Lucky in Kentucky

Jul 26 2006 / Los Angeles, CA Staring Straight Ahead

I once watched my friend try to explain, to someone who doesn't do any action sports at all, what the obsession is about.  My friend said that after your basic needs are taken care of (eating, sleeping, breathing) what else do you have to live for?  He said that this is where human interests come into play – making money, having passions, playing sports, betting, drinking, traveling, writing, whatever it may be – and that for the “action sports culture”, these sports are their passion.  These sports become the reason that they wake up everyday, and then if they start making money doing it, like professional athletes, photographers, etc. then they have very little time (or interest) in much else.

This is great if it makes them happy.  But is it really healthy to be that obsessed about something that gives you such a limited view of the world?  Many of my friends have traveled most of the world for snowboarding, but everywhere they go revolves entirely around snowboarding.  Where's the snow, where're the rails, where's the filmer, where's my team manager, where am I?  Its a blessing that they get to ask these questions in places like Oslo, Tokyo, Vancouver, Salt Lake City, all over China, Austria, Germany, France, Russia...the list is never ending, but it becomes quite wearing (or it did for me) to not have any time to have anything else in my life other than snowboarding, snow, and the people involved in those two things.

Don't get me wrong, there are some brilliant, well-rounded, worldly people in snowboarding (more so than in most other professions I believe) but the tunnel vision of snowboarding can be a hard thing to deal with - because in the end we're just riding a plank of wood down a hill with snow on it, I mean, we're not solving the world's energy crisis or taking steps toward world peace (we'll leave the Bikecar guys out of this, they might be the exception).

So is it healthy to be this obsessed with something that has absolutely no consequence on the world as a whole - on the bigger picture?  Snowboarding is really entertainment after all, isn't it?  Yes it is, that is until it becomes what you're living for.  So really I don't believe you have much choice after that, you may fall out of the spell at some point, but until then, if you are as crazy about "action sports" as I was for most of my life, then you need that tunnel vision.  It's all that really matters because it's so much a part of who you are.  And if you're happy, then I don't think there's anything wrong with that.


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The Unofficial Action Sports Capital of the World?

You won't be able to understand how funny this story is to the people involved but just trust me, I laughed extremely hard the first time I heard it. A friend of mine was once asked the question, "what would you consider the 'unofficial world capital' of action sports?" The person asking the question was figuring that my friend would say that Los Angeles, was of course the "unofficial world capital of action sports", and the question-asker had the rest of his conversation hinging on that response, so you can imagine his shock when my friend thought for a moment and then said, "I don't know...Philly?"

Why this is so funny to me would take far too long to explain here in this blog entry, but what I thought was most interesting about this exchange was that one person could be so sure about where this "unofficial world capital of action sports" was, while another person had a completely different idea entirely. New York, Chicago, Philly, San Fran, LA, Barcelona, Moscow, Miami, SLC, the list goes on forever, and the truth is that any of these places (and all of the others in between) could be considered the world's hub of action sports culture. LA has skateboarding, some surfing, and the X-Games for a few more years, but Bangor, Maine has some skateboarding, some bad surfing, and some better snowboarding. So who's to say that Bangor, Maine isn't the action sports capital of the world? Bangor is a perfectly nice place, and as good a place as any for a title like this.

There really is no way to say where the "home of action sports" is, but if I were to want to start being really cheesy & sentimental (and possibly right) then I would say that action sports doesn't really have a home, and that's part of the beauty of it. Action sports isn't a place or a thing, it's just activities that are characterized by the people who do them. So the "home" of action sports is really wherever you are.

It's kinda like that Mos Def song "next time you ask yourself, where hip-hop is goin', ask yourself, 'where am I goin? How am I doin?' Til you get a clear idea." Yeah, it's kinda like that. Next time you get asked "where is the biggest action sports city in the world, where's the unofficial capital, where's the home?" Just say "here."


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Goodbye Louisville-

The first time that my editor/publisher/boss/all-around-rockstar Jon Burns told me that my blog should be called "Lucky In Kentucky" I thought he was kidding.  I actually laughed, he said "I'm serious, I mean...You got it pretty good.  There're a lot of kids that would kill to be in your shoes right now."  So maybe this is true, I thought but regardless, I've always hated the idea of my actions being all dependent on luck.  If it was just luck then why did I have to work so much?  Well okay, I suppose in the end luck is when hard work meets preparation, but still, I hated the idea of being called "Lucky".

