Sometimes I put stuff here
“I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I’m with isn’t it, and what’s it seems weird and scary to me, and it’ll happen to you, too” – Abe Simpson
What used to be a fun little joke from one of TV’s favorite grandpas, has now been a recurring topic on my mind. Particularly in regards to skateboarding and the skate community. Now while I’ll be the first to claim my youth, I can’t help but notice a strange divide arising between the skateboarders I come across lately and myself. I’ve often found myself somehow trapped between generations of the skateboarders I grew up idolizing and the current wave of insanely talented individuals.
In the past, I’ve used this lost identity in my favor. Blending in like a chameleon with whomever I was skateboarding with. Though it seems that as the days go by, my ability to mask my age has become weaker. I no longer possess the power to hide among the younger generation of skateboarders. It seems that somehow my referencing of videos such as Enjoi’s Bag of Suck no longer seem to have the punch that they once had.
The point of this article isn’t to complain about the younger generation’s ignorance of my childhood heroes, but rather an observation of a much more striking difference between the generations of skateboarding. A cultural difference that makes what should be the same art that I love appears to be completely foreign to me. This distinction between the age groups being the use of one’s skateboard as a mode of transportation. Now allow me to tie an onion to my belt, get up on my soapbox, and paint a picture of a time when it was common practice to “skate Babylon” while pretending to be Tommy Guerrero.
To skateboard at one point in time simply meant to run and jump out the door or climb out of one’s chimney and ride a skateboard around town. Sure it there was the occasional car ride, but often that was simply a means to arrive at a group’s agreed-upon start location before riding around the town. Skateboarding didn’t feel confined to predesignated arenas. It didn’t matter that one’s board wasn’t marketed as a “cruiser,” skateboards were ridden.
There is a great sense of exploration that comes from just cruising around the concrete jungle, always looking for a new medium to express oneself. Even if that medium is the street itself, a skateboarder becomes the pioneer on a new adventure every time they leave their home. The opening quote in Powell Peralta’s video Future Primitive illustrates this idea well, “200 years of American technology has unwittingly created a massive cement playground. It took the minds of 12 years-olds to realize its potential.”
Riding around town never stopped any of us from tearing up the streets and performing some of the most insane tricks ever seen. If anything, learning to ride smoothly is the greatest trick. We can see this in many of the great skate videos, such as Jason Adam’s Slappy Hour. Getting out there and having fun riding around can be the most inspiring of maneuvers. Like the 12 year-olds that we all are, all we need to do is go outside and play.
Again I don’t mean this as an attack, but rather an open expression of what I feel is missing from the current expression of skateboarding. Before I step down from my soapbox, I would like to make a plea: please go out and ride your skateboards, explore, surf the concrete wave, and get Wild in the Streets.
Let me what you think about this idea. Do you like to ride your skateboard just for the sake of riding? Do you prefer skateboarding at parks or designated “skate-spots”? If so, then why? Am I out of touch? Was this just an excuse to link a bunch of videos?