you'll need some ID...

Listen to this,
read this,
discuss...

We are often asked to verify who we are through identity,

I'll need your driver's licence or passport

but there's clearly still a part of my everyday which more readily identifies with something much more basic as I had this tune ringing through my mind getting dressed the other day.

Hair...check

shoes..check

brand new fit...looking cool..check

and I was looking in the mirror thinking "ooooh yes!" as I laced up my favourite trainers with which I'd taken the effort to coordinate my tshirt.

Now - I do stand by that which Lecrae has observed

Identity is found in the God we trust

Any other identity will self destruct

I'm not the shoes I wear. I'm not the clothers I buy.

I'm not the house I live in. I'm not the car I drive.

I'm not the job I work. You can't define my worth

by nothing on God's green earth

my identity is found in Christ.

so why is it that this stuff holds some value?


I enjoy that moment on a day off where I can get dressed in what I want to wear. Clothes in which I 'feel like me'. Yes, how you look carries heavy weight in the boardsports industry, but it's not peer pressure that causes me to feel this way. I simply like it.


I don't think it's controversial to suggest that maybe there's something of God in all of this? That the feeling of finding and belonging to a group who walk a certain route is in God's plan, just as Jesus was 'in' but not 'of'. Sometimes it's not a case of hitting 180* and walking in the other direction, but taking a bearing and heading in a slight fraction off that which people are experiencing already...ultimately leading to a huge difference further down the line.

skateboarding - nature or nurture?

Of course with any scene there comes the heroes. Skating is just the same. Every generation has their's and within that there are numerous names dependent on your style, attitude and approach that will appeal. I always liked the guys that did things a bit different. Mike Vallely and Rodney Mullen might seem to represent two completely opposite ends of the scale with regards to approach. Just watch any footage and you'll see two very different ways of using the same tool. So what unites them in my mind?


Watching how these guys interacted with their audience/fans/spectators, call them what you will, these guys exhibited humility. There was none of the better-than-you showmanship just simple skill that did all the talking for them. There certainly wasn't any of the self-important nature that can very easily sneak in when anyone gets used to being the centre of attention. Two examples stand out clearly in my mind.


Mike V - having provided a full on demo, riding hard as always, wasn't done when time was called. In fact the sun went down and the pros went home. Mike V got some floodlights and carried on going well beyond what was required and expected of him.


Rodney Mullen - while the rest of the pros on one particular tour enjoyed all the luxuries of a  high class hotel, he went for a skate. He met up with some local kids and hung out with them, helping them try some of the stuff that he can do.


It's this that has made the biggest impact on me. I've never pushed my skating hard enough to be competitive at a local level never mind international but I have made sure that what I have received I give. The best thing about skating, the absolute best thing, is when you bring something different to a local park (sometimes 'old' is still waiting to be promoted to 'retro'). A kid watches on and, despite the grizzled appearance of that crazy old guy doing something he's never seen before, asks how it's done. You share what you know, more often than not they pick it up frustratingly quickly and they go home having learnt something new.

The gospel has been shared...

skateboarding - liberty or loyalty?

Saw a guy once. He'd made himself a simple ramp out of a plank of wood and some bricks. I was a small kid and he was in my primary school's playground on a weekend just skating. And that was all it took.


I'm still skateboading today. I enjoy acquiring new scars. I've got used to comments being shouted out from passing cars as I roll down the cycle path. I delight in being the living expression of the old school while the kids practice nailing the trick that has most recently captured their interest.


To an extent I wish this is what it has always been about but I've definitely walked/skated a journey that has come full circle. Whether it has run parallel to the simple context of life, maturity, values and priorities changing and shaping with the years or not I don't know but I do know the impressionable mind of a young person and the longevity of loyalty can be caught in a moment.

My first 'proper' set up included an Element team logo slick deck. To this day Element are the first port of call I make when seeking a new purchase. I wear their clothing. With pride I kit myself out from head to to toe, displaying the iconic logo with some notion that I'm also making my opinions and thoughts about the environment also known albeit by association.


But what am I associating myself with? With whose values am I aligning my own? It's not just a case of the team either, but specific individuals within that team...but there's too much in this for one post. And so it continues...