So I have been skating for about four to five years in total.
Although I started circa 13 years ago.
What can I say.
Life got in the way.
I never thought it would happen to me, often I would read stories warning against becoming too complacent with skateboarding and that it would gradually lead to not skating at all. I did not take them seriously enough. I simply did not think it would happen to me. At the time I was skating every single day, whenever I could. I would dream about tricks, dream about spots and go out of my way to go skateparks so I could improve myself, sometimes even putting myself in actual danger by going to a completely unfamiliar place just go skate. Usually it went quite well. But the danger was present. Here in my country we have taxis that are not very safe, so I opted for the train, which is equally as dangerous and perhaps far more frustrating. They are often delayed or not there at all until hours later. So it’s fair to say I was very invested. I slept, ate and bled just for skateboarding.
I would tailor my diet to include more healthy food in order to ensure I did not get injured too often which would in turn, stop me from skating for the duration of the injury.
That scared me more than getting injured.
And it still does.
Now though, the fear is all too real because I’m not as consistent as I used to be. I still barely fall, but now, when I do. It hurts. A lot. Well I’m exaggerating a bit. But it definitely is not as easy as it was before. I will say, to my bodies credit, it does heal fairly quickly. So now unfortunately, nine years later, I have to find my way back. Back to that glorious time when everything was skateboarding. A lot has changed in skateboarding over the years. Because I was only privy to what happened in my country I was completely unaware of all the trials and tribulations that my international brethren were going through. Ali Boulala had quit and apparently through a terrible accident involving him and Shane cross. Shane had passed away. I never knew of Shane, but still it is tragic. Some have left my local scene for greener pastures. Other have just left. I recently found out about of my favorites from way back when, and were glad to hear that most were still involved in some way, in skateboarding. Especially one person. Adrian Day. I really like this skater.
Though I have barely seen him skate. Why then do I like him you may ask? Because of his writing. He used to write many articles for a local magazine called session. I am not a big fan of theirs right now. But way back then I bought nearly every issue I could get my hands on. He as a person and a skater has influenced my skateboarding more than most of the other skate heroes I cherish. I will cover him in future articles because he deserves it. He currently Co owns session and a local store called baseline. With my local scene in tatters due to terrible people in the Skate sphere, mainly the losers who cause a ruckus and lead to parks getting closed down. Most of the parks I have skated are now defunct. Many are here still but in a terrible state. Recently a somewhat local park (local in this paragraph means within 60 km of me) got a revamp, very exciting indeed. I cannot wait to try it out. I have previously posted videos on here of that park but WordPress has the worst system when it comes to videos.
It really is kind of a scam, because the space they provide, even with a premium account like mine, is abysmal. No no, pathetic.
Ok so I managed to get some short clips on here, they won’t be here long. Enjoy them while they last. If you would like to see more of my skate content, subscribe to my YouTube channel.
If I really put work into a video, that would only support about five of them, with minimal editing mind you. If you have a heavily edited video, you are better off putting it on YouTube, because it is not worth the 3 gigs of space it consumes on your site. Oh yeah, you have to pay to upgrade your storage. Which is sad because if WordPress actually took that feature seriously, with all their talk of being the host for x amount of the sites on the internet, they could actually offer an alternative to YouTube. Which is what excited me in the beginning. So those videos are no longer available here, but here is one I made recently on YouTube, check it out.
Nine years have gone by since I was last consistently on a board, and I am now back in half swing. Almost up to the full swing, what is harder now is finding the time, what with work and career aspirations, one must be able to maintain a balanced life. Skateboarding is important but you can’t let it affect other areas of your life. Skate or die, skate forever. These are all excellent if you are lucky enough to do it for a living but hardly mean much when life settles in and reminds you that you aren’t one of those few. I am not, I wanted to be, but, as I said, life is what happens when you are trying to skate. Nonetheless I am back and enjoying it, once I am doing it all the time again, I will be much more pleased and calm. For now, what little time I can give it will have to suffice.
I wish I could just skate all day long.
THE NECROMANCER 