SKATEboarding and Opera p1

This is the start of a series I plan to do on the connection between Skateboarding and Opera. For me, the two have always lived side-by-side, and, as I’ve trained as a classical musician, skateboarding has continued to serve as a useful analogue for understanding my own relationship to craft and process.

Like classical music, skateboarding frequently serves up potent reminders that no matter how hard you work at certain things, there will always be someone younger and more talented than you at that thing. Some may find that realization depressing. I find it invigorating. It helps make me slightly more metarational. It keeps me moving, pushes me to try new things and reminds me to never get overly invested in any one aspect of the craft.

Here is a video of a young skater that makes me excited about the future of skateboarding. I like her skating for reasons other than virtuosity (though she is undeniably extraordinary). She expresses something still, beautiful, and settled simply in the way she pushes the board. I can’t wait to see how she progresses in this art. I mean sport. I mean art. I mean artsport. ARTSPORT! Just like opera!