Time

Birthdays. We mark them with celebration and sometimes misgivings. We mark off the days in between, leading up… time crawls, runs and sometimes burns. We can’t escape it. It is what life is made up of. Pablo Picasso said, “It takes a long time to become young.” Time was a man-made invention and we can choose to ignore it. We are only as old as we feel. There are quite a few fifty year old skateboarders around these days and the list is growing. This is something new. Skateboarding is young. There never were fifty year old skaters…  it is considered a young man’s game. No longer.

One look at a Vans Combi contest and that is all it would take. When people see Lance Mountain, Steve Caballero, Pat Ngoho, Chris Miller, Jeff Grosso, Christian Hosoi, Duane Peters, Steve Alba and the others ripping, it makes one take a seat and take a lesson. What is possible? How long can they continue on? I do know that skaters abilities are beginning to outlast their bodies physical ability to handle the strain. Vertebrae, muscles and tendons can no longer take the brutality of pool, bowl and vertical skating. We are older and we are hurting. The fire inside.

The skaters named above and those like them were never one in a million. They were one in two billion. They were special as young skaters and they stayed that way. Fini. There is no going back. There simply can be no other way… Our friends Scott Foss and Wesley Trbovich both had a birthday this week. We gathered together for a small session. Nothing big. Nothing fancy. Those things weren’t necessary. What was required were good times and good times were certainly found. Whenever you gather friends and toss in a great bowl, skateboards and a sunny day, good times are difficult to avoid. Animal Chin. The usual jokes about being elderly and infirm were bandied about. Wesley and Scott took it well. Both rode hard. The sun set over the edge of the bowl. The ocean grew dark. The sky fell… darkness came and the day ended as all things must. Time. It moves on. Happy Birthday Scott and Wesley. Thank you for the session, Angelo. Thank you to William Sharp and MRZ for the images. Skate- Ozzie