Hello all and welcome back to another installment of Grow Up. I think the term for our subject this month is gate keeping. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the term it means being anally protective of the things you are passionate about. This exists in pretty much any realm that can be an interest-music, art, sports and the list goes on to infinity. If we are honest with our selves we will find that most of us are really stingy with that key to our precious mutual interest-skateboarding.
I am a gate keeper and make no bones about it. I mean it’s literally the basis of me writing these entries. I sound off on what I feel is sacred in skating, and follow it up with some bitching about who and why is doing it is all wrong. It has not won me many friends, but honesty is a rare bedmate of adoration I’ve found. Jeff Grosso was a hero of mine both on and off the board. Maybe even more so for his commentary than his skating. You see Jeff knew how to guard a gate with his painfully short life. He never minced words and was brutally honest. Let’s go into why such actions are needed in skating.
Without our elder statesmen in skating we tend to lose some of what made us who we are. While I think growth in skating is necessary I also feel it needs a little pruning of its dead branches from time to time. Gate keeping when done correctly is a much needed evil. It’s good for us as a community, and maybe not so much for the person being put in check. Skating is one of the most incredible things you can experience, but without the proper nudging our dear skating can turn into a sports bar like event, and only a real jerk would want that.
Now let’s get to why these territorial pissings are also quite harmful. Recently we’ve seen a very large upswing in skating becoming far more inclusive to many outside of our previously male dominated pass time. I feel this is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen in skating, and it has made me quite proud to be involved. However, there have been some people who aren’t all too pleased with it. This is where gate keeping turns ugly my friends. Fragile masculinity can’t seem to handle that queer or female skateboarders are better than they could ever wish to be at skating, and probably a hell of a lot cooler to hang out with. This is a part of our past that is fucking garbage and needs to die. Have I made homophobic slurs and derogatory comments about female skaters in the past, absolutely. That is the joy of life, we can grow and realize we were pieces of shit. When you refuse to do so it becomes a choice to be an intolerant prick. This behavior belongs in locker rooms with MAGA supporters, not in skating. Skating has allowed me a safe haven away from all things horrible in life, and everyone else should be allowed the same privilege.
Allow me to wrap this up by saying anything that keeps us the haven for the weirdo that is trying to escape all of the trappings of normal society is needed. If you’re being a fucking jock then it is your peers job to tell you so. Skating and skateboarders are too good for that shit, and it is not welcomed by and large. It’s pretty easy actually, just go to any sporting event and don’t act like those guys. If you already do act like those guys skating will die again and so will your participation in it. You can set your watch by it, and ability doesn’t matter. I’ve seen plenty of people who rip that aren’t actual skateboarders. What I mean by that is their allegiance can be bought and sold by whatever flavor of the month activity is now accepted. Those clowns can beat it too as their friendship with you will last as long as their interest in skating. It’s our job to see them out as I’m fairly certain most skateboarders can smell their own. Before this gets read and it is brought up that I’m preaching acceptance while not accepting others; that is exactly what I’m doing. Certain people don’t belong here, and it’s the fuckers who were no where to be found before our current surge of popularity. I’m not worried though, when whatever new wank fest these dipshits join after skating I will be stoked to be rid of them. The upside to all this though is all of those who hopped on board this time around that love it will remain. The gate is always open to you, and I’m proud to call you one of us.
-Luke
I wasn’t really all that interested in what skateboarding looked like when I started. If you could do anything while on a skateboard, I thought it was the greatest thing my unexperienced eyes had ever seen. My awe blinded me and led me to believe a lot of people I hold in very high regard now, really sucked at skating. One painful example that I’m ashamed to admit is Dan Drehobl. Back in the early 90’s, in my youthful opinion, if you weren’t skating ledges in fresh gear, you were a kook. Which is funny for someone who thought he was way more open- minded than most. If given the chance to Switch Tre terribly or be able to kill anything put in front of me like Dan, I did what many kids do, chose poorly. Thankfully that all came to a quick halt when I began trying to skate transition and realized there is far more to skating than Switch Crooks and dope kicks.
Some of us are more of the gap/rail persuasion, tranny ripper, line/plaza/tech or creative weirdo and all things in between in what we favor seeing on board. All of it is great in my eyes, and with today’s park ATV ripper it is apparent that the single-discipline skater of yesterday may someday soon be a thing of the past. I’ve seen kids at the park destroy everything it had there in one day but—and here is the point I am trying to get at—have you ever noticed that when you watch the average person do a kickflip on flat ground it doesn’t quite strike the same, as say, Mike Carroll’s? Or when you see someone Indy a hip it is a far cry from Cardiel’s? There are many a Nollie Heel, but very few, if any, stand up to Tyshawn’s. I think we get the idea; it isn’t what you do, but how you do it. This is the essence of what makes skateboarding beautiful to watch.
