Skating - My Entry Into Steem Japan's Favorite Sports Contest

First off, Congratulations to Yuto & Japan for getting gold in the Olympics Street Skating! More about that later.

I grew up in Souther California surfing, snowboarding and skating. While all three are amazing sports in their own right, skating was the only sport I could walk out my front door and do. So I did, everyday. Sometimes with friends, sometimes with professionals, sometimes alone, but it was always fun.

The above picture was me skating a pool we called the Cheese Grader because it was pretty rough. If you fell, and I did, the concrete would grade your skin like a cheese grader would.

My friends and I grew up in an area called Murrieta & Temecula. While both are big cities now, when we lived there in the late 80's they were small and boring. There was nothing to do except skate, build ramps and cause trouble. We did a lot of all 3, including building over 20 half pipes!

This was one of our crown jewels. It was a 5' tall "Spine" ramp & 7' halfpipe. Skaters from all over California would come to skate our ramps including Danny Way, Mario Rubacabla, Matt Hensley and more. The ramps were in the skating magazine Poweredge too. Unfortunately when I moved to Japan I didn't save many other pictures.

I started out skating street because we had a lot of it, then moved to pools and half pipes. It's hard to explain to someone the euphoria of flying down hills, flying off ramps, pulling off tricks, etc. There just isn't anything like it.

Skating requires intense physical & mental abilities.

(My buddy Ryan Bartsma who turned amateur)

While anyone can skate, try a backside air on an 11' tall ramp. Try a hand plant in an empty pool. Try a kick flip down 4 stairs. The second you start adding in obstacles and tricks the intensity level goes from 1 to 10. It's why so few people become professionals. You must be flexible, agile, precise, confident, have balance and be stupid(fearless). The latter will give you the ability to try to do things no one else will. If you're successful you will become legend. If not you'll have an expensive medical bill and be scarred for life.

Check out this recent compilation video of skaters. It's mind blowing the tricks kids are doing now.

Now that the Olympics have included skateboarding as a sport I think people will come to appreciate the beauty and athleticism involved in it. As you will see in this video from the Olympics, landing a trick isn't so easy. Congrats Yuto & Japan!

Here is a cool video with Tony Hawk. They are skating & biking a very old pool we used to skate back in the late 80's early 90's called the Clinton Kieth Pool. RIP it was filled in a few years ago for good.

In closing, I have many incredible memories skating. The last being skating around Shinjuku, Shibuya & Setagaya-ku. Now I'm feeling like I may have to get a deck and go relive those memories.