<center><h2>My Skate Origins Story</h2>.
by @d-pend
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![IMG_1218.jpeg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmPvXHF9wFFTA1ioUaeWbQgnxB8vnrEP3Yt4szUGz6Tvzn/IMG_1218.jpeg)
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<div class="text-justify">Yo, what's goin' on? @d-pend here. I got excited finding out that a @steemskate community was just recently started, and figured that it'd be a good time to tell my #skateorigins story.<br><br>
I grew up with one sibling: my little sister. But I was really close to my cousin who was the same age as me. He was always the daredevil, and I was more cautious. We would bike around these hills near the creek where I grew up and get into all kinds of shenanigans.<br><br>
He was real into skating and always wanted me to learn. I remember him saying <em>"Yo dude, you should skate goofy; lots of tall skaters skate goofy."</em> I was already six-foot-something in seventh grade and my limbs were all out of proportion with my body. My balance was terrible and I shied away from any sports involving foot coordination like soccer. So I probably tried to ride a board once or twice—I'm sure it was one of those cheap Wal-mart boards. I could never really get into it.<br><br>
Basically, I never thought I'd be interested; I didn't want to get hurt and was more interested in reading books, video games, making music, etc. I played basketball and was runner so it wasn't that I was unathletic, just lacking the patience and determination needed to learn how to skate. Probably somewhat lacking the courage also...the only way I could be considered a skater was by playing skateboarding video games!</div>


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![THPS.jpeg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmNXSoguVuMaj1HLvn792P9wizay8wp9zUZuEbdSZRnByB/THPS.jpeg)
<center><sub>Above: This game was the bomb back in the day.</sub></center>
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<div class="text-justify"><em>I grew up in the N64 era. <b>Tony Hawk's Pro Skater</b> helped bring street and vert-skating more into the mainstream consciousness. I played those games all the time which exposed me to many of the tricks and techniques for the first time, even though they were pretty unrealistic in a lot of ways.</em></div>

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<center><sub>Below: Rodney Mullen doing Rodney Mullen things</sub></center>
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<center>
https://media.giphy.com/media/VXPQ89RW0gwqQ/giphy.gif
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<div class="text-justify">Flash forward all the way to 2019. For some unknown reason, I started getting recommended skateboarding videos on YouTube and got really interested. I learned about Rodney Mullen and a bunch of skateboarding greats and began to realize that skating was a way deeper art form than I thought—not just flashy flip tricks and jumping huge stair-sets. I didn't even know freestyle skating existed before that.<br><br>
I eventually found out about Andy Anderson and the version of the Powell Flight Deck he skates. Those boards are insane, they use some sort of epoxy-infusion technology to make them basically unsnappable. You can drive an SUV over these things and they still won't break:</div>

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiP_QZQ7Ugk
<center><sub>I'm not gonna test it out on mine though!</sub></center>
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<div class="text-justify"> If you don't know about Andy, you don't wanna keep sleepin' on this kid. He's super well-rounded and incorporates a lot of different skate styles together in a really unique way. He has lines for days and is extremely fluid in navigating obstacles. The channel NKA Vids on YouTube has a bunch of vlogs skating with Andy that are worth checking out. Here's a short compilation of some clips that Nigel posted recently:</div>

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCW9vWkKeoc
<center><sub>...and that's only a tiny fraction of what this kid can do...</sub></center>
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<div class="text-justify">Anyway, so finally towards the end of last year I decided I had to try for myself and I got Andy's Heron edition of the flight deck which is really wide compared to most modern boards at 9.13" and has a somewhat strange-looking shape for primo tricks, flat tail for pogo, etc. Even though the flight deck is pricey, I wanted to learn on a board that was solid and would basically never break. The wheels I started out with are 59s and relatively hard at 97a, but not as hard and small as what most use for skate parks which are usually 99a or 101a.</div>

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<center><sub>below: my first board</sub></center>
![IMG_1184.jpeg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQxHQuNFnugysQALugYYTsieGdJj9t35aG1jieTD1Po5N/IMG_1184.jpeg)


![IMG_4286.jpeg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXGo1PAXEeWvQY58nPkrwR2uGeS5FzT3a1XrukYhXvWfE/IMG_4286.jpeg)

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<div class="text-justify">I started learning just skating street around parking lots close to my apartment in October 2019. It was a wild ride, that's for sure! Since this blog is getting kinda long, I think I'll have to save that part of the story for the next one. If you want to hear how I ended up on crutches for a few days when I started skating then follow @dpend.active and I'll fill you in on that during the next installment!<br><br>
<b>(Oh yeah, and in the comments below — tell me which skaters' style you dig the most? And how did you first get into skating? And if you don't skate — would you ever try to learn?)</b><br><br>
<em>If you want, use the tag #skateorigins to tell the story of how you started skating in your own post. Use #hive-173115 as your very first tag to put it in the new #steemskate community.</em></div>

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![IMG_1216 3.jpeg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmfFg4uyZUgBk2KGQRmyN4hQqTvSv4z3mDSaqCXaF8296Q/IMG_1216%203.jpeg)


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<center>Peace out!
Daniel P.
2/27/20
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@d-pend
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Image and video sources:
<sub>1 — my photo, iPhone 8+
2 — [THPS game cover, by Activision](https://happygamer.com/rumor-demo-for-tony-hawks-pro-skater-remake-is-being-play-tested-at-activision-49893/)
3 — [Rodney Mullen Gif, from Giphy ](https://giphy.com/gifs/black-and-white-skate-skateboarding-VXPQ89RW0gwqQ)
4 — [Flight Deck Construction Video, by Powell-Peralta ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiP_QZQ7Ugk)
5 — [The Best of Andy Anderson Part 1, by Nka Vids ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCW9vWkKeoc)
6, 7, 8 — my photos, iPhone 8+</sub></center>
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![IMG_1216 2.jpeg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZqwDJqEvcgcJAeKREWYURdx44m9QJ5WerM8y7tuJSetc/IMG_1216%202.jpeg)

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![IMG_1216.jpeg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmc1iwVDVDpiNoLfXof7kTjRPP4keC62HeL3zDaURsvBay/IMG_1216.jpeg)