Lessons at the Skate Shop
Thoughts and conversations while working at the local Skateboard shop
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Many of you know my youngest daughter owns a skateboard shop. She is a vivacious, dynamic woman who skateboards, rides motorcycles, and helped raised the funds to build the local skate park. It is one of my greatest pleasures to support my kids in their endeavors, and as a part of that I get to cover for Quinn at her skate shop. I usually cover for her one day a week, allowing her to spend more time renovating houses and living her life by having three days off instead of two each week. That extra day makes a huge difference. This week she is on a motorcycle run to Reno, over 1750 miles, so I offered to cover for her all week. So, that is where my mind and body are this week, at the skate shop.
I particularly enjoy the creative side of working in the shop. Stocking shelves and seeing all the new deck graphics, hardware, and clothing is awesome. What I especially love is helping people pick out just the right skateboard parts based on what they want to do. This goes beyond choosing a longboard, shortboard, or surf skate to exactly what style and width deck, bearings, bushings, trucks, and wheels they want. It’s a great conversation about their interests that then evolves into a conversation about their personal sense of style. Then I often get to build the board for them, which is another form of creativity that I absolutely love. And seeing the look on someone’s face after I’ve put together all the parts they selected into the board of their dreams is priceless.
What I love the most about working at the shop is all the people I get to meet. There are groups of teenagers who hang out at the shop, sometimes for hours. Listening to the Gen Z kids talk, getting to know them as people and what their interests are, is fascinating. They can spend hours just ribbing each other, talking about their day at school, at home, and what they want to do with their lives. We also live in a tourist town, so we get all types of people who come through from all over the world. In fact, most of our residents are from all over the country with many varied stories to tell.
Many adults love to come in and talk about how they used to skateboard or roller skate and ponder if they should be anymore. Of course, I empathize with the concerns they have about getting hurt, especially as they age. But, as someone who still skateboards conservatively into my late fifties, its fun to see some people who are doing the same thing. We have conversations about their pasts, how long they have been riding, and what they enjoy doing now. Some older riders actually competed in skateboarding as young people, but still enjoy riding, though with a mellower vibe.
What is cool about seeing all the various people who come into the shop is being reminded that everyone matters. Today alone I have spoken with older gents with long, grey beards, families with toddlers, teenagers, parents with older kids, grandparents, the perpetually-single, and single parents. All of them are filled with wonder and fascination as they look at the artistry of the boards and the shop. And all of them have something interesting to say and live lives of value. I say that with confidence because they matter to me. No-one matters to everyone, but everyone matters to someone, and this is something I am consistently reminded of in the skate shop.
Because Quinn is on a motorcycle trip, and she carries motorcycle gear in the shop, I got into a conversation with a woman who came into the shop yesterday about riding. She downplayed how often she rode her motorcycle, saying she “wasn’t that great at riding” because she never went on long runs. I mentioned to her my favorite concept from Robert Fulghum’s book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Fulghum writes about how, in kindergarten, everyone is an artist, a runner, a writer, whatever they want to be. No matter how well they do it, they own that thing. It’s like when a little kid runs, all wobbly and goofy, across the room and turns around to say, “See how fast I am?!” Yes, my man, you are crazy fast, we always reply. In that same way, I told my new acquaintance, she absolutely was a legitimate motorcyclist. She rode, and that was amazing. There was nothing illegitimate about it.
I talked about how this is something I love about the skateboard shop. We have people who are getting their first skateboards who come in here as well as people buying their first skateboards. All of them are skateboarders. Furthermore, most professionals encourage and validate the people just starting. Everyone comes together under the “skateboarder” moniker, and that is a really cool thing. Young, old, experienced, newbie, all people who have an interest in skateboarding have a valid, enthusiastic interest in the sport and we all support each other.
The woman I was talking to also mentioned how she loves to ride her motorcycle, but is struggling with the fact she isn’t fully enjoying it anymore. She is so anxious the whole time she is riding, thinking about her safety and the hazards at every turn, it’s hard to have fun. She talked about the time she fell in some gravel on the way to work and had to limp her way home. She was so proud of herself for having ridden to work on her motorcycle, but was terrified of pulling off the road on the way home because there was gravel all along the shoulder. Fortunately, a thoughtful trucker was driving behind her, giving her tons of leeway, clearly protecting her most of the way.
I empathized with her story, saying that I too, tended to ride down the street, hypervigilant, worrying about every pothole and every section of loose gravel on the road when on my motorcycle. I mentioned that I actually stopped riding because of that and because Mike and I made a conscious decision based on safety. We wanted to be sure we were around for our kids. However, like I mention in my Substack, The Munteans and Motorcycles, I still love the fact that I rode. I still have the motorcycle endorsement on my license (though I’d definitely have to practice a bit before I rode again now that it’s been over a decade). However, I still can say I owned and rode multiple motorcycles during my life.
I mentioned to her what my dad said to me when I left a prestigious job with a fancy title at Ernst & Young. He asked me, “what are you going to do for self esteem when you leave?” I told him just because I left the job didn’t mean I wasn’t still the same person. I am still the person who reached that position, the same way I am still a motorcyclist. Just because I’m doing other things now doesn’t make that accomplishment any less valid.
It was a great conversation that reminded me of so many good things, and my new acquaintance seemed reassured. She recognized she didn’t have to be at the height of her game for her accomplishments to be valid. If she wanted to move on to a new hobby instead of riding a motorcycle it wouldn’t take away the fact that she had been a rider.
As we move through life, these things are so important to remember. Time and life are finite, but there are infinite possibilities. We cannot do them all. We have to make choices because of the finite nature of things. In the end, all the things we have done throughout our life make it wondrous no matter how long or well we did them. In many ways, it is the variety of things we experience as much as the things we focus on with intensity that make life colorful and wonderful.
So, working at the skate shop has reminded me how much value people of all ages bring to the conversation. The various perspectives and opinions, interests and hobbies are amazing to interact with. It has reminded me how important it is to me to continue to work with and interact with a variety of people. It keeps me open-minded and interested in life and the people around me to spend time with them.
Taking opportunities to create and learn new things is also invigorating. Whether it is building skateboards, creating art, creating beautiful work-product, creating a beautiful home, or any other creative pursuit, it is of value to stay engaged and fulfilled. Learning about amazing new things coming into the world is fascinating and worth following.
And, most importantly, all people and all ability levels matter. We are all artists, all creative, all athletes. We all are allowed to own all the things we have accomplished and done in our lives as part of who we are. Furthermore, owning these things can support our psychological ability to continue to create, to move, to do all the things we want to do. Owning abilities we leveraged in the past supports faith we can be active in the future. Our judgement about how good we are or were at something is superfluous. We should just, as they say in the skate world, “keep on pushin’.”
Please click ❤️ at the end to help assure my Substack is seen by others. Thanks for reading, and I always appreciate your comments. You all are the best!
I'm glad the Skateboard shop is working out. It adds a real dimension to this town for Gen Z.
Phil C