It wasn't until yesterday that it dawned on me, no matter how hard I worked or how many people have helped me, in the end I am unbelievably, incomprhensively, absurdly, ridiculously lucky.  I spent my early teenage years traveling, making snowboard films with some great friends, some good people and most of my idols.  I can't explain how surreal it was throughout that time, but to give you an idea of the absurdity - I remember walking into the Burton house early one chilly July morning at Mt. Hood and sitting down at the table to eat some breakfast, when I look next to me at the dark figure huddled over a snowboard magazine and slowly realize that it's Terje Haakonsen.  We chatted back and forth that morning and then we played a pool tournament until the clouds lifted.  I was young and it was amazing - dreams coming true.

Now a few years later I'm 17, living in LA, and focusing on filmmaking more than snowboarding, and the surreal experiences continue (it is LA isn't it?)  I started work with Lat34 for the first time at this competition, and it has been a great experience, one that led me to that giant pile of dirt which I sat on last night as I watched the BMX Dirt Finals in front of me, and the epic hour and a half long sunset behind me.  The hardest part of my days here have been writing, and writing is literally my favorite thing to do (well okay, possibly tied for the top spot) so that's a pretty high class problem.  But I was psyched last night as I sat there alone and watched that session go off.  Louisville is a great city and I love spending time here.  I have a few good friends here and each experience with this place has been unreal.

So I can't lie, I'd like to take credit for all of this (and I sure try my hardest to sometimes) but in the end it all falls together, and luck (whatever the hell that is) has been a constant throughout my life.  So I want to thank Jonny for telling me to call my blog "Lucky in Kentucky", because it made me realize that I'm exactly that.

It's 4:51pm (EST) on Sunday June 25th, 2006 and I have a plane to catch in about an hour and a half.  I'm flying from Louisville, home to Los Angeles.  I never thought that I'd get to the point where I'd like LA enough to miss it, but I do.  It's not that I'm psyched about leaving here (not at all) but I just like where I live.  So maybe that's luck, maybe I'm lucky to live in a great place, or maybe it's just how I'm looking at it.  There're a lot of people that will tell you that LA is a horrible place to live, but maybe I'm just lucky, because the LA that I live in is great.

Okay, I'm sitting in the stands watching the Skate Vert Finals so I'm going to put away my computer before Bob (Burnquist) drops.  Watching him ride makes me happy - and after all is said and done I'm lucky to be able to catch the finals before I run to the airport.  After all is said and done, I'm lucky to be able to watch it at all - isn't everyone?

Thanks for reading,
Ciao,
Cody Allen

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June 25, 2006 - "Skateboarding on the highway is funnn" + Smacked in the Face (A DOUBLE BILL!)

Last night, on our way back from the event,  we sped along a curving on ramp to get on to Interstate 65.  Nearly half way through the turn, we stopped suddenly and I looked up to find two cars backing up around the turn.  Then more.  After they passed & left us in a haze of confusion, the quick-thinking man in the driver's seat turned our car on to the shoulder and proceeded to drive down the freeway in the breakdown lane past over a mile of stopped cars.  Finally we decided that our time of being "those obnoxious guys driving down the breakdown lane" was over and we should join the line.  We found a place to turn in, as I jumped out and stared down the highway.  The traffic was stopped as far as the eye could see.  Half of the car broke out their laptops and went back to work, but I knew the answer to the question "How much do you get to run down a freeway?" so I got out and did exactly that.  (The answer to that question is "very rarely".)

About a tenth of a mile down the road I came across some kids with a trunk full of skateboards, who were breaking them out to skate & pass the time.  I ran by and the kid out front asked if I wanted to skate.  Now I wish I could tell you here about the unbelievable came of freeway S.K.A.T.E. that went down and ended in me executing a perfect switch hardflip, but that would be a huge lie.  Unfortunately the traffic broke up quickly after this question was posed to me, and I'm not even close to being in the vacinity of being able to do switch hardflips.  But as I was walking, nay, running back to our car the kid turned to me in a deep southern drawl, cigarette hanging from his lip (I hate cigarettes), skateboard in hand and very eloquently said "Skateboarin' on tha highway's fuunn."

