I just finished writing the thank you's for my wedding. If you ever want to "take stock" in your relationships with all your homies, try writing thank you's for something like a wedding and have them mean something. It makes you look back on your whole history with that person.

It's kind of funny really. When I started the process, it took me about two seconds to realize something: a lot of the people that I was thanking were brought to me through skateboarding. How can that be? What is skateboarding? I always thought it was an individual sport. Is it an individual pursuit of perfection? I suppose that it could be a pursuit of perfection. I used to think that I could do FS 5-0's till the day I die and never have the darn trick "perfect". I love that trick. Now that I'm older, I've come to realize that every FS 5-0 is perfect. Any given moment of a 5-0 (or any trick for that matter) is a snapshot of fluidity in motion. This fluidity in motion embodies perfection as it is a medium all it's own. Skateboarders communicate on this medium.

Skateboarding is more than a sequence of body mechanics performed on a piece of plywood. It is living in a moment. This moment is shared by everyone in the session. If you are skateboarding in this session, you are not simply witnessing the FS 5-0, but to some degree, you are actually experiencing it. You are sharing a moment with another skateboarder. Someone who does not skateboard cannot possibly understand this shared "moment" in time. That is why you can't teach someone to be a skateboarder by giving them a trick list and having them learn it. Skateboarding is taught to each of us through a collective. We all have a skateboarding experience that we share. We share our skateboarding experience through a session ("communicate" if you will). When we have this session we are bonding on a level that most people cannot understand. This level of bonding transcends speech. How many times have you been skating and you can feel the energy oozing out of the air around you? The music is jamming and everyone around you is ripping. It's then that you decide that you'll try your trick (whatever it happens to be) and lo and behold you make it! This feeling (inspiration if you will) is the collective energy of the skateboard session. It is this medium in which skateboarders communicate and empower each other.

Why is it such a damper on a session when someone takes a super bad slam? There is an interruption in this collective energy. Why should a slam affect a session? I mean after all, there is only one person who slammed. Why should that make a difference to the rest of us? It's their slam right? Anyone who has skated long enough to knows that when someone slams, the session slows down.

This collective experience is a bond between skateboarders. There truly is a bond between all of us. When you watch a session, you see this bond at work. Every person with half a brain that I have dragged to the skatepark has made a comment regarding the cheers during the session. They are all taken aback by the way that we cheer each other on. I've never been able to explain to any of them exactly what the cheering is all about. Yes, skateboarding is an "individual" sport. In reality though, I don't skateboard alone very often, and I can't say that I've learned a ton of new tricks when skateboarding alone. What does this tell me? Progression comes from the collective energy of a skateboard session for me.

Now that I'm a little older, this collective energy has gained more importance. I really like skating when everyone is throwing down their best tricks and pushing the limits. I think that we all really like this; which is why cheer each other on. We are collectively growing and progressing. These shared moments between skateboarders are priceless. It is almost like a feeling of family when you've shared enough of these moments with people. Back in the day, you could tell who was a skateboarder by their shoes. If you looked at someone and saw that they were wearing Vans or Airwalks, it didn't matter where you were, you had a friend. It wasn't strange to walk up to someone wearing skate shoes and start talking about skateboarding or see where they were skating that day. This "family" is what skateboarding is all about.

A while ago, I wrote an article about Mr. Braces. I made the comment that he didn't even need to step on his skateboard to be a good skateboarder. That was because he has skateboarding figured out. Skateboarding isn't about athleticism. It is about communication. He understands the medium that skateboarders communicate on. These people are few and far between. They are easy to spot in a session, because they are totally ripping and they are cheering everyone else on with their positive attitude. They have a knowledge of everyone's personal limits in the session and cheer when they know that these personal limits are being pushed. When people feed off the cheers of everyone around them and push their personal limits, it inspires someone else to push their personal limits, which in turn inspires someone else, which brings on more cheering, and so on. This chain reaction is like an evolution of the human spirit. Where else can positive energy feed off of itself to bring more positive energy? Some would say that the really good skateboarders are gifted athletically. I would say that they are gifted spiritually. It is not a coincidence that virtually all the really good skateboarders in the world are really cool people with positive attitudes. These people ooze positive attitude because they know that it flows back to them.

Be good to your fellow skateboarder and enjoy your sessions y'all. Your fellow skateboarders are sharing the same moment as you, and they are counting on your positive attitude. Positive attitude will always flow back to you in a session. If you're not happy in your moment, you are bringing a lot of people down, and you will not be a part of the session anymore. You'll never push your limits that way. The way I look at it, I could be working at the same moment that I'm skateboarding. A day of slams on my skateboard beats a day of work anytime. I've been making an effort to smile after every run lately regardless of how it ends. There is only one shared energy pool in a session. The limits of this pool are not likely to be discovered. The only limitations are the creativity and positive attitude of the skateboarders in the session. We skateboarders have been known for our creativity. As long as we keep cheering each other on, we have the positive attitude. How can anyone mess with a combination like that? A skateboard session accomplishes what religions of the world have been striving for since time began: A perpetually self-sustaining harmonious relationship with a high regard for individuality. This sounds to me like a winning philosophy. Is skateboarding my church service? I guess it is. Friday evenings, about 7:30, I'll be there. Will I push my religion on anyone? Not likely. You can't teach good skateboarding. I mean after all, it is the pursuit of perfection right?

My wedding thank you's are pretty much done. I'd like to write another thank you to skateboarding. After all, it brought a lot of friends to my wedding. Who would I send it to? There are literally thousands of people that I have skated with who have inspired me over the years. Each and every one of these people have played a role in the person that I am today. I guess the best that I can do is thank all of you. If I've ever skated with you, there's no question that we've shared some good times. Cheers Y'all.

O. Gilbertson
01/21/04