5 Things I Like About Learning to Skateboard
It is cold and snowy today in Denver, which means I don’t get to practice my newest hobby—riding my skateboard down to Coors Field and back.
I took up skateboarding earlier this year after mentioning the idea to our friend Claire. I don’t know exactly what prompted my desire to learn—it was some combination of always kind of wanting to, a feeling that I needed a sabbatical hobby that was decidedly not professional, and the confidence that learning new things was possible thanks to my recent experience learning to play the drums (future blog topic for sure).
Claire gave me the push to get started by giving me an extra board she had and telling me that she could teach me when I was ready. Thanks to her generosity I’ve probably skated 2–3 times a week since July.
Here are 5 things I like about learning to skateboard:
1. Falling
I say this because so far I haven’t really hurt myself, knock on wood. (I have definitely hurt myself, but not really, or at least not in any way that has required professional medical intervention.) Falling off a skateboard is terrifying, and it’s really easy to do it. At least, it’s really easy for me to do it. Like, I am not exactly sure if there is a way to avoid what happens when a rock gets stuck under my wheel and the wheel stops moving and causes the whole board to stop dead in its tracks while my body’s momentum keeps going and I fly off the board, so I just really try to keep my eyes peeled for rocks.
All that being said, there is no clearer way to see that you are stretching your limits than literally falling down, getting up, and trying again. Also, fear and pain are great motivators, and it’s refreshing to be motivated by fear of minor physical pain instead of the confusing psychological fear and pain of a workplace environment. It’s a lot easier for my brain to understand “Try not to fall, it hurts.”
2. It’s pretty Zen
Luckily, there’s lots of advice online to help combat the initial phase of constantly falling down. I progressed from standing on the board indoors on our rug to rolling back and forth across the kitchen to tentatively cruising outside. Then I just kept going out there until balancing became more natural. Once the balancing became more natural, the time I spent skateboarding became more meditative.
I wrote this section headline to reflect that meditative quality, but then I was worried that I’m using a word from another language and culture and philosophy without proper context, so I did a little reading. Turns out, skateboarding may be more Zen than I originally thought based on these quotes from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
“Generally speaking, Zen cherishes simplicity and straightforwardness in grasping reality and acting on it ‘here and now,’ for it believes that a thing-event that is immediately presencing before one’s eyes or under one’s foot is no other than an expression of suchness.”
To me, this means that the “thing-event” of skateboarding that is happening under my foot is all there is in this moment, and I can literally feel that because if I let my mind wander too much I will find myself on the concrete.
“Once the bodily posture and the breathing are adjusted, the practitioner next learns to adjust the mind. This means that the practitioner consciously moves to enter a state of meditation. In so doing, the practitioner learns to disengage him- or herself from the concerns of daily life. That is to say, one tries to stop the operation of the conscious mind. However, if one tries to stop the mind by using one’s mind, the mind which is trying to stop itself is still operative. In other words, it is practically impossible to stop the mind by using the mind. Instead, Zen tries to accomplish this by the immobile bodily posture and the breathing exercise.”
While I’m not performing seated meditation, on the board I am absolutely focusing on my body in terms of balance and breathing, which helps me quiet the concerns in my mind. I had a massage therapist once ask, “Do you think a lot?” while she was working on a knot in my back. Uhhhh, yeah. Also, what’s a lot? And how do you know that from working on my back? I know it sounds like word salad, but “If one tries to stop the mind by using one’s mind, the mind which is trying to stop itself is still operative” is exactly what is happening to me when I’m awake at 3:34 am.
“Generally Zen describes the freedom of bodily movement as ‘stillness in motion’ … ”
Standing on a rolling skateboard is 100% this feeling, and I need it.
3. Skating feels like free snowboarding
I can snowboard a little bit, but I don’t all that much because I see it as a long drive to spend a lot of money to be cold. I think the feeling of skateboarding is similar to the feeling I get balancing and turning on snowboard, but the process is superior in every way:
I don’t have to drive anywhere, I just walk outside to the Coors Field parking lot. It probably takes me 30 seconds to get there, and I can cut down on that commute time by skateboarding to the parking lot.
The first place I ever snowboarded in Colorado was Breckenridge, and it was beautiful and fun, but I just looked up a single lift ticket for today and it costs $Two-hundred and sixty-five dollars!!!!! For one day. Even Loveland, where I last snowboarded, is $149. For me, I pass.
I still haven’t lived down wearing jeans the last time I went snowboarding. I can wear jeans while I skateboard and nobody has made fun of me for it yet.
I actually feel a moment of joy skateboarding through a parking lot and looking at the snow-capped Rocky Mountains and thinking, “I can do this right here without driving and spending money and being cold.” It’s like hypothetical schadenfreude.
4. Telling people about it / Watching people who know what they are doing with newfound appreciation
I have been so pleasantly surprised by how many other people also skateboard, or used to skateboard, and how excited they usually are to talk about it with me. Lots of times if I have my board with me a person will try a trick that they used to know, which is always impressive. From the outside, skateboard culture has always felt a little young and a little rebellious, but even my early introductions to the larger skateboarding community make me feel welcomed, and I can feel their excitement for me.
I am not prepared to venture into the Denver Skatepark quite yet, but I love sitting there watching people skate. Also, I watch skate video content like this now:
I love that experiencing a little bit of something for myself can open my eyes to a whole new world and give me a little path into understanding just how cool and talented other people are.
5. Moments like this
This is apparently called a “shove-it.” It took me a lot of attempts and it was on grass, but I still felt like a million bucks when I landed it, and I still feel that way when I watch it:
What do you do to quiet your mind? Is there anything that you are learning or want to learn? Want to skateboard with me? Email jed@kindandfunny.com. Also, shoutout to Claire, I owe you dinner.