Saturday, October 20, 2012

Crashing Crotches at the Dew Tour



An ambitious sports extravaganza featuring semi-profesional skateboarders and BMX bicyclists invaded Civic Center Plaza over the last couple of weeks, with six days of setup and four days of games.



The event was being sponsored by the controversial sugar-intensive Mountain Dew soft drink aimed at teenagers...



...and the major focus seemed to be the huge side pavilions where small designer brands were trying to be the new hip young viral thing...



...which meant lots of giveaways, including a free skateboard park for anyone.



There was a bit of phony controversy cooked up by the Chronicle where Supervisor Avalos, not sounding like the sharpest tool in the box, decried the use of public land with "big piles of dirt in front of City Hall."



There are plenty of egregious examples of SF Rec & Park Czar Phil Ginsberg along with his spokesmodel Sarah Ballard unilaterally deciding how to give away public space to private interests, but this turned out to be a charming use of Civic Center. As many commenters pointed out in the Chronicle article, the plaza is usually barren except for down-on-their-luck street people who sleep there, like the gentleman above who blended into the skateboard bazaar seamlessly.



My favorite sideshow activity was a group using a flexible tightrope on which to perform tricks in midair.



Most of these sports are for hormonal teenage boys who want to slam their crotches against something hard, and the tightrope as you can see above does not disappoint in that regard.

1 comment:

Matthew Hubbard said...

I like the use of the phrase "does not disappoint" in regards to crotch slamming. Patrick O'Brian would approve and give thee joy on your success, brother.