Filters Magazine
pop/sub/fringe culture
Issue 3: Local edition!
Monday, 07-Oct-2024 08:17:55 PDT
Kids growing up in San Francisco, while trying to define themselves, often formed clubs. Most groups formed around some kind of activity, be it skating, surfing or graffiti. For the most part it was a harmless association that gave kids a snese of pride.

one of the first crews was the Bomb Bay Bombers. this was a group of kids with shared interests: skateboarding. the gathering spot for these guys was 9th and judah, the bus stop that took them up to the top of some of the more famous skate runs in early sf skate history. buzz-cut, t-shirts and jeans.

as the kids grew older and entered junior high and high school, they became known as CBS: city boys (shred/skate/surf). skating turned to surfing, light banter to drinking. the name is well-known to locals and is still used to refer to some of its members.

Apparently, someone recently scrawled a Jak's team logo on a bus shelter. this is of interest for two reasons: it was thought that Jak's was no longer a crew; and the logo included the CBS logo, a circle-like eye that looks like the broadcast logo.

At the same time CBS was forming, another type of crew was becoming popular: tagging crews. as tagging got popular, it was an obvious advance to form groups. earlier tag crews formed to help the cause: hit as many buses as hard as you could. the larger numbers made it easier to bomb a yard. Some of the more famous crews: TWS, KSUN.

then there were the fringe groups that got started by the desire of kids to be more popular. Two of the more noteworthy: TBC and Team Unknown. TBC was a mixture of tagging and social club. Team Unknown started as a skate club, but turned into MDT as a social club after a year.

Lots of these groups had large reputations. CBS will always be synonymous with fist-fighting, Jak's with bike messengers, and MDT as obnoxious drinkers.

Editor's note: if you have more accurate information, please email us at 'staff@filtersmag.com'

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