Respect Authority

Manik Skateboards, self-titled industry leader in skateboard design, recently teamed up with photographer Charles Peterson, proving that, hey, maybe they are after all.

Peterson is known for his fantastic music photography, and his series of decks doesn’t stray too far from his favorite subject matter. It’s cool to see timeless rock photography presented on such a typically unusual canvas as the skateboard deck, in a sort of head on collision between the two volatile and rebellious counter cultures. Because, after all, who doesn’t like a good head on collision? It’s okay to admit it, I’m in Rubberneckers Anonymous, too.

Rock and roll is a perfect soundtrack to any destructive activity, be it stealing from the elderly, shooting crank behind the Stop & Shop, and yeah, skateboarding. And actually, all three hobbies go quite well together, in a beautiful synergy of recklessness and wasted youth. But they’re all just a little bit better if some music that makes you want to drive at 120 miles an hour and beat things with bats is playing at the same time.

That’s right, parents, rock music and skateboarding are just as unwholesome and fundamentally evil as you thought. Did you know that at skateshops they make you kneel before a shrine to the devil and forsake goodness and hope before they’ll sell you a board? It’s true. Many of them also give away hard drugs and copies of The Communist Manifesto for free, which is, to say the least, really awesome. You think Tony Hawk could do a 900 without old Beelzebub pulling the strings? Listen, everything good you’ve ever heard about skateboarding is a lie. It’s worse than terrorism, and yes… it’s even worse than not going to Church.

At least with the annual great freeze approaching, you won’t be tempted to skate these beauties, which seem like they’d be more appropriate hanging on your wall than used as something you throw around the skate park when you’re not pretending you know how to do tricks. Unless, of course, you’re one of the fortunate people who aren’t masochists and live in areas of the world where it never dips below 50 degrees… fucking assholes.