Tony Hawk, current king of extreme skateboarding, is the first to bust out into the mainstream consciousness with his gnarly Nintendo 64 videogame and PlayStation, making it safe and sane for worried parents everywhere. But every thrasher, from professional to nonprofessional, craves to raise the grind bar. Teenagers around the world are trying to best their friends, and to best themselves. Professionals are out to do combinations never seen before ever. They focus beyond what can be done, then try to attain it.
Every skateboarder has a story of flight and fall.
Talk to any thrasher, and get a proud listing of all the fingers broken, the ankles busted, the noses smashed, the tendons stretched, the ligaments torn, the jaws realigned. For me, skateboarding has a strong voyeuristic allure. Perhaps I love it because of the rad way they dress, or the cool way they talk. I am in my 40s, and skateboarding is a dusty broken thing in my parent's garage, part of my youth now gone. Many of the prominent professional skateboarders are men, and a few women, who are past their adolescence and teen years.