Speaking Out Loud

For over sixteen years I have been a victim of love, a slave to the grind. It still amazes me how much skateboarding has influenced my life.

I’m old, lazy, fat and in love…with skateboarding. For over sixteen years I have been a victim of love, a slave to the grind. It still amazes me how much skateboarding has influenced my life. I was a complete pinhead, an absolute dork before I saw my first Thrasher. I had no style, no confidence and no friends. My days were spent in jealous limbo, wanting to fit in somewhere, somehow with someone. I hated school and I especially hated the people there. The jocks were brutally ignorant, the hessians were useless, and the geeks were lifeless, yet, I still wished I could be a part of their little worlds. Then came skateboarding.

I still remember my first Thrasher. I specifically remember the Jeff Phillips board ad on the back cover. I wanted that board so bad that it still hurts to think about it. My eyes were opened and, more importantly, my heart was opened. I had found something to love. I had a reason to get up, get out of the house and go do something, to meet new people and to make new friends. I had a new sense of determination, a burning desire to be good at something, at skateboarding. My attitude quickly changed. I had an outlet for all of my frustrations, a new way to express myself and most importantly, people to hang with. I had friends.

Skateboarding gave me confidence. It gave me a sense of destination and a desire to get there. It took me away from the things that I so badly hated, figuratively and literally. It opened up the world I know today, the endless possibilities, the understanding that with perseverance and determination any goal can be accomplished. I learned the value of hard work and the pain that sometimes comes along with it. That sometimes the heart and soul are the only things that will get you through the tough times. That the belief in yourself is ultimately what makes a man or woman, what makes a true skateboarder.

I hope that with the massive influx and popularity of skateboarding today, that the youth who skate will come away with a even a portion of what I learned. I want to know that the future president or police chief was a skateboarder. I want our future leaders to be open minded, caring, dutiful and ballsy. I want to know that the youth of today will have the experience ,confidence and self respect that only skateboarding can provide. I want to know that when I am older, lazier, fatter and as in love with skateboarding as I am now, that someone will be around to wipe my ass.

Then again as I always say, “want in one hand, shit in the other….see which one fills up first.”

Also check out Barfly’s two cents for more opinion.