longboarding and spirituality

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WINTER 2012 CONCRETE WAVE 79

PART ONE — THE SEARCHWhen I first asked people if they would be interested in answering aseries of questions about longboarding and spirituality, I wasn’t surewhat to expect. I was worried that people might be very reluctant toshare their very personal beliefs.

I needn’t have worried. When I posted the questions on Facebookand on Silverfish Longboarding, I had dozens of folks email me almostinstantaneously. I quickly realized I had hit a nerve.

The first question was what had drawn people to longboarding.Pete C. said he originally got into the longboard side of things when

he was a senior in high school back in early 2008. “My friends had long-boards because they wanted to mimic snowboarding on pavement,” hewrote. “I still don’t like snowboarding; I just wanted to carve down thehill in front of my house, and my street board from middle school wasn’tproving to be too fun for that.”

Juhap of Malaysia told an of opposite experience. Growing up, hewas both a snowboarder and a skater. “I stopped skateboardingbecause I didn’t learn any tricks,” he wrote. “But as a (old school) snow-boarder I kept skateboarding in my spirit.” Juhap also tried aggressiverollerblading, and says, “That was fun, but I grew old and slams startedto hurt too much.”

Initially longboarding looked like fun to him, but the cost was pro-hibitive. Then he found a longboard for 50 Euros and purchased it. Hestarted just skating on the flat but soon got hooked on downhill. “It feelssame as snowboarding,” he says. “I even call turns back-edge/front-edge, because it feels the same.”

Adam picked up on the seemingly serene and free notion of long-boarding and says it appealed to him immediately. “I prefer flow inanything I do, and I had an interest in vert skateboarding because of thesimple fluidity of the discipline,” he says. “Naturally, longboards wouldappeal to me much more that street skating.” Adam was skateboardingat the time and found that hard wheels just don’t glide on roads. “Thepressure of having to learn tricks just to be competent or simply to earn

respect at the skatepark never got me to places.” After trying out hisfirst longboard, Adam instinctively knew that longboarding was exactlywhat he wanted to do. “I could ride practically anywhere I had the willto, and the pressure of learning tricks just wasn’t there.”

Israel wrote and told me he was always intrigued by skating and theskating lifestyle. But, he says, “Growing up in rural Wisconsin didn’tprovide a very good playground for that sport to grow. I never got toskate much. It was more of a passing phase that happened when I wasabout 10 with a rummage-sale skateboard with Ninja Turtles on it ...then later at about 15 with a Walmart skateboard with a picture of atiger on it.”

Fast-forward more than a decade and Israel had moved to Vermont.“I escaped from the boring life I led in Wisconsin,” he says. “I needed anadventure. Vividly I remember sitting at a hot local pub and brewery andseeing a guy skating up and down the street between traffic on what Inow know is a Loaded Dancer. The ‘responsible and grown-up’ side ofme said, ‘That guy is a menace and is a jerk for disrupting traffic.’ Buta deeper part yearned to feel what he felt ... a deeper part of me neededto feel the freedom that guy was experiencing. I had a great urge, a greatneed to get up and do what he was doing.”

Later, Israel got married, and honeymooned on Hampton Beach inNew Hampshire. He realized that the best way to get around the townwas not in a car or by foot, but by skateboard. He talked his wife intoletting him buy a Walmart board. “I had a blast and even sneaked out ofthe hotel for a clumsy session in the parking lot,” he says. “I was not sat-isfied with the shortboard experience and grew a deeper need for thatlongboard-guy experience.”

Before he knew it, Israel was back home in Vermont, desperatelymaking an attempt to get better at skating. Over time, he drew closerto longboarding. “Longboarding is about freedom and progression,” hesays. “It is the adventure I have been looking for.”