Yes, I suppose skateboarding on the highway is fun.

Also, very quickly I wanted to add...(sorry I need to watch Burnquist's run...oh my God, he's so sick...I'm serious, I wrote that while I watching him skate - he's unfathomably good and unbelievably fun to watch...ok I'm back now) that while I was sitting in the stands today in between heats of the BMX Dirt Prelims, they did a product toss.  Now there was a time in my life where I would have been screaming and grabbing but that time is gone now.  But I think there is an important life lesson here: as I was sitting there, they through a shirt into the crowd, and as everyone around me grabbed at it with all their strength, the shirt just simply & effortlessly flew through the air in my direction.  (Bucky's skating now, one second...Gap to backside tailslide over the channel, to mctwist, to frontside five...that would be my favorite part of his run.)  Anyway, so as I looked up at this shirt I thought to myself "after all those years of trying with every bone in my body to grab shirts exactly like this one out of the air, there is no way this one is going to land in my lap."  I sat there thinking, "I know this shirt is heading right at my face, but there is no way that it will get to me without being snatched out of the air by one of these dads wanting to get this Mountain Dew shirt for his son.  I know it seems like it's going to hit me, but there is no way in all of hell that -", and that's when the shirt smacked me right in the side of the face, bounced off my shoulder, and landed gracefully at my feet.  I was too shocked to act and the dad next to me snatched it before I could pick it up and give it to the kid behind me, but regardless I think that all says something for the universe's sense of irony.  "Tee-hee-hee, we'll make this kid stand for two years in product tosses trying to grab something, and then once he hasn't cared anymore for good long while, we'll throw something, something that is unbelievably heavy for what it is, like a tightly bound shirt, right at his face."  I'm telling you, right when you think you've got it all figured out, the universe throws something at your face.


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June 24, 2006 - Can't Go Backwards

I just sat and watched the BMX Vert Prelims, and I gotta say, maybe I'm just tired, but I wasn't blown away. Kagy, Bestwick and Mirra were the standouts to me for the second heat - but when you compare this competition to BMX Park...actually, I don't really see any comparison. I do recognize that these are two completely different aspects of the sport, but at the same time, I think that the bikers are just limited as to how much they can do, when they can't land backwards.

The beauty of skating is it's versatility, but in the end, there's only so much you can do on a 25 pound bicycle which you'd have to be insane (I mean really crazy) to ride backwards down a vert ramp. Hopefully the finals are a better show - and even if they're not, I'll still watch because I love so much the watching bikers do all this, without any sound (bike vert is without a doubt the quietest of all action sports).


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June 23, 2006 - Build, Create, Grow, Change, OPEN YOUR MIND!

And maybe it's always been this way, but it seems like creativity is what's sealing the deal for who gets on the podiums here in Louisville. Wade got first in BMX Park Prelims on Thursday because he used the course differently than anyone else did, then yesterday got torn apart by a few guys who saw what he did and decided they could do it better, and then did. TJ Lavin was the only person transferring from the little side to the big side on the first hit of the BMX Dirt course in Prelims earlier today. The fall that Guettler took on the last hit (the one that ended him up on a stretcher) was taken when attempting a tailwhip-superman-seatgrab (creative enough?) I watched the FMX course builders concentrating almost entirely on the quarterpipe while preparing the course for today's finals, so the FMX guys must have seen that that's what it's going to take - creativity on creative features, like quarterpipes. And lastly, the runs I was most impressed with in the Skate Vert Prelims were the ones which featured tricks over the big roll-in channel.

Maybe it's because these sports have been pushed to the point where the body isn't physically capable of doing too much more, so the athletes need to look at entirely different approaches to their sports, which will, in turn, progress not only the sports but in my opinion the mentality of this culture to a completely different place. There's nothing as good as a group of people who are willing to look at every situation from every angle...well, my gosh, I think that would be a group of people that I would even want my CHILDREN to be hang out with. Upstanding citizens they are!


