We hear the hard wheels rolling down the street near Dunsmir park in Downtown Vancouver and naturally, both being skateboarders, look where the sound is coming from. The tail cracks, the boy jumps and the young man to my right lets out a quick bout of laughter as the guy manages to fail ollieing up the small curb placed in front of him on this mild summer night. "What a douche" he exclaims. "Excuse me?" I say with a rather protective and defensive tone, "at least hes' trying." I look back down to the longboard on my lap that managed to survive a full days worth of verbal abuse and think to myself..."fuuuck. why do these motherfuckers have to hate so hard!?." Keeping my fingers busy with the pile of green leaves on its surface, I continue conversation.
Its been a long day. I have been at work, he has been skating and we are tired from the activities presented to us through out the day. Many subjects are being spoken freely and with him still trying to check his ego from undoubted success at Vancouvers massive and heavily stacked edition of Go Skateboarding Day, I can tell that his shitty attitude towards your everyday, no talent skater and my longboard is nothing other than influence from other shitty attitudes he is forced to be around all year as a very talented rider in one of the biggest skateboarding cities in the world. I tell you, that fucking hater influence...it is such a shame for a fine young man to be a part of, but worry not my friends, the story gets better.
The evening before, he has gotten his first taste of what I do with his own eyes after watching and being amazed at the speed of bombing this 'gnarly hill' which in anyone of our opinions would be considered childs play. Sure, its full of some cracks and bumps...but after trying to explain to him that people, myself included, bomb entire highways multiple kilometers/miles long that rough- he is having a hard time grasping his head around my choice of activity. It is now a full day later and within the consistant (yet joking tone) of hate I saw all day, my patience pays off and I am finally starting to see little shimmers of light in his eye as he cautiously continues asking questions about my board, technique, and what the fuck a tuck is anyways. I answer every question with a question back to him, aimed at helping him break free from the influence of his peers and make up his own mind about what he thinks is fun.
"Where did you get that skate and enjoy sticker anyways?" He gestures to the bottom of my deck where a black sticker in the same writing as the infamous 'skate and destroy' is placed and with a smile on my face and a true adoration for the sticker and story behind it I say, "Oh, a couple buddies of mine that live in Portland made them, aren't they sweet?" He peers into the sky and with no eye contact says, "Are they longboarders?" "Well..." I say, slightly huming and hawing about how to appropriately answer this question, "They are skateboarders that are known to slay a longboard on occasion." He lets out a chuckle and I know that I have said the right thing. I look up from the ground and see a cyclist in the distance. Pointing at a stereotypical fixed gear rider hauling down the street, I give my board a tap. "It could be worse, bud" I say. "I could be one of those hipsters on a bike!" "Yeah, but bikes are fun" he quickly exclaims back. "So is my longboard." I wink and with a chuckle from both of us, we both know I have just won an argument.
The tail of the unknown skaters board cracks again, its probably only 5 minutes later and our conversation has finally cooled down enough to be able to hear the sounds of our surroundings once again. It cracks again. And again. And then what do you know...again. We both know that in the last few seconds where we have heard alot of skateboard, absolutley nothing has been landed successful. Thats when it happend, I finally heard something I knew I was going to hear, I just didn't think it would be so soon.
"Look at that guy! He's stoked. He's so stoked to be riding a skateboard that he waits until the middle of the night when noone is around to finally come out. I bet he's too scared to go to the plaza. I can't believe it. There are so many haters in Vancouver. 3 days ago I would have hated on this guy so hard for even attempting to skateboard, simply because of the shitty Vancouver attitude and now Im just stoked."
I look at him with a look I can't quite discribe, and I know that he finally has the vibe that I have been trying to pass along to his young, impressionable mind. With a couple carefully placed words and encouragement to do whatever he thinks is right I put out the offer to set him up with a downhill board and anything else he needs to join me in some longboarding fun one day, no strings attatched. I know he will be capable of riding any hill I place him on, so I let him know that and give him some gruesome examples of what the safetly equiptment is for to further peak his interest and curb his resistance to gloves and other protection. Bashfully accepting the offer, I light a match that was in my pocket and we move on to other conversation.
