“We know the stubbornness of trying tricks all day as well as the seeming futility in attempting to describe a hobby where we roll our ankles and destroy our knees and bruise our elbows and ribs every weekend.”— José Vadi
Sometimes it’s difficult to articulate our passions. We may feel them deeply, but when we try to communicate those feelings, the words don’t match up.
This is especially true for sports, which is why great sports writing is so rare. People who are highly in tune with their bodies often struggle to put that experience into words. They just feel it.
This is where José Vadi separates himself from the pack. Known for both his passion for skateboarding and his literary eloquence, Vadi bridges the gap between physical experience and articulating the magic. He puts into words what most skaters find ineffable.
“For skaters, articulating that passion and drive without sounding cliché or like a flyer for the X Games… it’s kind of hard,” he tells me in our interview. “It’s that challenge of trying to express that energy and that passion on the page without sounding too ‘extreme’ or like an ad.”
From the moment I saw his book Chipped: Writing Through a Skateboarder’s Lens, displayed in Jennifer Casper's bookstore, I was drawn to his writing. What can I say? I’m a sucker for books where the person learns about themselves through a craft. As a casual skateboarder myself, I’ve always been fascinated by sports like skateboarding that attract such a passionate community—so much so that they end up being a significant part of people’s identity (once a skater, always a skater) and influence the wider mainstream culture.
I wanted to understand what it is about skateboarding that draws people like Vadi and keeps them passionate for decades. So, I sought out his insights. Who better to ask than someone who can so vividly articulate the deep connection and enduring appeal of this sport?
“[Being on a board] is this amazing feeling where you and your body can just become something different in that moment,” he says. “It’s that switch… that alteration that happens when you’re on a board.”
Intrigued, I asked him for an example.
“I was just in New York and skating around Brooklyn on a loaner board,” he tells me. “And it’s this totally wild experience because it’s not my familiar setup and I don’t know all the cracks on the sidewalk, let alone Brooklyn. It can get hectic. But I think what I love about it is it immediately forces you to have a new relationship with your body in this world. I mean, how powerful is that?”
I get it. As someone who is passionate about fitness and sports, I’m all too familiar with the sensation of being one with your body and the world. It’s why I dedicate hours a day to physical activity. That feeling is connected to flow, the state where time disappears, all feels right in the world, and all our skills and abilities come together. There’s almost nothing like it.
Vadi agrees.
“When you’re having a really good skate session, and you’re trying a trick, and there’s that trial and error, over and over again… you do get into a flow of like, ‘This is how I approach the spot,” he says. “This is how I bend my knees. This is how I approach the thing, the speed, this is what I have to be aware of, like the pollen on the ground or the rocks or whatever.’”
I’m not a true skater myself (an ollie has long been on my bucket list), but I know the sport well enough to know that these sessions are the ones that become etched in your memory. The ones you talk about with your friends. And that is at the heart of what really draws Vadi and others like him to skateboarding. It’s not just the flow or even the personal transformation that comes with a sport where failure is ingrained. It’s the collective sense that you’re all part of something bigger, doing it together.
“It’s this physical activity that you do as an individual collectively. And that collective is other skaters, but it’s also the grandparents at the park that are sitting on the ledges opposite of where you’re skating, or you know, the dog walkers, the kids going to school,” he says. “Street skateboarding exists in this public space, this ecosystem – and I think what’s really cool is here’s this individual thing that I can do wherever that other people are doing in tandem with me, even if I don’t see them.”
Vadi has been skating since he was 12, after witnessing the rise of skateboarding during his impressionable early teenage years in the mid-90s. Skateboarding was everywhere: in a Tom Petty music video, in movies like Clueless, on The Simpsons (“Bart Simpson was always the most popular skateboarder,” Vadi says, laughing), and in the X Games, the series of action sports events that include skateboarding that also began around that time.
From the early days when he sported his first skateboard – a cherry red deck with thunder trucks, pig bearings, and blank wheels – he loved the feeling of being part of something bigger.
“When we collectively meet up at skate spots in cities or suburbs alike, there’s this feeling of being a part of something,” he says. “And I think that’s what I love about skating. I like being a part of a community in general… how you can be an individual contributing to a whole.”
