1. When and how did you get into freestyle skateboarding? And why freestyle?
I started skating after I quit hockey after 10 years. So I started towards the tail end of 8th grade. Due to the lack of a car and the lack of any street spots I got into freestyle. After learning impossibles within 10 months of skating, I thought freestyle would be a wise investment of time. It has paid off I think.
Plus the normal high school stuff happened, kids got involved in some intense drugs at my high school and I just cut myself from that and focused on skating. Pretty much the same thing I do now in college, I’m not a huge fan of the club scene.
2. What are your sponsors?
I am sponsored by Delicious Skateboard Shop. It is owned by fellow pro freestyler Tommy Harward and I have a pro model deck by them. Another sponsor is Original Skateboards, they take me on trips hook me up with bearings and other assortments of gear. Both are awesome and I’m glad I can be backed by some great companies.
3. Favorite Tricks?
Tough one, probably Rennagade Sidewinders because they are such an impressive looking trick and not a lot of people do them. Then 540 impossibles are a close second same reasoning as the Rennagade Sidewinders.
4. What skaters have influenced you the most?
Tommy Harward and Keith Renna are the main influences and that’s pretty obvious. I skate with Tommy a lot plus I work at his skate park so I see him a lot and we talk about new trick ideas, and we steal tricks from each other. Keith I love his technical truck transfers and I take those from him. A little fact most people don’t know is that all of Keith’s transfers with flips he throws them away from his body, while I flip them towards my body. This was discovered by many text volleys back and forth and Facebook messages.
5. Other than skating, what do you like to spend most of your time doing?
I am a senior at North Carolina State University in the College of Textiles. I wear a custom suit everyday and no one knows I skateboard, and I like to keep those 2 lives separated. I’m majoring in fashion textile management product development, and I’m also a teacher’s assistant for a lot of sewing classes. I spend at least 20 hours a week fixing industrial sewing machines and teaching Phds how to use them. It is pretty cool when I get texts from professors asking to come down and look at a machine that 3 people with doctorate degrees cannot figure out what is wrong with a machine and it takes me about 10 seconds to tell them the problem. I actually have a blog about my encounters down in the sewing lab:
http://sewinglabstruggles.blogspot.com/
Other than school which takes up most of my time I smoke cigars. It goes nicely with my custom suits and diamond rings I wear. I don’t drink so whenever I go out with friends or to parties I roast up cigars, I still have control of my body and I don’t do stupid embarrassing things. And a man in a suit smoking a cigar is a total woman magnet, plus if you can talk fashion to them you are set for the night.
6. What freestyle contests have you competed in over the years and what place did you earn in each contest?
Honestly I haven’t been in a lot of freestyle contest but here are the 3:
2006 US Championships- 4th pro division
2007 US Championships-3rd pro division
2010 World Championships- 2nd pro division
7. What was up with the hard hat a few years ago? Why don’t you wear it anymore? It was definitely improving the quality and the state of freestyle.
Knew this would come up haha, it was a joke on how ridiculous skateboard and freestyle clothing fashion was. Kind of funny how I go to school for fashion now, but an old sponsor who I currently don’t have gave me some money to switch up my clothing style and to drop the hardhat. That is why it’s gone, still kept the user name Seanhardhat though, and close friends still call me hard hat.
8. Explain why you don’t like Rodney Mullen.
Mullen is a great skater but the moment I tell someone I skate freestyle they automatically think of him. And those annoying comments on every video “Mullen did this!” actually he didn’t do Rennagade sidewinders and 540 impossibles. In order for the scene to grow people need to realize freestyle is not just Rodney Mullen or fairy foot work.
9. How does it feel to be ranked 2nd in the world?
It was pretty awesome; my heart was racing when they announced those results from last to first. I lost by 1/3 of a point so I was a little pissed but it was all good. Once it was announced I actually walked away and called up a girl and asked her out to dinner when I got back who I was obsessed with. I was pissed when she brought her friend who is also a friend of mine and then she asked me what my net worth was…weak. I am excited for Canada but being 2nd puts a little more pressure on me though haha.
10. Any advice to new freestylers?
Freestyle is what you make it, have fun and learn what you want to learn. Never be afraid to make fun of yourself. Skateboarding to me is a hobby, doing tricks on a piece of wood with wheels, if you take it so seriously you need to reevaluate your life. Tricks don’t come easy they take practice, after trying a single trick for 4 hours in the 100 degree weather of North Carolina and finally landing it, the feeling is great. If you keep chasing that feeling of accomplishment, it will pay off and people will recognize talent.
