Saturday Sessions

One of the most enjoyable parts of skateboarding as I see it is the Saturday session. It basically consists of you and some of your friends meeting as some place with no agenda other than to skate. You might meet up at a skatepark, a schoolyard, or in my case, a tennis court.

This is where the magic happens; the best tricks go down all for the sake of fun and everyone carries a grin from ear to ear. On any given Saturday, you might witness one of your friends finally land a trick he’s been trying for weeks or you yourself might land a trick for the first time in six months (which you probably won’t land again for another six months). Whatever the case may be, you’re almost guaranteed to have fun.

My friends and I had a Saturday session at our university’s tennis courts this past weekend. After a few exchanges of emails and phone calls, we had a posse put together and a session waiting to begin. We already had a shared passion, so all that we needed now was a grind box (which was easily obtained) and a way of documenting the good times (which turned out to be my digital camera).

After a few minutes of warming up and waiting for everyone to get to the meeting spot, we had a full-blown Saturday session unfolding. Tricks went down left and right, with everyone feeding off of each other’s energy and enthusiasm. It seemed as though everything outside the fencing of the tennis court meant nothing and that the only thing important in life was having fun.

I’ve been skateboarding for quite a while now and each day that goes by, I have more and more fun with my hobby. Sure there are times at which point I really don’t feel like going out, but for the most part I’m motivated to skate with my friends. This particular Saturday session really reinforced for me what skateboarding was really about, having fun.

I think that far too often kids buy into the hype surrounding professional skateboarding; they think it’s all about fame and money. When you see people like Bam, Rob Dyrdek, and Ryan Sheckler get their own television shows, it’s easy to lose sight over why we skateboard in the first place. I think that if you would ask any of those guys what they enjoy the most, they’ll all would say skateboarding. You see, the vast majority of skateboarders are cut from the same cloth. They really don’t fit in with any of the traditional sports crowds, so they have collectivized and built a lifestyle entirely out of fun and friendship. This particular Saturday session reminded me of that point when we organized a group of individuals together to have some fun.

As each day goes by, I realize just how empty a life without fun and friendship can be. I don’t believe that humans were ever meant to be by themselves; whether that’s on a first place pedestal or in the lowliest ditch known to man. Skateboarding with my friends gives me this type of fulfillment, which I’m sure that those of you who skate can relate to. Now I recognize that this would be an ideal time to insert a sappy phrase like “skaters unite” or whatever, but I won’t do that here. Instead I want to encourage all of you reading this to initiate some contact with some friends of yours this weekend and have some good clean fun. Have your own Saturday session; I don’t think you’ll regret it.