My Skate Origins Story
.by @d-pend
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Yo, what's goin' on? @d-pend here. I got excited finding out that a @steemskate community was just recently started, and figured that it'd be a good time to tell my #skateorigins story.
I grew up with one sibling: my little sister. But I was really close to my cousin who was the same age as me. He was always the daredevil, and I was more cautious. We would bike around these hills near the creek where I grew up and get into all kinds of shenanigans.
He was real into skating and always wanted me to learn. I remember him saying "Yo dude, you should skate goofy; lots of tall skaters skate goofy." I was already six-foot-something in seventh grade and my limbs were all out of proportion with my body. My balance was terrible and I shied away from any sports involving foot coordination like soccer. So I probably tried to ride a board once or twice—I'm sure it was one of those cheap Wal-mart boards. I could never really get into it.
Basically, I never thought I'd be interested; I didn't want to get hurt and was more interested in reading books, video games, making music, etc. I played basketball and was runner so it wasn't that I was unathletic, just lacking the patience and determination needed to learn how to skate. Probably somewhat lacking the courage also...the only way I could be considered a skater was by playing skateboarding video games!
I grew up with one sibling: my little sister. But I was really close to my cousin who was the same age as me. He was always the daredevil, and I was more cautious. We would bike around these hills near the creek where I grew up and get into all kinds of shenanigans.
He was real into skating and always wanted me to learn. I remember him saying "Yo dude, you should skate goofy; lots of tall skaters skate goofy." I was already six-foot-something in seventh grade and my limbs were all out of proportion with my body. My balance was terrible and I shied away from any sports involving foot coordination like soccer. So I probably tried to ride a board once or twice—I'm sure it was one of those cheap Wal-mart boards. I could never really get into it.
Basically, I never thought I'd be interested; I didn't want to get hurt and was more interested in reading books, video games, making music, etc. I played basketball and was runner so it wasn't that I was unathletic, just lacking the patience and determination needed to learn how to skate. Probably somewhat lacking the courage also...the only way I could be considered a skater was by playing skateboarding video games!
.........
I grew up in the N64 era. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater helped bring street and vert-skating more into the mainstream consciousness. I played those games all the time which exposed me to many of the tricks and techniques for the first time, even though they were pretty unrealistic in a lot of ways.
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Flash forward all the way to 2019. For some unknown reason, I started getting recommended skateboarding videos on YouTube and got really interested. I learned about Rodney Mullen and a bunch of skateboarding greats and began to realize that skating was a way deeper art form than I thought—not just flashy flip tricks and jumping huge stair-sets. I didn't even know freestyle skating existed before that.
I eventually found out about Andy Anderson and the version of the Powell Flight Deck he skates. Those boards are insane, they use some sort of epoxy-infusion technology to make them basically unsnappable. You can drive an SUV over these things and they still won't break:
I eventually found out about Andy Anderson and the version of the Powell Flight Deck he skates. Those boards are insane, they use some sort of epoxy-infusion technology to make them basically unsnappable. You can drive an SUV over these things and they still won't break:
If you don't know about Andy, you don't wanna keep sleepin' on this kid. He's super well-rounded and incorporates a lot of different skate styles together in a really unique way. He has lines for days and is extremely fluid in navigating obstacles. The channel NKA Vids on YouTube has a bunch of vlogs skating with Andy that are worth checking out. Here's a short compilation of some clips that Nigel posted recently:
Anyway, so finally towards the end of last year I decided I had to try for myself and I got Andy's Heron edition of the flight deck which is really wide compared to most modern boards at 9.13" and has a somewhat strange-looking shape for primo tricks, flat tail for pogo, etc. Even though the flight deck is pricey, I wanted to learn on a board that was solid and would basically never break. The wheels I started out with are 59s and relatively hard at 97a, but not as hard and small as what most use for skate parks which are usually 99a or 101a.
I started learning just skating street around parking lots close to my apartment in October 2019. It was a wild ride, that's for sure! Since this blog is getting kinda long, I think I'll have to save that part of the story for the next one. If you want to hear how I ended up on crutches for a few days when I started skating then follow @dpend.active and I'll fill you in on that during the next installment!
(Oh yeah, and in the comments below — tell me which skaters' style you dig the most? And how did you first get into skating? And if you don't skate — would you ever try to learn?)
If you want, use the tag #skateorigins to tell the story of how you started skating in your own post. Use #hive-173115 as your very first tag to put it in the new #steemskate community.
(Oh yeah, and in the comments below — tell me which skaters' style you dig the most? And how did you first get into skating? And if you don't skate — would you ever try to learn?)
If you want, use the tag #skateorigins to tell the story of how you started skating in your own post. Use #hive-173115 as your very first tag to put it in the new #steemskate community.
Daniel P.
2/27/20
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@d-pend
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Image and video sources:
1 — my photo, iPhone 8+
2 — THPS game cover, by Activision
3 — Rodney Mullen Gif, from Giphy
4 — Flight Deck Construction Video, by Powell-Peralta
5 — The Best of Andy Anderson Part 1, by Nka Vids
6, 7, 8 — my photos, iPhone 8+
Great story bro! Loved reading every second of it! I really love how Andy Anderson skates too. So creative and unique style! Since I am really into street skating I think that my personal favourite skater these days is Corey Glick and Dakota Servold. If you haven't yet watched it, I recommend you check out the new Emerica video called "Green". Well, to save some time, here is the link! So good.
https://www.thrashermagazine.com/articles/videos/emerica-s-green-video/
Also here is a small gift from me bro.
!SKATE30
I decided to come see for myself. My son skated all day long when he was younger and still healthy. We had a skate park in the basement, a skate park in the garage, a skate park in the driveway, and we drove all over tarnation looking for places to skate. I love it. Idk what style. When I was a kid skateboards did one thing - go straight. We carried our boards to the top of the steepest street, and went down as fast as we could. That's all she wrote folks. There were no tricks and helmets had not even been invented. The wheels were fixed. We just went fast, it was all about speed.
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Awesome first skateboarding post man! After all those years of playing Tony Hawk and watching your cousin shred you are now a skater your self! About the flight decks, I've never used one but I really want to hear your opinion! Are they indeed unsnappable?
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