How do you tell your dad you’re an athlete?

Abegnegal on June 25, 2010 - Reply

By omitting the idea of conformity one negates the possibility. conformity=anti-conformity~=nonconformity

skaterdave on June 25, 2010 - Reply

So 11 of us, all 30yrs.+, pile out of an RV at a municipal skatepark and a kid asks me: are you guys gonna skate? No, we’re here for the BBQ contest, we’re pro BBQers… You look like skaters. Why’s that? Well, ya’ll have skate shoes. Good observation, your a smart kid. Then he points to my Smartwool kneesocks – then there’s the socks,he says. I’m the only dork I know who wears tall socks I say, just as some oldish dude rolls by wearing tall socks- well, and that dork too I guess. The kid looks pissed and says- that’s my dad!

conahan on June 25, 2010 - Reply

I’m sure the kid will be calling him worse than that in a few years.

mezmer on June 27, 2010 - Reply

I am also old. I don’t think that shoelaces are belts. I don’t wear skin tight pants. My knee pads smell like some roadkill that has baked in the sun for days. Nothing saddens me more about the current state of skateboarding than the fashion show that it has become. I have to laugh at this cartoon cause the younger generation tries so hard to be “individuals” but the actually all look the same. Silly sport. Be yourself.

bailgun on June 27, 2010 - Reply

“the fashion show its become?” correct me if i’m wrong, but weren’t you guys wearing pink shorts, cut off sleeves on your heads, and big old fanny packs?

BoBo on June 27, 2010 - Reply

HAH!
[x] Guilty
mezmer on June 27, 2010 - Reply

Correction. Yes, you are wrong. Pink shorts & fanny packs? Yikes! Sounds similar to the clothes you’d see in a current CCS catalog.

freezine on June 28, 2010 - Reply

3 hour evening session last night at the skatepark included 4 men all in their early 40’s, and 6 kids on bikes and scooters in their tweens.
The kids busied themselves igniting aerosol AXE body spray, eating candies shaped like guns, playing tag, texting, and asking dumb questions such as, “are you a good skateboarder?”
The old men padded up, put on No Means No on the DeWalt radio, and skated.
I imagined myself when I first encountered a skatepark, and saw “older” (probably 18 year olds with bad moustaches…) skateboarders riding.
I was blown away, and wanted to do what they were doing.
I imagine these modern kids seeing us, old enough to be their dads, and thinking, “I wonder if this chip bag would catch fire if I spray more AXE body spray on it?”

mezmer on June 28, 2010 - Reply

Awesome post brother!

RH on June 28, 2010 - Reply

Needless to say, MC was kidding about old people wearing pads to be individualistic. Let’s not pretend that only young people are full of pretention, though. Old people generally wear pads cuz they’re afraid to push themselves without them, not because, as they like to tell themselves, they are the “responsible” ones. And young people like to pretend that they are “manning up” by not wearing pads, but, since they are in reality less likely to try anything they have no business trying without pads, they actually wind up skating more timidly without them, and get hurt less often than they would wearing pads. But youngsters yearn to think that they’re more manly than they are, and old people yearn to believe they have a corner on responsibility, so there’s pretense all around. Least we don’t all think that we’re killing it, though; that’s more a surf-kook pretention.

Winston T. Grant on June 28, 2010 - Reply

Man–i can TELL how long someone’s been skating by the shit they say..”More TIMID WITH PADS?’ listen, child–you put the pads ON so you can go ALL OUT.
Let’s go over it AGAIN: If you FALL, UNPADDED–you are likely to get HURT.
..And then you CANNOT SKATE.
The POINT is to CONTINUE SKATING-that’s what the PADS ARE FOR.Individualism is reliant on what you ACCOMPLISH skating, not what you LOOK LIKE.
RIP, DON’T POSE.
WTG OUT.

talentlessquitter on June 28, 2010 - Reply

I think the pads are a uniform
…….oowwwwww,here we go again!! 😉
RH on June 30, 2010 - Reply

And I can smell how long someone’s been thinking by the shit between their ears… “more timidly without” pads is what was written, but you turned it into “with pads” in your head, because you’re anxious to portray YOURself as the responsible, unpretentious one. And by the way, falling out of control after an unjudicious move that you didn’t work your way up to is likely to “HURT” your wrists despite kneepads, and I’ve seen several badly displaced forearm fractures of padded people, and none with unpadded “paratroop roll” types, fwtw. And what, you don’t think young people have nerve endings, or can’t comprehend that they might want to avoid lighting up those nerve endings, and that they fail to notice when they “CANNOT SKATE” and so get hurt more often than we do? They’re just less desperate to skate the best they possibly could, because they’re still acquiring instead of losing it. Or because they’re not manly enough to pad up and go off their hardest because of the greater risk of injury that entails. Depending on how you want to look at it. But it’s not a matter of pretention or lack of individuality.

Winston T. Grant on June 28, 2010 - Reply

Oh- and how do you tell your ‘dad’ you’re an athlete?
“DAD-I’m an ATHLETE.”
What’s the problem?
Skateboarding is an ATHLETIC SPORT–it’s not a fashion shoot.
go watch some vid of Hosoi from last week–or ten years ago-or Duane Peters, or Hester, or Dave Hackett-or–Dammit, do your OWN research–youtube is the repository for ALL the evidence you need-stick your parental unit in front of the screen, hit play –and go skate.
WTG OUT.

RH on June 30, 2010 - Reply

And hey, not to pick on you or anything, but I think Danny Way works a lot better in the “Okay, dad, what you think about THAT?” department. Now, if only he’d take those stupid pads off…. And ride a six ply board on those ramps….
1. masterochicken on September 4, 2010 - Reply
  
  Who the fuck rides a 6 ply?

dougdrill on June 30, 2010 - Reply

The rotten smell is actually excess nitrogen excreting as ammonia via sweat. Normal amounts of nitrogen are processed thru the kidneys and end up in #1. Ick