Carrying On

What skateboarding has given me.

Total Reading Time: About 7 Minutes

Hey ya’ll

Please forgive the late delivery of this weeks installment of The Subculturalist. It’s been just a bit busier than usual around the ‘ol homestead, so to speak. Vol.6 of The Motoring Journal is off to the printer, Vol.7 is is well under way and most importantly, I’m getting married this weekend in Vermont. Best laid plans have mostly stayed on track, but as is always the case a few stray loose ends needed tying up. So thank you for bearing with me as the start of a whole new journey approaches. I couldn’t be more excited to welcome friends and family to Southern Vermont next week, to share a place that is so special with these people means the world to me. But enough about all that, let’s talk about skateboarding.

Geoff Rowley, LA Convention Center 1999. Photo: Daniel Harold Sturt

Of the many planned activities next week there is one I am particularly excited about, skateboarding at my local skatepark. It’s been years since the sheetmetal and wood ramps I helped build as an adolescent were removed from what was originally a street hockey rink. It took a little over 20 years of fundraising and community outreach, but Manchester, VT finally got the top notch concrete skatepark I’d always thought it should have. At least the start of one anyway, we’ll see if they manage to build the rest of it in the coming years. Either way, what was a dream of my friends and I for our entire youth is now a reality. When I first had the chance to skate the new park back in 2020 I could hardly believe it, but like so many things these days, the disbelief was mainly driven by how much time has passed since I first started skating.

Me, Santa Clarita 2015 Photo: James Goodwin