Dharma of Skating...

[Queequeg]

Rodney Mullen is one of the greatest innovators in skateboarding. All those tricks with jumping with the board apparently attached to your feet, the flipping and twisting, that's all Rodney. And he's one of the more articulate skateboarders, regularly giving TED talks and all that. What got me on this video is how he talked about skateboarding culture.

There have been a bunch of movies and documentaries about skateboarding in the last few years. Skateboarding has become big business and is scheduled to be an Olympic sport in Tokyo. The skateboarding you see on TV is only tangentially related to real skateboard culture. Skateboard culture really happens in night time streetscapes, backyard ramps, hidden patches of asphalt behind buildings. It involve a lot of repetition and falling. Its dirty, and sweaty, and doesn't look all that interesting or remarkable, until that trick is finally landed and the skater rolls away in satisfaction.

Rodney talks a bit about that, but what I thought might be interesting to Western Dharma practitioners is what he says about skateboarding being both an individual and group dynamic, and how the individual and group dynamic has led to innovations and advancement of the "sport" (its kind of painful to talk about skateboarding as a sport because its unlike almost any other sport, and also so much more). Individuals learn tricks from each other, innovate, and then bring them back to the group.

There is something in this dynamic that reminds me of Dharma communities. We learn from each other, and then we go sit on the cushion where we are alone. And then we bring that experience back to the group.

Rodney talks very quickly and name drops in a way that wouldn't mean much to outsiders, but he refers to this kid Mitchie (Brusco) skating with legends like Danny (Way), Tony (Hawk), Bob (Burnquist). Mitchie recently landed a 1260 on a half pipe. That is spinning three and a half times in the air and then landing. When I was a kid, the big trick was the 540. And then Tony Hawk landed a 720. And then he landed a 900. These tricks were mind blowing at the time, and it was not fathomable that a human being could go beyond. What happened was that each time the achievement went further, all it took was for one person to break the barrier, and then others followed, until what was thought impossible before became common. Rodney remarks how for Mitchie, who is decades younger than the legends, he doesn't think what he is doing is all that remarkable - its a matter of perspective. For him 900s are possible and he has never known a world in which it wasn't. So its natural to push beyond.

I expect that in the West, as more people become serious practitioners, we'll have a few who attain great yogic achievements, and a wider culture around that, and as young people come up through, the way of being Buddhist in the West will gain a level of normalization, and they'll in turn push toward higher attainments. If we are fortunate, a critical mass will be achieved where yogis will start appearing among us regularly.

Maybe.

To talk about something other than Covid and politics...

[zerwe]

Big fan and got to hang with him a little one-on-one at a demo many, many years ago. I like the idea where you seem to present a parallel between the dharma and the innovation and ever forward movement present in skateboarding history. I skated in three to four different waves or iterations/developmental periods of this sport and remember the biggest shock, after stepping away for a few years and coming back, was seeing how many technical flatland tricks had been rolled into street skating. The changes from 87-94 seemed like lightyears. Mullen was a huge part of all this.

Shaun

[Queequeg]

I saw Rodney Mullen at a demo in the local mall when I was a little kid riding a Nash. That's cool you got to hang with him. Seems like a cool guy. My neighbor was childhood friends with him. I guess pre skating days.

My heyday was pretty much 87-94. When I started, boards had fancy shapes, fat wheels, rails and truck guards. By 94 it was pill boards, small hard wheels - all functionality.

I've read those were some of the leanest years for the skateboard industry. It was a period of transition from neon colors and vert ramps to the grittier street skating. I guess in retrospect it was like the cocoon period of skating.

Cool.

I noticed I over used cool.

[zerwe]

Skated on and off from 78-90 and then 95-00, and tried to continue again at some point in the later '00s, but it was just becoming too difficult. Always a street rat,mini-half, and later the more modern style parks. My body just doesn't do that anymore. LOL!

Shaun

[bender]

I've also thought about the similarities of Zen Buddhist practice, specifically zazen, and skateboarding. I admit that I am a very much a beginner when it comes to Zen so my practice is still in its infancy.

First, a little history. Skating was pretty much my life from '97-'16. Street skated almost exclusively until about '04 when a nearby city opened a nice huge concrete skatepark that was free to use. Several years later, I spent hours on an amazing local mini-ramp and became really proficient on it. I could easily get carried away and write a small book about my skateboarding days, so I'll condense it to this: I had many great times and some really rough ones too. Skateboarding helped me through the confusion of adolesense and young adulthood, and gave me something in the day to look forward to as I entered the working world. I finally stopped when the years of injuries were beginning to add up to lots of chronic aches and pains. I felt like an old man at 32. I have healed over the past four years and have taken to hiking, road biking, and trail running for excersize. I do occasionally dust off the old board and knock around on the driveway a bit.

Back to what I was going to say.