1. When did you get your first skateboard and when/how did you get into freestyle specifically?
I started skateboarding in the spring of 1985. I was in seventh grade at the time. I guess during the end of sixth grade, I started noticing other kids bringing these wide skateboards into school. I didn’t give much thought to it until my brother Greg rented an old movie called “Skateboard Madness” from the grocery store. Once I saw that movie, I decided that was what I wanted to do. So I started saving up my allowance and when I had $99, my mom drove me down to Doo-Wop Records in Newport, RI, to buy my first complete, a Powell Mike McGill skateboard with Tracker Six Tracks and Bones III wheels.
That summer, my dad and I built the first of many quarter pipes in our yard and I skated that every day for years.
About a year into skating is when I got into freestyle. I got a VHS tape for Christmas in 1985 with a Del Mar Skate Ranch contest on it. The contest featured pool skating and freestyle with runs from Per Welinder, Rodney Mullen, Kevin Harris, Steve Rocco, Bob Schmelzer, etc. Watching that contest, I realized how accessible freestyle was — I could do it anywhere, all I needed was a flat, open place to skate. So I went down to Redney’s Surf Shop down by the beaches in Newport and reserved a Vision Trickster deck while they ordered the necessary trucks and wheels. But when I went in to pick it all up, the new Rodney Mullen chessboard graphic had arrived and I decided to buy that instead.
2. What are your sponsors?
MODE Skateboards, Tracker Trucks, Oust Bearings, Fly Paper Griptape, Khiro Skateboard Products, and Decomposed Skateboards
3. What are your favorite tricks?
So many, but I’ll start with two-footed nose 360s, nosewheelie spacewalks, good footwork, layback grinds, backside laybacks, the Phillips 66, and whatever new things I’m trying. I’ve been trying a lot of variations of this fakie rail trick I do, where you roll backwards, go to rail and sort of varial pressure flip it off the rail by putting pressure on the wheels. I’ve always liked pivot-type tricks like Dan Gallagher does too.
4. What skaters or people have influenced your skating over the years?
First off, my long-time friend Henry Candioti. He’s definitely my favorite freestyler of all-time. I first saw photos of Henry skating in Huntington Beach in an issue of a bike magazine. Then I started noticing these small little Watershed (an old Rhode Island surf shop) ads in Thrasher with Henry doing a fingerflip. That’s when I realized he must live nearby. As it turns out, he had just arrived from Argentina to attend art school at the Rhode Island School of Design. But not being old enough to drive yet, it would be a couple of years before we’d cross paths.
The late Dave Rich would be the next freestyler to kind of influence me. Not really in style but he did show me a bunch of tricks early on. He and his brother Art Gracey ran the Eastern Skateboarding Association during the 1980s. They were freestylers and lived about 30 minutes away. One day while at a contest by the beach in New- port, some other skaters told me there was a really good guy skating by the pavilion. I’m guessing this was the spring of 1988. Dave ended up showing me a bunch of tricks like carousels, butterflips and broken fingers.
Kevin Harris would be the next one. Sometime around this period, I ended up going to a Bones Brigade demo at a bike shop in New Bedford, Massachusetts, called Yesteryear Cycles. Powell had its portable miniramp set up and Kevin Harris skated both the ramp and freestyle. The speed and fluidity of his freestyle skating really stood out to me. He ended up inviting me to skate with him the following day, but I had a summer job washing dishes at the time and told him I couldn’t make it. The same thing happened the following year when the team came to Newport and I couldn’t go because I had the same summer job. I guess it didn’t occur to me to call in sick.
5. What else do you do whenever you aren’t skating?
When I’m not skating freestyle, I like to skate pools and a few of the indoor parks in the area. I started surfing last year too. Other than that, I usually hang out with my wife Jenna or work on our house. I also started jumping rope every morning and doing pilates. Occasionally, I also screenprint boards for MODE Skateboards.
6. How was it skating for the Cirque du Soleil?
It was a good experience. I skated for four seasons in a seasonal show called “Wintuk” at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Casey Rigney and I were the first skateboarders they ever used. The first year, we were there for what they call the creation of the show. We spent a few months in Montreal, participating in the development of the show and then training for the show.
