I walk my dog near a skate park a few days a week. It's fun to sometimes stop and watch people do tricks and practice. It reminds me of my time being a preteen/teenager skateboard wannabe punk. Those were fun times wandering to skate parks and other buildings that had some sweet stairs and rails. However, I would like to you remind you that I didn't make it big with skateboarding and do not do it as a lucrative living. Skateboarding is a lot like music, sports, and other forms of art or athletics in which only elite handfuls can make a successful living of it. Only handfuls of bands make it to the rockstar heights of AC/DC or the ideal thug rapper lifestyle. Major league sports may have thousands of players but many are lost to injury or do not have sustainable talent to progress in a certain league (Stay with me here, I'm going somewhere with this. I promise). Big name journalists, photographers and writers are the biggest grains of salt in bottomless salt shaker. Many wield a camera or a pen with hopes of being the biggest name. Yet only handfuls are household names or big names in their specific niche.
Skateboarding is the exact same way. Like various sports, writing, photography and other art forms, it's fun to do as a hobby. Some are lifelong hobbies and some are passing hobbies that come and go with age. Skateboarding is definitely transient. There are few professional skateboarders over 50. There are notable exceptions but they are EXCEPTIONS. It was the cool thing when I was young and all the young girls thought that careless grungy skateboarders were awesome. I was never one of those people. For I was rarely careless. I was the most up tight of all my friends, I attempted to be grungy but it wasn't the "hot" kind of grungy. I just looked like a misfit human in grunge attire. Some people carry out and live that dream of skateboarding professionally. And that's cool. I respect that. However, I feel there is a certain age where you can probably drop the idea of skateboarding professionally. Any age over 25 is probably an ideal age to stop trying and get a real job. If you've already made it by that point (and most professional skateboarders make it before that age and continue with it as a career) then good for you. You're the exception. For everyone one Tony Hawk or Bam Margera there is thousands of deadbeats chasing the skateboarding dream well into their late 20's and 30's .
So this is where I was going with all of this. Back to the skate park where I walk my dog. Once or twice a week there is a guy there who is easily my age if not older who skateboards there and hangs out with people at least 5-10 years younger. This in itself isn't egregious but it's a little weird. But on top of that, he brings his daughter with him who is definitely under 2 years of age. She sits there restless and confused as to why her dad doesn't pay attention to her while he hangs out with guys who look like they may not be able to legally drink. She cries and asks for him and he keeps telling her to hold on while he attempts trick after trick with no success. He wasn't very good at all. He had the look of a novice. He would skate back to his buddies and begrudgingly console his daughter while commenting about her "bitch mom" who couldn't even watch her for the day so he could skateboard. The most baffling are his remarks about when he "some day" makes it big skateboarding and he won't have to worry about anything anymore and he can pay for a babysitter so he can hang out and skate all day.
Dude, seriously? Are you fucking 10 years old? Are you still humming the "I don't want to grow up" song by Toys R Us in your head? Are you possibly retarded or just lazy? Probably just lazy but I'm not willing to exclude both as possibilities. I understand parents need hobbies and can't sacrifice everything. But the one thing you hold on to is skateboarding? You're almost fucking 30. Easily. How about you put down the board and pick up a job application. It's a little late to cling to your youth now. And what about that poor girl who somehow decided it was a good idea to sleep with you? Is she 18 and still thinks skaters are so hot? What a mistake for all parties involved. For the daughter who can't get her fathers attention so he can skateboard and live in Neverland. For the dad who may never grow up or give up on childish dreams. For the mother who carried a baby from a man that is incapable of facing reality. Now they are all inseparably intertwined. There is no winning situation here. In the movies, the dad would realize the foolishness and error of his ways. Get a job, go back to school maybe. The mother would be supportive but firm for the dad to do something besides skateboard, but still support the dream until it was harshly apparent that this wasn't the way. The daughter likes her dad's passion and picks up his mannerisms throughout childhood but realizes the reality of what her dad was and doesn't follow in his footsteps in chasing the stars.
But it's not the movies. This is the real world and the odds are always against us. That family is fucked and never had a chance because some 30 year old dude is chasing a preteens dream.
Remember kids. Safe sex.
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