The Weekend column explores the concept of idle, rest, and play, and ‘being’ plays with the notion of being someone else. No, we’re not suggesting you lose your sense of individuality. What we are trying to do is to inspire you with quirky, fun, and fascinating personalities.
Growing up, being and learning from ‘good examples’ are lectures that shower down on us like torrential rain. What if we take a step back and look to a group of badass skaters as a source of inspiration this week? With urban commuting as our unifying theme of the month, we take reference from the characters of biographical skate film, Lords of Dogtown, in this edition of The Weekend.
Lords of Dogtown is based on the true story of the Z-boys who revolutionised skateboarding in the mid-1970s in California. During this era, the skateboarding scene was stale and most of the skaters’ styles were safe and unexciting. Tony Alva, Stacey Peralta and Jay Adams from the Z-boys crew came along and ruffled up the scene with their exhilarating surf-inspired skating.
As the story progresses, we are exposed to the idiosyncrasies and foibles of the characters. What we can’t get enough of were the boys’ wild-spirited passion and cheeky rebellion against societal norms. Never had they thought twice about bending the rules and flaunting their own style of skating. To be unsurpassed, they took risks such as figuring out how to ride a pool (or a bowl in today’s context) by themselves, and even sneaked into others’ backyard to skate in their empty pools.
If you’d like to emulate the Lords of Dogtown this weekend to challenge the mundane, try these:
1. Just do it. Nike says it best – there’s no denying it. What is that ONE out-of-this-world thing that you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t found the time, energy or the lack of excuse to do? Do it now. Schedule it for this weekend. Let your passion lead the way (if you’re cringing at this line, you’d better get your butt up and running before we start dishing out more cheesy one-liners). For the boys from the Lords of Dogtown, things were pretty straightforward (not counting in all the drama that followed, of course). They love skateboarding, and so they skate. Follow suit, no more excuses.
2. Gather your guts. This is quite related to point 1, but not the same. So after you take the first step, gather your guts and face any challenges or obstacles head on. No wait, actually, seek out your obstacles before they find you and climb to the next level. The skaters didn’t always wait to chance upon obstacles, they actively sought out downhill slopes, empty pools and curbs to ride on. This was the only way they could perfect their hurdles and revolutionise the sport. Let loose a bit and take some risks.
3. Be enthusiastic. As cliche as this may sound, it’s the attitude that counts. Don’t just do something, feel excited about doing it. Enthusiasm is an amazing companion to bring along to make doing things a little sweeter and more satisfying. When Tony Alva, Stacey Peralta and Jay Adams of the Z-boys crew were presented with urethane wheels for their skateboards, they immediately flew into a whirlwind of excitement, fixed the wheels on their boards and headed out to skate. Or when they were first given the Z-boys team tees, they instantly took off their own tees and wore the new team tees with pride. You get the drift?
The Weekend is a fortnightly series that explores the concept of rest, idle, and play during the weekends.
