00:32I'm giving you giving you give Till It's
00:43these are much my friends I'd like to
00:46share a little bit about what we do and
00:48how it shapes our community because I
00:50think it transcends skateboarding
00:54we share a kind of common language of
00:56our own devising which is where we begin
01:00if I were to write down a bunch of these
01:01tricks it'd look a lot like that
01:04you have a little bit of chemistry you
01:06might recognize a few of the others
01:09the way we combine movements impose a
01:12sort of syntax or protocol
01:15based upon the physics of what's going
01:17on you're adding momentums
01:19well the nomenclature of physics was
01:22derived Foundation same foundations
01:28one kid can text another across the
01:31name of a trick and regardless of their
01:34native tongue they completely understand
01:38we created that together
01:53okay so that's a half cab impossible
01:59kind of a clunky name
02:03it's built of smaller movements called
02:04executive motor functions
02:06where they ingrain similar to drawing
02:10where an enormous amount of hours and
02:14until eventually by the time you're done
02:16with a flick of a thumb
02:19out comes fluid Motion in this automatic
02:23create bigger harder tricks as you've
02:26all you do is you tumble through
02:29whatever your process is it's something
02:31like this you tumble around and flick
02:33through those books until you finally
02:35can find pages that match and splice
02:38them together for this larger movement
02:39which sort of executes in a rhythmic
02:43a lot of this was developed back in the
02:45early 80s in something called freestyle
02:47getting the second to hit almost like
02:49getting first nobody deserved to ever
02:51take a spot and that's when the rumors
02:54flew that he was practicing nine hours a
02:56day and we're going nine hours a day
03:17when we would go on tour he would just
03:20go off two in the morning you know ride
03:21Hotel I'm going skating okay
03:25that was indulgent I understand but
03:27there are a couple of real reasons
03:31first all those hours all those hours of
03:35repetition for contest runs get it again
03:37and again they militated against
03:44while contests are still important they
03:46have their place they were largely
03:47superseded when videos started to take
03:49hold because it was more dimensional in
03:51its representation of what we could do
03:54well next Point worth mentioning is my
03:57whole King of the mountain thing kind of
04:01because freestyle itself was being
04:03superseded by this fast evolving new
04:06kind of skating which you've seen
04:09called Street skating
04:12it was like waking up after I mean it
04:14emerged fast like after a summer or so
04:18Define that what you've done all you put
04:20your heart into is now fairly irrelevant
04:22and worse than that it's associated with
04:24some kind of backwardsness
04:27they retired me the guys on tour they
04:29got me at 25 and retired t-shirt
04:34it took away my pro model which is your
04:35bread and butter I mean it's Financial
04:40as hard as it was to adjust
04:44it forced me to adapt to again a kind of
04:49more dimensional in this representation
04:51again of what we could do
04:54and while I had to let a lot of it Go
04:56never to be used again which sucked
05:01what I had done was so perfected that
05:04once I made the jump
05:06it actually gave me a kind of
05:08Distinction that wasn't accessible in
05:15back in the early 90s late 80s guys
05:20these more technical tricks on the urban
05:22environment around them the native
05:27stairs Ledges full pipes everything it's
05:32it's continual usage of your imagination
05:35to think Hmm how can that be scalable
05:39combined with this creative way of
05:41stretching what you have right
05:44to fit these little yin yang fitting
05:46Pearls of context meaning context
05:50well you gather them up put them in a
05:53it's more expressive of who you are
05:55we've been doing that for 25 years
05:58this is the nature of what we do
06:00we think it's quite Artful the
06:03authorities on the other hand think
06:06the rotten truth is there is a rogue
06:13I guess it starts a little bit with a
06:15daily dose of trespassing
06:17this tends to tint the lens through
06:19which we see the world Hues that are
06:24how do we get around that
06:29a lot in common with the hacking
06:30community in a lot of ways
06:32there's a very real way we're hacking
06:34the environment in the sense that we are
06:37using it in ways it was never intended
06:40to be used in creating something in the
06:41process and then passing it around
