Photo Essay Skateboarding
Me performing at the University of Hawaii for a piano competition
These pictures show how diverse the skateboarding community is. There are many skaters like me who have juxtaposing interests and backgrounds. While I may enjoy playing the poetic syncopations of Rachmaninoff, I also enjoy the pursuit of jumping off of a set of stairs on a skateboard.
Skateboarding, grinded down to its core, is really about catering to one’s self. When one skateboards, he or she isn’t trying to impress or copy others; one pursues to learn the physics of a trick in order to perform it with his individual style. Likewise, the community within skateboarding can’t be conventionalized as rebellious teenagers wearing all black, spraying graffiti, smoking marijuana, and sporting long, ungroomed hair.
Matt Saiki doing a backside feeble grind near a park outside my apartment in Hawaii.
Kwami, a skater I met at Wilson Skate Park wearing a Blackhawks jacket.
Even within the fashion style of skateboarding, the permutations of style are endless. This concept of infinite variation within the community makes skateboarding one of the most interesting art scenes to be a part of. However, cities everywhere want to hide or trap this beauty within skate parks, hidden away from the spectacles of tourists, politicians, and people of affluence. In Hawaii, all skate parks were contained away in the unkempt and often dangerous neighborhoods. Even while I traveled through Europe, many of the skate parks required hour-long drives or very long subway rides. While skate parks don’t need to be in the center of cities, there should be a reasonable place for skaters to go to without the requirement of a trek into the unsafe or out skirting parts of a city. Several cities have made the small step by investing in infrastructure for skaters. Chicago has actually started building a skate park in Grant Park, largely funded by
private donors. As of now it is under construction, however the park plans to open in November.
Grant Skate Park, near The Loop under construction.
Rob Dyrdek, a retired skateboarder is trying to bring skateboarding to national television and integrate skateboarding as a point-based sport, ranking tricks on a 10-point scale. Skaters in Berlin have got museums to let people legally skate on the buildings during closing hours. In addition, while on a trip in Italy, I visited a Pietrasanta Skate Plaza, a park funded by a marble company that gave scrap parks to the designers to work with.
Above: a skater at Pietrasanta Skate Plaza doing a backside board slide. This was the park that was funded by a marble company.
All of these examples show that skateboarders just want to be accepted into society. Skaters want to be able to grasp the twisted products of society and alter them even further. Skaters just want to paint.
Kaikea Kimura doing a Backside Lipslide at A'ala Park
These pictures show how diverse the skateboarding community is. There are many skaters like me who have juxtaposing interests and backgrounds. While I may enjoy playing the poetic syncopations of Rachmaninoff, I also enjoy the pursuit of jumping off of a set of stairs on a skateboard.
Skateboarding, grinded down to its core, is really about catering to one’s self. When one skateboards, he or she isn’t trying to impress or copy others; one pursues to learn the physics of a trick in order to perform it with his individual style. Likewise, the community within skateboarding can’t be conventionalized as rebellious teenagers wearing all black, spraying graffiti, smoking marijuana, and sporting long, ungroomed hair.
Matt Saiki doing a backside feeble grind near a park outside my apartment in Hawaii.
Kwami, a skater I met at Wilson Skate Park wearing a Blackhawks jacket.
Even within the fashion style of skateboarding, the permutations of style are endless. This concept of infinite variation within the community makes skateboarding one of the most interesting art scenes to be a part of. However, cities everywhere want to hide or trap this beauty within skate parks, hidden away from the spectacles of tourists, politicians, and people of affluence. In Hawaii, all skate parks were contained away in the unkempt and often dangerous neighborhoods. Even while I traveled through Europe, many of the skate parks required hour-long drives or very long subway rides. While skate parks don’t need to be in the center of cities, there should be a reasonable place for skaters to go to without the requirement of a trek into the unsafe or out skirting parts of a city. Several cities have made the small step by investing in infrastructure for skaters. Chicago has actually started building a skate park in Grant Park, largely funded by
private donors. As of now it is under construction, however the park plans to open in November.
Grant Skate Park, near The Loop under construction.
Rob Dyrdek, a retired skateboarder is trying to bring skateboarding to national television and integrate skateboarding as a point-based sport, ranking tricks on a 10-point scale. Skaters in Berlin have got museums to let people legally skate on the buildings during closing hours. In addition, while on a trip in Italy, I visited a Pietrasanta Skate Plaza, a park funded by a marble company that gave scrap parks to the designers to work with.
Above: a skater at Pietrasanta Skate Plaza doing a backside board slide. This was the park that was funded by a marble company.
All of these examples show that skateboarders just want to be accepted into society. Skaters want to be able to grasp the twisted products of society and alter them even further. Skaters just want to paint.
Kaikea Kimura doing a Backside Lipslide at A'ala Park
