Three Boards

Three boards. That’s what it cost me to establish, beyond any reasonable doubt, that I would never be Tony Hawk. I snapped them one after the other in my early years—not through tricks or genuine commitment, but through the particular failure of a teenager who wants the identity more than the skill. I still think about that when I watch someone who actually knows what they’re doing on a board.

Element has released the first part of their documentary series Make It Count, directed by Kirk Dianda. Four chapters, each tied to one of the elements—the first is called "Wind"—tracing the history of the sport, the rise of the brand, and whatever specific gravity skateboarding has always exerted on the people who find it. Founder Johnny Schillereff appears alongside a long procession of people who were actually present when the culture was forming. It’s warm and specific, the kind of document that rewards attention even if you arrived late to the party—or never arrived at all.

What skateboarding does that other sports mostly don’t is produce a kind of cool that’s genuinely earned. It’s not the gear or the look. It’s the way a good skater moves through space, reads a surface, commits to a decision in half a second and makes it look like nothing. I find that attractive in a person. The remaining three parts come out monthly. I’ll be watching—and probably listening to Avril Lavigne with some embarrassment while I do.