I came into Cirque from working a desk job. I was a copy editor at a newspaper. So joining Cirque was interesting to see how all these different people made their livings. There were a lot of gymnasts and powertrack people, dancers, rope skippers, contortionists, etc.
I also quickly learned that skating in a theater-type show is so different from a regular demo. Everything is timed out exactly and choreographed. You can’t deviate from the pace of the show. But one of the hardest things for me, as a skateboarder, was getting used to looking up. As a skateboarder, you’re used to looking down at your board all the time. So, during the first season, I needed to work hard at looking up after I landed tricks. That always seemed unnatural after 25 years of skating a certain way. I was used to skating in my own little world, instead of stopping to acknowledge the audience.
Since the audience is only on one side, I also had to get used to stopping all my spinning tricks so that you came to a stop facing the audience. When I skate at regular demos, the crowd is usually all around you, so that’s not a big deal.
If I could change anything about the show, it would be the surface of the stage. It was one of the slickest things I’ve ever skated. And the lack of choices for freestyle wheels didn’t help. It probably would have been fine if the freestyle wheels I like were available in a softer durometer, like 95A. I also would have liked to mop the floor between each show with Coca-Cola. But because some of the other artists’ costumes come in contact with the floor, they couldn’t allow something like that. So you just needed to skate very cautiously.
We did about 12 shows a week. And I would keep track in my head of how many shows I’d go without missing a trick or stepping off. I think my record was 23 shows. Then, I’d inevitably step off on something. Somehow in the 400 shows I did in four years, I never shot my board across the stage or had to chase after it. Any missed tricks were just minor step-offs. Falling off of my board wouldn’t have been good because I did all my skating at the edge of the stage. But I did step off on a handstand kickflip the day President Clinton came with Hillary and their daughter Chelsea. I knew exactly where they were seated because I could see from behind the curtain where the Secret Service agents were seating them and you heard everyone gasp as they entered the theater. I think I skated fine at the shows attended by Bono, Beyonce, LL Cool J, Jennifer Connelly, and Blake Lively and the Gossip Girl cast. But for some reason, knowing exactly where certain people were seated can mess with your concentration.
If you’d ask Casey Rigney, he’d tell you the same thing. He had to do a big kickflip over this giant dome ramp in the center of the stage and he could do them fine, unless he had friends in the audience.
7. I think I saw an old photo of you on facebook boardsliding a handrail from the late 80s/early 90s sometime; you used to skate street?
I think that photo is from 1988. But, yeah, I grew up skating everything: ramps, street and freestyle. I concentrated on freestyle the most, but growing up I also street skated or skated some ramps every day because that’s
what my friends were doing. I’d usually have two boards with me, my street board and my freestyle board. You never knew where you were going to end up skating. Sometimes we’d go to somebody’s halfpipe first and then go to a different spot.
When freestyle died out around 1990-91, I skated more infrequently. But about 1998, I started to get back into it as skateparks started being built in the area. I was only street skating at first and then I started going to this park called Skater Island in Middletown, RI. They had the most perfect bowl, 9-feet in the deep end with a foot of vert and 5-feet in the shallow end. And I started getting addicted again to skating, like I originally was with freestyle. I’d pack my board and gear in my car, and go to the park every night after work to skate the bowl for a couple of hours.
Then, about 2001, I realized people were starting to make freestyle stuff again and I got back into freestyle like I used to be.
8. What competitions have you skated in over the years and what place did you get in each one?
I started in a lot of Eastern Skateboarding Association contests from 1987 through 1990 in New England and under the Brooklyn Bridge. I also used to go to these contests every summer hosted by a skate/surf shop in Connecticut. Those were great for picking up some freestyle products as prizes. There were usually only four people in the freestyle division and they ran several contests each summer. You’d get a $50 gift certificate to the shop for first place and we would go redeem our gift certificates after each event. If they had a deck in stock, I’d get that. Other times, I’d get $50 worth of tail skids or griptape.
Some of the other fun ones were:
• 9th place, 1989 NSA Eastern Regionals, Ocean City, MD (my first time skating in the sponsored division)
• 2nd place, 1990 NSA Eastern Regionals, Atlanta, GA
• 4th place, 1991 NSA Nationals, Atlanta, GA
• 1st place, 2001 WFSA freestyle world championships, New York.
• 1st place, 2001 Barrio Games U.S. freestyle championships, Los Angeles, California.
