A skateboard is so many things. It is freedom. It is transportation. It is a lifestyle, and it is a friend-maker. If you start skateboarding young, it will define you. And if you start later in life it will save you from walking to the corner store at 2AM. I have been skating (poorly) since I was 10 or 11 and I have had at least one setup with me at all times for the past 24 years. My cub scout troop had skate merit badges. I used it to get to my first job when I was 13. I have fended off bullies with it, and I have moved multiple apartments and houses with it as a dolly. Every time I had an old beater car that I wasn’t sure about I kept a skateboard in the trunk so I could always get home. I owned my own skate shop in my 20’s and I sure as hell couldn’t have done that without being a skater at heart. Now I use it to grab a midnight snack for my pregnant wife. My house would not be the same without a skateboard propped up in one corner and though I will never be pro or am or even very good, I will still always consider skateboarding to be a part of my life and part of my culture, and I can’t wait to see my future daughter taking her first cruise/spill on Daddy’s board. Now, what else can you ask for this Christmas that costs less than $150 that will do all of this for you?
I didn’t set out to write this today, but I was inspired by a video I saw and it reminded me of a good chunk of my life. Kids, if you aren’t having a party with all of your creative friends who do art, music, skate, poetry, graffiti, dj, etc. in a weird place on a semester basis…you are not living.
Leeside Skateboard Mayhem from Zenga Bros on Vimeo.
