Sunday, July 16, 2000

 

PERSPECTIVE: The world looks
different from a board's-eye-view.

(Photo: Dusty Senesac checks to make sure his skateboard has followed him into the air.)

Story By: TONY SIMMONS
Photos By: JACQUELYN MARTIN
The News Herald 
Skateboarders don't see things the same way as people who use more conventional forms of locomotion. 

When J'Michael Pennington looks at buildings, he sees slopes begging him to ride them. The rough shingles of a garage roof, for instance, make as good a skating surface as a smooth skatepark ramp - maybe even better, considering the eight-foot free-fall that he takes before he lands, straight and true, and continues skating. 

"Anything - curbs, stairs, picnic tables," says J'Michael, 12, a Surfside Middle School student. "What's that bench for? To sit down? That's what I thought before I started skating." 

It's a perspective skewed from the norm, but don't blame it on the rarified air found in ramp-assisted flight - or the too-common falls that mark the skaters' epidermis. 

"The world just looks different to us. We can skate anything," says Dusty Senesac, 18, who manages the Crown Skateboard Team and teaches a summer skate camp at Mad Chuck's Skatepark in Panama City Beach. 

"We don't see planters with flowers, we see an obstacle to skate." 

It's a skateboard thing. You wouldn't understand. 

"I was hanging out with a friend and these other guys were talking about stuff that was cool to them, but to me it was pretty stupid stuff," Dusty says. "My friend says, 'They never did an ollie,' and he was right. They don't know what it is to skate. Once you do it, it's on your mind." 

(Photo: J'Michael Pennington uses a garage roof for a skating ramp.) 

Skating is all about positive energy, they say. It keeps your mind off other things, like drugs or mischief. A skateboarder might be on the streets but he's not "on the streets," if you catch the difference. 

For some, it's all about the rush. 

"The way it feels to skate, to ride away from a good trick, positive mental vibrations from your wheels to your brain," Dusty says. 

For others, it's about personal improvement. 

J'Michael launches up a ramp and into the air, reaches down to grab his board and keep it close to his feet, and then lands with a loud crack - upright and balanced on his wheels - and glides down the ramp in the other direction. He shakes his head and dismisses applause with a wave of his hand. 

"It didn't look good," he says. "I could do better." 

SPONSORED TALENT 

In skateboarding, J'Michael explains, there's no way to be the best. There's always someone who's better at something else than you are. The idea is to be keep trying new tricks, pushing yourself. 

"Everybody has their own style," Dusty says. "Skateboarding is diverse. You've got guys that are good technical skaters, or are good at flips or verts. The thing is to skate everything. A good professional skater should be able to ride all terrain. There are pros now that are only good at one style, but the really good skaters do everything." 

Both J'Michael and Dusty are members of the Crown Skateboards team and have corporate sponsors like Counter Culture Clothing. That doesn't mean a paycheck for performance, but it keeps them in shirts, shoes, shorts and equipment - boards, bearings, wheels, trucks, pads, helmets and so on. 

(Photo: J'Michael and Dusty warm up at Mad Chuck's Skatepark.) 

Both will be among about 25 local and regional competitors July 31 when Mad Chuck's Skate Park hosts the semi-finals for the Vans Warped Tour 2000 (starting at about 10:30 a.m.). The first-place winner gets an all-expenses-paid trip to California to compete in the Vans World Amateur Championships. Spectator admission for the Mad Chuck's competition is free. 

Dusty believes J'Michael could go pro in a few years if he keeps at it. 

"It could happen someday for this kid, if he skates his life away until then," Dusty says. "He skates a lot of contests. He's already skating with those on the verge of being pro and skating with the big guys." 

Both Dusty and J'Michael view the potential for public recognition as something like karma. They believe if you work hard, perfect your craft and send out positive energy, then good things will happen and success will find you instead of the other way around. 

"If you have talent, it will come to you. People will find you," J'Michael says. 

"You show up and do it," Dusty says. "The best won't say a word to anyone. They won't say, 'Look at me.' You don't have to say anything to get noticed. You can just tell a good skateboarder when you see one." 

Mary O'Connor - J'Michael's grandmother - says people already see the good in J'Michael. 

"His peers look at him like, 'He's the man,'" she says. "They really look up to him and say, 'Maybe, if I'm like J'Michael, I can be a good skater too.'" 

Of course, she's prejudiced. She's also a jaded skate-granny. She applauds when J'Michael grabs air, lands clean and glides back down for another go. But she doesn't get up to see if he's OK when he misses the next landing. He lies on the ramp and just breathes for a minute, then sits up and laughs. 

"He's just scraped up a little bit," she says. "No pain, no gain, so to speak." 

J'Michael's no stranger to pain: two broken bones in one arm, a twice-broken wrist, a broken finger, a dislocated collar bone and a rippling scar on his right elbow all attest to the rigors of his sport. 

"You don't need to be afraid of dirt or skinning your arms up," J'Michael says. 

"Pain makes you stronger," says Dusty. Read by dbp 

SKATEBOARD LINGO 

kick-flip: flip the board into the air with your front foot and land back on it.
ollie: smack the tail of the board with your feet and make the board hop into the air.
pop-shove-it: do an ollie and scoop the tail with your back foot to turn the board 180 degrees.
50-50 grind: hop onto a ledge or coping and grind it with both trucks (the axle part of the wheels).
vert: going vertical by launching into the air at the top of a high curved ramp.
air: defying gravity on a vert. READ BY DBP INFO BOX 

VANS WARPED TOUR 2000 

What: America's longest-running festival tour; an explosive combination of extreme music, skateboarding and youth culture.
Where: Club LaVela (Mad Chuck's Skatepark will host the semi-final skateboard competition). When: July 31.
Athletes: Renowned skateboarders, rollerskaters, BMX bikers and Moto-X bikers.
Bands: A dozen ska and punk bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Save Ferris and NOFX performing throughout the day.
Oddities: The human cannonball.
Ladies Lounge: Special area for getting up close and personal with female athletes and musicians. Get autographs, freebies and more.
On the Web: www.WarpedTour.com 




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© The News Herald
Copyright Notice
 

Chuck Senesac's Kankakee Kayhawk Links