October 18 They’re good here 

This place is hot all the time , never cloudy . There is a haze that often blurs the horizon.Summer time sees the waves pretty much disappear from LAs beaches . Concrete , render and hard edges everywhere .You drive a couple miles inland and its flat , it’s all yellow . Miles of powerlines and biege square dwellings . What do they all do out here ? Tex has got me out to take him to skate parks . It’s close to 35 degrees regularly , but I can see what some do . Skateboarding is big here . I’m not a skater , can’t skate at all , but I can see talent . There’s kids and adults that are seriously fuckn good . I’m not just saying landing the odd big trick after 8 attempts . I’m seeing dudes flying off ramps , performing feats and then landing and repeating the process . I’m not an expert and I’m not going to make an outrageous claim but I have a suspicion that there would be a high concentration of ridiculously good skaters in this area . What you do notice is the age of the skateboarders , all ages and a concentration that I havn’t seen in Australia .The old dudes ride cruisers and just get around , but don’t be fooled , there is heaps of them . The skateparks are like furnaces , the skaters in jeans and saturated with sweat but the numbers of quality skaters is eye popping .Its hard nosed ,you can sense that but out in the concrete jungle it’s one place they can escape and get some joy . I have dropped Tex and his mates off in a few of them . Yes there is slight sense of trepidation.We all know fuckwits can congregate in places like these but you trust that there is the odd older dude around to make sure everything is fair . Tex rang me up to pick him up last time because some dude was trying to sell dope to everyone . You sense that these skate parks are tough breeding grounds for gun skaters but they also bring their perils . Yeah I’ve gotta say it , skaters are hardcore , especially here .