street

Street skaters are prone to flinging themselves down stairs and long kinked rails, hence most pictures of street skaters you will find will be either halfway along a rail or in mid-air above a stair set.

"Street" is also used as an adjective in two different contexts, martial arts and hip-hop to describe two different sets of things. However, in both cases "street" comes out meaning the same thing, approximately "real".

Most martial arts schools teach a great amount of skills, drills and techniques. These range from rather esoteric, abstract forms to highly competitive sparring. However, if most martial arts schools are truly teaching fighting, they will also teach "street" fighting, meaning fighting with no rules, where all targets and techniques are permitted. Obviously, in such activities as tournament fighting, rules that allowed gouging out someone's eyes would probably thin the number of fighters willing to fight out, especially for the second time. However, in a life-or-death encounter, the only limits to what is permitted are the fighter's own moral and ethical limits.

Strangely enough, although the usage dates to a later time, the "street" is used in a similiar way in hip-hop or rap music. However, in this context, it doesn't mean anything in particular. It just connotes "realness", the quality of roughness and reality that is an artistic and social neccesity in some hip-hop circles.

Both of these terms, of course, come from the common belief that the streets are rough, tough unforgiving places that are full of crime that instantly kills the unwary. Of course, this data is a little inaccurate, but terms often come to term in such a manner.

Street began not long after flatland started gaining popularity in the mid 70s. Riders who had very little near them to ride decided to just make the best of what they had. So for example, someone would attach pegs to their bike, and use the pegs to grind on something. Or, they would use a bank leading up to a vertical wall to propel themselves onto it. The great thing about street riding is that the only limit is your imagination. You can ride pretty much everything if you can think of a way to do it.

Due to the fact that street riding is typically done on concrete and metal objects usual found in developed areas, cities and urban areas are meccas for street riding. While it is possible, and common, for street riding to take place out of a city, cities continue to offer a much more diverse selection of terrain in a much closer proximity then rural areas.

One of the big problems of street riding is that the people who own the property that is ridden on, often don't appreciate it. Many times the police are called in to rectify the situation. This has in some circumstances even led to the arrest of the particicpants, though more commonly results in being asked to leave, or getting a ticket. This causes street riders to become generally sneaky leading to "hit and run" or night-time missions, in an attempt to defer this interupption to their riding.

Despite the fact that street riders are often looked up as vandals, it is an amazing thing to see how someone can take something so ordinary looking and turn it into something incredible. In the words of a parent who's child rides, "You haven't been in a city until you've been there with a rider."

Street (?), n. [OE. strete, AS. strt, fr. L. strata (sc. via) a paved way, properly fem. p.p. of sternere, stratum, to spread; akin to E. strew. See Strew, and cf. Stratum, Stray, v. & a.]

Originally, a paved way or road; a public highway; now commonly, a thoroughfare in a city or village, bordered by dwellings or business houses.

He removed [the body of] Amasa from the street unto the field. Coverdale.

At home or through the high street passing. Milton.

⇒ In an extended sense, street designates besides the roadway, the walks, houses, shops, etc., which border the thoroughfare.

His deserted mansion in Duke Street. Macaulay.

The street Broker's Cant, that thoroughfare of a city where the leading bankers and brokers do business; also, figuratively, those who do business there; as, the street would not take the bonds. -- Street Arab, Street broker, etc. See under Arab, Broker, etc. -- Street door, a door which opens upon a street, or is nearest the street.

Syn. -- See Way.

© Webster 1913.