Slap Editorial, 2002

Slap was the best skateboard magazine of its era, hands down.

'Outsiders peering into the closed world of skateboarding must wonder where the devotion comes from. It's not hard to see how much fun it must be to skate well, with the grace and confidence of the people seen on these pages. But what about you and me? Only OK on a good day, and pretty dreadful on the others. What makes us return to lock horns with the beast, again and again?

The lazy comparison is to say addiction, but I don't buy it. That simile just harkens back to the notion that we are the lost children of a post-industrial wasteland, and is a morbid interpretation of an energetic scene. Equally, to call it a religion or a cult is off the mark because that also carries the suggestion of a unifying thread running through us. Skating means different things to different people, and many of us have nothing else in common.

To my mind, what is engaging about skating is that it is a metaphor for life: we cast it in our own likeness (what swollen ankles are a metaphor for is anyone's guess, though). It will teach you the difference between courage and vanity; it demonstrates that power is nothing without control. She rewards hard work and perseverance, and short-cutting in application will get you shown the horizontal door. Style over content are the emperor's new clothes, while quiet and clear truth resonates like a clarion (I'm thinking of Rowley here).
Disappointment and frustration serve to temper our overleaping ambition and season our dreams of majesty with the earthy taste of humility. When you fall through vanity or carelessness and cannot summon the will to pick up your humbled frame, those friends who have seen your triumphs and disasters will be there to help you find your feet again. They might even have some crutches.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start again. The victory of optimism over experience is the engine room of skating. It underlines the importance of bringing the sense of awe and wonderment to a compromised and average adult world. 

Ah, skateboarding... all human life is here.'

 - Niall Neeson