One thing I noticed in my skating as I got older was the way that the mental chatter dropped away while I was on the board. The nature of skateboarding pretty much forces you to abandon all extraneous thought and focus only on the task at hand. The consequences of mental distraction are very real and painful when hurling yourself off a set of stairs on a wheeled plank of wood. In addition to the indescribable feeling of finally sticking a solid landing on a trick I had been beating myself up on, it was also this one-pointed state of mind that kept me on the board for all those years. I had a mild curiosity toward Buddhism at the time, and slogged my way through a couple of confusing Zen books at the college library on rainy days, but did not practice at all.

Skateboarding forced a similar clear state of mind that I strive for now through zazen.

I was pretty much a loner through most of my time skateboarding, especially in my street days, but I did have two good friends that I skated with regularly just after college. When we skated together we could almost feed off eachothers energy, and sometimes have an adrenaline-fueled break through with a current trick struggle. Better yet sometimes you would be going hard enough that even when a trick was coming apart at the seams, you would miraculously hang on and ride it out, pulling off a feat that you couldn't repeat again no matter how hard you tried.

I would assume that sitting with a Sangha could produce a similar amplifying effect with meditation, but alas I have not worked up the courage to join one as of yet.

Well this is not how I expected to make the jump from just lurking to actually posting on this forum but I just couldn't resist a skateboading thread.

[climb-up]

Cool! I'm excited to wach this later when I get home.

I "skated" (I had a board and could move forward) in the early 90s. My 7 year old son recently got aboard and, in the process of showing him the basics I rode a little ....so much fun!
I've been playing around on his board a bit, and I'm working on getting myself a board that is a little easier/safer for a 40 year old to play around on (looking at a cruiser pool board). I have no aspirations other than to skate around and maybe learn to ollie someday, but I'm very excited to be skating even a little bit again.

[Kim O'Hara]

... One thing I noticed in my skating as I got older was the way that the mental chatter dropped away while I was on the board. The nature of skateboarding pretty much forces you to abandon all extraneous thought and focus only on the task at hand. The consequences of mental distraction are very real and painful when hurling yourself off a set of stairs on a wheeled plank of wood. ...

Skateboards were never my thing but what you said here connects to all sorts of other activities, some classically zen and others ... not so much.
Traditionally, the essential aspect in everything from archery and swordsmanship to calligraphy and the tea ceremony is exactly this focus.
For me, the parallels are riding my motorbike (the consequences of mental distraction, as you say, can be painful ) and performing music.


Kim

[Danny]

Lol I remember 1977-78ish having a skate board that was so skinny and wheels were no better than roller skate wheels.
The best you could hope for was
Not to run over a stick and gravel up your palms and knees.
No Helmets, no pads...a few concussions...
Lollipops to make the brain hurt go away..
Moved on to Mongoose BMX
With all the trick nuts and stuff after that... that was my thing.. BMX

[narhwal90]

One thing I noticed in my skating as I got older was the way that the mental chatter dropped away while I was on the board. The nature of skateboarding pretty much forces you to abandon all extraneous thought and focus only on the task at hand. The consequences of mental distraction are very real and painful when hurling yourself off a set of stairs on a wheeled plank of wood. In addition to the indescribable feeling of finally sticking a solid landing on a trick I had been beating myself up on, it was also this one-pointed state of mind that kept me on the board for all those years. I had a mild curiosity toward Buddhism at the time, and slogged my way through a couple of confusing Zen books at the college library on rainy days, but did not practice at all.

Skateboarding forced a similar clear state of mind that I strive for now through zazen.

I find motorcycle riding offers a similar mental experience; the consequences of inattention are there- but so is the focus. I've done a couple 12hr rides; meaning just stopping for gas and brief meals, though those are exhausting and consequently unsafe- 7hrs is my sweet spot. But there is no boredom, despite no radio/email/podcasts, no daydreaming- just the road and the wind. A "road head" can develop a day or so into a multi-day trip; where you hop on the bike in the morning, nothing to do but ride all day. Attention takes a different form while riding, it is oriented differently; focus on any given thing is a distraction and a danger, so the goal is to have a very open attention continuously responding at different time scales (identifying things 10 secs out, choosing the approach for things 4 secs out, maneuvering for the things 2 secs out). It is desirable to always be looking for the Plan B way out while executing Plan A from moment to moment. It is not a frantic intellectual pursuit but an immersive participation in the ride, achieved through training and practice.

But as you allude to with sticking the landing, taking a corner well, on the gas with the bike right on a good line is always satisfying. But for contrast there are always the other moments when you miss a shift, go in way too slow or run wide & feel like an idiot.

[Kim O'Hara]

...the other moments when you miss a shift, go in way too slow or run wide & feel like an idiot.

They are your learning moments.

And what doesn't kill you makes you a better rider.


Kim

[FiveSkandhas]

Interesting thread, even to somebody who has never been on a skateboard. I didn't realize it was still so popular.

Surfing (which is in some ways similar to skateboarding) also has a spiritual side to it and there have been a number of Buddhist (and quasi-Buddhist) surfers.

I like the thought of something like skateboarding being involved in the "flavor" of mature western Buddhism...would make a great novel about the future at the very least.

Who can count all the 84,000 Dharma doors? Far be it from me to say upaya can't arrive on wheels...

