Kinetic Skateboarding
Kinetic Skateboarding
Kinetic's store frontPhotography: Mazur
Words by Adam Salo
Ahhh Kinetic, where the skateboards are quality, the staff is knowledgeable and even the lurkers are above average. Kinetic Skateboarding is an excellent shop that has spawned and nurtured a healthy skate scene in the first state. But life wasnt always this good.
If youre getting to be an old head, like me, you might remember a lesser known era in skateboarding known as the early nineteen nineties. Now back in the 90s days of yore, when kids suffered through the pressure flip phase of skateboarding, there was nary a legit shop to be found outside of skateboardings stronghold in California. In those days, if you were unlucky enough to live in the wee little state of Delaware, you probably bought your boards at some dirt mall or Army-Navy surplus store that happened to carry Airwalks and a couple of warped SMA decks. Despite these set backs, a few die-hards were determined to persevere. A young ripper named Brannon John skated through the lean years and learned to shred every piece of gnarly terrain DE had to offer. Along the way, John formed a lasting friendship with a Pennsyltuckty skateboarder named Ben Jones who was reluctantly willing to cross state lines for the sake of shredding the radical.
Fast forward more than ten years and the two friends, now young men, have entered into business to better the scene in their area. Having cut their teeth working at another shop for years, Jones and John were determined that they could do better on their own. Funds were scraped together and Kinetic was born.
Kinetic isnt one of those shitty shops that will gladly send you off with a Wet Willy complete and gouge your pockets for it. With a firm grasp of east coast skateboardings history and heritage, they will explain to you why you should buy a 5boro or Traffic board instead. They will also take the time to educate young groms about the righteousness of Static II and why you should learn pole jams before you learn nollie double flips.
Perhaps most importantly, both owners and staff at Kinetic all skate. A lot. If you work at Kinetic and you dont feel like playing a game of skate after a ten hour work day, your fucking fired. And you better bring youre A-game too because Brannon John is gnarly (am for Traffic) and Ben Jones has one of the meanest tre flips in the state. Bolts baby.
Ahhh Kinetic, where the skateboards are quality, the staff is knowledgeable and even the lurkers are above average. Kinetic Skateboarding is an excellent shop that has spawned and nurtured a healthy skate scene in the first state. But life wasnt always this good.
If youre getting to be an old head, like me, you might remember a lesser known era in skateboarding known as the early nineteen nineties. Now back in the 90s days of yore, when kids suffered through the pressure flip phase of skateboarding, there was nary a legit shop to be found outside of skateboardings stronghold in California. In those days, if you were unlucky enough to live in the wee little state of Delaware, you probably bought your boards at some dirt mall or Army-Navy surplus store that happened to carry Airwalks and a couple of warped SMA decks. Despite these set backs, a few die-hards were determined to persevere. A young ripper named Brannon John skated through the lean years and learned to shred every piece of gnarly terrain DE had to offer. Along the way, John formed a lasting friendship with a Pennsyltuckty skateboarder named Ben Jones who was reluctantly willing to cross state lines for the sake of shredding the radical.
Fast forward more than ten years and the two friends, now young men, have entered into business to better the scene in their area. Having cut their teeth working at another shop for years, Jones and John were determined that they could do better on their own. Funds were scraped together and Kinetic was born.
Kinetic isnt one of those shitty shops that will gladly send you off with a Wet Willy complete and gouge your pockets for it. With a firm grasp of east coast skateboardings history and heritage, they will explain to you why you should buy a 5boro or Traffic board instead. They will also take the time to educate young groms about the righteousness of Static II and why you should learn pole jams before you learn nollie double flips.
Perhaps most importantly, both owners and staff at Kinetic all skate. A lot. If you work at Kinetic and you dont feel like playing a game of skate after a ten hour work day, your fucking fired. And you better bring youre A-game too because Brannon John is gnarly (am for Traffic) and Ben Jones has one of the meanest tre flips in the state. Bolts baby.
A look inside Kinetic Photography: Mazur
Kinetic's owners, Brannon John and Ben Jones, hard at work Photography: Mazur
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