Kiry, a Brooklyn-based longboarder, told me she had wanted tolearn to skateboard and surf all her life. When a friend of hers let her

BY MICHAEL BROOKE | ARTWORK BY CHRIS DYER

Editor’s Note: Some readers may have noticed that we have changed our motto to “search/spark/stoke.” We did this to better reflect the true meaning of what Concrete Wave represents. We’ve always been about the act of riding,

and we’ll never waver from that. However, as the magazine enters its second decade, I felt the time was right to beginexploring some uncharted waters. This means we will publish material that goes beyond what you’d traditionally find in a

skateboard magazine. While I understand that the topic of spirituality maybe a bit of a turnoff for some readers, I urgeeveryone to keep an open mind and just enjoy the ride. As you will soon discover, longboarding gives people some pretty

profound insights. We hope you enjoy this feature and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

LONGBOARDINGSPIRITUALITY

80 CONCRETE WAVE WINTER 2012

ride his longboard, she got her wish: “I pushed it down my street, andas soon as I leaned into the first turn I was hooked,” she says. “It wasjust as I imagined surfing would feel like.”

David wrote about his experience watching a well-known freestyler,Rodney Mullen: “Years ago Rodney did a demo in Little Rock, Arkansas.Amazing things happened when he stepped on his skateboard. The con-trol over his body and board were astounding. I spent countless hoursbeing frustrated by kickflips and heelflips. Although I finally learned someof these elusive tricks, it wasn’t my style of skateboarding. However,giving up skating would have been like cutting out a part of my soul.”

He eventually discovered longboarding and felt the urge to ride risefrom the ashes of a popsicle stick deck. The act of riding a skateboardwas new again. “The slightest slope of a hill was enough to carve forspeed and soul,” he says.

But here’s where things get strange: All those flip tricks he had somany problems doing on a shorter board were suddenly easy for him toperform. “Doing a kickflip on a longboard seemed so easy,” he says.“Bluntslides, I don’t know why, were suddenly simple on this longerboard. It didn’t take long before I was even sliding down handrails on a44” long deck. I switched out the usual big, soft longboard wheels forsome ’80s-inspired hard, yet reasonably sized, wheels. After skating forso many years, I had found my niche.”

Owen was introduced to longboarding by his younger brother. Heloved the simplicity of it.

“We could just go skate, and it gave us time to talk while climbing upthe hill and just chill together riding down,” he says. “I instantly fell inlove with the restful nature that chill carving has.”

When Owen finally got his own board, he began to discover theexcitement of speed and the obsessive-compulsiveness offreestyle/freeriding. “The feeling of accomplishment when you stompthat trick you’ve been working on for a month is incomparable!” he says.

Owen has since taken up long-distance pushing/commuting andloves that he can save the environment, save gas money and take careof his body physically all at the same time. “I also really love pushingmyself harder and seeing what my body is capable of,” he says. “To sumit up, I guess what drew me to longboarding and what has made me fallin love with it, is its inherent ability to help me discover new things aboutmyself, my world and others.”

Al sees three acts to his discovery of longboards.Act 1 started in 1975. He was in 5th grade. “Talk about a spiritual ref-

erence: I ‘worshiped’ the Dogtown guys,” he says. “I couldn’t wait for thenext SkateBoarder to come out to see the Stecyk piece. Act 1 ended whenI put my Alva in the closet after college and didn’t see it again until 2001.”

Act 2 started one month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.Al was at his parents’ house and was surprised to discover that same

old Alva skateboard in a closet. He took the board home and startedpoking around the Internet and eventually found pictures of CliffColeman. This led him to the Sector 9 and Gravity sites, where he pur-chased his first longboard. He also made his first pair of slide gloves.

As concrete skateparks started to emerge, however, Al stoppedlongboarding and went vertical — until the spring of 2005, when he suf-fered a triple fracture/dislocated ankle. Act 2 was over. “I was 40 yearsold and I literally took all of my skate stuff (including that Alva) and putit on the curb. It was gone by the morning,” he says. “I was done. Or soI thought.”

Act 3 started just over a year ago. Al was 46 and needed to exercise.Although it had been five years since he had set foot on a skateboard,something was calling him back. “My life is just not in balance withoutmy body moving,” he says. “Everyone in my family recognizes that. So,after cycling, flatland BMX, yoga, Aikido and running (big mistake), Icame back.

