Sick boarding bro

I've been seeing a lot of skateboarding content recently (partially thanks to @MisterPookie), and I also recently came across a very sweet video of a woman going up a ram, doing a kick flip that sent her board in the air while she ran alongside it, and then hopping back onto it on the other side of the ramp. It was just so COOL. Which got me to thinking...what is it that makes skateboarding so cool, in ways that rollerblading/BMX just isn't? Is that just my opinion? Skateboarding, as a baseline, seems pretty freakin' cool.

I think skateboarding combines elements of other intriguing activities/sports, while also being flexible enough as a concept to have extremely vast yet practical application. This is my perspective, not trying to explain why it's cool, but why I think it's cool.

At its simplest, it is a mode of transportation. Arguably, the simplest machine that utilizes The Wheel without requiring excessive balance/skill. (It definitely takes those, but it has 4 wheels so it can stand on its own.) Just a plank of wood and some spinners. But because it's a form of transportation, people are inclined to push the limits of what it's capable. What if we went faster. What if we went up and down hills. What if we jumped a curb that we couldn't ride over otherwise? ... What if we jumped a curb with a flourish? How big of a flourish can we manage knowing that all we have to work with is a piece of wood and our feet? How do we accomplish a flourish that physics won't quite let us do, but we still want to try?! See below, with one of the most important skateboarders of all time:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFRPhi0jhGc

But then it's like... wait, this is STILL JUST A PIECE OF WOOD? It's suddenly like gymnastics while holding a saxophone. I dunno, this is becoming rambley, but it's this idea that human + simple tool = literally infinite possibilities. Could we make a more complex board? Yes, like that non euclidian boarding video I posted at some point, but at the end of the day... you don't need to. You can just keep pushing human limits against board limits, and keep coming up with fantastic ways to show them off. The result is something that feels so clean and natural looking, but only because someone has dedicated a huge part of their life to it.

Something vital I forgot to touch on but allude to with the transportation stuff: Skating is born of ingenuity. Skateparks obviously didn't come until later in skateboarding history (cart before the horse), which means so much of the culture is built around making do with what you have. This is something that skateboarding games to a great job of simulating- In something like Skate, you learn to master the most mundane of objects, and eventually add small flares to them to perfect their potential. Meanwhile, Tony Hawk games take this idea to fantasy-levels, being like "what if you could grind an entire oil rig?" The idea in both of these is the same- seeing the world as this untapped utopia of sick spots to do tricks, whether you're allowed to or not.

Wow...thanks for those wonderful ramblings! You corporealized some of the nebulous impressions I had on skateboarding really well.

Skateboards are a kind of freedom. There's so much you can do with them. They're simplicity and transportation, without the necessary attachment of roller blades, or the required hand interactions of bikes/scooters. I think I'm too clumsy to try any tricks, but I've always wanted to be a long-board babe flying down beach-adjacent sidewalks in a tank top and booty shorts. Wind in your hair, hands at your side, just gliding. That's my dream.

I also don't think I can watch that non-euclidean video without my jaw dropping, it blows me away every time I watch it.

@MisterPookie crossover post