Can You Kickflip, Dude?

When a typical jock finds out you skateboard you are asked one of two questions: "How high can you ollie", or "Can you kickflip?" They come from a world where you are measured by how many goals you've score, how much you can bench press, and how far can you throw an inflated object so it's not very surprising that they would ask such a question.

i usually just shake my head and walk away. There is no right answer to these questions. Just getting into the dialog with them is lowering all that skateboarding means to me down to some competitive level.

Skateboarding has been going through some real growing pains over the last decade or so. It has gone from something so frowned upon in the late 90's that many skaters from the 80's stopped participating to a global phenomena with televised X-Games, media coverage of larger than life stunts, and everyone skating in video games.

This has been good and bad. Skateboarding paraphanelia has become much easier to get, professionals are able to make a very comfortable living, and skaters are not treated quite as badly as during previous busts in skateboarding's ever varying waves of public acceptance. On the other hand, however, every tool in school now knows the names of tricks from playing Tony Hawk video games and a percentage of 'soccer moms' are now becoming 'skate moms' cheering their spoiled kids on at the local skatepark. i think i've even heard mention of skateboarding in the Olympics... now there's a way to kill the art form.

That's right, i said art form. To me skateboarding is an art, NOT A SPORT. It's about expression, escape, and all those other great 'E' words that we use when describing artistic pursuits. That is why what happened yesterday bothered me so.

Yesterday a teenage skater asked me if i skated. "Yes" i replied. Then it happened. "Can you kickflip?" i didn't know what to do. This is a jock conversation coming out of a new genre of skateboarders. i didn't want to just walk away because he clearly rides a skateboard and i am from the day and age where all skaters were brothers, but he clearly has a mainstream jock approach to the activity. My quick, panicked response was "maybe we'll see sometime down at the park" as i walked away. A knee-jerk response from a combination of my usual reactions: walk away from jocks, a 'hope to see you at the park' to skaters.

Skateboarding has seen many schisms over the years: new school vs. old school, purists vs. techies, street vs. vert, freestyle vs. everything else. Could we be seeing a new schism: art vs. sport?

Over the last 24 hours i have finally found some peace in a Lance Mountain quote i heard some years ago. (paraphrasing as i can't remember the exact words) Getting on a skateboard doesn't make you a skater, it's the inability to get off the skateboard that does.

i can't get off the board. i'm getting older, don't get back up as quickly, and seem to be losing skill level more every year. But i still can't stop riding and thinking about skateboarding. i realized that skateboarding will go through many more ebbs and flows (probably none as bad as in the 90's) and us skaters will still be here. Eventually the fat will be trimmed, and isn't it a small price to pay for the temporary perks we are now seeing?