Skateboarding Is... September

This hiatus of mine has been a long, painful one, filled with many ideas and little time to think them through, much less cement them into a post. Many a time, ideas have begun to manifest, only to putter to an abrupt halt, cast into the purgatory that is my "drafts" folder: while discussing this with Brad yesterday evening, he claimed the above to be a blue-faced statement, but I assure all of you that this is not the case. Some of you may recall that I ensured a particularly special post upon my prodigal return, but said post is suffering some logistical setbacks, so in the meantime I hope my offer of one of my regular features will satiate you all for the time being.

Skateboarding is... Versatility

Also Barrel-Jumping... kinda

In and of itself, skateboarding is something of a niche activity, even in light of being more or less accepted in modern society, and within the niche that is the activity we all adore, there are several other subcategories, so to speak. We, as skateboarders, have all come across them, and many of us have made a point subscribe ourselves to one or another: be it street, vert, mini, freestyle, downhill, slalom, or even longboarding, ours is an activity that seemingly thrives on the idea of specialization within a particular field.

Why, then, if this is the case, am I sitting here right now claiming the exact opposite? Well, because while, yes, on the one hand most skaters make a point of finding one specialized area and honing their skills within it, skateboarding by its very nature demands of its purveyors an inherent versatility.

From a more macro standpoint, it can be argued that skateboarding is greater than the sum of its parts. That is to say, one reason that skateboarding has flourished the way it has, especially lately, is because of the fact that, past the act of riding a skateboard, every other aspect of skateboarding is defined by the individual doing it. In many ways, a skateboard is the most versatile mode of transportation ever conceived; every microcosmic sect under the blanket term of "skateboarding" is a testament to the fact that skateboarding thrives on versatility through individuality.

From an individual standpoint, this is most essentially personified in one's ability to adapt to different terrain. Now, while I could take this opportunity to extol the virtues of being well-rounded in every discipline, or wax poetic about what Jake Phelps recently dubbed the "Round-wall Renaissance", I'll see fit to avoid doing so, because at the end of the day, not everyone wishes to play jack-of-all-trades. Yes, being able to skate handrails and pools equally well certainly epitomizes the idea of versatility, but in that same breath, no two handrails are alike, any more so than any two pools are alike. Every piece of skateable terrain, whether made for skateboarding or not, is inherently unique; such is the beauty of human fallibility. Every crack, every kink, every millimetre difference in measurement provides a unique challenge. Even the act of skating down a different stretch of sidewalk than one's normal path can prove a new adventure, a new exercise for the mind and body. It is the ability to adapt to these variables, to conquer the new and unknown, that not only separates the good skaters from the great ones, but has also been the defining point of skateboarding for its entire existence.

In the end, the whole thing seems like an elementary exercise in basic logic: If a skateboard is a versatile object, and skateboarders are versatile people, then by all accounts...

Skateboarding is... Versatility.

The Eternal Variable

When considering what to write about for the Monday's post, part of me wanted to assume that there were going to be hoards of skate bloggers out there who were no doubt going to recap this weekend's X-Games, and that perhaps ESPN's annual Hawk and pony show would, by the time this post goes live, be flogged to death worse than crailslides were in the mid 2000s. Then, of course, the thought occurred to me that "wait a minute, this is the X-Games... No one is going to blog about them because no one cares enough to watch them anymore!" To be fair, I stopped watching the X-Games on TV probably about five or six years ago. When I was younger, I remember being upset because TSN (Canada's equivalent to ESPN, for those of you not living here) would never show the street contests on TV. I mean, yes, vert was cool to watch, but at that point I didn't skate transitions, and street was my deal. Eventually, I got tired of being disappointed by one of the two or three Canadian simulcasts of the contest being motocross, BMX, or Rally Racing, and truth be

"Street" Obstacle, 2010.

told, even if I had the opportunity to watch skating, I found the vert and big air contests had become formulaic (whoever does the most rotations wins), and the street contests were predicable and boring, with horrendous layouts that looked like neither street nor skatepark, but rather some manner of oversized modern art gallery. Like most skaters, I scoffed at the redundancy of the contest, and if I really wanted to watch the footage, I knew it would be online in a matter of days.

Street obstacle, 2011.

Oddly enough, something broke me this year. Something within me compelled me to set me PVR to record whatever X-Games coverage was being simulcast up north, without having any knowledge of what said coverage would be, and proceed to watch it at my nearest possible convenience. Truth be told, I think a large part of it had to do with this year's frankly astonishing street course, though I believe a lot of it could be attributed to the fact that in the last few years, someone slapped ESPN good and hard. Perhaps it was on account of the whole cancelling vert debacle a few years back, though I can only really speculate. Point is, it seems as if the coordinators of the X-Games may have finally realized that, in spite of their admittedly impressive seventeen year tenure as an annual multi-discipline contest, and in spite of making for a good payday for the competitors, the contest had become the butt of ninety-eight percent of the jokes told by its bread and butter, skateboarders (the other two percent consisting of Jeremey Rogers jokes).

Of the four days and plethora of different events that made up this year's contest, for some reason TSN only allotted two hours of coverage on Friday and two on Sunday, meaning that of the four days and plethora of events, Canadian TV coverage was made up of two hours of skate street preliminaries, and two hours of rally racing finals. Needless to say I forwent the rally cars. The street prelims were held on the Friday, though in a house with six people and fewer TVs, the PVR proved to be a godsend.

Saturday morning I made a point to wake up early enough to watch the street prelims before the TV would be commandeered in the name of sports to which I hold no interest, only to have something very interesting happen. As I was in the midst of watching the end of the third of four heats, my dad walks into the room to take care of a few things for work. As I was preparing myself to turn over the remote control, I hear a comment from my dad about Ryan Decenzo:

"Hey, he looks kinda like you!"

