Skateboarding Saves Contributor: Skater Claus
Skateboarding and Graffiti Perspective
One night I was out skating. I can’t skate that well anymore. Between skating, surfing, and basketball, I’ve destroyed my feet and ankles. But I still love it and have as much fun as anyone out there pushing. The main thing I do these days is just go push through the ATL city streets late at night, and look for new spots to skate.
Spots I know I could never hit, but that I can show my friends that can. I also write graffiti and both that and skating connect me to these city streets. There’s something soothing to me about being out at 3 am skating and/or painting in a city of 6 million, but you are completely alone in a tunnel, or an abandoned building, or under an overpass. It’s peaceful. It’s beautiful.
I had skated about 13 miles, I stopped & bought a beer, and I sat on the curb on my street (which had been freshly paved). I drank my 40 bathed in light from the new LED street light that had recently been installed. The pavement was covered in broken glass, most likely from a car window that was smashed.
The Beauty of both Skateboarding and Graffiti
The way the street light caught the glass on the fresh pavement was beautiful. You could see the full spectrum of light reflected off the glass. I looked up at the sky, & saw a few stars. You can’t see many stars in ATL due to “light pollution”. I think stars are beautiful just like most of everyone else, but at that moment I thought “How are the stars any more beautiful than this shattered glass, on this fresh asphalt, catching the reflection of this street light?”.
Point is, when you are a skateboarder or graffiti writer, you start to look at the world in a different way. You start to find the beauty in things that other people just see as utilitarian necessities for urban life. You start to find beauty in broken glass, abandoned buildings, stair sets, rails, curbs, ledges, benches, train cars. Things most people take for granted. We take those things and make them our own. We use them to express our creativity.
I love nature and all its beauty, but I’m grateful that skateboarding and graffiti have given me the eyes to see beauty everywhere. Even in broken glass on the street.