• 2nd place, 2003 Casper Classic U.S. freesstyle championships, Long Beach, California.
• 3rd place, 2004 Casper Classic II U.S. freestyle championships, Pasadena, California.
9. Your ideal board setup?
The ideal board for me is more of a constant refining process rather than a tangible goal. Because for certain tricks, certain board shapes or wheel designs are better. But for other tricks, it might be better to have a totally different shape. So it’s finding a balance between all the things you’re trying to accomplish and what will help you do them. It’s a give-and-take.
That being said, I like to ride a modern double-kick freestyle shape with slightly squared off ends. I also like the shape to be symmetrical. Basically, my decks are cut of street concave but because they are slightly shorter than a street shape, you don’t have as sharp an upturn on the kicktails. I still think if I could find something with even less upturn and concave, such as the Girl Skateboard shapes from the early 2000s, it would an improvement.
My current freestyle setup is:
Board: a MODE symmetrical 29.65 by 7.4 double-kick deck with a 13.75 wheelbase
Trucks: 106mm Tracker FulTracks
Wheels: 54 mm Reverse freestyle wheels (with two washers behind each wheel)
Bushings: Khiro extra hard purple bushings
Bearings: Oust Moc 5
Griptape: Madrid Fly Paper
Tail skids: two of the thick Fitzall skidplates
10. Any advice to new freestylers?
Skate for your own enjoyment and it will never let you down. Skateboarding has provided me with endless hours of challenges and fun for 27 years, and I can’t imagine ever stopping.
Maybe also to cast a wide net in terms of watching other skaters to find things that inspire you. As you begin, take the elements that you like and find ways to make them your own.
After 2009, when the last German championships happened, I was happy to see Horand Thöngens and the freestyle rocket team throw this contest again in Munich. The contest was created for a fresh start for freestyle in Germany in 2012, so we could come together and have fun. Munich is a nice city and I thought it was a good place for the contest, so there was never a question that I would go there and support the contest with my skate shop. I got there on Friday from Berlin with Günter Mokulys, Starsky, and picked up another freestyle skater on the way. After an eight hour drive we arrived at Horand’s home and spent the rest of the evening with the Hungarian guys like Georgeo, Andy Timmreck, and we all drank some beer. We had some good talks well into the night.
The next day, the contest started, and the skatepark was great to skate because it was heated (I had never seen this before in a skatepark but it feels perfect to skate in). Günter Mokulys had a solid first run and showed some new tricks in his second run to place first. My first run was also pretty good with a lot of footwork, 50/50 tricks, and some wheelies which ended up bringing me to second place. Stefan Albert ended up in third place with some stylish tricks and some original stuff on the bank. Turi Zoltan and Horand Thönges shared fourth place (Turi had some unique tricks and a 720 railflip at the end). Horand did some great spins and old school tricks. After the pro contest, some rookies followed with good freestyle skating including railflips, ollie airwalks, kickflips and much more…
Gerorgeo Czerwinski hosted the contest and Starsky Kleinhans did a great job as the main judge with three more judges. Thanks to Never Enough Skateboards, Sk8dlx, Skatekickz, Red Bull and the whole team from the actionhall for the support with the contest! Horand and his “rocket freestyle team” ran a good contest with a lot of media coverage and good flavor.
This contest will happen again next year, I hope with more competitors! Freestyle needs to be in public and live to the people, everybody speaks about to grow freestyle, than come to the contest join us and have a good time! Thanks for everybody who make this good weekend possible!
1. When and how did you get into freestyle skateboarding? And why freestyle?
Most of the newer freestyle skateboarders started to skate because of Rodney Mullen and his videos in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video games. I remember I saw a small Rodney video on Eurosport and I was wondered how the hell I hadn’t heard of him before?! I had knowledge of Tony Hawk and some of the huge names but I don’t know why I didn’t know about Rodney yet. He made an amazing Globe demo as I remember correctly, and there was some background information of him and small clips from his old videos. I just watched him on TV and I was amazed at how he expressed himself, tried to be himself, and didn’t copy things or follow trends. After the TV show I looked for him on the internet and I tried to find more information about him. It was so funny because in that time I didn’t have internet yet so I did all of that in school (this was in 2001). I really wanted to start skating, not freestyle and not street specifically! But to just skate in general; to roll and feel skateboarding but unfortunately I was not in a good position because of money :S. First, my Dad bought me a horrible “skateboard,” it was from a supermarket. It lasted about two to three hours and then I broke the trucks.
