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Super Pooper Maple Slide Clinic

870-super-pooper-maple-slide-clinic-header
The soul of skateboarding will never die.
These are words that have lived with me since the day I saw them enshrined on a Wes Humpston cover of Concrete Wave. (That would be Vol. 1 No. 3, Fall 2002 – Ed.) Then, I believed them only to mean that skaters were brash, disorderly and anarchists for life. I was fuelled by the imagery of graffiti, drugs, money and alcohol. I believed this was how the best had fuelled their passion for skateboarding. In the image, the character is sporting a bandana reminiscent of those worn by Japanese Kamikaze pilots, and instead of holding a hand out in a show of friendship, the hand is clenched right over his junk. This whole time, I had been entirely missing that this character was also built around the idea of the Hindu god Shiva, in his Lord of Dance pose. Now you might be throwing this down thinking, What? Dancing? I’m into freeriding, dude.

Skateboarding has evolved a lot over its relatively short life, and every step of the way has incorporated some stylish body positions. In essence, we’re dancing with our board, or with the road, depending on how you want to look at it. This “Dogtown Shiva” has shown me just how transient and complicated skateboarders are. We don’t come from one place looking for the same thing via the same means. We come from different walks of life, riding all kinds of boards, and looking for that spark that makes each of us smile. Whether it’s slashing pool coping, kickflipping a 10-set, breaking 80 mph, sliding endlessly on tiny wheels or pushing along the beach in the sun, as long as you’re skateboarding, you’re one of us.

This same feeling of changing is exactly what I and others experienced at the Super Pooper Maple Slide Clinic in Toronto.

We had some people come in at the beginning and throw all their cards down on the table: “Here’s all the badassery I can accomplish. I’m going to go hang out with Pat Switzer in the advanced section.”

When asked if they could footbrake with both feet, the answer was not yes or no, but “I can do like 30-foot standies. I don’t need to know that other stuff.”

Just like me with the image I previously had of skateboarders, they were convinced that they knew best, but had yet to see the forest from the trees. So we made everyone start in the “beginner” section. Here they had to do some simple tasks like reviewing hand signals for safety, pushing uphill with both feet and buttboarding. These were followed by slow races, where the slowest rider wins. Although the activities were initially met with some stubbornness, slow races were the key to making the seemingly simple and mundane fun and challenging. Over the course of the day, people came and went from the different skill level areas on the hill. Some who thought they were ready for more tried to move up, and would then come back down the hill so they could learn some more of the basics. Others spent all day learning the basics over and over and over again. The day wasn’t about making everyone feel inferior about their level of skill – in fact, quite the contrary. It was to instill a sense of belonging, capability and safety, so that overall, we can effect change in the communities that each of us lives in. The ability for us to use skateboarding to change people’s minds about skateboarders.

By far for me, the best part of the day was our post-skate wrap-up and discussion. We all gathered in a circle with water and freezies, and Pat began asking questions to the circle: What do you think makes your community tick? How do you feel about the community? What is the community based off of? What makes a good ambassador?

At first there was little said, but as we went around the circle, there was a very noticeable shift in people’s mindset. They spoke about themselves, their friends and how they like to play. They spoke about the events that make them happy, and then some of the things that make them sad: skaters not being safe or respectful; people not leaving the hill cleaner than they found it; and bad attitudes that ruin skate spots. These were things they had all thought about but never discussed with each other. It was incredible to see everyone recognize that we all just want to have a good time, and that being an “ambassador” doesn’t make you a kook, it makes you an avid skateboarder. In the end, modesty, community growth, safety, creativity and inclusiveness ruled the day.

We discussed how opinions can vary on the same thing, by asking questions like:

• How much is an expensive lunch?
• How tall is tall?
• When is it too cold to skate? (NEVER)

We asked these questions to get people’s mental juices flowing, to create discussion around seemingly pointless questions, to display how different we can all be.

After this discussion, we asked another rhetorical question:
What do we ask of you?

Our answers included:

• To do the “ambassador” thing
• Actively help the longboard community grow in a positive way
• Be creative
• Be self-motivated
• Pay attention to ambassadors’ personalities
• Be patient to build a good local community
• Be a modest mentor
• Lead by example (don’t be preachy)
• Again, do the “ambassador” thing

We ended the day with one last exercise, one that turned out to be the most prolific: self-reflection. Only when people can examine themselves against others and the community can true change come about. Although the questions were somewhat personal and not easy to answer, we had just learned all about proper communication and respect, and the words just poured out.

• Think of five things that would make someone want to have you on their team
• Think of three things that would make someone not want to have you on their team, or would make it a challenge for them
• Think of one thing you (personally) believe people think that is not true about you

None of what we did on this day was easy, except Pat signing people’s faces. But I feel that what we got out of it was another generation of skaters who will grow up respecting their surroundings, being conscious of the community, teaching the new up-and-comers how to act safely and responsibly, and most of all assuring them that if what they really want is to be a pro, there’s a lot of work that must go in first – and sometimes footbraking with both feet is required.

Thankyou to Concrete Wave Magazine.
Issue:  Fall Sept 2015

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