"Yeah, I guess. Maybe it's because he's Canadian. He's in first right now."

"No kidding! Good for him!"

As the fourth and final heat carried out on TV, I found my dad making more and more comments about what he saw:

"Aw, man, that was cool." (In response to a number of David Gravette's more unconventional tricks).

"Huh. So he is human." (After seeing Nyjah Huston miss a trick).

Being the only person in my immediate family to ever have any real interest in skateboarding, it was strange to be sitting, having that kind of a moment with the same man who, as I was a young teenager, assured me that I would eventually stop skating. I talked about the whole experience with Deanna over the weekend, and it got me thinking; maybe there's a reason that, even though the X-Games have had a history of being maligned by skateboarders, they have managed to persevere for nearly two decades now. Maybe the secret to the X-Games' success lies in their ability to make the sports it covers relative to those who don't actually participate in them.

Tony Hawk RIDE tried, but couldn't hack it...

I can understand why most skaters would rally against such a thing, and I may take a modicum of flack for saying this, but I, for one, see no problem in being able to try and share skateboarding with non-skaters. If the coordinators of the X-Games have somehow figured out a way to make a televised skateboarding event that people who don't skate can watch, and relate to, than I, for one, am all for the idea of skaters being able to sit down in front of the TV for four days in July with their families, friends, and significant others, and have a moment in which the joys of the activity they love can, to a degree, be shared with the people around them. Provided the contest coordinators continue their recent trend of listening to actual skateboarders before making decisions (cancellation of women's vert notwithstanding), the future looks surprisingly bright, and I will set my PVR to record the contest next year, in the hopes that I will be treated to some more actual skateboarding, anyway.

The Spacewalking Dead, or An Ode to the Approaching Freestyle Apocalypse

North America: in spite of half of the continent being founded on the want of freedom of choice and a puritanical value set, said continent is, on a whole, more or less the global bastion of conformity and decadence. Skateboarders have always prided themselves in their countercultural spirit, with countless skaters rejecting the status quo, dressing different than the preppy, popular jocks at their high school, or being content to live in squalor as long as they have their skateboard. Clearly the skateboarding population of North America is a shining example of all the good things that all the unwatched masses within the allegorical cave are not.

The above is a paragraph that I wish I could have typed out with a straight face and lack of ironic sarcasm.

Dressing "Like a Skater" circa 1987: I'm pretty sure murder will brand you and instant "poser"

Dressing "Like a Skater" circa 2008: Do you think she watched the Pool Party?

I love skateboarding, I love my country (the one to the north, whose colonization was based less on religious freedom and more on making a quick buck off beaver pelts... funny thing, that role-reversal), and I will admit, as I just did, that the continent on a whole revolves around following trends and living in excess. That being said, I cannot help but humbly disagree with all the adolescent ideologues out there who believe that North American skaters are any different than anyone else on this particular landmass in either respect. How else might one explain the fact that, for decades, skaters who didn't dress "like skaters" were branded as posers? This trend seems to have finally dissipated, though, as the entire world's youth now dress "like skaters", diving into either their local Hot Topic or Hip Hop surplus and crawling out three hundred dollars later with outfits that look like they cost twenty five bucks at a goodwill. Further, if popular skateboarding isn't full of excess and trendiness, than how does one explain how modern street skating has divulged into either a game of chicken with one's own kneecaps, or an exercise in cramming as many maneuvers onto a single ledge as humanly possible? I'm all for progression, but this is ridiculous.

Skateboarders on this side of the pond are, by and large, just as trend-conscious and excessive as all the other sheeple they so adamantly claim to reject. This is why Vertical and Freestyle died as soon as the big ball dropped in Times Square in 1990. At least, this is why they died, in North America.

Above: A Rodney Mullen Trick

If nothing else, Europeans can claim that their value of art is far superior to any and every North American. It's not surprising, then, that it was in Europe that Freestyle managed to stay stable, albeit still on life support. While it took until the year 2002 for Freestyle skating to again see the light of day over here, it seems to have been largely relegated to a passing affection; thirteen-year-olds learning some "Rodney Mullen tricks" to best their friends in games of S-K-A-T-E until their legs grow strong enough for them to learn frontside flips. In Europe, however, Freestyle maneuvers were nurtured and cultivated. Contests were held, videos were made, and pros released models. It would seem that, in North America, Freestyle was cast aside, except for the parts that could be used to throw oneself down a flight of stairs, deemed as useless for lack of an ability to fuel North American skaters' addictions for excessive speed, while in Europe, the skill and artistry of freestyle was nurtured as just that. It is for reasons like this that it was Spain, and not the united States, that gave the world Kilian Martin.

I had watched Kilian's videos several months back, and was plainly amazed by them, but it was not until recently, when a friend favourited A Skate Regeneration on her youtube page that the thought occured to me to say anything about him. The above mentioned, and shared, video seems a perfect example of an avenue of skateboarding that has been ill-examined. In a world where Aaron Homoki is launching himself down two-story drops and Tory Pudwill seems content doing no less than two different grind variations at once, the question that is posed more often than ever is "where do we go from here?". Kilian Martin's admittedly unique brand of skateboarding acts as a welcome answer to this quandary. In the smattering of footage that the twenty-four year old Madrid native has shared one can see a world of opportunities for any street skater with a good sense of balance, an open mind, and undoubtedly a world of patience.

Parting Shot: Gonz doing a Rodney Mullen Trick

To all the skaters out there reading this blog: the next time you're out street skating, and you find yourself at an impasse in terms of what to try next, pull out your undoubtedly internet-ready phone and find some old freestyle parts. I mean, it worked for the Gonz, right?