Urban
Realpolitik in America
Words by Baxter Jackson
Photos by Rhino
"Get out of here ya punk! You are destroying the property!
I'm calling the cops if you don't leave right now!" Since
age fifteen I've willingly submitted myself to this kind of
verbal, sometimes physical abuse not because I'm masochistic,
but because I'm dedicated to something I love, skateboarding.
Skateboarding has taught me many things. Not only through the
challenges within the sport itself, but also through society's
clear message of disapproval as evidenced by the ever-present
"No Skateboarding" signs in every parking lot in suburbia.
Suburbia is where I found autonomous order not only through
the act of skating itself but in the street life and culture
as well. Discipline, patience, the ability to find beauty in
all things, balance (both physical and mental) and a proclivity
for questioning authority are but some of the benefits that
I have reaped from a fifteen year commitment to skateboarding
on the streets of America.
On the surface we appear to be disheveled degenerates distanced
from discipline, however, this is a hasty generalization based
on a stereotype. When I first started skating, it took me a
month of intense practice to learn how to do an ollie. All other
skateboarding tricks are a variation upon this one basic move.
If it took me a month of patience, trying and floundering countless
attempts in order to learn the most elementary move, then imagine
the regiment of discipline and practice that is required to
reach the level of proficiency of a top pro skater. Imagine
trying to attain athletic excellence when police, business owners,
and concerned citizens are doing everything in their power to
discourage one from doing so. Imagine the power of group and
self-realization in the face of oppression, and one starts to
get an idea of how skateboarding, discipline, and patience can
form a unifying trinity of self-improvement and awareness in
the urban sprawl of mediocrity. Skateboarding
is a creative endeavor that fosters self-expression through
the interpretation of the urban landscape. Some may view this
gray concrete environment as ugly, but I see it as a playground
ripe with possibilities for terrain and trick combinations,
limited only by my own imagination and willingness to see how
far I can push myself. When I look upon the myriad of obstacles
that make up our common urban geography of sidewalks, curbs,
stairs, planters and handrails, I don't see them as ends in
themselves (as most do) but rather as means to an end. These
overlooked and underutilized urban accessories are the canvas
upon which my interpretation of the concrete jungle is painted.
The tandem acrobatics of board and rider is my palette. The
skateboard is the brush with which I make bold and powerful
strokes strong enough to carve stone and concrete into smooth
black edges with the cold hard metal of my axle. These strokes
that defy gravity and bond steel and hard-rock maple from my
board's surface to ledges and handrails all over the urban sprawl
of Anywhere, USA.
Skateboarding requires physical exertion, which leads to stress
reduction; stress reduction, in turn, leads to emotional and
physical well-being; emotional and physical well-being leads
to happy and productive members of society; happy productive
members of society contribute more economically, socially and
intellectually than those persons not happy and unproductive.
Society, in the name of self-preservation, has an obligation
to encourage its members to pursue well-being i.e. physical
and emotional balance through any sports activity, even skateboarding.
As inherently social creatures, we have an innate desire to
interact with others who have similar interests. Without human
contact we become depressed, disengaged with our surroundings
and withdrawn. Skateboarding provides an outlet through which
these negative feelings can be channeled and redirected into
something positive: self-confidence and discipline. In fact,
because skateboarders share a need for new terrain, as well
as a history of abuse by the hand of authority, we can go to
any place in the world where other skaters live and feel right
at home.
