A shitty essay for Trendkill.

A person’s perceptions create the way they see the world and the way they choose to present themselves, they create the way that person thinks, and they create what that person does and ultimately is.  When riding a scooter, a person is moving their body in a way conducive to the way their body is shaped and the way their body feels, to the way the obstacles presented to them are made.  They have a vision of the way they want their riding to feel like, and what tricks they want to do because they are the most fun.  This is a direct reflection of the self, the perceptions of the world around you in this moment you are riding your scooter, the perceptions or the body you find yourself within.  This is art, this is pure self expression, you are expressing the way you feel, and working with all of your possible energy into the way you want to feel.  A competition rider in this mindset is riding to the fullest of their ability to a run they want to see perfected in the way only they can do it; they want to feel the best they can while riding through their run or even doing their trick for best trick.  When a rider is filming a video part, they have a vision of what they want their video to feel, sound, and look like.  They want it to be a direct representation of the way they live their life, that is why many riders usually edit their own videos or have their close friends edit them. (I'm not sure who else would?) This is a reflection of the perceptions the rider has of the world, possibly the inspiration of other riders, and the feelings those riders have inflicted upon them in their videos.

While both a competition and filming for a video part are great outlets for self expression, and great for other riders to appreciate others feelings and riding; there is another destructive side of both.  When a rider is thinking about what other people think about their video, or about winning a competition, they are changing what riding is about.  Riding is no longer a reflection of your past experiences, you are doing things based on what people who have perceived vastly different things than appreciate; whether it be the guys who write the blogs, the people watching your run, the kids who watch the videos, the judges of the competition, or the rep you’re trying to get picked up by.  This makes a huge wish-wash of people doing things for similar reasons, as opposed to everyone doing their own thing and working for themselves; you have people doing things for the average opinion, the mean, what the most people think because you are doing things because you want the most possible amount of people to like you.  This exponentiates, the more common opinions are the ones the most riders move to please, and these riders can go into the spotlight as the most popular riders, which influences people to think they must ride like these people to get the most views, comments, and blog posts on their videos, or to win competitions, which is firstly not true and secondly is not as fun.  People aren’t doing the most fun thing to them, they are no longer doing the thing that they live for for themselves, but for other people.  The riding becomes all similar, there is a standard set on what you have to do to be respected or sponsored.  I’m not saying the industry/scene is completely like this, but I am telling people that the more they let other’s views influence them, the more they will fall into the vortex that can is being self conscious of their art.  There is no one who should be able to tell you what to do, if people call your video bland and boring, well thats because they probably don’t appreciate the same things you do, and if you give into their wishes you are becoming more like them.  You are succuming to the eniterty of the scene becoming the same things being expressed.  This is where the industry starts dying, people get bored of the same feelings over and over again, you need to make videos that kids will get hyped off of, and that doesn’t come with the decision to do a trick people think is sick.  That comes with hard work, dedication, and getting to know yourself.  You have to wait until your video is done to put it out, not put it out because you want other people to see it.  Your riding is for you, other people will know, but if you ride for yourself you won’t give a flying fuck how clean, technical, or sick the kids on youtube or at your skatepark think.  You know you’re gonna keep doing it either way.  Don’t do tricks because other people think they are cool, do tricks you think are fun and feel good to you.  Thats how you get noticed, but you’re probably not going to get noticed if you’re trying to get noticed. -Parrish