A LESSON a long time ago and my friends and i used to skateboard we were aged from 12 to 17 or so, and we thought we were quite cool. watched all the new videos. raved about who was the best and spent hours everyday trying to learn the latest moves.. even if they were trendy or stupid as fuck. if it was new, we HAD to learn it, to keep up with progression. we formed an alliance of local skaters called TEAM BONEFISH team bonefish had the most talent and members, and therefore REPUTATION of any skate group in the region one day team bonefish gathered out front of the main skatespot, the XTRA parking lot. XTRA was a huge grocery store. so big in fact that its parking lot expanded far beyond the uses of its weak ass customer base. so we had a entire SECTOR of the parking lot to skate in, and it was like paradise. this was the headquarters of team bonefish. well one day we all had our ramps out there and we were skating.. it was getting late and the sun was going down. and then.. THIS GUY CAME he was older. probably in his 20's. he had long hair and his faded clothes, unlike his hair, seemed like they had been washed a thousand times. he was a far cry different from our trendy skate pants and shirts. his tattered sneakers were like the sandals of a gladiator who had fought in the colloseum his whole life. we had this double length/ height curb set up. a single curb was like 6 inches high and about 6 feet long, so a double is 12 inches high by 12 feet long. nobody could really do anything great on it. we kinda built it just because we could. a few of the better skaters could do a trick or two over it.. or slide the very end or something but this guy came riding up this GUY this fucking skater of the apocalypse came riding up faster than anyone we had ever seen. his hair blew in the wind as he approached the double double his face was calm, his features relaxed and confident, beautiful like a michaelangelo sculpture everyone sat back and watched silently. Now i will take this time to say.. that the first trick a skater attempts when he enters a skate spot is VERY important. it instantly indicates how good a skater he is, and therefore dictates the amount of attention or respect he should recieve from the surrounding riders. this trick is judged on 2 major points POINT ONE- the DIFFICULTY of the trick. the harder the trick, the more respect. POINT TWO- the EXECUTION of the trick. anyone can ride up and TRY the hardest trick invented. unless you actually land it or come REALLY close, then it doesnt count for jack shit. well this guy.. this fucking GUY came up with all eyes on him to OUR skatespot zooming into the heart of TEAM BONEFISH like a arrow of truth into the heart of corruption! KAM! went the tail of his board and he rose into the air everyone watched in horror it was quite obvious by this time the guy had STYLE. LOTS OF STLYE he effortlessly soared over the impossibly high 12 x 12 setting down his board at the very start of the first curb he had his back to the direction he was travelling and this had everyone in shock. because basically he was doing a BASKSIDE LIPSLIDE and NO ONE we had ever seen in our lives could do a BACKSIDE LIPSLIDE that was just a trick that kind of existed, but no one could ever even THINK of TRYING it, more or less DOING IT. to us, we may as well had just seen a unicorn run across the parking lot. many pros could not do this trick back then. this was ELITE. he slid easily onto the second half of the 12 by 12 while everyones jaws dropped closer to the asphalt he was GOD hauling ASS he came off perfect, all four wheels landing at once with an audible TNK! and rode away from the landing with style. everyone screamed and cheered we danced around him like raving idiots he did a few other tricks that left us drooling and then sat at the curb with us and talked. he noted on how we all seemed caught up in the latest and trendiest tricks.. and he asked WHY do we even skate if we are just pressuring ourselves to progress and sitting around falling down all day trying tricks that we would never land in a thousand years. and we saw the truth. that in all that competitive progression, in all those hours of sweat and tears all that backstabbing and rumors of who sucked and who was better than who, that we had forgotten that feeling of the wheels under our feet as you cruise across an empty glass smooth blacktop parking lot late at night. the feeling of freedom, and endless possibility just cruising through the city looking for something to ollie. riding down a hill with your friends.. all these things he told us.. and we saw for the first time how lost and corrupted we had become. after everyone went home that night, i stayed and looked at the 12 x 12 it was really late and the signs of team bonefish's presence where everywhere, the graphitti on the goodwill box that we wall ride on, the little stubs of wax candles we used to make the curbs slick, empty sodas, mcdonalds wrappers.. something changed in me that night. that guy had shown me something and i was kind of afraid of what he said, but i knew he was right that sometimes even in rebellious freedom, we return to the very thing we strove to rebel against, like some sort of sick diseased instinct. i sat there and just stopped. i looked at everything and his words ringing in my ears and i stopped. Months later XTRA closed down from lack of funds and not long after, due to some major internal fighting, TEAM BONEFISH disbanded. jealousy, hatred, bad jokes.. the usual other skate posse's would come and go. but i had changed. i stopped trying to learn so much new stuff, and just ENJOY what tricks i was good at. I started skating faster, and becoming more confident. i rode hills with friends and when i skated, i noticed i had started smiling alot :] i was having FUN just like the first time i had ever stepped on a board, and pushed across the kitchen floor.. and that little smiling kid inside of me smiled even bigger. THE END -L0cke Feb 04 / 2001