It's about time Cote' started a blorg

This is me.


(filming in San Jose with the Canon GL-1 3CCD videocamera with attached Ultra Fisheye Lens, a.k.a the "Death Lens")


I have been skateboarding since Christmas of 1988. My first setup was a twenty dollar flea market board with a ninja graphic, replete with polyurethane wheels and taildome, purchased from Joe and Jackie's Flea Market in Seffner, Florida, which was and still is as white trash as it sounds.

My amateur skateboarding "career" highlights include consistent top 3 placing in the Florida Amateur Skateboard League (FASL) from 1991-1994, recipient of the Skater Of The Year award, upseating previous year winner Andrew Reynolds. Was shop/rep flowed boards from Color Skateboards and 60/40, and toured as full am with my friend Terence's small, Leesburg, FL based company Cucumber Skateboards. Nothing too notable. I have been making skateboard videos since 1990, when I acquired a VHS video camera from the local rent-to-own establishment (remember those?) attaching a fisheye lens to it with electrical tape. My first video was called "Adventures in Hi-8", the Cove Skate & Surf team video, 100 vhs copies of which were handmade and distributed around Florida in early 1996. Reynolds had the last part, went pro for Birdhouse and moved to California soon thereafter. I continue to skate to this day, pushing my own limits and trying to keep up with the little groms out there ripping it up. I am predominantly a street skater, but grew up skating transition (very handy these days with the current skate trends,) and even have a few vert tricks up my sleeve.

I decided to start my own blog for a number of reasons, first, as an outlet for some of the skate-related writing that has been building up in the social networks I subscribe to, as well as to publish a few ideas I would like to get out into the blogosphere, but for the most part I have undertaken this new endeavor in order to get some articles on my favorite community news site, digg.com.

I peruse the fine pages of Digg everyday and hail it's personalized interface, and always click on the skateboarding related articles hoping to see my favorite pastime reflected in a positive light, but for the most part I am sorely disappointed in the content I link to, and while some sites like Tony Hawk's ShredOrDie.com link up to some decent content, I see alot of websites that are attempting to be a part of the online skateboarding world, but are mostly wannabe sites with names like skateboardpark.com or some other site that no real self-respecting skateboarder would visit.

In later blogs I hope to show the world outside of hardcore skaters the websites that real, core skaters frequent, but for now I would like to make this little corner of the blogosphere a trusted outlet for skateboarding news, noteworthy videos and news items from a seasoned, published writer in the skateboarding world.

While I don't claim to be as successful a skateboarding journalist as a Rob Brink , a Mark Whiteley or a Paul Zitzer, I have had a few pieces published in print and online, and have 4 pages published in a compendium of essays by established skateboarders and skateboarding journalists entitled "No Comply: Skateboarding Speaks On Authority," published by my esteemed colleague Chris Long at FunNotFame Productions, which features skaters like Marc Johnson, Karl Watson, industry veteran Jim Gray, Anthony Pappalardo and many many more well respected writers/riders who really know about skateboarding and are true insiders.

Please bookmark this blog as more info is to come, I will link you up with some of the online articles I have been published in, as well as essays and gripes about the skateboarding world and the commercial interests attempts at cashing in on the lifestyle and wheeled undertaking that kept me out of trouble for so long and continues to be my inspiration for creative expression, as skateboarding has introduced me to creative writing, painting, graphic design, filmmaking and editing, and music mixing and production. From many years of reading skate magazine articles and pro skater interviews I have been introduced to so many amazing books and films and musicians, and will attempt to highlight the best that the skateboarding media world has to offer, as well as offer my own gripes and praises of the current trends in the skateboarding world.

Consider me the Dave Barry of skateboarding journalism, as we have needed a big-mouthed over-opinionated columnist of sorts to bitch and moan about the lameness and back the radness that is skateboarding.

And so be it...also dude, will probably end up writing some music-related articles as well, as one of the reasons I wanted to launch this blog was to create some of those Top 10 lists that so famously make it into the annals of the Digg universe.

Blessings,

Paul Cote'



the author ollieing over my niece Caroline and nephew Henry, Sept. 1999, the day I moved to California...tomorrow marks the day I leave the west coast to return to sunny Florida where I grew up, perspective on the workings of the epicenter of skateboarding culture soon to come...stay tuned!