[New post] Old Dudes On Skateboards

Aaron Gilbreath posted: "Aaron Gilbreath | Longreads | October 2019 | 36 minutes (8,980 words)   "It's a very fine line between presenting yourself as a true skater and hardcore and being destructive." ─ Lance Mountain JR, one of my oldest, dearest friends, died in Decemb" New post on Longreads Old Dudes On Skateboards by Aaron Gilbreath Aaron Gilbreath | Longreads | October 2019 | 36 minutes (8,980 words)   "It's a very fine line between presenting yourself as a true skater and hardcore and being destructive." ─ Lance Mountain JR, one of my oldest, dearest friends, died in December. He was 43. We grew up skating together, during that golden age when Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, and Steve Caballero rode for Powell Peralt's famed Bones Brigade skate team. Back in the mid-1980s, the Bones Brigade were not only discovering what these wheeled slabs of wood could do, they were releasing weird movies on VHS like The Search for Animal Chin and Future Primitive, where they skated ramps, pools, and steep roads, and clowned around. For kids like me, who didn't relate to baseball or basketball, those movies taught us how to dress, taught us how to talk, taught us the many tricks we could do if we were willing to constantly injure ourselves practicing. My friends and I wanted to be the Bones Brigade, but most of us turned out differently. Even though one old-school motto was "skate and destroy," the Bones Brigade seemed kinder and gentler than most. They didn't smoke, drink, or do drugs. Other pros did. Duane Peters, Christian Hosoi, and Jeff Grosso got lost partying. But no drug could give Lance Mountain and Tony Hawk what skating could. Vegan Mike Vallely put an elephant on his board to remind people of animals' suffering. Rodney Mullen, essentially the inventor of street skating, spent lots of time reading in the library. Constructive rather than destructive was their identity and their art form. In hindsight, I wish we'd followed their lead sooner. My middle-aged friends and I decided to honor our shared origins by sprinkling some of JR's ashes at the Wedge, our old Phoenix skate spot, at the end of this summer. All my life, summer has been my favorite season. I've never wanted summers to end, especially this one, this way. Read more of this post Aaron Gilbreath | October 15, 2019 at 8:00 am | Tags: Aaron Gilbreath, aging, death, fatherhood, Fine Lines, Fine Lines: Writing About Age, friendship, grief, grieving, injuries, loss, manhood, middle age, skateboarding | Categories: Editor's Pick, Essays & Criticism, Featured, Nonfiction, Story | URL: https://wp.me/p4KhvY-yf3 Like Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Longreads. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://longreads.com/2019/10/15/old-dudes-on-skateboards/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com