I’m going through the entire Epicly Later’d playlist, watching those legendary skaters talk about their careers. it gives me a lot of perspective and teenage-me was right to think that there might be a lot of smoke and screen in that industry. The Ed Templeton story is quite amazing.
There was something that I didn’t understand growing up looking at magazines and watching 411 videos. I didn’t understand the need to try so hard something crazy like crooked grind over a 10 stairs handrail. I couldn’t believe that those teenagers or kids were so good on a skateboard. They couldn’t possibly go to school and do chores and skate like that. Something had to give. Europe is different.
After living for years in America, I certainly get it now.
I get the hunger. The anger. The violence. The brutality of the environment. The “fuck it, let’s try this”. The absence of parents or their encouragement (I had neither). The desperation. The No Future looming. The Now being everything. Let’s skate. Let’s push. Let’s push harder. Faster. Imma land this. I might bust my ass multiple times, but I’m going to do this and it’s going to be dope.
I’ve been cruising the street I live on everyday in the past month. I feel good. Things are horribly wrong around but I keep pushing. We’ll pass a million dead from covid-19 in a few. I want to go faster. I push more. Sometimes it’s scary. My wheel hits a rock, I go flying and realize that I was going pretty fast because I’m running hard to not slam the ground. I go back at it.
Somehow I’m way less afraid than I was before. I tried or landed things I wouldn’t have at 19 and living in suburban Paris. America and its flat concrete sidewalks are trying me and I accept the challenge.
I’ve magically made some weird body, ankle stiffness slowly go away the more I ride. I want to skate more. I need to skate more. It just feels right.