BY: HIBA OBEED
Art & Life Editor
In German class of his freshman year, a boy spends his time watching Bike Motocross (BMX) videos. A classmate walks up to him and they begin to bond over their shared interest in BMX.
“Yeah I skate,” says his classmate.
“Yeah me too,” the boy responds.
“And later we found out we were both lying and we both used to be able to skate,” says Ryder George-Lander with a big smile. “Then, a week or two later, we went to skate together at the mall, and ever since then I’ve skated; I’ve probably not missed a week.”
That’s how George-Lander first got into the skating scene. “It was very welcoming. A lot of people who don’t really skate or are just learning are scared to come to the park, but it’s a really welcoming place—at least in the Midwest,” he says.
He recalls how his perspective on skating changed for him.
“Where a lot of people would just see stairs or a little curb, skaters see a spot to skate. It becomes outstanding to the background,” George-Lander says. “All skaters have that, so their view of the world or perception is a lot different—especially in cities.”
What stands out to George-Lander about skater culture is the kindness. He remembers an interaction at a skatepark involving a younger boy. “My friend Marcus was watching him skate, and we realized that he kept falling and couldn’t ride down this ramp,” says George-Lander. “He had this Wal-Mart board that was so bad, and he left that day with a new board from Marcus’s trunk.”
As someone who skates almost every day, George-Lander says there’s a lot to love about the activity. “It’s really good energy, but also creative energy. You can do the tricks you like, and that’s really freeing,” he says. “Love going fast, fast, hella fast.”
One major factor of skater culture is the language and slang, which differs from scooter riders. “There’s kind of like a language barrier of like tricks, like ‘nose mannies’ are called ‘nozies’ and specific stuff like that- but like the worldview isn’t any different.”
When considering how scooter riders may interact with the skaters, George-Lander says there is sometimes a slight difficulty. “There’s definitely some skate parks that don’t allow scooters and it makes sense when you’re talking about little scooter kids who just don’t care about anything and just like to get in the way and stuff,” he says. “But then there’s some people like BG, who were really about it.”
So, who is BG? Brendan (BG) Griffith first got into riding scooters from watching bottle flipping videos as a kid. “So, in the fifth grade, bottle flipping was super cool,” Griffith says. “I started watching a YouTuber named Tanner Fox, who made bottle-flipping videos and also rode scooters. Then I started scootering from that.”
Much like George-Lander, Griffith enjoys the feeling his hobby offers.“It’s like dancing— it’s really fun and you get to fly- you feel like a superhero,” says Griffith, reminiscing. “It’s the greatest thing ever.”
What Griffith finds most appealing about scootering is the freedom within it. “Nobody tells you what to do, which is nice,” he says. “There’s no coach, there’s no correct way to do it.”
Something skaters and scooter riders have in common is their interest in making videos. “You don’t film in the park, you film in the streets,” says George-Lander. “You can film edits in the park for Instagram, but it’s debatable. It’s not poser, it’s just there’s really nothing wrong with it.” He pauses. “I just—on record—I hate Instagram.”
It’s not just little clips and edits that skaters shoot. “Skate videos have always been a thing. They’re filmed on different cameras, but VX 1000 is THE camera to film skateboarding on,” says George-Lander. “Because of its history, hella videos were filmed on it.”
George-Lander collaborated with his friends to film a video called “Rotary Phone.”
“Just like every day we’d be going out getting clips in the streets—not in the park—and then that kind of turned to Bela having the camera on him at all times, ” he says. “We’d get a bunch of B-roll, which is like in-between footage.”
That’s when he and his friends decided to edit a video and upload it onto YouTube. “I filmed a good portion of it, Bela filmed a good portion of it, all the homies are in there,” says George-Lander.
“We got BG clips, Birago clips, Jeber clips, Quinn, Bela, Ryder George-Lander, Carter, we have a Ryder Skully B-roll— I think we have a Miles clip in there but I’m not too sure. No Parker clip sadly, but he should’ve been there,” George-Lander lists off. “Oh my God, I miss my friends.”