“I knew I wouldn’t put my livelihood or family through the same thing— so on a whim I typed ‘longboarding’ into Google,” he says. An Orig-inal Skateboards video popped up, and Al’s jaw dropped. “I couldn’tbelieve what was going on. I guess what I was seeing is now referred toas freeriding. My heart started pounding. I was back.”

PART TWO — CONNECTIONS AND ALTERATIONSWhen people discover longboarding and start to find that it deeply res-onates with them, other areas of their lives start to change. Ideas thatwere never formally considered or explored, suddenly come possible.From here, connections are made and sometimes worldviews are fun-damentally altered. I can speak from personal experience on thisconcept! Wikipedia says spirituality ‘emphasizes humanistic qualitiessuch as love, compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, content-ment, responsibility, harmony, and a concern for others.’ “Obviously Ilove skateboarding” writes Peter. “But through skateboarding I haveseen some of the most compassionate individuals I have ever met,whether it’s through the idea of paying some gear forward to someonewho can’t afford it, or teaching someone how to skate.”

“If you’ve ever been to any skate event at all, you know how muchpatience is a necessity. ‘Skater Standard Time’ (+ 30 minutes minimum)is the norm. And where I live is not close to particularly awesome ter-rain. So I need to be patient enough to set a block of time aside to travelto the good stuff.

“Forgiveness happens when you get taken out in a heat. Content-ment in terms of skateboard spirituality means riding what you’ve gotand working on your skills instead of blaming your lack of skills on gearor terrain. Responsibility plays out in the fact that what we do [can be]illegal. But just because it is illegal doesn’t mean we have to be hated.


You have a responsibility to your spots and the locals/neigh-bors. You also have a responsibility to the scene as a whole toskate safe and smart and not blow out spots for everyone. Con-cern for others has been mentioned already, but you’d betterbe thinking of the people you’re with when you’re speedingdown a mountain.”

Samuel has had some rough patches in his life. Long-boarding hasn’t just connected him to something spiritual, ithas grounded him. “I started feeling a lot of emotional pain. Iwas on the edge of suicide and I couldn’t take anything any-more.” Although he sometimes fell while longboarding, thosechallenges gave him the strength and motivation to keep going,he says: “I started to notice it more and more. Then one ses-sion I felt this strange feeling run through me as I started doingnew tricks and felt more motivation in longboarding and dedi-cation than ever.”

About two years ago, after Adam bought his first longboard,he would simply enjoy the ride, cruising around to places every-where, carving and slashing pavement here and there. “I wouldalways longboard at night or dawn when the air was cool andthe only lights that came were from streetlights or the faintblue hue from the skies,” he says. “The more laid-back style oflongboarding was what appealed to me, and it was deeply con-nected to who I am, a laid-back person. Longboarding alsomade me view the world more positively, which indirectlyhelped me express my altruism. Every journey on my long-board, simply cruising around, helped me meet new people,new personalities and new environment.”

Devon wrote that he was not raised to believe in one religion,so he finds it hard to connect longboarding directly to the senseof spirituality through religious enlightenment. “I find long-boarding much more connected to spirituality as a method ofrelaxation and meditation,” he wrote.

While out skating, B. Lane realized spirituality is not a pas-sive notion. “There’s good reason it’s called a spiritualdiscipline,” he says. “I need to remake the frontiers I’ve gottento each time out. The seeming miracle is that with each outing,I get the sense of being refreshed, renewed, and offered —partly by my efforts — some kind of grace. In this often convo-luted world, that’s no small thing.”

