10.24.99

Trials of an Outcast Youth

For a week or so, I have been contemplating the same question we all wonder daily as "skateboarders".... Why? Why must all this harassment continue. Is it me? Must I change the way I dress or act, or is it because I LOVE TO RIDE!!!. Should I quit all that I've known for so long??? HELL NO- NO WAY!!!

It took a week or so to calm down from my experience. I am talking about something that happened a week ago to me. I was enjoying a great day or skating at one of the best high schools by my house with a few friends, when out of nowhere a very large S.U.V. type truck rolled in front of me one second late of running me down in midair. I don't know about you, but I was damn sure pissed off from near colliding with this truck. I may have said some choice words, but nothing the average teen doesn't hear daily. After all this, some guy jumps out of his car as an onlooker an assesses the situation, he turns to me and says, "It's not that girl's fault but it's yours....."

Now I'm 21 and I know if I hit someone in a school parking lot I would be selling my nuts to stay out of jail... Since I was skateboarding I was not supposed to be at that school.. Obviously if I want to sit in my car like him, blocking the vision of all drivers on this turn, watching football clones while stroking my small ass dick.. I can, but skating? HELL NO!! It's amazing what you find out about prejudice people all around this fine country....... I thought all I had to worry about was the Man (police) when I moved here. Now I'm stressing cars and trucks which is much worse than rednecks down south. Just cause you own a board you can be hit by trucks now? What the hell is this?? Don't they understand, this is bigger than all of those lil' people of the world?

Skateboarding will always be bigger. No matter where you look, we are everywhere. Small towns, big towns, third world countries "everywhere".. We progress and grind out these pesky obstacles. We are diverse. We have every one in our family of riders from all walks like Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, poor, rich, intelligent, crafted, dumb, housed, and non-housed. I wonder how this could happen to a group as big as us. As we search for that waxed curb, that discolored rail, that gap, while everyone else blindly walks through their life, we search to excite our feet!! Stepping onto the streets of that cruel bone breaking concrete, putting our freedom on the line sometimes all for the love of riding some piece of plywood, some steel, and urethane, not just as an individual but as a large mass.

Whether as a pro, amateur, or just as a normal Joe... We risk lots of problems from all areas.. They say prejudice stems from the inability to "understand" .... I say it's just plain stupidity!!! Remember! If you skate, you always have that group who truly understands you and are there for you. It's those people who also skateboard. I never understood this logic until I traveled. Now I truly do, and it means a lot!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU STEP ONTO THEM MEAN STREETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BY Scott Quatrevingt