[narhwal90]

...the other moments when you miss a shift, go in way too slow or run wide & feel like an idiot.

They are your learning moments.

And what doesn't kill you makes you a better rider.


Kim

I don't know... what has made me a better rider is practice and instruction, coaching helps a lot since the instructor can show the various errors that led up to the obvious one. Instinctive reactions on a motorcycle are almost always wrong; so instinct needs training.

I wrecked pretty badly in 2018- I am daily grateful it didn't involve anyone else; 4 or so days in ICU, a bunch more in the general ward; it taught me to be more careful with sight lines when I got onto the next bike in the spring. But identifying sight lines needs coaching and instruction and so on.

[Kim O'Hara]

I'm sorry to hear you crashed out so badly.

We're drifting off-topic, though. Let's get back to the good stuff about being focused in the moment.
Are there any rock-climbers here?

Blue-Mtn-s.jpg (108.98 KiB) Viewed 1054 times

Kim

[climb-up]

Lol I remember 1977-78ish having a skate board that was so skinny and wheels were no better than roller skate wheels.

Believe it or not, that’s actually the kind of board that my daughter wants!
I mean, more or less, a penny board; presumably better quality wheels than back in the 70s.

Moved on to Mongoose BMX
With all the trick nuts and stuff after that... that was my thing.. BMX

When I was in 6th grade, before I got a skateboard, my school library had a bmx magazine subscription (don’t recall the title) and I would read it and watch that movie “RAD” and always want to learn to do cool BMX stuff, but I wasn’t able to get a bike so I never learned anything.
That’s cool stuff though!

[Danny]

Man I feel old.. the skateboard thing died pretty early ..
But back in the days BMX was the shizzle.


My first and only skateboard was a orange plastic semi transparent slice where the only hope of riding it was on one knee. if skaters these days wanna play on those early
Boards... that’s hardcore!

You wanna talk original 80’s BMX? I’m all for it.
No brakes, aero gold spoke rims ...rip off those safety pads etc .. great days
Don’t roll up with your motomags!!

Lol gonna get laughed off

[Danny]

Looking back - I think I miss the evolution of things, these days there’s no cultural excitement,
Only blandness and conformity...
It’s so dull.
Nobody wants to go to jail...
Everyone wants to be on the side that’s not right, but the side that’s winning...

I feel
For kids these days.

[climb-up]

Looking back - I think I miss the evolution of things, these days there’s no cultural excitement,
Only blandness and conformity...
It’s so dull.

I don’t think you’re right.
In the early days of skating, and all the other cool things we came up with, most people didn’t appreciate the cultural excitement of it all and many bemoaned how lame life was for the (then) current generation of kids.
I think there is a lot of fascinating, interesting and exciting stuff going on nowadays; although a lot may be invisible to most of us old folks.

Nobody wants to go to jail...
Everyone wants to be on the side that’s not right, but the side that’s winning....

That’s definitely not true.
It might be true for many, but it always has been.

[climb-up]

My first and only skateboard was a orange plastic semi transparent slice where the only hope of riding it was on one knee. if skaters these days wanna play on those early
Boards... that’s hardcore!

Im almost ready to get one of every type; penny, cruiser, street and longboard, they’re all fun…

…although I’m currently icing my old-person wrist, so maybe I should invest in some pads first!

My daughter and I both had relatively hard falls (just winded and scraped, nothing broken), and I was very pleased that we both kept skating afterwards. I’m very much into the lesson of keeping falling and keeping getting back as in the video.

[Danny]

Looking back - I think I miss the evolution of things, these days there’s no cultural excitement,
Only blandness and conformity...
It’s so dull.

I don’t think you’re right.
In the early days of skating, and all the other cool things we came up with, most people didn’t appreciate the cultural excitement of it all and many bemoaned how lame life was for the (then) current generation of kids.
I think there is a lot of fascinating, interesting and exciting stuff going on nowadays; although a lot may be invisible to most of us old folks.

Nobody wants to go to jail...
Everyone wants to be on the side that’s not right, but the side that’s winning....

That’s definitely not true.
It might be true for many, but it always has been.

I disagree, last summer I got caught up with a “riot” lol
I grabbed the guys skateboard and tossed it 30 feet...
You think wearing a black hoodie and riding around on a skateboard and using it to smash the windows on some poor guys car is a protest...

Muppets.

Fake.

Try staring down a tank with two shopping bags whilst people are being shot with AK rounds....

How zen is that?

[Danny]

My first and only skateboard was a orange plastic semi transparent slice where the only hope of riding it was on one knee. if skaters these days wanna play on those early
Boards... that’s hardcore!

Im almost ready to get one of every type; penny, cruiser, street and longboard, they’re all fun…

…although I’m currently icing my old-person wrist, so maybe I should invest in some pads first!

My daughter and I both had relatively hard falls (just winded and scraped, nothing broken), and I was very pleased that we both kept skating afterwards. I’m very much into the lesson of keeping falling and keeping getting back as in the video.

Yeah this is cool!