Through my experiences with skateboarding, and from being on
both sides of the law because of it, I've discovered that to
sit silent and do nothing as one's rights are taken away is
tantamount to slow suicide. Finding a way to peacefully coexist
with people of differing viewpoints and lifestyles is essential
for the survival of the community. The role of the Government
is to gently lead us up to the correct path when we begin to
stray. It is not the role of the Government to marginalize any
of its citizens because of who they associate with, or for the
path they choose in their (non-injurious-to-others) pursuit
of happiness. Citizens don't serve the Government; the Government
serves the citizens. There is a slippery slope when persecuting
someone based on their choice of physical activity or recreation
that can be equated to discrimination against one because of
one's sex or the color of one's skin. Differing viewpoints should
be able to peacefully coexist. Government should keep the peace
through equal representation of its constituents, not by outlawing
those whose harmless activities they disagree with. For
example, there are thousands of baseball fields in America today;
in the 1900's there were people who didn't want such activities
poisoning the minds of young people. Baseball players became
organized, and the rest is history. If hundreds and thousands
of dollars can be spent on swimming pools, football fields,
basketball courts, and everything else, then money can be put
into safe places for people to skate. Especially because skateboarding
has many worthwhile attributes.
Skateboarding is a highly effective means of transportation
that allows a rider to move from point A to point B rapidly.
It's a recreational activity that encourages physical and mental
well-being. It's a social outlet that brings people together
to work towards a common goal: the location of legal skateable
terrain. Detractors must see skateboarding as an inherently
destructive activity. They see it as not only destructive to
public and private property and businesses, but destructive
to the skaters themselves. These detractors don't consider it
to be a sport, an art form, or even a valid means of urban transportation.
In fact, to them skateboarders are all rude punks who live to
run down "granny" on the street.
Even those that would relegate skateboarding to the outer fringes
of society cannot deny a skateboard's unparalleled efficiency
at propelling one through the myriad of obstacles that make
up our common urban geography of sidewalks, curbs, stairs, ledges
and handrails. In comparison with walking (a rather primitive
way of getting around in this author's opinion) skateboarding
tops out on the evolutionary scale as a form of transportation.
Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines a sport
as "something that is a source of pleasant diversion: a
pleasing or amusing pastime or activity." I say, poll anyone
who skates to find out why they do it and they will invariably
answer, "Because it's fun:” So with sport defined
and skateboarding qualified as such, we can by definition conclude
that skateboarding is indeed a sport. Nevertheless, it is still
an illegitimate sport because the Olympic Subcommittee on Sports,
the ultimate judge, does not recognize skateboarding officially.
If snowboarding, an offshoot of surfing and skateboarding, is
an officially sanctioned Olympic sport then why isn't skateboarding
recognized as such?
Skateboarding is also an art. Art is the skill to adapt objects
in the world for the expression of human life. Is a skateboarder
not applying skill in the adaptation of objects in the world
when he slides down a handrail instead of using it for it's
intended purpose of guiding the pedestrian down the stairs?
Are these chipped planters and rails not a product of art? Was
a systematic application of knowledge or skill not used in effecting
a desired result when a skater ollied upon the ledge?
The skateboard is a skater's paintbrush, the urban landscape
is his canvas and his own self-determined movements and maneuvers
are the palette upon which beauty is created.
Skateboarding
is a creative endeavor that fosters self-expression through
the interpretation of the urban landscape. Some may view this
gray concrete environment as ugly, but I see it as a playground
ripe with possibilities for terrain and trick combinations,
limited only by my own imagination and willingness to see how
far I can push myself. When I look upon the myriad of obstacles
that make up our common urban geography of sidewalks, curbs,
stairs, planters and handrails, I don't see them as ends in
themselves (as most do) but rather as means to an end. These
overlooked and underutilized urban accessories are the canvas
upon which my interpretation of the concrete jungle is painted.
The tandem acrobatics of board and rider is my palette. The
skateboard is the brush with which I make bold and powerful
strokes strong enough to carve stone and concrete into smooth
black edges with the cold hard metal of my axle. These strokes
that defy gravity and bond steel and hard-rock maple from my
board's surface to ledges and handrails all over the urban sprawl
of Anywhere, USA. 
For
example, there are thousands of baseball fields in America today;
in the 1900's there were people who didn't want such activities
poisoning the minds of young people. Baseball players became
organized, and the rest is history. If hundreds and thousands
of dollars can be spent on swimming pools, football fields,
basketball courts, and everything else, then money can be put
into safe places for people to skate. Especially because skateboarding
has many worthwhile attributes.