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Junhe 23, 2006 - Rejoice Like Bob

I just wanted to write real quick and mention that I don't believe there are many people in the world that enjoy their jobs more than Bob Burnquist. If this man does not absolutely treasure every second he has on a skateboard, then he's missed his calling, because he's a great actor. You can't help but smile when you watch him skate, because there isn't that much thats as enjoyable as watching someone skate and smile at the same time, which Bob does.

And in between his runs he converses, laughs, and actually gives you the feeling that he enjoys his life OFF of a skateboard as much as he enjoys his time ON a skateboard. So I think we have a lot to learn from our Brazilian friend (and being Brazilian, he of course talks about soccer & the world cup in between his runs - but then again, so does Rune Glifberg and Pierre-Luc Gagnon - so think twice next time you crack a joke about jocks & soccer moms).

So take a note from Bob and rejoice for your life, rejoice for all the time you spend doing what you love, and rejoice because France just beat Togo 2-0 and advances to the next group in the World Cup, and this means that they will face Spain next. Rejoice because the whole world has the chance to watch France play Spain and it will most definitely be a great game...I bet Bob is.

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June 22, 2006 - Bad Music, Good Skating, Cuter Girls

I am Cody Allen, and this is my blog. Actually, more specifically, this is my first blog entry ON my blog. I've been told to introduce myself, so now I have...now here's something that you might actually enjoy reading - as opposed to a short paragraph about me which might be mildly entertaining, vastly educational (because you probably know nothing about me) but in the end, unrewarding.

What do Evanescence, Kanye West, Metallica and Euro-Techno have in common? Well the way I see it, all of the companies with tents lining the festival grounds must think that they are all, together, the soundtrack of action sports. They must be absolutely sure that what the kids want to hear these days is all four of these bands, at the same time, as loud as possible. No, louder. I would say that this was the first thing I made a conscious note of today: why are they playing this music?

The second and third things that I made note of both took place in the skate park. First off, I want to be Nyjah Houston when I grow up. Nyjah is six years younger than me. You're walking around Louisville, minding your own business, on an hour of sleep and with a cramped back from flying all night, and the next thing you know you find yourself completely transfixed, dazed & confused, standing on the edge of an elevated masonite skate park with tears welling in the corner of your eyes and silent prayers for the future of skateboarding flowing from your mouth. The point I'm trying to get across is how good Nyjah Houston is. I talk to people about him, I try to ask questions, and everyone just nods "Yeah, he's really good." Really good? That's like saying the invention of the telephone was an "okay idea". Within one trick of seeing Nyjah skate the comparisons to Bastian Salabanzi are all too easy to make. At the ripe age of eleven he has established a style far beyond what anyone his age has to date been able to attain. He puts off a feeling of immense control as he skates. He's the first grom (for lack of a better word) I've ever seen that actually looks like he's skateboarding, instead of looking like the skateboard just happens to be giving him a ride somewhere out of the sheer kindness of it's heart. He knows what he's doing and you can see it in his back-lips and kickflip-front-boards.

Secondly, I just simply want to know how Ryan Sheckler got so ripped. I haven't seen him skate in a long time, but we're about the same age, and we're built about the same way, so why am I such a scrawny, lanky punk when he's skating around in a basketball jersey looking like he could take me out with one fair punch to the left cheek bone? What's his secret? Also, if you're going to go on a quest to find that out, could you also please find out how he does his hard-way-270-to-back-lips? Because I'd like to be able to do those also. I feel like I could have teenage girls mobbing me too if I could do those, although that might have something to do with him being famous, talented, and (as of lately) in peak physical shape.

This has been a savagely long day - although I'm feeling pretty up to snuff compared to the train wreck I could be feeling like - and the rest of the event shows no signs at all of slowing down, very much the opposite in fact. Things are getting going and the build up to the various finals is already in full steam. I would guess that, as nice as it is, Louisville is not a hard town to saturate with any emotion, but there is certainly an enjoyable feeling in the air and it probably lays somewhere in between the hordes of pros that flooded out of taxis on their way to "training" tonight as we strolled back from a very late dinner and the really cute girl at the Toyota booth in the festival grounds (photos to come soon?)