The Dark Wizards
Alternative Sports are not designed for optimization.
The first time I ever acknowledged the existence of another activity outside of surfing was when I saw Heath Kirchart’s part in Mind Field. I just rewatched the part right now and the first YouTube comment said “I wanna cry when I watch this part and I don’t even skate.” I felt something similar.
I could sort of skate — like a surfer at least: I pushed mongo and had never stomped a kickflip. But after I saw this part I broke my mongo habit and learned to kickflip. I was over 30. I’d watch the part then go outside and try to get hurt.
The Morrissey song and Greg Hunt had a lot to do with the power of the part of course, but prior to my deep dive on Heath — which is a rich and unpredictable vault of wild shit — I could tell there was something distinctly different about him.
He wasn’t “a skater.” The way he skated, the way he approached skating, the way he approached every trick was different. It was that of an artist — and not a pretentious one talking about finding his inspiration or something, but an honest-to-god madman who never learned to paint and decided to jump down a bunch of stairs on a skateboard instead.
Every landing seemed a miracle, yet stomped. His facial expression, his clothing, his style were all distinct and his alone. I recently heard Arto Saari say Heath had the best style ever because every landing looked so sketchy. Imperfectly perfect. Heath seemed untouchable, unapproachable even. He probably never attended the movie premieres. He was too much of a skater to be marketed as a skater. Which is probably why I saw him tending bar. Those are the people who receive my undivided attention.
