Push, Carve, Grind!: Skateboarding Florida's Central West Coast Changed My Life Forever

by Cleo Coney Jr

Overview

Underneath an azure sky with the wind in his face, Cleo Coney Jr. discovers a new world of speed, guts, and friendships. "Push, Carve, Grind" takes the reader to the Central West Coast of Florida, where skateboarding not only helped to develop a young mind, but also open one. Who knew that the close group of skaters he was a part of would be responsible for keeping the sport alive in his part of the world, during skateboarding's dark days when the skateboard parks all closed. "Push, Carve, Grind!" opens a window allowing the reader to explore this soul enhancing experience called skateboarding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781418418175
Publisher:	AuthorHouse
Publication date:	05/26/2004
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Cleo Coney Jr. began skateboarding at the age of nine and continues to skate today, which is over three decades! The author takes you to the days prior to Skateboard Parks when he fell in love with the feeling he got from speeding along on his skateboard, to the days of competition on the road. Cleo Coney Jr. was an intregal part of the St. Petersburg skate crew who built scores of ramps including the areas first verticle ramp to host national competitions! He has sessioned with the best skateboarders in the world, and skated for major manufacturer teams. Featured on television, in print, guest keynote speaker, demos, judging skate competitions, Cleo Coney Jr. continues to be involved in the sport.

Visit cleoconey.com for more information about the author.

Read an Excerpt

I pushed off extra hard to get more speed as I banked down and left, crouched low, head tucked and arms extended forward. Bring the speed on! I imagined that I was in Santa Cruz on my final down hill run in some fantasy contest that existed in my head. Light violently flashed through the gaps in the tree canopy as I continued to gain speed on my little Sports Fun skateboard. The sounds of kids playing and birds singing made up the natural ambient echo that my rolling wheels highlighted with the hum of urethane grabbing ground greedily. For some reason I never thought about the wooden bridge at the bottom of the hill that made it's way across a small creek. My adrenaline was flowing at an all time high. Then in the next instance, poof! As if by magic, my memory came back to me as soon as I reached the point in my run where cement ended and wooden planks began. This unexpected but preventable event brought about my first skateboarding moment of truth. As I floated upside down in the air facing the route I rode from, and then in the next moment seeing and feeling the wooden bridge as it's splinters reached out to introduce themselves to me very impolitely. Either I would quit, or I would smile at the stinging scrapes on my elbows, and splinters in my arms and legs and shake it off. "I would never quit", I said to myself rising up off the ground with fresh abrasions and splinters sticking out of my flesh. I then smiled as I continue to do today.

As our ramp building progressed, so did our skating skills. Our young toned bodies were guided by brightly focused young minds developing around skateboarding, for skateboarding, with skateboarding. Hours upon hours of skate sessionsreally kept us safe inside our skateboarding bubble from the other things that were going down in the neighborhood in which we lived. As young men our energies were tied to the thrills and the rush that a board and four wheels hanging off the ends of skate trucks can only provide and satisfy. Where my wheels out? How high out the ramp was I? Was my arm completely extended? Did you see how gnarly that was? I can't believe I pulled it off! Stay on! Make it! That was so rad! Yeah! These were the types of things you got used to hearing during a skate session. It was just our group with an occasional visitor, that pushed each other to get better and better. No ESPN2, no X-Games, no team videos to study, no recognition beyond our immediate skate peers. We skated and continue to skate because of our undying love to push, carve, grind. We were self-fulfilling skateboard motivated and we didn't care what people said about us.