sk8

x-sports
Skateboarding is hard.

Really hard.

It is one of those pursuits that allows humans to demonstrate insane skills.

Like:

Untethered high-lining (Dean Potter)


Proximity wingsuit flying (Halvor Angvik)


Triple corks on skis (Bobby Brown)


Quad corks on snowboards (Billy Morgan)


Big wave surfing (Garret McNamara)


Jumping into water (Laso Schaller, Dana Kunze)


Free soloing (Alex Honnold)

Skateboarding is very technical. The simplest trick is an Ollie. You basically just pop the board into the air using your feet. This is the basis for all street tricks. Unfortunately, mastering an Ollie takes a long time.

First you need to be comfortable riding your board. If you find balancing hard, try riding tight trucks. Once you get the hang of it, loosen them and enjoy the added sense of maneuverability. Now you can start to practice Ollies while stationary. Then while riding. Yes, you need to be patient.

Now, I thought that decades of snowboarding would help. Well, they do a little bit. Still took me some time to feel safe cruising. As a snowboarder, the unfamiliar freedom of being able to place your feet anywhere on the skateboard needed some time to understand (but this then turned out to really help my surfing!).

On a snowboard, I can pretty much do everything switch, also at high speeds. However, riding switch or fakie on a skateboard feels super uncomfortable. Yes, patience.

So, just to get the basics down takes ages. You can be skateboarding for quite some time and everything you do looks easy and unspectacular to bystanders.

Now imagine the level of skill you need to be able to do this:


Or this:


Or this:


Or this:


Or this:


Skateboarding is also hard because it is done on concrete or asphalt, with edges and corners looming everywhere. It is really intimidating to know that if you have to bail, you won't be landing in water or on snow.

For some insane reason there is an unwritten law, that dictates that street-style skateboarding is best executed without any kind of protection:

And don't search for "skateboard slam sessions" on YouTube.

So, why bother? Simple, it is just so much fun! Even the beginner parts;)

It is about a philosophy, an outlook on life.  A simple feeling, a state of being. Watch skate legend Rodney Mullen's TED talk. Or watch him perform at the age of 50:


Or listen to this geezer:


Or watch Tony Hawk reenacting his 900 at the age of 48:


And then there is vert and big-air skateboarding next to street...


For me, at 44, I just want to be able to cruise around town (meaning I need to be able to Ollie up a curb at some point) and learn to ride a bowl/mini ramp (i.e., frozen wave). All this while not getting hurt. The idea is to bridge snowboarding and surfing with skateboarding. It's about developing a new kind of intelligence in my feet and legs.

Still a long way to go:


My board has a wide deck, wide trucks, and soft wheels...