Israel definitely finds that longboarding is connected to hisspirituality. “I believe that everything does connect,” he says,“some for good and some for bad. Longboarding is so good forme spiritually. It is centers me. I become one with all creation.Taking and riding life. It’s like the motion melts you into the lifeforce that exists in and around all things. It brings you to a higherplane of awareness of everything around, giving you a closer rela-tionship with life at its purest sense — like it’s what I am meantto do in all ways. Just think, you aren’t polluting and destroyinganything like cars or trucks [do]. You are moving faster and moreefficiently. It’s perfect for your mind, body and soul!”

Kiry feels that her spirituality is tied to nature. “I feel morein tune with the earth and the universe when skating,” shesays. “I become part of the elements.”

David believes that artists exemplify their spirituality in theirart. “Think of longboarding (or skateboarding in general) muchlike dance,” he says. “Both are equally art and sport. Both takebalance, physical strength, control and hard work. [Riding] not

only connects with your spirituality, but it is/can be the brushin which you offer to paint your spirituality for the world to see.”

Micah says longboarding does help him spiritually thoughhe does not follow any organized religion. “Spirituality is how Ifill that void of not having a sense of purpose that religion tendsto give a person,” he says. “I came to realize that I never evenconsidered myself spiritual until after I started longboarding. Itgave me a sense of confidence and accomplishment I hadnever felt in any other activity — I think because it’s individuallybased. Other sports’ accomplishments are based on the workof the team; with longboarding it’s just you and your board.What you get is based on the work you yourself put in. This ishow spirituality can be looked at as well.”

PART 3 — THE STOKE OF INSIGHTThe next question I asked concerned how longboarding clearedpeople’s minds. I wondered how it helped people refocus theirthoughts and give them unique insights. I know that I havefound this to be the case, but was intrigued to see how long-boarding affected others.

“Skateboarding has to clear your mind by definition,” saysPeter. “The amount of focus and determination that goes intoa lot of the gnarlier forms of skateboarding makes it so.”


Peter says some serious days of skateboarding impel him toreassess aspects of his life. “It’s an addiction in the sense that as soonas one session is done, I cannot wait for the next, and it’s all I think aboutat work and sometimes [at] school. It makes me re-analyze myself,whether it’s my physical strength or mental strength. It almost makesme feel elitist, knowing that I have discovered this incredible sense offreedom and strength that so few people have.”

Sam says longboarding does wonders for him.“When you’re freeriding or downhilling, your main focus is on your

trick or on your downhill position,” he says. “I focus all in it ... thosemoments when bombing a hill or busting some sick slides, I feel freefrom the world. I feel like I am just free of all pain and worries. It’s justme, nature and my longboards.”

Adam said longboarding was profoundly liberating: “There were nohigh school dramas, no judgments, no bulls—t,” he wrote. “It wassimply moving around in a fun and calming way, going with an imagi-nary flow that simply was out of this world in the sense that it broughtyou away from your troubles and woes. It was just skating aroundwithout worries.”

Adam also wrote about how longboarding can allow you to get outand see new places and view them in a different light: A city walk wouldbe completely different from a city cruise; a drive on a mountain wouldbe different compared to bombing the hill with a whole group of people.

Finally, he wrote, “It also helped me view the world differentlysomehow. Before longboarding, I was more of an introvert, lockingmyself in my room playing computer games. Even skating, I’d skatealone. I hated being connected with other people because of the com-plexity of relations. However, every time I cruised around, I’d meetpeople intrigued by what I was doing. People whom I would never bother

to talk to if I were to simply walk, now suddenly talked to me. Before, I’dview people as just a bag of bones. Now, I view each individual as agateway to another life, new experiences, new personalities — andlongboarding was simply a small key to start conversing to them.”

Before long, Adam started conversing with people without the helpof longboards, and this slowly built his confidence. Longboardingbecame a form of meditation to him and an invitation to view places ina much more beautiful and different light.

Devon finds that longboarding has become one of the only methodshe can use to clear his mind. He will skate for hours on end by himself:“It gives me insight into issues that may be on my mind much betterthan anything else I could do,” he says.

Devon says he finds it hard to concentrate on a specific problem inhis mind with so many distractions around. “But when I’m out skating,”he says, “there are very few distractions. By finding resolutions to theseproblems, I find it much easier to relax and clear my mind by notstressing over them so much.”

