Never Laugh At The Kid Who Falls Off His Skateboard.
Writing, Illustration, Design
2011
A short piece of writing and accompanying illustration about skateboarding.
  • Never Laugh At The Kid Who Falls Off His Skateboard.
    *applicable to all areas of life.
  • It’s years since I used my skateboard, I have no idea why specifically; work, marriage, parenthood, pet ownership, all of the above?  Either way I have never lost my love of skate culture, and not just the stickers and tshirts, but the mindset, the whole mentality of a dedicated skateboarder, the freedom that only a skateboarder knows, the beautiful momentary designs created by the line you choose to skate and the unconditional drive to achieve something.  For some reason people often view a skateboarder as some kind of time-wasting misfit, but if that’s what you’re thinking, then you’ve not considered this enough.   On the same principle, if you were to walk passed a skate park and see a young skateboarder try to pull off a trick and fail, worst still fall hard on the ground, then don’t laugh at him, you’ve not considered this enough.

    We shouldn’t laugh at the kid who falls of a skateboard for one very simple reason, right then, at that moment, he’s probably trying to do something he couldn’t do before.  He is learning and evolving, he is aiming to achieve something great.  No-one achieves anything special without slipping up, falling hard on the ground or twisting an ankle along the way, the important thing is that he is setting out to improve his skateboarding, every time he falls he should be praised for trying again, and again, and again.  Eventually he’ll get there, he will have fallen off his board enough to know where he’s going wrong, and then he can pull off his trick, again, and again, and again, and we can praise him again for achieving his goal.  Never laugh at the kid who falls off his skateboard, one day he might just be one of the world’s best.