Supposeta.
It’s the jump-off mash-up past participle of the new age, and the whole of skateboarding hinges on it. Or it’s supposed to, anyway.
Ed’s not supposed to be number one, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t. Photo: Tobin Yelland
No one’s supposed to skateboard. That’s what’s brought us our best. From the freaks to the creators to the dickheads, they’re all supposed to be making the grade, plying their trade, or selling insurance. Then they took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and signed on to these ranks of fuckups and former such-and-suches—the strictest followers of so many unwritten laws and principles.
And that’s how we do. Giving each other the kryptonic list of shouldas and couldas so we cannot do what we’re supposeta.
Don’t tell Wieger Van Wageningen what to do. He’ll go switch. Photo: Jon Humphries
But even that list is becoming regulation—people getting more worked up than ever about a jock, a job, a lost cause. It’s the catch-22 we’ve doomed ourselves to, but you have to love the feedback that comes from saying, “Don’t tell me what to do.” Because, of course, the next line reads: “Well then, I’m gonna do the exact opposite.” With stage directions and all.
Like the conservative’s son who grows up wanting to pay his taxes, shops will move to malls, people will push mongo, cool kids will skate vert, dudes will film artsy freestyle parts, and a million people will like it on Facebook.
It’s bullshit, but it’s the bed we’ve made and eventually a man gets tired, so sleep you princes of lame, you kings of the wasteland.
Neil Martin Blender bends a Davedrecht into the corner of Pipeline’s wasteland. Photo: Grant Brittain
But don’t thank the rest of the world (see how I did that?) for continuing to poke us in the chest. It’s their duty to tell us to stop, and hopefully we’ll always have them advising us to stay off the streets, out of the fountains, away from the steps and stairs, out of the pools, ditches, and drainage apparatus.
Strangely enough, if left to our own contrarian devices, we’d normalize the hell out of skateboarding just for the simple fact that we’re telling each other not to. And if that happens before things come full circle, everyone else and their mom will love us, hug us, and stop telling us what we’re supposeta, or rather, not supposeta. Then we’re in real trouble … or not in trouble … or something.
Rick Howard’s supposed to skate street and this is supposed to be a vert ramp … seems to be working out just fine. Photo: Michael Blabac
So when you get a chance, maybe you could sneak in, act out, throw up, and do your part to keep this thing called skateboarding headed in the wrong direction. Offward and downward.
I’m not telling you what to do, though.
Listen to Ed Templeton’s Pandemic Playlist.
