Music on a drive without a destination can deal with any niggly little problem. There is, however, an awkward question to skirt around. When fossil fuels are getting scarcer, aren’t such drives a criminal extravagance? Truth be told, I have never really asked myself this question sincerely. And, now and then, I do resort to a “pointless” drive, filling the glasshouse of my car with loud music, when all other coping mechanisms have failed.
Now, there is a set of wheels I can attach to music and beat the blues, and still come out shining as a sustainability champion. But that would mean I learn to skateboard. The sport of skateboarding, combined with music, makes a potent remedy for mundane irritants. If you had listened to that precocious millennial, Rolf Jacob Sartorius, you would know what I mean. Besides the fluid skateboarding visuals, the words of the song ‘Skateboard’ from the album Left Me Hangin’ dwells on the healing power of skateboarding combined with music.
“With, good music and one hell of a hill/ 310 to 818, yeah... Ayyy, I’m gonna ride this skateboard down the block like/
Ayyy, forget my problems when I reach the top like.”
Sartorius’ song belongs to a category called skateboard music. In the America of the 1980s, a sub-genre called skate rock was popular. Skate rock has an organic connection with surfing rock, popularised by groups like The Beach Boys in the 1960s. Both thrive on the idea of mixing movement and music.
And the other day, when I visited Madras Wheelers, a recently inaugurated skatepark at Thoraipakkam, Old Mahabalipuram Road, I heard this song in my head. For, the instructor at the facility Vijay Dominic is as much into hip-hop as he is into skateboarding, and sees value in combining both.
Sai Krishna Tej Reddy, the brain behind the facility, believes there could not have been a better place for it than OMR. He says he did his homework before getting Bengaluru-based HolyStoked Collective, a community of skateboarders, and its offshoot Hundred Ramps, professional designers of skateparks, to build the facility.
“In the West, surfing and skateboarding are big. They are seen as twin sports. Skateboarding is surfing on land with wheels. Having worked in the West, many IT professionals in OMR must be exposed to skateboarding as a sport and recreational activity. On East Coast Road, there are many expatriates who may want to go skateboarding. Besides, a skatepark is not only for skateboarders, but also for those who want to test the full potential of BMX cycles and kick scooters, and also those into roller skating. At the facility, we lend these equipment,” says Sai Krishna.
Hopefully, they will also play some music that will go with skateboarding. Sai Krishna points out that though the skatepark at Thoraipakkam has some features that support street-style skatebording, it is more of a flow park and lends itself well to fluid movements. All the more reason why the music should be brought on.