Text by Sam Beckett. Photography by Jake Powell.
We all fall into skateboarding for many reasons, but ultimately, it ignites something within us. It shows us a new way of thinking, a new way to express ourselves, a new way to make friends. But here is where skateboarding really gets you; it is seemingly limitless.
There is no end to where you can go with it. It is whatever you want it to be, from wanting to learn everything 'just because' to travelling with your mates, setting up community groups, getting into different arts, photography, filmmaking, building, music and back to frontside grinds again.
Skateboarding is an ever-evolving, morphing and growing community with many facets. One of the newer facets is this Olympic thing. It's just there now. Granted, it's a tiny slither of what skateboarding is. Just like the competitive side of skateboarding, it's a little chunk of the bigger picture.
Just because it means something else to someone else, doesn't mean it can't be whatever you want it to be.
Skateboarding is the most beautiful medium in which to explore and discover the world. There are a group of young people who are exploring the world through skateboarding on this Olympic journey. It doesn't look much different from what skating comps have always looked like. There are a few folk in the middle that found themselves there because they fell in love with skateboarding.
Since day dot, I’ve been really fortunate to find myself surrounded by so many different weird and wonderful people who have made skateboarding so epic for me. I hope to pass on some of that to the younger people that we are working with, who are on their own journey and make their experience in this facet of skateboarding as rad as it can be.
SkateboardGB presents The Thing, a short documentary by Jake Powell which follows some of the Skateboard GB national team on a trip to Rome, Italy, in preparation for the 2023 Skateboard Park World Championships. Watch below now, featuring Lola Tambling, Lilly Strachan, Tommy Calvert, Sam Beckett, Jesse Thomas, Andy Mac, George O'Neill and Darren Pearcy.