YOU ARE NOT LOST…
An immigrant born into the working-class neighbourhood of Mondovi, Algiers in 1913 to parents of French-Algerian and Spanish origin would grow up to write the following: “What gives value to travel is fear… An instinctive desire to go back to the protection of old habits… Travel brings us back to ourselves.” Essentially, we learn about ourselves through the gaze of others, under the light of different cultures and customs. These experiences help us progress personally and as a global population. Fear of the unknown breeds prejudice. We know this. We must be brave enough to shine a light into the darkness… Us skaters are supposed to be pretty good with fear, right? Albert Camus – who eventually escaped his background of poverty to become a nobel-prize winning author – was killed in a car-crash in January 1960. The risks we take are sometimes greater than we realise…
What do we talk about when we talk about travel? There are countless publications devoted to it. Certainly, we did not need to add another to the pile. And in the present day, as a Western-founded media outlet, it’s impossible to ignore the immense privilege afforded to us by the passports, open- borders and exchange-based education programmes, that mean we can explore. Leaving the rapid advancement of public and private transport (whether environmentally beneficial or damaging) aside for a moment, the fact that we can dedicate an entire edition of a “fringe” skateboard magazine to movement, diaspora and cultural exposition, speaks volumes about how easy it is for so many of us to “travel” nowadays – to tell these types of stories.
SKATEISM was born in Athens. Where today around 70,000 people seek emergency asylum status – refugees from their homes in war-torn countries. This process takes a minimum of three years, during which time their human rights and access to public services are hugely diminished, relying on aid-organisations to fill the gaps. An unquantifiable number are yet to begin this process, and more are coming everyday over land and sea. The risks these people have taken on their journeys are unimaginable when set against the Western concept of travel.
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And so if we talk about travel, we must understand that movement is not always desired or consensual. Excitement, adventure, exploration; estrangement, alienation, exile… there are countless reasons we may find ourselves “elsewhere”. But there is nobody who will not learn something along their journey. Nobody who in the face of fear – be it invigorating or paralysing – will not become deafeningly and unavoidably “themselves” en route.
We – skateboarders, yes; but people, generally – move. In our bodies, we move. And in our minds too. Estrangement, exile, exploration – all these happen in the psyche, with equally constructive and destructive results, as in physicality. In all our differences, we have this common thread. So while we can congratulate ourselves, as skateboarders, for having this big wooden passport which, though it may be one of the most irritating things to bring on a plane, affords us instant access to a community of similarly inclined street-dwelling weirdos; we must also remember that those of us who are lucky enough to use it to its full advantage, also have the power to reach out to our siblings who do not. In the past decade, skateboarding has been increasingly referred to as a “tool for social change” – and if this is true, then we all have a choice to make whenever we step onto our boards. The days of “skate and destroy” are over, my friends. What’s next? Where will you go? What will you do with this tool? What risks will you take? What might you learn about yourself?
In these pages you will find stories from all over the world, and in those stories you will find myriad ways that choice has been made so far, by people from all different backgrounds, for all different reasons. No matter where their stories took them, and no matter how many places they have been, we remind you that SKATEISM is no one perspective, and that your choice is yours – you are you, and…
…YOU ARE HERE.