I haven't been around online much and I know that, so once again I appreciate all you followers that have managed to stick around despite my ability to dissapear. But with that being said, although I haven't been working hard on here, I have been working hard where it matters and seeing a smile on that boys face yesterday was a true example of my effect on others in a situation with so much outside influence of hate. Vancouver has a shitty diaper on all these babies and I'd like to think that slowly but surely I, and all the companies that support me are starting to get seen in a better light regarding all this 'wrongboarding' that we are in to. Im looking forward to my future of sharing everything possible on a skateboard with everyone possible that I can get to listen.
Its been a long day. I have been at work, he has been skating and we are tired from the activities presented to us through out the day. Many subjects are being spoken freely and with him still trying to check his ego from undoubted success at Vancouvers massive and heavily stacked edition of Go Skateboarding Day, I can tell that his shitty attitude towards your everyday, no talent skater and my longboard is nothing other than influence from other shitty attitudes he is forced to be around all year as a very talented rider in one of the biggest skateboarding cities in the world. I tell you, that fucking hater influence...it is such a shame for a fine young man to be a part of, but worry not my friends, the story gets better.
The evening before, he has gotten his first taste of what I do with his own eyes after watching and being amazed at the speed of bombing this 'gnarly hill' which in anyone of our opinions would be considered childs play. Sure, its full of some cracks and bumps...but after trying to explain to him that people, myself included, bomb entire highways multiple kilometers/miles long that rough- he is having a hard time grasping his head around my choice of activity. It is now a full day later and within the consistant (yet joking tone) of hate I saw all day, my patience pays off and I am finally starting to see little shimmers of light in his eye as he cautiously continues asking questions about my board, technique, and what the fuck a tuck is anyways. I answer every question with a question back to him, aimed at helping him break free from the influence of his peers and make up his own mind about what he thinks is fun.
"Where did you get that skate and enjoy sticker anyways?" He gestures to the bottom of my deck where a black sticker in the same writing as the infamous 'skate and destroy' is placed and with a smile on my face and a true adoration for the sticker and story behind it I say, "Oh, a couple buddies of mine that live in Portland made them, aren't they sweet?" He peers into the sky and with no eye contact says, "Are they longboarders?" "Well..." I say, slightly huming and hawing about how to appropriately answer this question, "They are skateboarders that are known to slay a longboard on occasion." He lets out a chuckle and I know that I have said the right thing. I look up from the ground and see a cyclist in the distance. Pointing at a stereotypical fixed gear rider hauling down the street, I give my board a tap. "It could be worse, bud" I say. "I could be one of those hipsters on a bike!" "Yeah, but bikes are fun" he quickly exclaims back. "So is my longboard." I wink and with a chuckle from both of us, we both know I have just won an argument.
The tail of the unknown skaters board cracks again, its probably only 5 minutes later and our conversation has finally cooled down enough to be able to hear the sounds of our surroundings once again. It cracks again. And again. And then what do you know...again. We both know that in the last few seconds where we have heard alot of skateboard, absolutley nothing has been landed successful. Thats when it happend, I finally heard something I knew I was going to hear, I just didn't think it would be so soon.
"Look at that guy! He's stoked. He's so stoked to be riding a skateboard that he waits until the middle of the night when noone is around to finally come out. I bet he's too scared to go to the plaza. I can't believe it. There are so many haters in Vancouver. 3 days ago I would have hated on this guy so hard for even attempting to skateboard, simply because of the shitty Vancouver attitude and now Im just stoked."
I look at him with a look I can't quite discribe, and I know that he finally has the vibe that I have been trying to pass along to his young, impressionable mind. With a couple carefully placed words and encouragement to do whatever he thinks is right I put out the offer to set him up with a downhill board and anything else he needs to join me in some longboarding fun one day, no strings attatched. I know he will be capable of riding any hill I place him on, so I let him know that and give him some gruesome examples of what the safetly equiptment is for to further peak his interest and curb his resistance to gloves and other protection. Bashfully accepting the offer, I light a match that was in my pocket and we move on to other conversation.
I haven't been around online much and I know that, so once again I appreciate all you followers that have managed to stick around despite my ability to dissapear. But with that being said, although I haven't been working hard on here, I have been working hard where it matters and seeing a smile on that boys face yesterday was a true example of my effect on others in a situation with so much outside influence of hate. Vancouver has a shitty diaper on all these babies and I'd like to think that slowly but surely I, and all the companies that support me are starting to get seen in a better light regarding all this 'wrongboarding' that we are in to. Im looking forward to my future of sharing everything possible on a skateboard with everyone possible that I can get to listen.
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