Concrete Poetry: Why Skateboarding Changed Everything For Me

• Posted by Dez Fontaine Thu at 9:00 PM Filed in Sports #creativity  #community  #skateboarding  #street culture  #urban lifestyle  58 views
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  Yo, real talk - skateboarding ain't just about tricks and wheels. It's a whole language, you know? I picked up a board when I was thirteen because I was angry at everything and needed to throw that energy somewhere that wasn't destructive. Turned out the concrete was the perfect therapist.

  What gets me about skate culture is the zero pretense factor. You either land it or you don't. Nobody's judging your zip code or what school you went to. That ledge doesn't care about your backstory. It's pure meritocracy on four wheels, and that's rare as hell in this world. I've seen rich kids eat pavement next to kids from the projects, and for those seconds airborne, we were all just chasing the same rush.

  The DIY ethos runs deep too. Back in the day before YouTube tutorials and skate brands colonizing every street corner, we had to figure everything out together. Build your own ramps, film your own clips on a Nokia phone, spread the word through burned DVDs and graff tags. That spirit still lives even with all the commercialization now. Real skaters still respect the grind, the hustle, the dedication.

  And the music? Man, the soundtrack to skateboarding shaped my entire taste. Punk, hip hop, indie, electronic - skate videos introduced me to sounds I never would've found otherwise. The culture demanded authenticity in every lane. Can't fake it on a board and you can't fake it in the soundtrack either.

  I'm not gonna lie though, watching the industry blow up changed things. Suddenly there's skate parks in gentrified neighborhoods priced for people who can afford thousand dollar boards. Some of the raw edge got smoothed over. But the core community? We kept it real. We kept pushing, kept creating, kept this culture moving forward without selling the soul.

  Twenty years later I still ride almost every day. It keeps me sane, keeps me connected to that thirteen year old version of me who needed an outlet. The board never asks questions, never judges. It just says come fly with me.

  What was the first time you felt that kind of freedom doing something you loved?