When skateboarders skate they experience a euphoric rush. They have a clear mind and the ability to see with the heart. The many principals that apply to skateboarding fit into a framework for how we approach, process, problem solve, persist, and overcome the challenges and hardships of living. This book offers you the opportunity to experience the great wisdom which is equally poignant in life as it is in the street or the skate park.

This was channeled from Lao Tzu through me to give modern understanding to his historical knowledge. The meter was carefully selected to keep as close to possible the original intent. May it serve you, your family, your loved ones and all of humanity.My hope is that after reading this you will become better, more loving, more tolerant people who happen to enjoy rolling through life on 4 wheels, some steel and a piece of wood.

Sophie Friedel explores the action of skateboarding in her book as a way to escape cycles of despair, not only in war torn environments and regions affected by poverty. The author critically reflects on her involvements of teaching skateboarding in Afghanistan within the context of youth empowerment and peace work. By way of personal experiences, Friedel illustrates how skateboarding can be understood as an elicitive approach to peace work and conflict transformation that unfolds the extraordinary human potential inherent to all of us.

This book explores the ways in which religion is observed, performed, and organised in skateboard culture. Drawing on scholarship from the sociology of religion and the cultural politics of lifestyle sports, this work combines ethnographic research with media analysis to argue that the rituals of skateboarding provide participants with a rich cultural canvas for emotional and spiritual engagement. Paul O’Connor contends that religious identification in skateboarding is set to increase as participants pursue ways to both control and engage meaningfully with an activity that has become an increasingly mainstream and institutionalised sport. Religion is explored through the themes of myth, celebrity, iconography, pilgrimage, evangelism, cults, and self-help.

Skateboarding is both a sport and a way of life. Creative, physical, graphic, urban and controversial, it is full of contradictions – a billion-dollar global industry which still retains its vibrant, counter-cultural heart. Skateboarding and the City presents the only complete history of the sport, exploring the story of skate culture from the surf-beaches of '60s California to the latest developments in street-skating today. Written by a life-long skater who also happens to be an architectural historian, and packed through with full-colour images – of skaters, boards, moves, graphics, and film-stills – this passionate, readable and rigorously-researched book explores the history of skateboarding and reveals a vivid understanding of how skateboarders, through their actions, experience the city and its architecture in a unique way.

Contains photographic sequences with narrative text that describe thirty-four skateboarding tricks, including old school, spine, and new school stunts, and includes an interview with skateboarder and coach Steve Badillo.