{"id":97922686,"date":"2023-01-25T13:30:17","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T13:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=97922686"},"modified":"2023-01-25T13:30:17","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T13:30:17","slug":"the-leap-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=97922686","title":{"rendered":"The Leap of Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;why not \/ the Pittsburgh Pirates shout because they won \/ and in a sense we&#8217;re all winning \/ we&#8217;re alive&#8221; &#8211; Frank O&#8217;Hara, &#8220;Steps&#8221;<\/h2><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Remember the Leap of Faith? That trick from the \u201cSchool II\u201d level of <em>Tony Hawk\u2019s Pro Skater 2<\/em>? 27-stair, I think it was? Posers might describe it as \u201ctwo flights of stairs for students to use\u201d or \u201can 18\u20198\u201d drop that\u2019ll shatter your legs if you try it.\u201d If you haven\u2019t thought about it in a while, here\u2019s the spoiler: no one has ever landed it. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And no one ever will! They put an elevator there. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/9b1ca918-ec3f-4256-972c-88ba9c17a94a_333x499.jpeg\"\/><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, this happened way back in 2005, which shows you how unplugged I am from skateboarding news. I watch <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ylzet1hHYoc\">Skateline<\/a> <\/em>from time to time and sorta nod along like I\u2019m not 35. Recently, <em>Jenkem<\/em> revisited the Leap of Faith with Jamie Thomas (who broke his board making the gap famous) and Richard King (who broke his leg). <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Revisiting the Leap of Faith, The Most Famous Trick Never Landed\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kCW7o0QFEJ4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s no reason for Point Loma High <em>not<\/em> to build that elevator\u2014accessibility is important. Five minutes of Googling doesn\u2019t immediately reveal whether they built it for accessibility reasons or \u201cend the scourge of skateboarders\u201d reasons, and who cares? The elevator needed to go there. Yet I\u2019m left feeling like Max Brod must\u2019ve felt when Kafka told him to burn <em>The Trial<\/em> unpublished.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cracked.com\/article_29072_6-helping-hands-from-groups-you-may-not-expect\">my earlier columns for <\/a><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cracked.com\/article_29072_6-helping-hands-from-groups-you-may-not-expect\">Cracked<\/a><\/em> talked about skateboarders fixing city infrastructure for free, like when Nyjah Huston and his crew fixed up Clipper Ledge. In that column, I said that skateboarders\u2014specifically street skaters, the ones who annoy pedestrians\u2014infuse a sense of life into cities, the same way buskers and other street performers do. The same way murals do. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mbowman\/status\/1616571786463936521\">The same way strikes do<\/a>. The same way any interruption from the capitalist grind of commute-work-shop-drink-eat-commute injects life into public spaces. Yes, I recognize these intrusions <em>can<\/em> be very annoying, but I really want us to think about them differently. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nyjah Huston: REAL STREET BEST TRICK 2020 | World of X Games\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rsfCcObehWs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This blog is very on the record in the \u201csports are art\u201d camp, and that\u2019s perhaps more true in sports where objective scores aren\u2019t the goal. Skateboarding shows us exhilarating, exciting things human beings can do with their bodies; it is, no matter how stuffily the squares huff, rad. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sports have flashpoint moments as necessary parts of their mythology, something for future generations to one-up. Magic won five titles with the Lakers, so Michael won six with the Bulls in the next decade. The Z-Boys skated empty pools in Dogtown, so Tony Hawk landed a 900. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s bummer we only have wistful \u201cwhat could have been\u201d retrospectives on the Leap of Faith instead of nostalgic YouTube remixes of Jaime Thomas landing it and rolling away. No matter how stupid it is to jump 18\u20198\u201d on wheels. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/1ef2cc21-a5f9-42c3-af26-e68d5b361ad3_1024x683.jpeg\"\/><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I live in the United States, where the response to people being in public is usually hostility. There are no bathrooms anywhere\u2014not in most retail stories, not at public transit stations, not at the playgrounds where my four-year-old jumps off stuff. Cops are called on <a href=\"https:\/\/thechicagobucketboys.weebly.com\/\">Bucket Boys<\/a>. Homeless encampments are met over and over again with police violence. Unhoused people on a street corner aren\u2019t a failure of society, they\u2019re \u201cbad for property values.\u201d Don\u2019t press play on this video if you\u2019re not strong enough to stomach three minutes of the most insidious menace 2 society: <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/HiyZj_2Q7aQ\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking of public transit, when I worked in the Campus Transportation Department at Loyola, the amount of \u201cis the CTA safe\u201d questions I got from scared parents of incoming freshmen probably outnumbered the CTA\u2019s annual budget. If you\u2019re not familiar with the term \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/HostileArchitecture\/comments\/r0u8f7\/hostile_architecture_in_chicago\/\">hostile architecture<\/a>,\u201d you won\u2019t be able to stop seeing it once you learn about it. <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s probably no way for city governments to embrace skateboarders without rendering skating completely uncool. Lori Lightfoot rolling municipal maintenance budget increases in the name of MORE HEELFLIPS is U2 on the iPhone 6. But I want to live in a society where skateboarding isn\u2019t viewed as some irritating blight, where the smell of grilling street food swims through the windows of every corporate office building, where a little overflow live music from a bar isn\u2019t a cop call. We\u2019re all dying, and every day, powerful people are trying to expedite the process. Let\u2019s make life cool before we go. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/d3c7ac6f-f221-411d-9bdc-087f8fcfc8af_425x240.gif\" alt=\"steve buscemi youth GIF\"\/><\/figure><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">RIP Leap of Faith (17 years late, I guess). Good on you for never being conquered.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One more <em>Tony Hawk\u2019s Pro Skater<\/em> memory-poke: The Carlsbad Gap from the \u201cSchool II\u201d level? It\u2019s also been demolished. Turned into a parking lot. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SY07dHiT2-s\">Joni Mitchell never learned to skateboard<\/a>, to my knowledge, neither did <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cassandra\">Cassandra<\/a>.<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sorry you got an email, <\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chris<\/p><div class=\"subscription-widget-wrap-editor\" data-attrs=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/shipwreckedsailor.substack.com\/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}\" data-component-name=\"SubscribeWidgetToDOM\"><div class=\"subscription-widget show-subscribe\"><div class=\"preamble\"><p class=\"cta-caption\">Thanks for reading shipwrecked sailor! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.<\/p><\/div><form class=\"subscription-widget-subscribe\"><input type=\"email\" class=\"email-input\" name=\"email\" placeholder=\"Type your email\u2026\" tabindex=\"-1\"\/><input type=\"submit\" class=\"button primary\" value=\"Subscribe\"\/><div class=\"fake-input-wrapper\"><div class=\"fake-input\"\/><div class=\"fake-button\"\/><\/div><\/form><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;why not \/ the Pittsburgh Pirates shout because they won \/ and in a sense we&#8217;re all winning \/ we&#8217;re alive&#8221; &#8211; Frank O&#8217;Hara, &#8220;Steps&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97922686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97922686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97922686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97922686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97922686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97922686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97922686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}