Photos byDave Nelson.
The photos you’re looking at right now are skateboarding at Umass, but they’re not really skateboarding at Umass. Maybe this confuses you. Let me explain. The photos you see here were most certainly taken at Umass. And no, we didn’t bring in any outside talent for the article, all these cats are either homegrown Amherst locals or just homies who manage to step on the board in between classes and lay down a trick or two.
This might lead you to ask, “If the photos were taken at Umass and all the dudes skating in the photos are from Umass, how the fuck am I not looking at skating from Umass?” Well I guess the answer is: Shit like this just doesn’t generally happen at Umass. What you’re looking at right here is what happens when people get off their asses and try. If I wanted to show you actual skating at Umass what you would see is this: 10 to 15 dudes on a good day and something like 3 to 5 on your average day pushing around at the UMass Fine Arts Center also know as F’arts. And you’re not gonna see any photos of the F’arts in this article because it’s essentially just a huge expanse of flat we skate, none too photogenic.
Sure there’s a few stair sets at the F’arts, 6’s, 7’s, and a 10 frequented by a lot of pros, but we don’t skate em. Too lazy, (in our defense they are kinda long). Why skate stairs when you can skate flat. The F’arts also has this wacky ass red sculpture, which somehow is supposed to represent the nearby Connecticut River, but is known as the pants. The pants are good for wallrides and wallies. Try it.
We got some decent terrain here: buncha stairs, this cool bank that was quick-creted by local rippers Dave and Russian, some low ass ledges at the science building for learning stuff, a few manny pads, a library with about 20 benches, and a really choppy hubba that Jim Gagne pioneered, to name a few. Other then these and a few others though there’s a surprising lack of spots for a university with 20,000-some odd students. Besides the stair sets at the F’arts there’s a near zero bust factor on campus. You can session essentially any of the spots here for hours and no one will say shit to you.
Another thing you’re sure to notice is the vast number of longboards. Longboards for miles, as far as the eye can see. And generally 95 percent of these people don’t know how to ride these long boards. I’ve actually watched a particularly awkward kid try to ride down the sidewalk, pushing about 2 times before hitting his foot on the large protruding wheel and then eating shit. I watched this kid do this about 3 or 4 times, each time with more painful/spectacular results before he threw in the towel and walked the rest of the way. Oh and most of these kids push mongo.
I might have made Umass seem somewhat unappealing here, but really this is one of my favorite places to skate. Maybe we’re not on a filming mission every day, but I can pretty much guarantee if you show up to the F’arts on any given day you’re gonna meet a bunch of homies. A solid crew with no bad vibes. And if you really push hard enough you might even skate something that isn’t flat.