B. Lane was a little more introspective when it came to this topic.“The ironic part of this question,” he wrote, “is that the three thingsyou reference are all functions we associate with happenings from theneck up. For me, this mental restoration and enlivening is a whole-body experience. It takes finding my footing, feeling springs in the legs,attuning to center ... for the brainy aspects to start chirping. Once thekey for that day is found, the chirp often becomes a symphony in notime at all.”

“Longboarding, especially long-distance pushing, provides me witha viable form of exercise including a super cardio workout,” says Mitch.The adrenaline and endorphin rush he experiences when carving a hillor sliding sideways is a natural way of getting outside of himself.

“This is a Natural High!” he says. “Once I have spent a time in this‘flow state,’ I am far more able to focus on the more mundane taskssuch as work and other necessary daily activities.”


Mitch also says the time spent on a board also is a great “alonetime.” It enables him to think through any of the issues and items heneeds to contemplate in order to achieve his goals.

Israel says longboarding puts things that matter into real focus.“When you hit that hill or carve left and right, that is all that matters,”he wrote. “When the perfect run down your street unfolds through yourbody down through your feet to your deck, trucks and wheels, you

become a living masterpiece!”At times, Israel says, he feels like a hawk dive bombing for prey, or

even the ocean waves churning: “In those moments I feel so fulfilled.”“When I step onto my board I step out of the physical, connected

world and into my spiritual disconnect,” says Kiry. “I let go of my trou-bles. It isn’t forced; it is the natural effect of skating for me.”Longboarding is what Kiry does when she’s upset, angry or anxious.


“My problems work themselves out as if I’m pushing through them,”she says. “I always come up with my best ideas when skating.”

David’s morning sessions are quite often push/carve sessions alongthe trail of the Memphis Greenline, a paved trail along a disused railroadtrack running through the heart of Memphis, Tennessee. “It is a placeof escape from the city,” he says. “Native trees and bamboo run alongthe sides of the Greenline, and seemingly take the rider to another placewhere the city and urban sprawl have not touched.”

A few quick pushes lead to pumping and carving through this fauxforest. In less than 15 minutes, David says, all the stress of parenthood,work and financial responsibilities disappear. “I can literally feel myshoulders and mind relax as the board and I work as one to propel medown the path,” he says. “This is the Zen of skateboarding.”

Owen says longboarding helps him clear his mind because it forceshim to live in the moment. “You have to focus on the task at hand,” hesays, “and that helps you to push the stresses of daily life out of yourmind, focusing you on the present.”

Micah says he finds that he rides more when he has had a bad dayor has to work through something that’s going on within himself. “It dis-tracts me from the negative in my life and focuses my energy intosomething positive,” he says. “For example, [if I am] having a rough day,I’ll practice a trick that I haven’t gotten down yet. I can let out all myfrustrations and focus all my anger on getting the trick down, insteadof taking it out on others.”

Micah believes skateboarding is very therapeutic in that way.“Sometimes just cruising helps to clear my mind as well,” he says.“There is no better feeling than longboarding on a beautiful day, beingoutside and experiencing nature. That alone is very spiritual andcalming to me.”

PART 4 — BALANCE & HARMONYI contend that the act of balancing on a skateboard can give one anopportunity to explore aspects of harmony. So I asked about the waysthat longboarding could promote a more harmonious life.

The question proved a little more complicated than I initially thought.Peter was not convinced. “That’s a serious causation vs. correlationerror,” he wrote. “Look at the pros; a lot of those dudes are addicts andlive pretty unharmonious, miserable lives, but they have serious bal-ance on a board.”

Perhaps it was my fault in not providing more detail. But then Istarted to receive more answers that tied into the aspect of using a long-board to achieve balance both physically and mentally.

Sam says his longboard brings him harmony, peace of mind andconfidence. “Ever since I started longboarding I have gotten more gutsywith things,” he says. “My confidence level has been boosted; I feel atease, like I can accomplish even difficult things.”

