Invasion Comp – The Results!!

Skateboarding is everything to me. I know it is a cliched statement that so many skaters make, but to me skateboarding is my life. I love everything about it. Just the act of skateboarding itself is such an amazing feeling. Some call it a sport, and others call it an art, but one thing for sure is that skateboarding is just a pure form of entertainment. Nothing feels better than pushing yourself in skating and pulling through. The smile you get on your face that you get when you land a new trick that you’ve been working on forever, is like no other. The feeling of accomplishment you get from knowing that everything finally came together and you pushed yourself and accomplished your goal is amazing, and it can happen multiple times in a day of skating. Skating at it’s purest form is so different from all of the other sports out there. There are no coaches or teams out there competing against each other for championships,money and fame. It’s all just hanging out with friends, and having a good time learning new tricks. What you wish to do is all up to you. If you want to land something new, you have to man up and go for it. You can’t just rely on a team to pull you through your difficulties, you have to step up to the challenge and do it yourself. You may fall and get hurt, but you get back up and try again, and eventually you do land it, and you feel on top of the world. The greatest thing about it all is that you made the decision to do it by yourself too. Sports like football and baseball need coaches for their teams, and they tell them what they do and how to improve. Skateboarding is completely up to you, and in this sense it is your art form. You can do whatever tricks you life, skate with your own style, add your own flair, and really do anything you’d like. If you want to go balls out and try to do a stair set you have been afraid to do, then you can go do it after talking yourself up and gaining the confidence to do it. If you want to relax and have a good time on a mini pipe not a problem, you can still have a great time. This is why skateboarding is so euphoric, it gives you absolute freedom, and let’s you channel your emotions into something positive instead of turning to drugs or taking your emotions out on others. So many kids these days have something bad happen and they get into a bad mood, go post a bulletin on Myspace with some emo song lyrics, and then mope around for the rest of the day. With skateboarding, if something bad happens, you can go outside and release all of your emotions into your board. Whether you are happy or sad, skateboarding is truly one of the best ways to release emotions, and without it I fear I’d be an extremely angry and depressed person, like so many people I know.

Skateboarding is also a great social tool. You can just go outside with your friends, and not only progress at skateboarding, but mentally as well. You learn how to deal with challenges, how to handle pain, how to troubleshoot your own problems, and how to express yourself. To see all of your friends becoming better people right in front of your faces due to an activity is truly an amazing sight. You can go to the skatepark and skate the day away with your crew. You could do this every day for the rest of your life and it would never get old. Skateboarding is entertainment, passion, emotion, art, and so many other things bundled up into one amazing activity.

I really don’t want to even contemplate what my life would be without it. I assume I’d be either a pothead, a nerd who plays World of Warcraft all day every day, or an ignorant jock who only cares about scoring on the field and with the girls. All three of these alternate realities frighten me, and I am glad that I skateboard. It has helped me become a better person, and kept me out of trouble. I know that I will continue to skateboard as late into my life as possible, because after looking around for something better, I haven’t been able to find anything. Nothing in youth, nor adulthood can step up to the joys that skateboarding brings. Most adults these days are miserable, complaining about the recession and how they can’t make any money. The problem is that their lives revolve around a material object that we call cash. Their only form of entertainment and joy is money, and without it they are nothing. Skateboarding is one thing that nobody will ever be able to take away from me, and because of that I will always be a happy person. One day when my body begins to fail me and I’ve had my fun with this sport, I will have no intentions of abandoning it, but instead plan to start my own skate company, and help spread skateboarding to other kids so they can experience the joy too. In that sense, skateboarding is now, and always will be a big part of my life, and I am completely content with it being that way.

–Brandon (Purple Skater)

Hello,
My name is Will Goodwin, I am 16 years old and I have been skating for almost half my life. I skate pretty much every single day. Skateboarding basically means everything to me, I don’t know what I would do without it (Maybe do better in school, get a job, but who wants that). Since skateboarding means so much to me I found it hard to put it into words, so I thought the best way is to just show you.
Sincerely yours,
Will Goodwin

1. Having fun
2. Having fun
3. HAVING FUN! 🙂

plain and simple
Jacob Varela