Boards across Borders

You might like it small if you are young and fit or go for the long range if you see the profitability trough time. Some people like it thin and light, as manoeuvrability is best, but others like it thick and stuffy for a deeper feel. You can try to use a leash to experience the effect of bonding to something beyond your own body. High up on the mountains you will strap to it and make it part of your skeleton. Some are waiting for it to levitate while others, being too aware of gravity, put wheels on it. But at the true core, a plank of wood is a plank of wood. Music, art, food, religion, culture and movies are subject to taste, style and politics but if we focus on the board itself we find a common ground.
I can recall stories of deep friendship based on the board itself; two random travellers hopping some bricks in NY are still visiting each other after five years living utterly different lives twelve hours jetlag apart from each others. I will not be surprised to randomly meet some peculiar people at any gps coordinates of the globe. These peculiar people all have something in common; and that’s were I am pointing to. Far from being the golden idol, the board, with it’s humble origins in the paradisiac permacultured society in Hawaii, unites people from all over the world. Wherever you are on this gigantic blue ball spinning fast across the universe, you only need to see a board to have a new friend. I do not want to be a unicorn, as you will always find the exception to the rule, but generally the passion for the same feeling unite us all. Flying on a plank of wood across the plane on a never-ending journey to discover the hidden jems of this awesome planet we call earth is the dream we share. Sleeping rough, drinking local liver poisonous liquors, spending hours on dusty roads, lurking on dark and dangerous neighbours on the suburbs of a criminal rich city are the challenges we share. Outsiders often look at our community with the conservative eyes of judgemental prohibitionists stuck in the ’60s and ’70s but today; few days after Britain triggered article 50 the board community has an ever changing outlook.

Skate boardes, surfers and most outdoor active people share a political vision where the world is seen as a global confederation of independent interrelated communities where faith, beliefs, colour, race and traditions are no different from the styles of the clothes we dress. A community that cleans the outdoors and do not litter it, eat healthy if possible and source local produce. A community that does not chase a digital chimera on a distant tomorrow but lives today like it could be the last and make the most of every moment. Sometimes I feel sorry looking at the blue collar corporate fellow human strapped on his suit while I am embracing the global boarding pass. And this is what I am on about. The first attraction, then addiction, to the emotions generated by the hips’ movement with a plank of wood across space and time generates a global connection that crosses the borders between race, gender, age, religion, and what not. Once you get hooked by that feeling you can not come back. You will see that everybody is a potential surfer, skateboarder or snowboarder if they only would let themselves free to challenge the static ground. And being so stuck to the ground is a methafor of being so stuck in life. If life is as a river I rather be like a leaf surfing its way down from source to sea than being like a rock watching life passing by. Beyond the ’60 and ’70, beyond your life achievements, karma processing and love affairs there is a place where it’s only you and the moment you live. That deserves respect and people will acknowledge it. This vision is a step to a passport free human: my board is my passport, I live by the board, I die by the board.
Aman