I remember the first time I saw a skateboarder roll past me. I was 14, walking to school in Sussex in the early 90s. The skater wove in and out of the schoolchildren, the parents, workers and old age pensioners. He moved in such a fresh and radical way. He flowed through the crowds in the same way that water finds its natural route.
I can still recall with complete clarity the sound of the plywood tail of the skateboard snapping against the black tarmac road as the skateboarder popped an ollie up onto the pavement. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. Why walk to school when you could skate? After some prodigious parental pressure, serious saving and a request for early birthday funds, I found myself in the skate shop - my own personal sweet shop.
My first skateboard; a Plan B Matt Hensley board with a huge eagle graphic on the underside. I watched, awestruck, as the skate shop dude applied rough black grip tape, tracing the board’s outline with the edge of a worn down screwdriver that looked older than me. A Stanley knife replaced the screwdriver, its sharp blade tracking and slicing through the traced outline of the board – black sticky grip tape offcuts spiraling out of my field of vision. A future was forming before my eyes.
The bearings were pushed into the wheels with teenage thumbs, each white urethane wheel making a popping sound as it stubbornly accepted the steel bearing casing before being fastened firmly onto the trucks and secured onto the underside of the eagle. With a spin of the wheels and an uttering of the words “it’s a rad set-up, she’s gonna be hella fast”, I was off.
He was right. The set-up was beyond cool, it changed my life. She did fly “hella fast”, like the eagle she was.
What I didn’t know then was that this first foray into skateboarding was actually a voyage that would never end. Information and experiences were exchanged and shared with friends. Skateboarding was a bonding process. Videos of legendary professionals - Mark Gonzales, Rodney Mullen, Ricky Oyola, Marc Johnson, Chris Miller – were circulated and pored over. But only through dedication and perseverance did my ability, confidence and consistency grow. To be a good skateboarder, you need to develop the innate sense of an urban navigator, weaving through complex street systems, learning to anticipate city subtleties – pedestrians, traffic – with precision timing.
Skateboarding alters your perceptions of urban space forever. Bland 1960s architectural eyesores become a creative challenge awaiting skate exploration. With the streets as your playground, loyal friendships are formed – a wolf pack of sorts – with whom you roam, hunting out new challenges and opportunities.
And as my skateboarding years rolled by, my friends and I journeyed further into the unknown, to infamous (and sometimes untouched) architectural skate spots around the globe. From the rolling hills of San Francisco, to the clickety clackety bricks of the Brooklyn Banks. The smooth architectural skate mecca of Barcelona, to the forever grinding granite slab benches of Prague and the transitions of the Ukraine.
Relationships with fellow skateboarders traverse international borders because the sport brings with it a global bond of sincerity. You know endless good times await – you’re a global conquistador aboard four wheels and seven layers of Canadian plywood.
Why? Because, there are no short cuts in skateboarding, it’s the long hard less travelled road that leads to personal experience, creative focus, depth and inclusion. As a creative subculture, skateboarding is big business for sure; marketed and sold to the masses, but, the ability to flow confidently on a skateboard is no easy feat. There are no easy downloads or cheats into this brotherhood. To succeed at anything of worth, you need patience and dedication - skateboarding is no different.
I’m now 36, and, as I’ve aged my adventures as a skateboarder have continued. While tricks come and go (and are what pushes the sport forward) for the most part, it’s the feeling of fluidly moving through time and space that spurs a skateboarder on, and the drive for that feeling doesn’t leave you. Now it’s my turn to look out for the next generation passionately taking to their boards. After all, skateboarding is an extension of play and of that, I shall never tire.
Enjoy skateboarding, or still hanker after giving it a go? Let us know your thoughts below.
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