BY OLE GILBERTSON
11/02/01

I'm a skateboarding accountant. I would like to say that I am an accounting skateboarder, but the reality of it is that I spend many more hours doing accounting per week than I do on my skateboard. It doesn't mean that my mind isn't at the skatepark. I've actually learned tricks while I was at work. Have you ever figured out a trick when you were doing something totally unrelated to skateboarding? It just goes to show how thoroughly skateboarding has infected me. The limited access to my skate fix has made me appreciate the time that I get to spend skateboarding. The ratio of my time spent skateboarding to the time spent doing accounting is roughly 1:4. Not that the numbers really matter, but I did tell you that I'm a skateboarding accountant.

It is possible that the "skateboarding accountant" is going to become more popular. Is skateboarding destined to be a sport? In some ways, I would have to say that it is. The future of skateboarding lies in people continuing to skateboard into the later stages of their life. Skateboarding cannot be just for the kids with rubber knees if it is going to stay alive. There are a lot of pro skateboarders that have gotten into their 30's & (gulp) 40's. Our generation of skateboarders owe it to ourselves and to the sport to skate as long as possible. In order to keep skateboarding alive, we need to share any sort of tips that we might have for each other. I have explored several other "sports" (snowboarding, kickboxing, running, biking, etc.) and have learned a lot from some of the more mainstream sports; specifically running.

Training for a marathon is a mental & physical commitment that is on par with skateboarding but just in a different medium. Runners have a good network of communication & have nurtured their sport to progress very rapidly. The fastest marathon time is now a little over two hours. This means that this person is running just under a 5 minute mile for 26.2 miles. Running became popular about the same time as skateboarding. The fastest marathon time has been cut in half over the course of 30 years. The network of communication within the running community is what made this progression possible. There are some 50 different running magazines & countless websites. On all of these mediums, there are tips that are shared from runner to runner. Skateboarding can use this same strategy to progress & help each other. I want to make the most out of my time spent skateboarding. I don't want to say that I "train" to skateboard, but I try to prepare as best I can to make sure that I have the most fun possible in my limited skateboard time. Life is all about prioritizing for me. I choose to make skateboarding a priority for roughly 8 hours a week. I respect anyone who makes skateboarding a priority in their life.

I actually plan a couple days ahead when I'm going skateboarding. I make sure to get a minimum of eight hours of sleep the night prior to the session. I carbo-load the entire day of the session. At about 3:00, I stop eating & start drinking mad amounts of water. I get off work at 4:30, so I make a mad dash home. I take about a 45 min. nap, then I get up & stretch while I watch whatever skate video I'm in the mood for. When I get to the skatepark, I start out in the bowl until I get the feel of my board. When I switch to vert, I try to take a bunch of "confidence" runs. Confidence runs are meant to warm up my mental game for the day. They are always made up of my easiest tricks, & avoiding bailing is the key purpose of these runs. Some days, I feel like I could have just skipped them, but I've learned the hard way that they are a complete necessity. During the session, I will use these runs to bounce back after a slam, or to change gears after trying a trick for too long.

I maintain my carbohydrate and sodium levels with a sports drink that I sip on throughout the session. As the session wears down, I'll switch to water to start the recovery process. If I stayed on the sports drink, I would have a lot of excess carbohydrates too late in the evening. Your body needs to process the energy that it gets from carbohydrates right away or else it will store it (as fat). If you've traveled around the world, you will notice that there aren't as many fat people in other countries. It's not that they are more active than us, it is the structure of their diet that makes them leaner. When the Europeans eat their carbohydrates (breads, fruits, & vegetables), they eat them in the morning or early afternoon. In addition, they eat their largest meal of the day closer to noon. This gives them a chance to use the energy from the food during the day that it was consumed.

Skateboarding is a sport the same way that Kickboxing, Snowboarding, and Running are sports. It takes a lot of dedication to do anything like this. I'm a skateboarder. In some ways, I've trained to be a skateboarder for years. I want to see the sport progress & never "die out" like it has before. I think that we all have some sort of preparation that we use before a session. If we share these preparation strategies with each other, we can help each other & help the sport at the same time. I don't pretend to be an authority on anything. I just wanted to share a strategy that works for me.

O. Gilbertson

See Also Vert, Street, Mental...