Utilism

Jason Lee using a trashcan as a high-jump bar.

At its best, street skating is an urban art form, or at least utilism. It repurposes the concrete wasteland in ways that its architects and planners never intended. (Shit, the innovators of street skating like Natas, Gonz and Jason Lee even abused skateboards themselves in never-intended ways.) With a little creativity, fallow afterthoughts like drainage ditches and dams, handrails, and any awkward slabs of concrete transform into playgrounds.

(If you can't see how prepackaged most sports are, ask a serious tennis player to play someplace that isn't a fenced-in, crack-free tennis court, with the net set at regulation height. Any serious tennis player would make a confused dog face, panting "Where are the lines?!")

One thing that always bothered me, though, is that a skateboard's wheels are so small. While it takes advantage of the paving over of everything, its functionality is entirely dependent on overabundant concrete. A skateboard is useless without urban sprawl — unless you build a structure on which to use it. Then you have a wooden half-pipe or something similar, and you're basically playing tennis in a confined court. (Watch someone skate a halfpipe and you'll find your head turning side-to-side just like you're watching tennis.)

This is also why I think most of the new skateparks suck the creativity out of skateboarding. In reality, the obstacles are already telling you what you're supposed to do on them. You may learn new tricks, but the obstacle doesn't change. It's concrete. (Yes, double-entendre, hmm?)

Road bikes, while some pretend they explore, are also dependent on concrete. Mountain bikers fake being rugged and off-roady, but they're entirely dependent on trails. Just try to get a mountain biker to bushwhack through undergrowth on a ride.

This guy rewrites. While I don't really want to emulate him in any way, I think what he's doing is street skating on a bike. He's taken his tricks and influence from skateboarding as obviously as snowboarding has (I don't remember any natural handrails, boxes or superpipes in the mountains), but adapted them originally.

I dig: he's using a bike in way most industrial designers never imagined, in nooks and crannies no one else studies for their potential for play. Genius.

Just Be Glad You Weren't Walking

Chris is always smiling, always positive, and everyone likes him. I don't know how we're friends. He almost makes me wish I was from Africa, too, instead of the 51st state.

Chris hates eating. I still don't understand how this is humanly possible, but I've seen him push away food after climbing 25 miles up to Mt Baldy. His disregard for his taste buds shows, too. He bragged to me about hitting the gym and putting on weight; he's up to 136 pounds. (That was a braggadocio for him, that's how humble the guy is.) Needless to say, at his weight, Chris is built to climb. And what better way to parade your prowess than with the ultimate climbing wheels?

Chris directs motion graphics for a living (thecore.la), and I would assume from the wheels he just punctured on a ride to Palos Verdes that business is good — Campagnolo Hyperon Ultra Carbon wheels retail for over $3200. Don't worry too much about the wheels, though; that money is probably small potatoes next to what he's spent customizing his other raced-out ride, a track-ready VW R32.


Oddly enough, Chris was smiling again very shortly after he got the nail out and put a new tire on. Jimmy Cliff had it right: you can't keep a good man down.

Let It Snow

I look good in purple.

I am antsy for snow season. I miss listening to people whine about lift lines and ticket prices, when the backcountry is always free, untracked and uncrowded, if only they knew how to walk through snow.