Speed Overcoming the Fear of Death: A Sick Vid About Bombing Concrete Hills on Boards

So when you think of skating, all the attention goes to street and halfpipe (if you think of skateboarding at all). But thing is, the sport's so big and diverse that there are whole other dimensions that have already come and gone, disappearing from the limelight but still just as rad.

I remember the old skate movie THRASHIN' had, as the big climax, a downhill skate race. It also had an epic pool joust scene with leather maces but, hell, in general it was an amazing bit of transitional skate culture. But skateboarding used to be all about the downhill. Remember Skate or Die? Downhill race was the best part. 

Today there are still some practitioners. In Wyoming skaters will drive to the top of the passes during mud season and go off on longboards, sometimes bombing 8 miles downhill without a single push. This is a totally different type of skateboarding, traveling at speeds in excess of 50 MPH with nothing between you and concrete but a t-shirt and maybe a helmet. As Hunter S. Thompson said, "Faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death." That's how a man should live his life. But this old bastard Victor, hell, maybe he has the real dream. Out in the middle of nowhere. Just making his skateboards, driving around his old retrofitted Land Rover (is that it?) through open space and occasionally, when he wants to get nutty, turning the screw, opening it up and bombing down a hill, preferably lettin' a bunch of young'uns break the barried for his amusement so he can just skate for himself. There's even a hot little slim taking a shower in the middle, all narrated by this tough ol' grit Victor.

That's the key to success. Ambition doesn't always have to be defined by someday having the biggest house, the most money, the best toys; power, super strength, revolution and record-setting. Really a man's ambition should flow from him and guide him to the life he wants to live, unhindered by cowardice or expectations, and ambition doesn't have to fit into other's men's ideals. It's all about doing work and striving for the best life for you, something so simple which for some reason seems so difficult for so many people this day and age. In my man Victor's case, it's having some property, a sick car, a happy aquatic dog and nice long, empty roads. And speed. That's the most important thing in this life. Keep it slow and mellow - but every now and then, make sure you open it up to that endless, gut-busting speed. Not in pill form or ice form, Jesus, not fiends in that way - but the speed that comes when you let go, let gravity overtake you, and drop. Like Felix Baumgartner last weekend.

So check out WITH A SIDE OF VICTOR to add a little high-speed big-balls skatebombing to your Friday, a sick little video sponsored by Sector 9.

 And then this weekend go to the biggest hill you can find, get out that old rickety skate (or a bike if you wanna soften it up a little) and just drop. Or jump off something, high, to find great velocity. Speed in a car's cheating unless you get it above 150. Motorcycle counts but still, there's something about speed unaided by anything that really gets the blood boiling.

Happy Friday.

- Ryan