The Concrete Doesn't Care What Your Intentions Were

• Posted by Dez Fontaine Sat at 8:30 PM Filed in Recreation #Culture  #risk  #Authenticity  #community  #skateboarding  23 views
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  I watched a kid eat shit on the asphalt last Tuesday, full speed, no pads, nothing. Just decided to send it down this gnarly hill behind the strip mall and his body ragdolled like he was made of wet socks. Blood everywhere. Teeth situation got weird. And you know what happened? He sat there for maybe thirty seconds, laughed at himself, and started walking back up the hill to do it again.

  That's the thing nobody talks about when they romanticize skateboarding. It's not the sick tricks or the community or finding yourself through concrete meditation. It's the brutal acceptance that the ground is going to win sometimes and you just keep showing up anyway.

  I've been thinking about this a lot lately because there's this whole narrative floating around about skateboarding being some spiritual journey, this path to enlightenment through ollies and kickflips. And yeah, there's truth in that. But there's also a harder truth that gets glossed over: skateboarding is just you versus reality in its most honest form. No scoreboards, no judges, no participation trophies. The concrete doesn't care about your excuses or your potential or how hard you tried. It just is what it is.

  The culture around it though, that's where it gets interesting. Because everyone's got their own reason for being there. Some kids are running from stuff at home. Some are just looking for a crew that gets them. Some are chasing something they can't even name yet. I see people in spots treating the concrete like it's a confessional, like gravity is the only thing that will ever be honest with them. And maybe that's exactly right.

  What kills me is when the skateboard community tries to gatekeep or get precious about who belongs and who doesn't. Like the legitimacy meter is real. But the concrete has never given a fuck about your pedigree or how long you've been doing this or what brand your shoes are. I've seen investment bankers in $300 sneakers land tricks cleanly and I've seen lifers from the neighborhood struggle with the same line. The asphalt doesn't discriminate based on social credentials.

  The real culture isn't in the tricks or the style or the underground aesthetics, though those things matter. It's in showing up knowing you're probably going to fail. It's in that moment where you're standing at the top of something that could break you and you choose to go anyway. That's the conversation the community is actually having with each other, whether anyone's saying it out loud or not.

  And maybe that's what we need more of everywhere else. Less obsessing over the right way to do things and more willingness to just commit to the attempt, knowing full well the concrete's going to have its say. Because that kid with the bloody mouth? He wasn't thinking about perfection or legitimacy or whether he belonged there. He was just ready for what comes next.

  So here's my question for you: what's your concrete, and are you actually willing to take the fall?