Granted, Style isn’t all finesse. Sometimes it’s the lack of it that makes for amazing shit. Watching someone hang on for dear life in a pool is just as impressive as the most effortless ledge skating. I’ve watched guys skate FDR so fast its anxiety inducing, and I’ve seen some the most spectacular ledge skating at MUNI one could ever hope to witness. Both are inspiring and remarkable. Neither are right, or wrong, but I do have a bone to pick with one element of Style I see frequently—the Imposter. We all know these folks, a light, beautiful push that often leads to an even more half-hearted endeavor. On behalf of everyone— you aren’t fooling anyone. Please be yourself, everyone else is taken.
I would be remiss if I didn’t tell my personal account of the day I learned how much Style affects skating. Spunk skatepark, in the summer of 1993, I sat in awe of two unknown kids from New York who consistently and effortlessly rifled off tricks that I’d (mostly) never seen in-person before. I didn’t know what to think. And do you know who those two then-unknown, life-altering New York kids were that permanently changed my perception of what I deemed to be impressive in skateboarding? Keenan Milton and Keith Hufnagle. Keenan could do everything as if he was barely trying, just flowing around doing whatever came to mind. Huf on the other hand made everything look a foot high bouncing all over the place at phenomenal speed. But something else set them apart from many other talented skaters I’d encountered: they were approachable and nice people. Style transcends physical talent alone; it’s also how you carry yourself. That interaction has stuck with me for thirty years. Even if they were dicks their skating may have still been other-worldly but would have left a completely different impact. I could give you a list the length your arm of people that thought their skating gave them the right to treat people like shit and ended up getting clowned in the end (I’m looking at you Berra, you fucking prick). There is a reason that everyone still fondly remembers Huf and Keenan, and it’s that their presence off-the-board was just as incredible as when they were on it.
I’m going to close this up with something one of the greatest style icons in history said about the subject, Julien Stranger. When asked about Style he basically said, the more you talk about it the dumber it sounds. The guy looks like he came rolling out of the womb with the ability to make the most basic things look prodigious. I think what he is trying to say is if you worry about style, you probably don’t have any. I’m not saying I do, but for all of the Ray Barbee’s, Ethan Fowler’s, Nate Jones, Marc Johnson’s, Andy Roy’s etc. thank you for giving me something to appreciate. -Luke
Many of you may not remember a time when being a skateboarder was the best way to make an entire community hate you, but I do. A lot of my contemporaries like to say this was when skating was still for “outlaws”, or something equally cringeworthy. Something to be known about a great deal of them however is as soon as the 80’s boom died so did their interest in being a skateboarder. We all go through our reason that we fade out of skating, but there are three main contenders’ that I saw time and again over thirty years.
First, is wanting to be accepted by others, generally to attain seeing them naked and doing the no-pants-dance with them. Second, is somewhat like the first only a lot less fun. As most of us begin skating at a young age we still have a case of the childhood "stupids" when it comes to thinking for ourselves. If skating is no longer accepted than you may have to really weather some pretty hurtful shunning to continue to do it, and a lot of people aren’t cut out for it. Third, would be the biggest deterrent, drugs and booze. You can fit into any circle and be accepted by doing these without the pain in the ass of falling and the effort it takes to skate. In all fairness, I was the biggest lush this side of anywhere, but mine unfortunately wasn’t to win friends. As I mentioned above if you’re going to go it alone into unpopular territory be prepared for your mental health to take a beating by everyone hating you for no apparent reason other than skating. What better way to accept the fact that everyone hates you than to drink it away?
The driving force of why I chose this topic was due to giving up my sanity due to my love of skateboarding, and it was worth it. It continues to bother me that there is a great deal of folks in skating that if it wasn’t plastered everywhere would be making fun of it with the rest of their mindless flock while skiing, mountain biking, dick whistling or whatever hot new bro pass time is deemed acceptable. I hold skating very near my heart as it has shaped who I am as a person in pretty much every facet imaginable. If you think that sounds corny you are who I’m writing about, and your opinion is more than likely insecurity that will hopefully wane with age. When skating loses its favor for javelin catching and ultimate French kissing some of you will still be here and I will look forward to us being friends.
All the city officials giving the camera the thumbs up at groundbreaking events for parks will be the very same faces you see signing the orders to doze them when Tony Hawk is no longer on Good Morning America. When that day comes you will know who your friends are as history tends to repeat itself. I take great pride in being a skateboarder and the struggle that got me here. I take it as an insult when I hear talk of the good ol’ days come from the mouths of those who ditched skating while the body was still warm. If you can still take yourself seriously with all that delusion, be my guest. Also keep spending money in the industry for your cute outfits, the money that actually feeds the skateboarders involved in your purchase is well earned and long overdue. This isn’t directed at those new to skating at any age, but more so the goons who act like they were here all along when skating and the industry needed their support, and they were nowhere to be found. You can see your way out to whatever UFC, wakeboarding extreme high-five fest is coming next, Judas. As for my fellow brethren of the board see you next month, and may your next push be your finest. -Luke
]]>