That’s it! That’s the TRUTH! That’s all there is to know about this thing that we do.

That’s really something you’ve known the entire time and had maybe just forgotten; and realizing it again is the full circle, completed. That knowledge is the reason that you started in the first place. I know it is because those that started for other reasons have long since stopped skating. They lost sight of the truth. It's an easy thing to do when the entire marketing machine and editorial content of most skate magazines is basically built on a premise that we must feel like there is something we don’t quite know and that we will never quite measure up.

Rubbish.

Skateboarding is the best thing ever and do not take it for granted. Heroes and airbag shoes are all well and good but the bottom line is you have to get your kicks for yourself. Drawing inspiration from others is a good thing; voyeurism and blind consumerism isn’t. As skaters, we never know when our number is going to get called, it’s a gamble, but, of course, that’s the attraction too. However, when your number gets pulled (and it WILL get pulled, we all know that) and you are laid up for an extended period let me tell you that skate videos and new products ain’t gonna fill the void one fuckin’ bit. When you are skating that kind of stuff is just bonus material, when you CAN’T skate its almost useless material. It doesn’t scratch the itch, and you remember what’s really important, the act of skateboarding, the motion, the tension and release that it gives, the GAMBLE.

The truth is a powerful thing, and in certain cases the truth can feel like being set free. The truth about skateboarding is a great truth because it doesn’t entail things like ability, age, who you know, what you can do, or what your image is. Once you realize that you are just… TOO DUMB TO QUIT AND AIN’T NEVER GONNA GET NOTHIN’ FOR IT!…. it feels like a weight has lifted right off your shoulders! It is liberating really. You’ve just joined the 1%er club and… ITS OK! Of course the truth is a very dangerous thing too. If all were armed with this knowledge it would shut down the fuckin’ doors on things like the ASR trade show! Let’s face it, for the most part the skate industry is bloated and pretty ugly, but we are probably better off with it than without it. It’s a circus, but I always kind of liked the circus. I’d be pretty bummed if the AZ State Fair didn’t roll through town once a year. I mean, where else can you buy a Deep Fried Twinkie and a Budweiser, scarf down both… then ride the Zipper and throw up all over yourself? Now that might not be too healthy but it can be a real good time too! What I’m getting at is, I’d hate to see the skate industry no longer able to sell it's collective “deep fried Twinkies” just because some jackass told the truth. There are some legit “good people” out there in the skate world and the bottom line is they make tolerating the kooks that wash in and out of skateboarding somewhat tolerable. The truth shouldn’t be a dirty little secret but the truth is… it is! So be careful with it, I won’t tell anyone else if you don’t! As long as the other 99% keeps buying the twinkies and drinking the Kool-Aid I’m sure everything will be just fine. The rest of us are at a point where we are free to ride the manic wave that is skateboarding, through the highs or lows, to the best of our ability in any fuckin’ way we want too. 1%er’s for life.

So what’s with the rambling?? Let me explain; its pretty simple actually. I’ve spent about 15 of the last 18 months or so injured and unable to skate. After some 20+ unbroken years on board I was finally forced to put it down, no way around it, no way to fake or front my way through injury. In short, I think I went a little nuts at the prospect of maybe not skating again, or being reduced to liquor store runs. NOT YET! NO! I’m not ready to go! You see, first I broke my hand, which wasn’t that big a deal, but then a after a month back on board I go and shatter my kneecap. Boom. Done. Out for almost a year, not walking for months, and then… the long road back. I don’t care what anyone says, it’ll make you think. If you think its all an oxycontin and alcohol vacation ,well… you may be onto something! But, nothing is going to take the place of the god damn wooden toy and that’s just the way it is. The truth, the hard truth.

What is the first thing I do when I’m back up and running and feel like finally all cylinders are firing? I want to go straight for the thing the took me out, a fullpipe, and what better destination than Upland California and the monument to high octane skateboarding that serves as the public skatepark in that city. Yeah, that’s how I wanted to top off a year of rehab and hell, with redemption! With some gamble; too dumb to quit style! I didn’t start skateboarding to quit skateboarding and if I’m going down, I’m going down in flames! Tough talk I know but, all boasting aside, its true too. Skating without “pushing it” I don’t know if I’ll ever understand. I’m just not wired up that way and I know most of you probably aren’t either.

Another reality is that it isn’t fun skating alone and finding a crew of over 30 year old skaters to go with me isn’t all that easy. You see there are things that get in the way of the boys and a real good time. Things like, well… injuries! That’s nothing new , but also things like, mortgages, kids, divorces, relatives with failing health, interest rates, entering escrow, foreclosures, remodels, alcoholism, overtime, drug addiction, depression, ego, pride, identity crisis and every other god damn thing that “growing up” seems to bring out in either yourself or someone else. All those things that you hoped you’d escape when you were a 15 year old skate rat, but that, somehow, you always knew would finally catch up to you as well. No doubt, “life” catches up to you and your friends, time has its way and its gets to the point where sometimes you feel like the “planets must align” in order for you and some friends to get together and flog the wooden toy. Well, this time it finally happened, and I find myself on the way to roll the dice in Upland’s human pinball machine.

...to be continued.