Photo: John Kim

Here’s Dom again, ollying into this slanted ledge down in the financial district. Definitely a good spin on a spot that usually gets rocked as a ledge. If you haven’t checked it out yet Dom and some of his friends have a website called Haha Funtime.

In other random skate-related news I just found out that Anthony Pappalardo is working wood in more than one way. Apparently he’s gotten pretty into furniture making. You can peep his wares at his website Virgin White Furniture. I’m always happy to see the things that skateboarders branch off into. For a sport it seems to harbor an outrageous amount of overtly creative people. I guess that’s because for a sport skateboarding is an incredibly creative endeavor. There are no rules, there is no fixed playing field–it’s just you, your board, and whatever lies ahead.

Skateboarding changes the way that you see the world (especially the architectural aspects of it). It changes the way you experience your surroundings. If you skate you’re always on the hunt for new spots. You look at everything and ask, “Is it skateable?” You don’t see homogeneous concrete slabs on the sidewalk, you notice when the concrete is extra-busted, or extra-smooth. All of this is a kind of conditioning, but it’s also cultivation. You’re conditioned to recognize terrain, and the potential for skating it, but you’re also cultivating.

A huge part of skating is figuring out new ways to see things, and new ways to approach old things so that they’ll be fresh. With everyone skating the same spots, each person figures out a way to go about it in their own fashion. While the big fat rope tying all skateboarders together is the sport, there are myriad smaller threads that run through the culture, and these threads are what create the diversity of styles and tricks. Everyone approaches it a little differently. That’s where the cultivation comes into it. That’s why Karl Watson’s Frontside Noseslide revert 270 on Hubba Hideout, right before it got nobbed, was the first time anyone did that trick in the years and years that it had been skated. The sport draws all these different incredible people together, and in sharing the sport all of their eccentricities and brilliance intermingle, and then out comes something like Virgin White Wood.

I started skateboarding when I was 13. I’m 28 now. I haven’t been too active in the sport for the last 4 or 5 years. I still get out and ride, but I can’t commit to it with the same fervor. The torn ankles, the lumpy shins, the blackouts and all of the other physical compromises are behind me. But, the vitality of it all, the life lessons that skateboarding and its exploits instilled in me, all of that is still in me as strong as ever. Keep on it…

- Zachg