Why I ride indys - Jesse Davis

I had no problem with the ACS trucks on my first skateboard. Worked good for skating over to a friends house or pretend bowl-riding in front of my house. But one day I saw a friends super-wide Suregrip board and I knew I had missed something.

I ended up keeping his board. Not that I stole it, I just borrowed it and he forgot. Eventually I replaced the deck and then the trucks broke so I got gullwings. The Gullwing kingpins broke every week so I got Indys.

Funny story about my first day on Indys. They we're so turny that I got really mad. I was skating my friends 1/4 pipe and they were sqiggling all over the place. I pushed really angrily at the ramp, got pitched on my back and whacked the back of my head really hard. I felt totally schooled. Like I wasn't worthy. I cranked em down a little.

Anyway, Indys worked good. I learned to skate on the street and on the ramp. But the best was our ditch. We dug out the dirt behind the lip so you could grind the rough concrete. We made our own copers called "Natas Kopers" but they fell off so we had to deal.

I got really into vert for about five years in the late 80s and for a year I rode Trackers (with metal baseplates) thinking they might be better for vert since they didnt turn. They didnt really grind that well and they always broke when I threw my board. So I went back to Indys.

Next few years were kinda cloudy....I think I was riding Thunder/Indy frankenstein trucks for a while. Back then, Thunders and Indys were basically the same truck. I remember my theory was Indys turned in a quick radius but Thunders were progressive. They actually turned quicker if you jammed on em. I thought the perfect truck was Indy hangers with Thunder baseplates. I was stoned alot of the time.

Did you ever have a period in your life when one board lasts you for years? That, of course, means you're not skateboarding much. I had those frankenstien trucks on a Tom Knox solid black everslick for like 5 years. I was "cleaning up my act", riding a bicycle alot. For a while I was "the skateboarder guy" who raced mountain bikes. I was even State Champ.

I moved to Colorado and did Colorado stuff. Got a new board and had to get new Indys cause the hole pattern had changed. I had to get 139s and small wheels because thats all there was. Concrete parks started popping up all over the state and I was done with bikes. I needed some bigger trucks...I bought some Thunders thinking I could trust them but I was wrong. They broke when I smacked my board truck-down in frustration over some bailed trick. I remember some guy says, "are they Indys?...No?...well, there's your first problem." That was it. Indys forever.

A few years later I broke like three Indy kingpins in one year. I had only broken one indy kingpin in 20 years until then. Soon after that, the stage 8 came out with a black hardened kingpin but the axles bent really easy. So it was obvious that Indy was cheaping around a little. Also, I started noticing Independent paraphenalia fucking everywhere. Really a bummer. Like the spiked belt, Indy wear had become the standard middle-school uniform.

Whos cares though. I ground pool coping today with my Independent 149s. Today, my 37th birthday. They did exactly what they were supposed to do. Same thing they've done for me for over 20 years. I dont even think about them. I know my shit is "100%".