This seemed like a good endorsement to me — but then Adamchimed in with his assessment: “From a physical point of view, I agree.Ever since I started indulging in downhill skateboarding, I started prac-ticing a more healthy lifestyle.” He started watching what he ate andtook up parkour to stay in shape and strengthen his legs — whichallowed him to control his composure while bombing a hill at 60-70km/h and not being afraid to slide or footbrake.

So far so good, I thought. But then he added, “However, I disagree interms of attitude. Longboarding made me egocentric after I startedjoining races. Competition is there. Relationships were severed in mycompetitiveness, and simply focusing myself to winning never helpedmyself progress. Therefore, competition in sports in general is always

an imbalance towards life.” Definitely food for thought as longboardingcompetitions grow at a rapid rate.

Devon believes that longboarding can create a harmonious life —but not due to the physical balance that one develops through long-boarding. “The equilibrium that one has while skating should reflectthe harmonious lifestyle that one could live.” Stated another way: Long-boarding requires balance, but it’s up to us to lead a balanced life.

B. Lane says he tries to ride every day, but sometimes he wondersif it’s an addiction or a discipline. “My kids think I’m obsessed,” he says,and admits, “If I can’t get out a few days in a row I do get cranky.”

In the end , though, he says, “I guess that’s a matter of perspec-tive. What may be harmonious on one level, like maintaining one’shealth, seems like violent battle on the level of blood cells andpathogens. Longboarding is my constitutional — a daily fix that feelsgood and pays dividends.”

Mitch agreed with the concept of balance and harmony. “One can easily take the lessons learned from longboarding and

apply them to life in many circumstances,” he says. “The skill and fore-sight necessary to achieve a nice flowing ride is not dissimilar to life inmany other instances: Be calm, be steady, be in control, and you willenjoy the flow. Oh, and always protect yourself. Wear a helmet; learnthe skills and you will improve your experience — just like in life.”

Israel seemed to agree with my philosophy almost instinctively. “When you are balanced on a longboard, you are reflecting balance

in life,” he wrote. “And when you prove that you can do more, harderand faster, on that board ... then you can bring that over to your life offthe board. You remember how hard it was to take your first push on theboard, but now you can hit a hill going 40 and slide sideways for 20 feetand stand up like nothing. Work at it and it will come.”

David also seemed to agree. “Like most things, it is necessary to cutthrough the notion of achievement, and allow for the experience to flowits natural course,” he wrote. “All aspects of skateboarding/long-boarding are about self-discovery. We all have individual barriers andlimitations. To push those without pushing is the key to balance. It isthe Taoist notion of doing non-doing.”

Owen wrote that longboarding can promote time to reflect andcenter yourself, and that perhaps through such reflection you can adjustyour life and make it more harmonious and peaceful.

“But at the same time,” he wrote, “I think that it can be as harmo-nious or destructive as you will allow it. ... If you are living a destructivelifestyle, longboarding can enable you to continue down that path if youallow it. If you are living a peaceful lifestyle, longboarding can promoteand enable you as you continue down that path as well.

Thus, Owen says, “I believe that longboarding in and of itself is aneutral entity, and it isn’t longboarding that promotes a harmoniouslife, but that it’s we who promote it.”

And Owen is blunt in his assessment of what longboarding canachieve: “I don’t believe that longboarding, in and of itself, is able tomanufacture true peace for you.”

Al took a different approach to the question, seeing the balance notas a philosophical one but a chemical one.

“For the most part longboarding is aerobic,” he wrote. “Learning to treflip is not. The stoke of longboarding, I think, is very much tied to that aer-obic aspect. Yet it’s not running; it’s not cycling; there is that flow that youdon’t get from those activities. So for me the act of skating is the balanceto the other aspects of my life. In no other part of my life do I actuallyexperience that which happens on the hill — so that is the balance.”

To be continued … CW

longboarding and spirituality

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