So after that, I had to wait more than a year to get another skateboard. I remember I told my parents that I really wanted to skate and I really wanted to see what I could do with it and figure out how it works. Finally, I get my a complete on August 15th, 2002. It’s funny because it was my Christmas present that I got really early. It was a street skateboard; an Alien Workshop deck, Destructo 5.0 trucks, Element wheels, and abec 3 bearings. I was so happy I got my first skateboard and I practiced all day long! My Mother and Father didn’t really like it though since I wasn’t at home that much and my grades in school started to drop. In the beginning I wasn’t able to balance the two things at once, but later on it became really easy. I tried to focus on school pretty hard, to learn everything in school, and after that I was able to skate.
Why Freestyle? I don’t really know. I didn’t start with freestyle and didn’t really start with street, I just rolled around, did manuals, and learned the basics like the ollie. After a year I tried to learn how to kickflip and then I started to try casper tricks. I remember my first freestyle trick was a casper to anti-casper (like a boss). With this trick I thought, “Wow, I can do it” (with motivation from my friends). So I started to practice more and more unique tricks like walk-the-dogs and endovers; this was the point where I really start to focus on freestyle.
2. What are your sponsors?
-Decomposed Skateboards (<3 Witter <3)
-Withered Skateboards
-Khiro Skateboard Products
-Never Enough Skateboards
-And I have a top secret guy in the Netherlands who helps me a lot!
3. Favorite tricks?
I haven’t exactly got any favorite tricks. I love my own tricks because I learned them from my faults. So my “signature trick,” that tailblock slide to rail 360 happened due to a fault on marble. After that I thought, “hmmm this trick feels so good,” so I tried it over and over and over.
From other skaters I LOVE the unique tricks from people who don’t copy Rodney, Kevin, or any popular skateboarder. I don’t know why most of the freestylers copy them, I think these “fake guys” haven’t got that original feeling. When you look at them you are never surprised, not even from their good tricks, because you know what they will do, it’s only about what they can copy.
My new love is the no handed 50-50 spacewalk.
4. What skaters have influenced you the most?
Of course Rodney Mullen is one of them just because he pushed the limits of skateboarding. I think I have been influenced by a lot of guys! And not just Freestyle skateboarders!
I love Chris Haslam and Richie Jackson and how they do some really original tricks.
In freestyle skateboarding I think we are a little bit separated; different regions do different tricks. In Japan the casper to switch truckstand is a basic trick; they do more streetstyle tricks than in Europe or the U.S. Anyways, from Japan, my hero is Masahiro Fujii and Takashi Suzuki. These two guys are on a different level; they skate so different! I really Like Reece Archibald with his sick tricks, Per Canguru with his technicality, Matt Gokey with his flawless style, Stefan Albert and his mind tricks. You know, this is and endless list.
And I don’t want to forget to mention the guys/styles/tricks that I don’t really like; these people also influenced my skating. When I see someone who just copies it inspires me to NOT do that.
5. What do you like to do when you aren’t skating? Do you have a day job?
Skating is everything for me.
I learned IT technology and I worked at IBM as a security tester for two and a half years. After this, I was without job and I would just skate, skate, skate. I really wanted to move out of Hungary to grab a better chance but unfortunately I got into a car accident there and it has changed my life and changed many things around me.
Anyways, this year I have a new job as a security analyst and ethical hacker for a German company in Hungary. So now here is the time to learn German! I also like to play chess and watch videos of flatland BMX and almost any kind of sports. I really want to see what the limits are of each sport. I also follow the underground street artists, like Banksy. They give me so many ideas and different viewpoints. Oh I almost forgot, I won some Chess tournaments in Veszprém, and I have some skill with table tennis.
6. You do some of the most technical tricks that I have seen, how do you get consistent enough with them to do them in contest runs?
