The discussion of psychotic drivers attacking skaters and longboarders has been a hot button topic in our community for quite some time. The thought that someone would get so angry at a skater for simply cruising down the side of the road is mind-boggling, and yet, it happens all too often. As some of you probably read in a previous blog post, Salty’s Web Guru Kerry witnessed an attack on a longboarder recently. As it turns out, our very own Salty Peaks employee Andrew aka Mop had a terrifying experience just the other day while longboarding back to the shop on his break. We now bring you the exclusive story of what happened to Mr. Andrew “Mop” Taylor.
Who could attack this lovable bastard?
It was a lovely, unassuming Saturday afternoon, one week ago yesterday. Mop was in a chipper mood as he skipped off to McDonald’s. Little did he know that the greasy food wouldn’t be the only thing hurting his body on this particular lunch break. On his way back, he was cruising down the side of 3300 S when a white rapist van came up behind him and starting laying on the horn. Mop gave them the go-around wave but they persisted. Eventually, and for good reason, Mop got very fed up and flipped them the bird. This is when things went really downhill (no pun intended).
The food ain’t the only thing that will kill you…
The driver of the van decided it would be a good idea to fly past Mop, get in front of him, and slam on their brakes. Mop slammed hard into the back of the van, bashing his knee and shin on the bumper and head on one of the van doors. Needless to say, Moppy was pissed. He proceeded to scream at the driver, calling them a wonderful assortment of names and telling them how psychotic they are. Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment, Mop didn’t grab their license number, but at least they got a good tongue lashing. He was able to get his board out from under the van before they took off without saying a word.
Stole this from Volcom.
Mop was very lucky however that the board just ended up under the car, undamaged. In my opinion he probably should have used it to take out a taillight or two, but that’s neither here nor there. There is, however, hope for humanity yet. A kind pedestrian stopped to make sure Mop was ok and offered him a ride back to the shop. Some people out there still understand our plight as skaters and are willing to lend a helping hand.
There will always be crazy people out there, so the lesson here is definitely to get padded. I know tons of skaters think helmets and pads look stupid and aren’t legit, but at the end of day, getting significant brain damage from a psycho driver is less legit than wearing a helmet. I’ll leave you with a video showing a solid crash while dodging a car that would have been a hell of a lot worse without pads. Cheers.
