from Hammond. I also told him that you weren’t a skater, you were just a thief. The owner let me take a couple of photos of the sign that we get to look at every time we go into the store, so for the benefit of the world, I’ll share it now:

Just in case you can’t see him clearly, here’s a close up:

Make no mistake… you’re no longer welcome here. You blew it. If any of us see you at our park again, we’re calling the cops and we’re going to make sure you don’t set foot in our city again. I’m sure you thought it was funny, but it wasn’t. When you stole from that store, you made us all look bad. You made your town look bad, and you made your crew look bad. I’ll say it one last time: don’t come back.

The flatland champ (and all around cool mofo) has an interview on Stomp.com… clickity here

Look on the right column, then scroll down to the “Moto Groundforce Global BMX” part… he’s big pimpin’. Hammond raprahzizzle!

This is a Go Skateboarding Day video from Philly… this is Wild in the Streets in Chicago… very cool stuff.

In unrelated news, a certain non-skateboarding douchebag finally opened up his skateboarding - pogostick - X Treme Soap Shoe - retarded-ass excuse for a store, three blocks away from us… just to piss us off and milk a quick buck off of Hammond skaters. I can’t speak for the shop officially on this one (I’m only speaking for myself), but I think it’s really clear as to what kind of bottom feeder this fella is.
Should the person I’m talking about be reading this (and I know he is), it won’t take long for the folks here to find out what we already know… you’re garbage. Simple as that. You insulted us by doing what you did, and I’ll gladly take advantage of any chance I have to insult you back. Just remember that we didn’t go to Mandeville, you came here, to our town, to profit off of a scene that we created. You don’t give a rat’s ass about skateboarding, nor do you give a rat’s ass about any of the kids that skate here. We know it, you know it, and most of Hammond knows it. The longer you stay, the more everyone else will know it too. I know you feel uncomfortable when you come to town, and you should… though you’re a non skater, you still managed to be a disgrace to skateboarding. At least in Mandeville, you served a purpose… here in Hammond, you’re just being the sniveling, snotty, pasty little rich boy that stereotypes come from. Anyway, I just figured I’d remind you how much of a chump you are.
Love,
Neal

PS
To anyone that finds this post especially harsh, please bear with me… when I first wrote it, it would have made biker blush.

Filmed by Kerry, featuring Little Kerry, Corey, Neal, Adam, and a crew of Small Time young’uns… right click and save it!

If anyone else has footy, give me a shout and we’ll put it up for ya!

I’m working on editing and uploading the footage from our skate session today (I’m hoping to have it up tonight)… we had a really good time at Dreamland (or should I call it Smallside?)…
In the meantime, here’s the old STS compilation video I threw together a few months ago (featuring Chris, Weird Randy, Kerry, me, Bankhead, Tattoo’d Randy, Stanley, Ryan and Big Trey). Right click and save as, soldier.

Extra props to all of the skate dads out there.

Take off of work, take off of school… June 21 is national Go Skateboarding Day!