Thinkings
Frontside Friendship, Backside Spirituality
04:14
I spent too much of my university life rolling around the local skatepark. I think I probably should have got a lot more out of that part of my life, including better grades.
That university degree gave me the passport that allowed me to travel into the world of professionalism. You can't float through a career the same way I floated through uni, spending long days enjoying the reflected heat of the concrete onto my bare chest, with every intent of cramming late study, to make up grades in the final exam.
Work demands your constant and untiring promise to give your whole.
Nothing scares me more than falling into a life of quiet sadness and cliche. To rise too early, into clothes I don't like to rush to a place of little creativity to make money for another man, all on the agreement that I'll get a small share of that mans money that will allow me to buy the material things that will allow me to continue come back to that place and impress the other people caught in that same routine.
I took that small share of that mans money last week and spent it on the symbol of my university era freedom: a four wheeled device with no tyres, that's colourful and garish to the point of being hideous. Its pastel and childish and not at all the sort of thing 28 year old engineers should spend money on.
A skate board is such a powerful thing.
It means so much and such different things to different people. This is what it seems to me.
From a distance, a skatepark is a terrifying place. Youths in poorly fitted clothes listen to awful niche music, they wear damaged shoes and damaged bodies with pride. Boys and girls from 12 to 20 roll around with what seems nothing but the intent to hurt themselves. They are an age of invincibility, self surrender and questioning of others.
Step a little closer
Compared to the other houses of fraternity, like a surf break or a sports field, a skatepark is a place of honest and open companionship. In my experience, these houses of ideals of camaraderie offer an illusion; Surfers protect their waves at the expense of non locals and sports clubs often take their inter team rivalry well them beyond the field. I've never visited a skatepark where people didn't answer to a hello with a warm smile and some banter.
The experienced riders teach the novice about the flow of the park, the etiquette, techniques to help their tricks and suggestions of things that might be exciting to try. A big fall results in a communal whistle as everyone pulls in breath during that moment of concern...then pause..then inevitably "You ok mate?". A big trick gets a communal holler followed by the sound of wood on concrete as boards are tapped to ground in what would be the skaters ovation. And not just the best tricks, but the best tricks for each person. The community takes enough interest to see that every person has their own everest.
An afternoon in a skatepark will give you real friends. Friends that share your joy, your pain, that will listen and learn and in turn teach, that will care.
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| Frontside flip over the Nedlands skatepark hip - Skater unknown |
The second glory of skateboarding for me is a spiritual one. It is thing I coveted once upon a time and most yearned for in my absence from riding a board. It is not specific to a skateboard, I have found it skiing, mountain biking, running and even sailing.
In Turkey, I joined a natural escape and trained in yoga. The end of every class was a meditation session. Meditation is skill, and one I most definitely do not possess. The quieter I sit, the more my internal monologue screams. I usually like to live my life at arms reach from that voice, but in sitting there, legs folded, there is no aural competition and my mind, first stretches, bends down and explodes from the runners starting blocks, into full sprint. The difference is that the finish is not clear and the lines are not marked, my thoughts wander like a drunkard. A lycra clad drunkard with a megaphone.
It's a fun exercise, one that does me good every so often. An eclectic chance to create dreams and make longer term plans, to recall old friends and to ponder what haircut will most suit me as I inevitably bald. This exercise however, does not take me to the higher plain that those experienced in meditation tell me about.
I find that skateboarding.
Eyes focus on the next feature, Mental focus is complete, The body moves in one smooth motion, filling in the preparation from one trick to the next. Skateboarding is a sport of finesse. Tiny changes to body position, angle of limbs and trajectories result in major changes to the result. Its a sport that really calls for the stars to align in every effort, every time. When it does, It isn't spectacular, it isn't grandiose, It's quite the opposite: It looks easy.
In that moment, I find quietness. I find tranquility, I find clarity.
When everything else is working so hard towards one goal amongst heat, endorphins, tiredness and strain, There is a room within the clock tower of the mind. A room with a light, white walls, a simple door and nothing else. A room of empty.
A place of Peace amongst the turning cogs.
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| Every Mans Everest. I spent about half and hour teaching this dad how to pump and carve to carry more speed |
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