Of course, not everyone appreciates the skater community. As Vadi writes in his book, skaters have a shared lens: “A lens that understands that passions can be criminalized, that the term public space is asterisked, and that space is much as construct as time.”
This demonization of a culture has never made sense to me. Nor has the intentional architecture preventing skaters from enjoying public spaces. Because while there may be a few bad apples out there (as is true in all areas of life), on the whole, skaters have the best intentions. They just want to do what they love, with people they love, out in the world. Many skaters have been fighting back against this negative reputation, creating positive examples through remodeling decrepit public spaces to make them enjoyable for skaters and the surrounding community alike.
Regardless of the differing opinions about the skateboarding community, it's undeniable that the sport, cherished by over nine million people in the U.S., sparks a deep passion in those who participate.
What’s especially interesting to me about passions like skateboarding is that most people know early on it will never be their professional career. While Vadi fell in love with skateboarding in his early teenage years, he never considered it a viable career.
“I knew early on I was never going to be pro,” he says. He studied history in college and then, for a while, thought he would become a lawyer. But after a brief stint in D.C., Vadi was drawn back to California and to the literary arts community. He earned an MFA in nonfiction and is known for his poetry, spoken word, playwriting, and books.
Even so, he’s always he kept skating. Skating is not just a part of his identity; it has also shaped who he is, including in his creative work. We both agree that there’s something about passions like skateboarding—ones that require so much inherent failure—that fortifies the desire in us to go out and try.
“Who knows if I would be writing without skateboarding,” Vadi says. “It’s definitely one of the biggest catalysts in my life to encourage me to find myself and be myself.”
Again and again, I hear this from the most passionate people: our passions help us discover—or maybe more importantly, create—who we are. But this discovery is not a one-time revelation that magically improves our lives forever. It’s a continuous process that requires regular engagement and dedication.
“Skateboarding has reminded me that writing is a practice and it’s something you have to stay active with,” Vadi says. “It doesn’t mean you have to be 20 hours a day trying to grind your writing into existence. There are times you need to step away and times when you really need to do the work or be a sponge and learn or listen before you write. Skateboarding is the same way. There are times when you’re skating every day, but then days when you have to step back and recharge. It’s a practice… and an active one. It’s a beautifully active discipline.”
Everything I’ve been learning about passion through my own journey and these stories leads me to agree. Embracing this mindset—that our passions are, at best, practices—can transform how we approach them, turning them from mere interests into dynamic, ever-evolving journeys.
And that is what keeps the fire burning.
Takeaways
Here is one big thing I learned this week about passion, one exercise you can do to stoke your own inner fire, and one aspect of Vadi’s intense enthusiasm that rubbed off on me — and that I now want to learn more about, too!
One Lesson: Embracing Passion as a Dynamic Practice
It's easy to mistakenly believe that discovering a passion means the journey ahead will be effortless. However, José Vadi’s approach to skateboarding as an ever-evolving practice teaches us that true fulfillment comes from continuous engagement. Vadi’s dedication to honing his skills, despite the inherent failures, reminds us that our passions require regular effort and adaptation. This perspective encourages us to view our passions as dynamic and evolving, much like Vadi does with both his skateboarding and writing.
One Exercise: Turning Skate Tricks into Life Lessons
Reflect on a recent failure or setback in your life, and break it down as if you were analyzing a skate trick. Identify the specific steps where things went wrong, just as a skater would review each attempt to understand what needs to change for success. Ask yourself: What specific actions or decisions led to the failure? How can I adjust my approach for a better outcome next time? Just as every failed attempt at a skate trick is a step closer to landing it, every failure in our pursuits is a valuable lesson that brings us closer to our goals.
One Curiosity: Navigating Aging in Physical Passions
As an athlete myself, I always wonder how other athletes manage getting older without giving up on their passion altogether—something I never recommend! This is especially true in sports like skateboarding, which can be hard on the body. So I asked Vadi: How does he do it? “There’s a lot more wellness in skateboarding around the body and the mind,” he says, noting that it’s now common for skaters to prioritize wellness practices like proper hydration and nutrition, stretching, and workouts to keep skating longer. The key is to pay attention. “Your body’s going to tell you what it needs,” he says. It’s your job to learn to listen.
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