The Berrics

The Berrics is essentially a private skatepark apparently owned by Steve Berra and Eric Koston. Why? Well, if you had the money to buy a building and build your own skatepark in it and only let your homies skate it, wouldn’t you? Of course you would, my boy.

Now, you may recall that Berra came under fire around the time of the DVS video because he was making “fake spots,” that is, he would take a real spot, and spruce it up a bit.

It’s not as though no one had done this before. Putting bondo on a spot is making a “fake spot”. Cutting the kink off a handrail is making a “fake spot”. Building Burnside was making a “fake spot”. Building a wood box with a metal edge and skating it in the street in front of your house is making a “fake spot”. I think what drew attention to Berra was that he went farther than others in that he got a bit fancier and had some fun with it all blending the fake parts into the real parts and I think the backlash came because people thought he was trying to make it look as though he hadn’t created the spot when in fact he had. Only Berra can answer the question but I’m guessing he wasn’t trying to trick anyone but rather he was just having fun with it. But hey, ever since Jovantae sucker punched him Berra’s been the guy everyone jumps on for some reason.

This all reminds me of the statement I believe Appleyard made a few years about when these concrete parks started popping up everywhere “Nobody ever turned pro in a park.” At the time I thought “Yeah, that’s right.” But I think we’ve seen a shift in the last few years. While it’s true there aren’t any pros who are 100% park pros (Chalmers came pretty close to being pro just because of his park skills but the guy had plenty of footage elsewhere too), there is more and more park footage popping up in video parts and parks are rapidly becoming the only place where you can skate without getting harassed…and sometimes you even get harassed in parks.

I don’t think there will ever be a point where real street skating will disappear. They can’t skateproof every ledge, they can’t knob every rail. It just won’t happen. But I wouldn’t be surprised if more and more skating gets done on spots that we as skaters create. And while I’ll admit there’s something about finding a spot that wasn’t intended for skateboarding and skating it as is, there’s also something to not having to drive two hours to skate a spot, get kicked out after five minutes, drive another two hours, get kicked out, and drive back home frustrated. Is doing a trick on a piece of marble you bought and placed on top of some cinderblocks in a warehouse you own the same as doing the trick on a marble ledge in front of a building you don’t own? Maybe it’s slightly different somehow, but frankly, who cares, it’s still fun to do, and for me it’s still fun to watch.