The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly:
A Retrospective email summary at 50-50
September, 1999

For the past 3 years, the FBM has seen it's popularity both peak and diminish, mostly due to our annoying tendency to let our monthly updates lag to about one every 3 or 4 months. As long as you don't give up on us, we don't really mind.

Since this is not a commercial site, we don't have any obligation to meet deadlines, or to edit the content of our site to shed positive light on the world of skateboarding, the skateboard industry, the state of Hawaii, or life in general. This site is more or less a free for all, and we'd like to thank everybody who has contributed their time and effort over the years.

Recently, there has been an emergence of popularity in the Forums, which literally stood untouched for about a year, and now we are thinking about bringing back the ChatRoom for this very reason. We encourage any and all participation in the Forums and any opinions or other shit talking anybody wants to post, it's truly what this site is all about. In fact it's been rather entertaining to us!

Sorry this introduction is so long, but in true FBM spirit, we thought we'd finally clean out our email boxes and post some of the most entertaining emails we've gotten over the years, good and bad. Not everyone gets to see most of them, so we hope you enjoy it.

The Good
Burnquist, Dressen, Vuckovich

Bob Burnquist has been to the islands a few times. We've been working on the Bob interview for quite a while, so hopefully that will be up someday (We think he may be a little apprehensive after reading the Warped Tour interviews). Through our Brazilian connection, Borqui, we've been treated to many quality skate photos of the man himself. We know Bob's a computer nerd and has checked out the site before. Here's an email from the Bourqui archive (in Portuguese of course).

From: Bob Burnquist To: 50-50.com Yeah Bourqui, A pagina ta do caralho. Acabei de dar uma checada. O que FBM. Esse site nao e so voce quem faz nao, é? Gostei da foto do toninho na ultra. A qualidade das fotos tao demais, foi rapidinho para dar um download. Voce usou o file compressor que v/ me falou? Parabens , gostei de verdade. Nao so das fotos , mais do lay out da pagina. Simples e eficiente. boa noite, BobB. Translation Yeah Bourqui, This page rules! I just checked it out. What is FBM ? You're not the only one who does this site, right? I liked Tony's shot at Ultra skatepark (the place where Bob started skating). The picture quality is great; they downloaded quickly. Did you use the file compressor you told me about?. Congratulations , I really liked it. Not only the pictures but also the layout : Simple and efficient. Good night, BobB.

From: Eric Dressen To: 50-50.com Your website is dope, I really like the Wallows section alot <sick clips>... made me want to skate there really bad, I ve been there a couple of times. Just wanted to let you guys know I was stoked on your site. Eric Dressen

From: Miki Vuckovich
To: 50-50.com

Fruit Bat Motel is my favorite Skate site. it's a perfect model for what other people should be doing in their own regions. Of course, I like our site, too (skateboarding.com).
Take care,

-Miki Vuckovich

The Bad
Steve Caballero

Steve Caballero hates us, and probably with a vengeance too. It all comes down to the Warped Tour interview 1998 we did with him a while back. Personally, I thought the Cab interview was one of the tamest ones we did out of the bunch. We have expressed some regret on the way some, and I say the way 'some' of the interviews came out. Especially Omar, we like Omar Hassan. Apparently Steve's been writing in on the Forums as of late. Steve is apparently down with Andy Mac too. He's definitely on a rampage!

(The polite email)
From: Steve Caballero
To: 50-50.com
Subject: Cab Interview

Hello,
I checked out your site and read my page. The photos look nice but i think you could have came up with better questions for the interview don't you think! If you want to see an interview well done, check this site out: http://www.pacificskateboarding.com/interviews/stevecaballero/
Anyways, what's the old wanker comment about? I may be old but i'm no wanker! take care and skate safe,

CAB

This second email was a little more harsh then the first and was a reply to our reply, which got misplaced, so if you don't understand what he's talking about, it's because he's responding to parts of our email.

From: Steve Caballero
To: 50-50.com

[in reference to the author of the questions] I consider that person, very unlikeable and mean! That kind of crap on your web site gives your outlook a real negative vibe. That guy has problems! Personal ones i believe that are his own insecurities. There's no reason to put other people down just to get a reaction or to make you feel better about yourself! What's his problem with Vans as well? Talk about an un-appreciative person! I don't see any other shoe company putting dollars back into skateboarding and the music scene as much as Vans does. They do so much and people give them shit for it! How about the Warped tour not coming to Hawaii at all? I know it's only his opinion, but it's on your site. so i guess you support what he's saying as well. Don't you care what people think about what's being printed on your site? You should, cause tons of little kids read that stuff and believe it as well.

I suppose that since I did make up the questions to the interview, I should reply in brief: I thought the questions were pretty entertaining myself. One thing we didn't want to make was an ordinary, boring interview, and I think we definitely achieved that. We support anybody who's willing to contribute to this site. Throughout the interview there are also no anti-Vans statements. I don't know what that crap is all about. I think that if the Warped Tour decided not to come out to Hawaii again this year, it might be a blessing for those, who served as Tim Payne's vert ramp construction crew 2 years in a row. If there's any questions regarding Warped Tour resentment, read the Warped Tour 99 article. Besides, we can't fire anybody around here, because we don't pay anybody & we don't make any money doing this.