First, thank you for the nice words. I really practice them a lot! I mean A LOT! I’m not the most talented guy to step on the board who can ollie after the 10th try. I try to bridge this problem with practice! I never practice my runs before, so during my routine I do what is coming from my feet. I’m not kidding! Sometimes I decide what I will do while I’m doing footwork. The only thing that I try to plan is that I do the easiest tricks first to calm myself down because I feel like I’m the most frightened guy on the planet. And this is the main reason I don’t try my best trick at contests because I miss them…
I remember in Paderborn I had an awesome practice run! No mistakes, much more difficult combos then usual, but in my practice run. During my actual run, I missed my basic tricks like a simple cross foot pogo (which I can do on the edge of bridges). After my run, Chris Heize asked me why I sucked at contests and why I could do everything in my practice run. It’s because I’m really frightened. A few minutes later, after my run is over, I can do everything again… This is so fucking annoying!
7. I can’t seem to make out what that thing is on your current decomposed graphic, what is it supposed to be?
It’s made by my friend Andrea Zselenkó (ELZA). It’s just an Alien with a big eye. This represents that I watch everything and follow everything BUT I’m just watching. The glass over the eye try shows that I’m really uncommunicative and I don’t let too many people get close to me. Maybe this doesn’t really seem like me but believe me, when it’s about serious things I get uncommunicative. With this graphic I was trying to help Andrea; to promote her and give her a chance to get her art out there.
8. What freestyle contests have you competed in over the years and what place did you earn in each contest?
-I’ve won three freestyle skateboard contests in Hungary and got 2nd in another one.
-6 time Hungarian Freestyle Skateboard Champion
-WFSA Cyber World champion in the AM division 2006
-European cup Germany AM division 1st place (Paderborn) 2008
-World cup in Germany AM division 1st place (Paderborn) 2009
-World cup in Germany AM division 2nd place (Paderborn) 2010
-World Championship in Sweden PRO division 4th place (Malmö) 2011
9. What is your ideal setup? (Board, Trucks, Wheels, Etc…)
Unfortunately I haven’t got my ideal deck yet. I’m pretty close to it but I usually have to make some changes to the deck because I do so many rail tricks and rails spins that my deck ends up getting worn out and wobbly due to the rails of the decks not being parallel anymore.
What I use:
Deck: 7.25 x 29″ WB: 12/75″ (I drill the truck holes under a mold so the nose and tail length is almost symmetrical. On my current model, I drill the nose trucks 1.5 cm closer to the tail).
Trucks: Bullets.
Wheels: I LOVE the hardcore offset wheels like OJII and Momentum Harris.
Bearings: No question, ONLY Bones! Especially Bones Ceramics.
Bushings: KHIRO hardcore bushings with aluminum tops.
Skids: Blistered skids (I round off the edges on mine).
A habit of mine is using old shoes to make the center of the grip more worn out and also on the ends of the board where I grab for fingerflips.
10. Any advice to new freestylers?
-NEVER give up! Yes you hear this from everyone, but really this is the key, I promise!
-Be an individual!
-When you don’t like something or not agree with something then OPEN YOUR MOUTH!
-Fight for the freestyle scene, we are a family, I really believe in this!
-When someone “attacks” you and says that you are lame because you are a freestyler or anything make sure that you turn it to your advantage.
Well, this thing called street skateboarding took over vert and freestyle in the late 1980′s.
Why did 80′s freestyle die?
Because it was limited. Extremely limited. No obstacles. Just the good ol’ flat ground.
A lot of people want freestyle to be accepted by mainstream skateboarding like it once was in the 1980′s, but why would anyone want that?
(And from my perspective, looking back at the 80′s, freestyle seemed to be very much overshadowed by vert skating in the first place, maybe it wasn’t as glamorous as we sometimes make it out to be)
Here are some reasons why freestyle hasn’t gotten “big” over the years:
-Too few people partake in it for it to go anywhere.
-Nostalgia; too many people are doing tricks that were being done in the 1980′s, there is an overall lack of progression.
-It’s not really marketable.
Yeah, that is pretty lame. It boils down to “it’s not really marketable,” which is caused by the first two reasons.
So maybe, instead of obsessing over becoming big again, we, as freestylers should just enjoy what we have. It’s kind of cool that it’s not as big as street skateboarding; most freestylers know most other freestylers, competitions are relaxing and they are generally just an excuse for a reunion, we usually don’t have to be worried about getting kicked out of a “spot”, other skaters (even non-skaters) automatically think that the tricks we do are amazing, and nobody is in it for the money.
It’s important that you know that as a freestyle skater, you aren’t just one of the 50 million skateboarders in the world, you are one of the few thousand freestyle skaters in the world.
So next time you get on your board and freestyle by yourself, just enjoy what you have.
