Is skateboarding done?
You may want to check your device, because while you were trying to live, something else came to pass. A video drop, a commercial, an inside joke just scrolled by, instantly replaced by its own damn momentum and, by all accounts, really and truly happened.
Straight outta Krypton. Frank Gerwer is the super man we’ve all been waiting for! Photo: Michael Blabac
It’s very tense, this past we’re living in, and when I tell you that it’s amazing, you just have to take my word for it, because—word is bond—all that’s said is done.
Word is (also) born.
But what about inspiration? What about plans? What about not knowing what’s next? Can it all be drowned out by the perfection of what’s been completed?
And if that’s true, how should we account for the so-called discovery of the past? Is it really new if it’s only new to us—this pre-owned vehicle of our future ideas?
Alexis Sablone boosts over the pre-owned vehicle of skateboarding’s future. Photo: Jon Coulthard
I kinda don’t want to know, to tell you the truth.
Not knowing what’s up is really what’s up. The uncertainty of the next push and the next pebble can never be over and those are the lives, I think, we’re trying to live.
Ifs and buts aside, knowing your past doesn’t merely mean you’ll know your future. But it can lead you in weird and cool directions armed with the knowledge of what to do when you get wheelbite or when your tail snaps off or when someone tries to shake your hand.
Jovantae Turner’s SF melon is just part of the deal. Photo: Tobin Yelland
Sitting there—or standing—your now would not exist without your past offenses, stumbles, and the bullshit stink of everything around you. But we can’t ever go back, and we never know when it’s all going to be done. The perfection in anything—these pasts, these futures, and this present—is not optional. It’s just part of the deal.
Skateboarding is happening and, hopefully, will continue to happen just as it’s left in its wake decades of awesome alongside decades of farts and barf and waste. I mean, it can’t all be new and good, right? If there’s to be anything original on the horizon, it’s also got to be completely fucked.
Something’s happening. Alan Peterson floats one for certain. Photo: Ben Colen
So get stoked, bro.
Get hyped, dude.
Something’s happening; that’s for certain. And because skateboarding is done (yeah, it’s done), our lives are steeped in the perfection of failure, excellence of mistakes, and the out-of-control precision of eating shit. Whatever happens, we’ll always be ready to roll no matter how awesome the world gets around us.
Listen to Frank Gerwer’s Songs To Shower To Playlist.
Hello my name is DONALD JAMES DIEDERICH