I remember talking to Si Tibor an Austrian sometime skier and often downhiller at Aviemore way back in time, he loved vert skating too and i was giving him a lift as far as Birmingham so he could get a flight to the US for a holiday. He moaned and groaned about the fact that people often told him as part of an ‘event’ when he could skate and when he couldn’t…which is kind of a mountain thing i think. A big slice of whatthefuck and fuckyou inhabited Si’s timespace and he was pissed off with the loud hailers and the shouting and the shit that goes down when a downhill skatey race goes on…thats cool, he just hassled me for five hours about it.
I did think more about it however in the years since but it never hit home as much as in maybe 2001 or so when downhill events started to get a bit bigger and a little more hassle for this downhill cheese monkey. Gurston down gravity sports thing was a hassle really, all timed runs and racey bugatti club madness and i would drive home grab a short board and go skate with the local youth to get the taste of RACE out of my mouth.
Now after the fallout of more IGSA races and shouty men with perma tans i’ve pretty much done with that shit…if i want to go to a timed event i can choose a load of them on the race calendar or attend Bo Peep in the UK. Freedom to be jailed if you like. Plenty of dudes love that shit, bleep, go, check times, qualify, heats, expensive equipment, definite topography of haves and have nots. I kind of picked up on an undercurrent of competition that has built up over the years into a negative stoke sapping mollusc of ungrooviness…whispered rumours and shittyness about shit. I started to get antsy and shitty myself…shitty shitty. Negativity breeds negativity, it can only take and not give anything. Thats why you get punch ups at races now and idle violence about taking people out and all that shit…enough of this crap…
What i want is an event where the only provisor for a ride down the hill is a safety aspect, dudes on the track, goats grazing, fifty riders setting off constantly to skate, up and down, up and down, skatey skatey skatey…who wins? who fucking cares, skateboards and skateboards, just skateboarding no luges or gravity vehicles or roller skates or bikes or any of that malarky, skateboards thats all just skateboards. Happiness in abundance, smiles, cheer, alcohol and drunkeness and skateboarding, as many runs as your legs can deal with, camping for a few days, standing around bullshitting with skateboarders about skateboarding. A freeride that means more than freeriding which means free your fucking head which is supposed to be what skateboarding is about to be honest.
lovemachinegun 