Adaptation is a quality inherent of human beings. for that matter, it’s true for most of nature. So, to assume that attribute should cease to become relevant in the 20th & 21st century is to disregard the essentialness of ‘the human approach’.

for approximately 2,000 years, surfing has been the archetypal example of humans adapting to their environment, not modifying the environment to suit their needs but instead to conform themselves to its pre-existing structure; the ability to look at the rolling of water over the great vastness of the sea and interpret it into a canvas for personal movement is an exceptionally deep thought process not to be taken as a simple act of recreation.



The unrestrained boom of civilization brought with it an expanse of fabricated surfaces, an attempt to cover up the natural surfaces with a controlled substance: concrete.


Water and concrete may seem to have little or no similarities at all yet, when viewed from the eye of a surfer, there is an essential commonality between the two: a surface that, while not intended for the purpose, is perfectly capable of becoming a vessel to express ones self; the paintbrush of this urban canvas is none other than a skateboard.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that skateboarding is essentially just a mindset. It’s the appreciation for what’s there, it’s the balance of creation and destruction, it’s the masochistic act of engaging in something you know you’ll be hurt in, it’s the expression of personal style, it’s the combination of introspective meditation and camaraderie with others, it’s the lack of requirements other than your own, and it’s the elevation of seemingly banal and vernacular things into objects of value and worth.

Skateboarding is more akin to fine art than to a recreational activity or a sport, as it has been labeled by countless forms of media, mostly due to its athletic component which is hardly the primary thrust of skateboarding.


Sports require a structure that one must adhere too and almost entirely rely on others: the team and the coaches (who are the only ones allowed to be ‘creative’), these factors coupled with the need to be athletically superior are the essential components of a majority of sports. Concurrently skateboarding, at its forefront, holds self-creativity to be its pinnacle. It has none of the objective requirements like sports do, it lives in a world of subjectivity, there is no good or bad, only satisfied or not. What only matters is you, not the judging of others.

The fact that skateboarding has been taken into an arena, into video games, into reality shows, into the world of advertising and appropriated by such menial things as ‘Snakeboards’ and other such derogatory skateboard modifications (see: skateboardingsucks.com) is really quite a sad state.

The feeling one gets when landing a trick is a rush like nothing else, it’s a feeling of satisfaction that, because of factors internal and external, you landed something that had a sense of worth. It’s redeeming to accomplish something you try to do. The mindset is something that cannot be truly commodified, no matter how hard individuals may attempt to do so; there is an inherent contradiction in the attempt to sell things not able to be sold, you can’t package up the feeling, only the tool in which to gain that feeling. What their selling you is not actually skateboarding, it’s the attempt at a symbol of skateboarding.



Skateboarding has become a fraud, but what hasn’t? Everything that at one time seemed to have some sense of honesty and truth has since been exposed, from religion to government to art to skateboarding. Perhaps humans have gone to far in their quest for ‘progress’ and have instead found themselves in a place where they can no longer adapt. Imagine that, no more adaptation.


JESSE HLEBO IS A PHOTOGRAPHER, FILMMAKER, WRITER, and the editor of Commonism, “an online art/music/culture/collective zine who’s purpose is to promote positivity in the san francisco, los angeles and orange county scenes with the hopes of creating a closer unity and sense of community between them.” See more here. and here.