2.25.2010

chrome ball incident #432: satan's fall













"out like a light, crushed like a cigarette butt." -coco
Posted by chops at 21:00
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15 comments:

Royce said...

THANKS CHOPS.

February 25, 2010 at 9:42 PM
Anonymous said...

He did an early grab McTwist on the Brooklyn Banks. Try to top that.

February 25, 2010 at 10:03 PM
smorales said...

thanks chops. Just last night I was watching 411 #6 and he has some amazing contest footage, head and shoulders above others.

February 25, 2010 at 10:18 PM
JayCee said...

Wow. You hit close to home with this one Chops. Coco's been brought up lately in different conversations with friends. I've mentioned this before, but Coco and I went to high school together. Coco, Rick Ibaseta and myself. It's funny cause I look at how skating is perceived by kids and the general public nowadays and it's pretty insane how far things have come. If you're a professional skater going to high school these days, you're more than likely to be one of the more popular people in your school. Of course there's exceptions to the rule, but I'd say that's pretty good assessment. I remember not even being able to bring my board to school at that time 'cause it more than likely would've been taken by somebody or we just would've ben hassled by people at school for whatever reason. I went to school with two of my friends who also happened to be pro skaters and probably only a handful of people (if that) knew they or myself even skated. It's interesting how that's worked out for skating.

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but that whole scenario popped into my head when I saw that first picture. Coco and I were in science class one day and I happened to have that issue of Transworld. I'm leafing through it in class (and forgive me if I've mentioned this before) but when I get to that page, the kid next to me sees it's Coco and asks if it's really him Coco says yes and the kid seemed kinda impressed. He asked Coco if he liked skating and Coco answers him "Yeah. But I'd rather smoke a fat doobie". Typical of Coco and a good assessment of how crazy he was on and off his board. Obviously we've all seen pictures and footage of Coco. We all know he was a ripper. In the recent past I learned about Coco and what's happened to him in the past few years. I won't go and put him on blast on here, but I will say that I'm glad you put this post of him up so people will remember how rad he was. I wish my old friend well and I'm glad people remember what an awesome skater he was.

February 26, 2010 at 3:14 AM
mike i. said...

@ JayCee

hey, i am a 37yr old lifetime skater from Massachusetts and i
talk about your "tangent" to people ALL the time. when i was in middle school and high school we were totally harassed by everyone, the jocks, the heads, even the teachers for wearing board shorts and shaving our heads etc.

the skater culture was obscure and not very welcome in our east coast town, but we forged ahead.
Now, the skaters are the "cool guys" in school and even do the bullying and clique bullshit that we used to suffer back then... very weird indeed and a great point you made and touched on.

even though my riding is limited these days, i still am mesmerized and obsessed with skating and will be till the day i die, but skating and it's popularity has changed everything now - it's affect on culture, clothing, music... has
been mind blowing to me.
And those same jock douchebags i went to HS with, well i see their kids with the clothes, skating around and carrying the torch now... and i laugh my ass off!

peace - mike

February 26, 2010 at 9:20 AM
Anonymous said...

One of the gnarliest. Definitely missed.

February 26, 2010 at 10:21 AM
dedleg said...

Wow, so many awesome shots! Love that first wallride photo.

February 26, 2010 at 1:30 PM
Keith said...

Nice. TG indian slick! I had a few of those. I remember one of them had the graphic put on upside down.

Coco was mad raw.

February 26, 2010 at 2:36 PM
Mário Rui said...

Santiago was an ill skater!

February 26, 2010 at 4:49 PM
AndyB said...

Damn Coco destroyed. Drop some knowledge on what he is up to now. Still skating I hope. Homeboy is missed for sure.

February 26, 2010 at 9:36 PM
JayCee said...

@Mike I

I totally know what you mean. We're the same age so I understand full well the climate you're talking about. It's weird how some of the jocks are now the skaters that do the bullying and have the cliques. I definitely don't want to bash skating's popularity/success cause I like to see the older skaters that have worked in this industry get their just due. And it's great that so many more kids get the opportunity to skate. For me thoug, it's like that thing Gino said about how he kinda liked it better when skating was hated on. It's hard to quanitify our experience with the one these kids are experiencing now. Still stoked on all these young guys that are just killin' it now.

@AndyB Wish I could say Coco was still skating, but unfortunately some stuff happened to him in his life and he's not skating anymore. Hasn't been able to in a while. Still lives here in SF and people see him from time to time.

February 27, 2010 at 1:27 PM
AndyB said...

@JayCee

Man that bums me out hard. I hope this all didn't stem from the DLX van shooting. I'm sending him positive vibez as I type. I hope someday he can ride again. Slap some curbs and bust some early grabs. Hail Coco...

February 27, 2010 at 6:09 PM
expat_skate_rat said...

I can't say I grew up watching him because I'm from a younger generation of skaters, but I've always appreciated the glimpses of footage of Coco I've seen. Unfortunately, the one thing I immediately associate with him is the shooting, which was when, sometime in 97? I'm curious if anyone has the full story behind that, but I also understand that if people just wanna talk about Coco without having to mention THAT again...

February 28, 2010 at 3:09 AM
chops said...

what's up Royce? how you been man?

never that before, anon1. sick.
also, didn't somebody early grab a mctwist back in the day at the dish in sf?

thanks sean... wish i had more 411s from back in the day.

jaycee and mike i, totally feel what you guys are saying and am surprised that this hasn't come up before on this site. skaters being the popular kids in school is bizarro world to me. In my school, there were three of us... and not a week went by without hearing "skater fag!" being shouted at us or some asshole trying to scare us by swerving his car at us. but i wouldn't change this for world. the us vs. them mentality can be a very formidable tool.

i actually think this persecution in many ways led to this website. as studying skate mags was a popular avenue of escape during school study halls and downtime. like many of us, the images quickly became burnt on my brain as i hoped to be somewhere better.

i can't even imagine starting to skate today. With all the magazines, websites, video games, message boards, etc. not to mention the current level of difficulty that skating is at. totally overwhelmed. we were used to transworld being bi-monthly.

i try to imagine how stoked i'd been to have "battle at the berrics" when i was a kid. amazing yes... but it just didn't belong back then.

we are all older now but i think skaters today are missing out on that unspoken code that allowed you to quickly make friends in foreign situations entirely based on the fact that somebody was wearing a santa cruz tee or a pair of airwalks. that shit's gone now. i'm not saying that either era is better, cause they really are apples and oranges. its just harder for me to understand today because its not my experience.

thanks guys. sorry for the rant.

February 28, 2010 at 10:42 PM
EastbayLoc said...

The Shooting happened on highway 4 leaving pittsburg, after they were skating the now defunct Dock park in antioch ca. Some nortes followed the van, thought they were talking shit, bullets missed jake, and mic, but hit coco. Last I hear he was in a mental institution. Pure ripper

March 9, 2010 at 11:10 AM

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