I don't know how to describe it, it's just one of the things that like you get in the
zone and just everything else fades away and the only thing I can think about is skating
and it's just, it's like freeing, it's just, no matter what I'm stressing about or like
what I'm freaking out about, like get on the road and do one run and just like everything
else just like white noise, it's just bliss.
It's exactly what I'm still doing, it keeps me out of trouble, it helps me through a lot
of stressful situations, it's what I used to get my like anger out, my aggression out,
like just, it's what I do, I don't know, it's just, I've never stopped, I don't see why
I would stop.
My name's Kai Harding, I'm from the Bay Area and I've been skating for like two years.
I got into downhill skating from a friend about two years ago, one of my friends in
class saw that I rode a longboard to class and asked me if I slid and did any hills
and he just got me in it from then, ever since, I've just been addicted.
My name's Sean Woolery, I'm from Park City, Utah.
I live in Isla Vista, California, I've been skating for five years.
How did you get into the whole downhill skating scene?
It was freshman year of high school, my buddy had like a, like weird street skating, pretty
much the way I got into it was he brought a longboard to like get from spot to spot
and then kind of just like cruising around, street skating was never really my thing,
it never really captured me and then I saw videos of people racing and like going downhill
and drifting corners and then bought my first like downhill board and gloves and then just
kind of fell a lot and gave it a shot.
My name is Caden Castellini, I'm from Amarillo, Texas and I've been skateboarding for five
years now.
I know that you've been skating with some pretty big names, how is it, you know, skating
and so on and so forth.
You know, it's a big opportunity to get to skate with a lot of the people around here
that have kind of already made a name for themselves, so people who are up and coming,
you know, kind of get to hang out with them and skate with them and stuff and it's just,
you know, you get to learn so much from them, really just skating with some of the best
people, you know, you start to keep up with them, just learn from them, take and give
and, you know, they give you good advice and good gear and stuff, so it really, really
helps you out a lot.
It's kind of crazy meeting like all the people, like all the pros basically that you watch
at the beginning, like the guys that you see in the videos that inspire you to do it
and then you get to a level where you can like skate with them and keep up with them
and like try and learn from them in a way.
It's been pretty surreal, like getting to meet some of the heroes that I watched skate
in the beginning, but you pretty much just go to races and then make connections through
just like friends basically and we're all just like a bunch of friends in the end and
then you just kind of meet each other through mutual friends by races and whatnot.
I think it makes me a better skater ultimately, like watching what they do and trying to follow
in a way, but like kind of do my own thing at the same time.
I was skating with a bunch of like the big Santa Barbara crew around here and they were
so fast that I was trying to keep up with them so hard and coming into this one left
I was just tucking for a little bit too long and slid a little bit too late and I just completely
right off the edge of the mountain and dropped down like 30, 40 feet and had to climb down
farther to get my board and everybody else stopped and was making sure I was alright,
but it could have gone badly, but I caught myself fairly well.
I feel like for me at least that's one of the things that like kept me going for it
is like even though I fell, every time I got back up I learned something, I got better,
I figured it out.
There was like a train of like two and a half months when I would fall twice a week.
Just eat it, completely mess myself up, but I learned something every time.
And now I'm at the point where I'm way more confident, I can do way faster stuff and not
fall for the most part and it just really comes to the time of practice just like everything
else, but I think it takes a certain person to want to do this.
Honestly, I think this is one of the things that I'm going to just continue to do for
as long as I live.
I mean, whether it be this crazy or this often, skating is just, I've always, you
know, skateboarded.
I never, I didn't get into longboarding until two years ago, but I've always been on a
board.
I've always been like skating myself places.
It's always been something I loved and now I found like my niche, just feel like it's
something I'm going to do forever.
