Comments on: SKATEBOARDING AS A MIND-BODY PRACTICE: Greg Shewchuk’s new Arthur column debuts http://www.arthurmag.com/2008/05/04/skateboarding-as-a-mind-body-practice-greg-shewchuks-new-arthur-column-debuts/ Homegrown counterculture Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:02:39 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Natalia http://www.arthurmag.com/2008/05/04/skateboarding-as-a-mind-body-practice-greg-shewchuks-new-arthur-column-debuts/comment-page-1/#comment-175857 Natalia Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:45:04 +0000 http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/?p=2832#comment-175857 Hey there, nice article. I googled "skateboarding yoga" and found few results, but your article was one of them. I have been into certain aspects of yoga since I was 19 (before I realized that I could categorize what I was doing as "yogic"). It came to a point that people used to tell me that it looked like I was walking on air, I was so aware of my body's allignment and how best to "move it through space". I met some skaters a few years back who lived in the same apartment as me and sensed a connection with them (it wasn't necesarily unique to them though) because they seemed so raw in the present. Basically there is a Buddhist/nihilistic quality to people who devote themselves to skating. Perhaps this comes from the need to give of oneself entirely to the present. I do have a point here... my fascination with the raw elegant creativity of skateboarding and its shared features with yoga led me to buying a longboard last year with the intention of progressing to a skateboard. I put it aside and only till yesterday (I had strong motivations that compelled me to ride again) did I try it out again. Today I tried walking on it and facing different directions while moving... and noticed that I use the same lower abdominal muscles for balance as I do for yoga. I tried jumping 180degrees on the board and noticed that my feet needed to have that "light as air" feeling I get whenever I am doing walking meditation or consciously walking somewhere. The cool thing about skateboarding is that it inadvertantly brings those who do it into the present. People do it to have fun, while those who go into eastern practices that help people gain a sense of the present do it with a certain "fixation" in mind. In addition to the intense focus shared between yoga and skateboarding another similarity between the two is that you are really your own teacher. In yoga the authority to excell (the thing that gives you permission to believe in yourself and learn) comes from yourself, while in skateboarding the teacher is the board which is really an extension of yourself. While in other sports, like say basketball there are rules and other minds (arguably also an extension of yourself... but I'll avoid arguing why a skatebaord is an extension of yourself but another person not) you have to interact with. While skateboarding and other "flow" sports like dance and horsebackriding share similar "yogic" qualities they are different because skateboarding requires bravery and trust (omit partner dancing). THe same with spiritual practices such as yoga, sometimes you might get bored but like in the movie Waking Life, is it really fear or laziness that prevents people from self-development? Ok, just wanted to get this out somewhere. Thanks. Hey there, nice article. I googled “skateboarding yoga” and found few results, but your article was one of them. I have been into certain aspects of yoga since I was 19 (before I realized that I could categorize what I was doing as “yogic”). It came to a point that people used to tell me that it looked like I was walking on air, I was so aware of my body’s allignment and how best to “move it through space”. I met some skaters a few years back who lived in the same apartment as me and sensed a connection with them (it wasn’t necesarily unique to them though) because they seemed so raw in the present. Basically there is a Buddhist/nihilistic quality to people who devote themselves to skating. Perhaps this comes from the need to give of oneself entirely to the present.
I do have a point here… my fascination with the raw elegant creativity of skateboarding and its shared features with yoga led me to buying a longboard last year with the intention of progressing to a skateboard. I put it aside and only till yesterday (I had strong motivations that compelled me to ride again) did I try it out again. Today I tried walking on it and facing different directions while moving… and noticed that I use the same lower abdominal muscles for balance as I do for yoga. I tried jumping 180degrees on the board and noticed that my feet needed to have that “light as air” feeling I get whenever I am doing walking meditation or consciously walking somewhere.

The cool thing about skateboarding is that it inadvertantly brings those who do it into the present. People do it to have fun, while those who go into eastern practices that help people gain a sense of the present do it with a certain “fixation” in mind.

In addition to the intense focus shared between yoga and skateboarding another similarity between the two is that you are really your own teacher. In yoga the authority to excell (the thing that gives you permission to believe in yourself and learn) comes from yourself, while in skateboarding the teacher is the board which is really an extension of yourself. While in other sports, like say basketball there are rules and other minds (arguably also an extension of yourself… but I’ll avoid arguing why a skatebaord is an extension of yourself but another person not) you have to interact with.

While skateboarding and other “flow” sports like dance and horsebackriding share similar “yogic” qualities they are different because skateboarding requires bravery and trust (omit partner dancing). THe same with spiritual practices such as yoga, sometimes you might get bored but like in the movie Waking Life, is it really fear or laziness that prevents people from self-development?

Ok, just wanted to get this out somewhere. Thanks.

]]> By: matthew http://www.arthurmag.com/2008/05/04/skateboarding-as-a-mind-body-practice-greg-shewchuks-new-arthur-column-debuts/comment-page-1/#comment-174505 matthew Wed, 13 May 2009 12:26:17 +0000 http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/?p=2832#comment-174505 skateboarding isnt meaninglessness its awsome skateboarding isnt meaninglessness its awsome

]]> By: MAGPIE » Finding balance through…skateboarding. - Arthur Magazine blogs for you... http://www.arthurmag.com/2008/05/04/skateboarding-as-a-mind-body-practice-greg-shewchuks-new-arthur-column-debuts/comment-page-1/#comment-168355 MAGPIE » Finding balance through…skateboarding. - Arthur Magazine blogs for you... Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:31:15 +0000 http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/?p=2832#comment-168355 [...] Last issue we considered skateboarding as a mind-body practice. I propose that developing balance is the essential goal of any mind-body practice. I would go so far as to say the same thing for spirituality in general, but you can’t really say anything is the “goal” or objective of spirituality because having a goal or objective is more the realm of the material. (Spiritual goals can feed what Chogyam Trungpa calls “spiritual materialism”, an enhancement of the ego that is counter-productive to spiritual wisdom.) Change and movement in the linear, physical world comes down to absolutes: quantities, qualities, achievements. The spiritual path, by contrast, is not a noun, it’s a verb. The goal is not something separate and distinct to be reached, it is internal and ongoing. Spirituality is not about achievements but the progressive means used to deal with material imbalance in a chaotic universe. The intention of Advanced Standing is to understand that finding balance—this supreme life challenge—is both physical and mental, and that the two are equally important and entirely intertwined while skateboarding. [...] [...] Last issue we considered skateboarding as a mind-body practice. I propose that developing balance is the essential goal of any mind-body practice. I would go so far as to say the same thing for spirituality in general, but you can’t really say anything is the “goal” or objective of spirituality because having a goal or objective is more the realm of the material. (Spiritual goals can feed what Chogyam Trungpa calls “spiritual materialism”, an enhancement of the ego that is counter-productive to spiritual wisdom.) Change and movement in the linear, physical world comes down to absolutes: quantities, qualities, achievements. The spiritual path, by contrast, is not a noun, it’s a verb. The goal is not something separate and distinct to be reached, it is internal and ongoing. Spirituality is not about achievements but the progressive means used to deal with material imbalance in a chaotic universe. The intention of Advanced Standing is to understand that finding balance—this supreme life challenge—is both physical and mental, and that the two are equally important and entirely intertwined while skateboarding. [...]

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