Recently I was reminded of an old childhood obsession when at the in-laws’ house for a barbecue. The neighbor, Ray, and I were reminiscing about skateboarding and how passionate we both were about it. I started to daydream about the past. I remember being addicted to skateboarding. No asshole coach yelling at me; no psychotic parents screaming at one another on the sidelines; just me and my Powell Peralta Steve Caballero Mechanical Dragon (that’s a skateboard) that I purchased from the back of one of my Thrasher mags. Life was simple. I spent hours practicing “ollies” and “rail slides” in front of my house. Or, I’d venture to one of the neighborhood skate spots until one of the snaggle-toothed security guards kicked me out. Was there a better way to spend the day? Not for me.

Anyways, back to reality. After talking to Ray for a while, I told him about the parallels I’ve noticed between the skateboarding and V-Twin sub-cultures. Both have a very similar constitution. Both are fueled by passion and creativity. Both don’t give a damn about what the mainstream thinks of them. And both require individualistic self-expression. It’s you and your bike, or you and your board. I skated for years and I can clearly see the relevance between the two since immersing myself in the V-Twin industry. But look at Harley’s website and the Dark Custom section on said website. It features videos of professional skateboarders riding Harleys. And most recently, at the V-Twin expo in Cincinnati, the Limpnickie Lot had a mini skate ramp for people to showcase their skills-or eat it-in front of a crowd. I’m not sure how it came about, maybe for the same reasons I stopped skateboarding (my body hated me), but skateboarding was humungous when I was younger, and if those people skated as hard as I did, their bodies eventually ended up hating them, too! And like me they had to find some sort of outlet to express their creativity, right? I’ll bet they find solace in a V-Twin. What do you think?

Bye for now…
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