06:42within our type Community upon which
06:44they can build and we all share and Rise
07:13these are some of the most creative and
07:15driven people I have ever known
07:17and the longer I'm around them the more
07:20hardened I become in the conviction
07:24the greatest obstacle
07:28precipitating something new
07:31is breaking through this barrier of
07:36that can be seen in a lot of ways
07:38Garden variety one that you've been
07:44we found we published it well sometimes
07:51some so-called friend friend will send
07:54you a link of some rotten kid in
07:56Transylvania and he's doing your trade
08:01you had and now he's doing it and the
08:04insult to injury part is he's not even
08:12this kind of belief is rarer than talent
08:15and the combination of the two
08:19it's present and all these guys have
08:20been showing you that makes you special
08:44no matter how many times you practice
08:45that trick you go up and stand up on
08:47that Legend you look down and see how
08:48deadly that potentially is no it really
08:52fear can take hold and wipes everything
08:54away if you learn anything be around
08:57these guys it's whatever you do don't
09:00think about it too much
09:06is because go for it without thinking
09:11you're asking for it and you're going to
09:12get it your number will come up
09:16this bats home the dynamic nature of
09:18balance that permeates all that we do
09:21which is a cognitive awareness and
09:25understanding of the physical parameters
09:28behind all of what we do whether it's a
09:30center over a base of the distance he's
09:31looking at whatever it is
09:34that conjoined with a knowing visceral
09:38knowing an intuition of what is your
09:43and then an intimacy with its edges
09:45because the edges that's what gives you
09:49and on top of that a hone agility
09:53nimbleness within it all
09:57this factors into fear management risk
10:02the chicks themselves
11:06all these makes you see
11:09they take hours if not days most of what
11:12we do by far is fall
11:18and that shapes us proportionately
11:21the best skaters are said to be the best
11:23fallers you can see how easy they are
11:27and this trickles into the entire
11:29Community I mean today
11:32most companies are owned or operated at
11:35least in The crucial junctures by Pro
11:37skaters so when you sign the dotted line
11:40contract both sides understand
11:45you're going to be limping around on
11:47crutches part of the duration
11:51there will be times then you are not
11:57this factors into our company dealings
12:01this up close and personal
12:04with risk and consequence
12:06and how to get out of it
12:08how to handle yourself
12:10again permeates all we do and I think
12:11has a lot to do with how quickly we
12:18this may come as a surprise to you
12:21skating can be hard on your body
12:24in my case I had so much scar tissue in
12:26my back leg that it was yanking the
12:29femur into the socket
12:3115 times a day on good days grinding
12:36cold days walking more than 50 feet
12:42go to the east coast doc takes a bunch
12:47he describes this process they put you
12:49to sleep and it sounded an awful lot
12:52like a boat crank they tie it to smaller
12:56and they ratchet It Up Until It Breaks
13:02what's tying you down
13:03I talked to a stunt man who'd had it
13:10I opted for the little plastic tool he
13:14he described myofascial release
13:16can poke yourself loosen up the fascia
13:19give yourself movement maybe if you're
13:21tough you can pull a little Scar Tissue
13:24I take that he tells me with his eyes
13:27what he wouldn't say with his
13:29words that I was done
13:32so I come home and after the first
13:33thousand hours of this little tool
13:35digging it in and I think you know what
13:37it takes further so I found screwdrivers
13:39I started taping the head so it wouldn't
13:41break the skin I would get in deeper
13:43and then you know what's insane is fire
13:46hydrants they have these knobs and you
13:48can stick it in and you can get leverage
13:50You Pull and Pull and the scar tissue it
13:53actually you feel it going around the
13:55bone and you can feel it stretch and
13:57stretch and stretch until it just breaks
13:59like dried gum and I'm it's an ugly
14:05after about three years of this 13 days
14:07out of 14 up to three four hours a day
14:13I'm up in the valley on a cold night
14:16I figured out a better way to get
14:17leverage because I was too weak
14:20I could hang upside down the wheel well
14:21in my car my truck and pull in the frame
14:26pulling until it finds this is thud
14:30look I've broken a dozen bones maybe
