Doing it Wrong

I've always found it interesting that skateboarding, of all the activities out there, hasn't generated much writing dedicated to it. In comparison to golf or fishing or even handball, it seems skateboarders don't spend much time reading or writing about the activity (I don't know what else to call it, by the way, though if forced to choose I'd say art before I'd say sport, that's for sure). Sure there are magazines, but the best ones have kinda let the pictures do the talking and have noticeably avoided philosophizing about it over  the years. The general absence of well-respected books and the like on skateboarding is especially interesting considering that so many skaters are hyper-talented in all the artistic areas peripheral to skating itself. Music, photography, graphic arts, video, not to mention working with wood and concrete to create unbelievable skate terrain (plus the creative energy that goes into skating itself) are all omni-present among skaters, yet writing about skating or even talking about it (you dropped a name, asshole!) seems to be almost looked down upon. It's kinda weird.

It certainly isn't that skating doesn't mean anything to its participants. If anything, I'd say skating means so much to us that we feel almost helplessly incapable of describing it to anyone, especially people who don't skate themselves. I mean, what's the point? Like I always say, the beauty of skating in every respect is that you have to do it. And in that regard, skating is so individually significant that you really can't generalize about its meaning to people--even other skaters--beyond the obvious anyway... it's fun, for instance. Gee, thanks for the insight. Maybe that's what's so different about skating. You can write books about flyfishing or bowling--in fact maybe you have to write books about them--because actually doing them is so fucking boring.

Not so with skating. One way or another, skating defies precise articulation. At its essence, I hope that's because there really are no rules about how it should or should not be done. When I do see writing about skating anymore, it sure seems heavily geared toward the opinions of barneys who don't really skate but who seem to want to tell everyone who does that they're doing it wrong. Fuck those dudes. Nevertheless, in an ideal skate world, even their lame asses and advice on how to properly execute "maneuvers" would be welcome. That is, as long as they're actually skating and not talking--let alone writing--about it.