This is my newest skateboard setup, I've been riding these things since I was eleven years old, practically 10-12 years of my life rolling around on hunks of wood with bearings and polyurethane wheels. I didn't have many friends growing up in my small city until I started skating, it started with two kids down the street from me, I only rode a bike around them maybe three times in the close to six years we were best friends.
There's nothing like throwing yourself down flights of stairs over and over again until the board catches under your feet just right,
That's Chris Cole, and he's certainly one to watch if you want to see what kind of energy professionals put into their craft. There's thousands of extremely talented people of all ages, shapes, and sizes that skate. It's a very close bonding experience to skateboard with someone in my opinion and it's an awful lot more fun than doing it by yourself. It's great for your body and mental health and helped me interact with people of all kinds of backgrounds and lifestyles. From rich white kids to homeless black guys to middle class spanish girls.
When I hear wheels on the ground I get extremely excited. I look around frantically and wonder if the person wants to play a game of SKATE (basically think basketball's HORSE) with me, or morbid curiosity of what trick they're trying to do, or if I could teach them something new. It's such a great ice breaker! Rarely if someone comes up to you with enthusiasm about skating are you shied away, because we know that vibration too.
My favorite skateboard spots growing up were churches, schools, post office loading docks, funeral homes, skate parks. The most frequented though? The middle of the streets. Cruising around and drinking 40oz bottles of malt liquor, shooting bullshit back and forth and moving from spot to spot and betting cigarettes on tricks, praying that you land anything on your first try..between thirteen and 18 years old I was skating five to six hours a day maybe five times a week, I was sucked in.
The exhilarating feeling you get from flying around on a piece of wood with wheels is intense, sometimes scary. hesitation is the enemy of any skateboarder. It can mean you split your legs on a rail and end up in a Youtube Fails compilation. You must be confident in what you're trying to attempt. It's a thing of beauty watching someone learn to execute new tricks in various environments. Every fall is felt by every onlooker, because they fall for their peers too, because they want the pleasure and admiration for the effort that they love putting into the activity.
The mutual goal is for everyone to progress with each other. Teaching is a fundamental portion of skateboarding, otherwise less skaters would exist as time goes on and innovation would be stagnated. There are giant complexes dedicated to getting people better at skating, and offer summer camp style arrangements in beautiful venues. Like Woodward West in California for example. Where coaches and hundreds of people comes from all around the world to help one another in an insulated and low pressure environment far away from the stresses of home and authority.
I hope skateboarding will always be a part of my life in some capacity. Unfortunately it's been about three years since I've been frequently pushing around and enjoying this hobby. It's frustrating and at time depressing, but I think I'll be skating again in no time :)