Skating Days - Leaps and Bounds

Skateboarding and surfing in Southern California is what you do I guess, even for a kid from the neighborhood. I was an average skateboarder at best. During college my inner challenge was to see how many steps I could jump. Architecture school can be brutal and sometimes isolating for a guy like me. I would spend my days out skating. It is an activity that you can do alone and it is the ultimate workout. In college I had these light spells of loneliness. I was a little older than the other students and relating was difficult for me. Now looking back, I think my inner attitudes repelled a lot of relationships but in some cases I felt I was in survival mode. I used sports and reading as my outlet. Below is a film cut of my skateboarding. It is fun for me to look at. Below that video is the real guys, the guys and gals that are putting it on the line.

Skateboarding is a lot like development. You start to jump and then you evolve and grow into more risky maneuvers. I started to get into the metal handrails but something clicked in me. It was my conservative voice. I am not a professional skateboarder, I am a student. To get badly injured when I was so close to completing my studies was counter to my mission.

….and now the big guys… I dabbled in many things, fortunately, I am an architect.

With all the intensity of the academic life, skateboarding helped me redefine what it means to be competitive. I realized that I am very competitive, but not in the traditional way where you require an opposition. In that world, if an enemy does not exist, you will go out and create one. I think that to be totally absurd. What skateboarding and surfing taught me is that rising up means to compete with yourself. You alone have to answer the challenge. You have to be real with yourself and you have to be willing to be vulnerable in your own mind. I just do not see things in that traditional oppositional way.

I also think that it is important to touch on many activities in your life. Do many things. Experience things. Do somethings poorly, be average at a few, and focus on doing one thing well and slowly becoming an expert at that.

I am glad to have had a good time with it. See below at the big time leaps and bounds. Pay the price. The Lyon 25 is a famous stair spot. I think one guy made it.