14:32you've broken a few you know that kind
14:35of heat feeling you get that rises a
14:43fingers and collarbones and ribs they
14:45break like pencils this was like a tree
14:50I'm hanging upside down I pull myself
14:51out like I hit my hand and there's not
14:54with the numbness went away I got up
14:58and for the first time in years it
15:01worked like a ball and socket again not
15:03the whole stick shift thing and I
15:05couldn't move not only did this Give Me
15:08Freedom it gave me a sense of direction
15:10look at this we are sophisticated
15:13puppets there's a little stick man
15:15inside of a flesh suit
15:19now all these movements thousands of
15:24the tissues the fascia muscles little
15:28string the levers inside and make us
15:32ments itself Orient them so they move
15:39and adjust in such a way to optimize
15:41optimize their leverages for those
15:43movements by those movements
15:47so if what you do is directional
15:52then the somatic infrastructure through
15:54which you have encoded all these
15:55executive motor functions
15:58shaped and optimized for that direction
16:00at the expense of the other direction so
16:02what happens if what you do is now so
16:04highly evolved you guys see
16:07the distances and how technical the part
16:09of what you use to differentiate
16:12yourself to distinguish yourself is hey
16:17well that means the further along down
16:19the track you are the more of this
16:21shaping you've taken and the less able
16:23you are to adapt and to make there's a
16:27physical barrier look at this
16:30you don't need to know
16:32what Native stance left foot forward is
16:34regular right foot forward is Goofy you
16:36don't need to know what Native stats
16:38these guys are who they are you need to
16:41see the backgrounds imagine their
16:44guy a on top is mid Ollie switch and
16:48regular backwards forwards guy b on
16:50bottom same thing mid Landing look at
16:57guys on the left are going backwards
16:59it's written all over their body well
17:03you could buy some medieval means
17:05involving screwdrivers
17:07you could reorient the flesh
17:13so that this should look
17:16like a mirror image mirror images right
17:19take away the physical barrier now you
17:20have new leverages to work with this is
17:29this is older footage right now look I'm
17:31regular left foot forward
17:37Douglas look at the Locking of the hips
17:40very distinctive backwards
17:46after this trick the work started
17:49this is switch sort of
17:52backwards back sort of backwards
17:57forwards where did backwards go
18:01this is a just all over the place
18:06would be inaccessible without the work a
18:09switch trick cannot be done switch
18:28man A friend of mine says hey Rod you
18:31got a trick dude we can do a little
18:33project so we were together we released
18:36this on social media and I don't know a
18:39lot of feedback pretty quick
18:44people are arguing on what do you call
18:50the board itself is a fakie laser that's
18:53what's going on it's definitively a
18:58the upper body the leverages the
18:59generator have nothing to do with fakie
19:05visually self-contradictory
19:08and through this fracturing of the
19:10nomenclature a whole little range of
19:17then defy even being named
19:21to me it's beautiful I mean look I'm 48
19:26how far do I expect to take that I I
19:29don't know well I'll take it somewhere
19:30but that's not the point
19:40over 11 years defended at 35 out of 36
19:43contests whatever the first few were
19:48but then the expectation to win
19:51Wade happy like a tombstone
19:54you're getting this turtled up
19:56protective position there is no more
19:58winning there's only not losing
20:01then something Dawns me from the Vantage
20:03board that is so painfully common
20:05that getting what you wanted or thought
20:08you wanted whether Fame whatever
20:11can quench the fire that gets you there
20:18what drives you with something more
20:22permanent in its intangibility
20:27so I'm bordering sounding preachy now
20:29I'll peel back my point is that I
20:31recognize as a very very special
20:34there's anything I can share with you
20:37that there is nothing of Greater
20:40intrinsic value than to create something
20:43new for the sake of it and watch it just
20:45dispersed through your community and see
20:47where they they take it because that in
20:50turn makes you part of what they do
20:55and that gives you more permanence
20:59you could ever ask for it gives you a
21:01belonging more belonging that I could
21:04or accomplished on my own
21:07thank you for listening to me
