Action sport: the striking parallels between videogame and skate culture

October 4th, 2013, 00:03 Posted By: wraggster

“I consider skateboarding an art form, a lifestyle and a sport. ‘Action sport’ would be the least offensive categorisation.” – Tony Hawk.I don’t know about you, but I could easily attribute that quote to my relationship with videogames. And I think we can all at least relate to Hawk’s need to find a ‘least offensive’ categorisation for his profession and past-time in the public domain. I was intending to write about how I was still playing Skate 3 (which I am, and you should play it, too) but the striking parallels between gaming and skating wouldn’t let me go.Around 15 years ago skate culture enraptured me in the same way that videogame culture had some years before. It had its own language, attitude, t-shirts, symbols, equipment, clans. It also offered shots of adrenaline and a levelling up structure (from Roces boots to K2) that I could invest time, money and resources in. As a young skater – at first recreational inline skating was my thing before ‘graduating’ to aggressive inline and some very large bruises – I was absorbed by the science, speed and depth of this ‘action sport’. I failed miserably when I first started out skating ramps, parks and anything that would support my bodyweight and ego. I nose-dived vert ramps, slipped off half-pipes into groups of bystanders and flew over spines like a ballerina before landing like a sack of sentient beef dropped from a diving board. I failed, basically. And then I did what all skaters do: I got up. I went back to the start. I hit restart on my progress for that day, that session, that trick.Skating, whether it be on a board or strapped into a pair of skates, is about freedom within strict systems and rules. You can perform liberating feats of mid-air daftness – from a simple kickflip to a full-blown Christ Air – but if you don’t manage your velocity, your balance, and stick that landing your face will be sanding a rough piece of concrete in no time.

http://www.edge-online.com/features/...skate-culture/

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