\u201cWhy not tennis?\u201d I\u2019m asked, \u201cor golf? Why does it have to be skateboarding?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Skateboarding is obviously silly. Four wheels, a piece of wood, \u201ctricks\u201d.<\/p>\n
There’s nothing serious about it. It’s ridiculous.<\/p>\n
And yet if you don\u2019t take it seriously, it will hurt you.<\/p>\n
If you’re distracted while skating, you will get hurt. If you hesitate while skating, you will get hurt.<\/p>\n
Skateboarding is a joke that requires absolute mental and physical focus.<\/p>\n
Utter seriousness in the midst of absurdity.<\/p>\n
So: Why do it?<\/p>\n
Because life is some really stupid shit.<\/p>\n
No one chooses where they are born or into what body. Bad things happen to good people. It all goes to shit<\/a>.<\/p>\n You\u2019d be a fool to think it\u2019s all meant to be \u2013\u00a0that anyone deserves their fortune in life.<\/p>\n What skateboarding requires, then, is what life rewards: being carefree and determined;<\/a> both\u00a0vulnerable and unafraid.<\/p>\n You must invite your own pain into your life; treat it with curiosity instead of fear.\u00a0<\/p>\n Because you<\/em><\/strong> are always what’s standing in the way of growth.<\/p>\n To learn a new trick you must feel pain.<\/p>\n Over and over again, in new ways. Until you’ve traced the contours of the unknown gesture with your own sweat and blood.<\/p>\n Until you’ve isolated the part of you that has to move in a new way. Change your shadow.<\/p>\n To learn is to to expect pain with open arms.<\/p>\n The SLAM!<\/p>\n There you are, old friend! Now we can begin.<\/p>\n The injury to your body, to your ego, reminds you of what the rules of the game are:<\/p>\n You are nothing. The skateboard is all. (The play’s the thing.)<\/p>\n No matter your achievements, your status, your gifts: when you skate, you must<\/strong> fall.<\/p>\n If you don’t fall, you’re not trying. You’re faking it.<\/p>\n Only once you’ve fallen, can you do it with grace.<\/p>\n Every failed attempt succeeds in whittling your consciousness down to size: you are nothing!<\/p>\n Until your ego is small enough to become part of the board.<\/p>\n Until your self disappears.<\/p>\n History is not linear, progress may be a myth. We don’t know. The center cannot hold, yadda yadda yadda.\u00a0<\/p>\n But here’s something I do know. Learning new tricks is a surefire way to keep falling fun and new tricks is a fun way to keep moving forward, in ever widening gyres.<\/p>\n To grow older, at least. With grace.<\/p>\n In those moments when you succeed at a new trick, you have transferred your will to a tool. A chisel or paintbrush that draws only in time and space<\/a>.<\/p>\n Skateboarding leaves no worthy artifacts. On the contrary, it removes rather than adds; scrapes, grind marks, scratches.<\/p>\n But like any discipline, skating is ultimately not about mastering the tool but mastering the self.<\/p>\n The more successful the artist, the deeper they have prostrated themselves before their craft.<\/p>\n You cannot win at skateboarding. You will always lose<\/a>.<\/p>\n