Respect Authority

Now, everybody knows that ESPN is the authority when it comes to skateboarding news. So, naturally, they recently interviewed Bobby Worrest, part of the legion of living cartoons riding for Krooked and probably one of the least likely candidates for an interview with a mainstream ultra-corporate bloodsucker like ESPN. I mean, shit… not even ESPN2… and that’s where they usually put all the “sports” none of the bloated ex-jocks who make up 90% of ESPN’s audience want to watch.

The interview itself is as compelling and rich as Q&As with skaterbois usually go, which is to say, you can pass that shit as easily as some Grey Poupon. However, the video they put together with Worrest is a great midday diversion for all you skateboarders out there who actually have jobs.

Sometimes, a stupid little video like this can be just as enjoyable as an eagerly-awaited, far-too-epic video part. For my money, this is where true skateboarding lives — not in the seemingly endless march of stairs some dude frontside flipped, or in debates over vulcanized versus cup sole versus boat shoes because you’re just too fucking cool to skate in actual skateboarding sneakers, or even in all the requisite drugging and boozing (although those are also pretty fun). Actually, scratch that. Even though I can hardly ride while sober, skateboarding definitely lives in the drugs and alcohol… and by that I, of course, mean playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 while seriously debilitated by cough syrup and marijuana is both entertaining and terrifying.

And while landing a trick can seem pretty fucking memorable considering it doesn’t happen all too often anymore because it snows every goddamned day here in The Seventh Circle Of Hell, Illinois, the moments that really defined the “essence” of skating to me were the times I spent riding around town aimlessly and goofing off with my friends. Imaginary or not, we had some genuine fun together, and it’s that precise word — fun — that too often gets left out of the average skateboarder’s set up.