The moment I walk into the backyard I know something is wrong. It smells like fresh dust and something sharp catches my shoe. As my eyes adjust to the darkness, I can make out chunks of concrete flung around the pool. I walk closer, the pool's surface reflecting gray moonlight, and can see that someone's taken a sledgehammer and pounded the walls and coping into a broken surface of violence.
Next morning I'm sitting on the edge of the broken bowl contemplating the damage and remembering sessions past, my phone rings with news of similar violence up and down the Coast. Burnside dynamited, the Skatelab chainsawed, and Washington Street bulldozed. As far as I can tell, skateparks, ramps, and some of the best known backyard pools have been damaged beyond repair. Some well-coordinated group has converged on our terrain between the hours of midnight and four a.m., slipped in, and single-mindedly destroyed them all.
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Did you know that Damaged is the title of Black Flag's debut album? Don't know who Black Flag is? Google them. This is the first in this ongoing series of stories about skaters, biotechnology, and the people that love and hate them. If you like it, please comment or vote. Thanks!
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Three Pool Rhumba
Science FictionFor some, the technology to bioengineer skateboards exists now. So, what happens when novel genetic engineering technologies hit the empty pool and new issues arise: What does it mean to ride a biohacked board? How do you keep it alive? And, what if...
