February 1, 2024
Award-winning essayist Jos� Vadi (Inter State, 2021) shares his unique perspective on skateboarding, where "culture, fashion, physical and self-expression collide." The chapter essays explore a broad range of experiences, including Vadi's initial 1996 foray into the sport as he learned to master ollies, kickflips, and heelflips and found joy in trying and failing repeatedly, as well as influences in skate culture like Thrasher Magazine and VHS tapes documenting how to land tricks on ledges or stairs in public spaces. Vadi also considers how his experiences in the world of skateboarding influenced his passion as a poet--he's a two-time National Poetry Slam champion--and broadens his analysis to consider the ties between skateboarding and other forms of creative expression. For example, the chapter on experimental musician and performer Sun Ra provocatively explores ties between free-form music and the way skateboarders claim "performative space" and assert themselves in it. Skateboarders young and old-school will see themselves in Vadi's journey captured in this collection of essays by an optimistic, fresh, and insightful voice.
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Starred review from February 19, 2024
In this pensive collection, essayist Vadi (Inter State) meditates on “how skateboarding gave me a new lens to see my world and myself differently.” In the eponymous essay, whose title refers to the small pieces of board that break off during a ride, Vadi discusses how “the older I get the more I empathize with those chipped boards I had as kid... wanting to still be seen as useful.” “Wild in the Streets” expounds on the sense of community Vadi felt attending a 2007 Fourth of July skating event in which boarders took over San Francisco’s Embarcadero: “It was another night of trying to synchronize ourselves to a city’s rhythm for the opportunity to collectively bear witness to everything a city can create.” Drawing parallels between skating and jazz, Vadi suggests in “King Shit (or Can a King Be a King?)” that both elicit disciplined obsession from practitioners and come alive through performance. Elsewhere, Vadi serves up an ode to VHS skate demos and recounts taking up poetry “to describe the feeling skating gave me,” honing his spoken word skills by watching mixtapes of poetry slams similar to the demos from which he learned new skating tricks. The rhapsodic prose shines, and Vadi’s passion will hold the attention even of readers who know little about the sport. It’s a ride well worth taking.
January 1, 2024
An essayist, poet, and filmmaker expounds on his lifelong love of skateboarding. Vadi, author of Inter State: Essays From California, began skateboarding in 1996, around the start of what some would call the industry's creative and economic boom." Soon after, skateboarding became a vital part of the author's life, redefining how he saw and related to public spaces and, later, seeing him through the isolation of the pandemic. In his second essay collection, Vadi details exactly how deeply skateboarding has affected him. For example, he considers how the soundtracks to some of his favorite skateboarding videos created an unexpected connection with his immigrant parents, who "initially viewed skateboarding as a materially disruptive, potentially cop-attracting activity that I shouldn't be doing." In other chapters, the author imagines the visionary musician Sun Ra as a skateboarder, compares "chipping" a skateboard to the inevitability of aging, and examines the way Black skateboarders responded to the Black Lives Matter movement. Central to the entire narrative is Vadi's obsession with public space. In describing his aversion to skateparks, he writes, "Many skaters don't even use the regulated skateparks designed and legalized for their convenience....Why skate there when you can take your board and hit the streets, basking in the temporal ownership you feel as you repurpose underutilized public space, knowing an unmarked, red-painted curb first grinded by you and your board is somehow now 'yours'?" At their best, the essays are poetic, compassionate, and vulnerable, drawing rewardingly original connections among a host of seemingly disparate topics. Unfortunately, Vadi's language is often densely laden with jargon, and he sometimes gets lost in esoteric details that feel unnecessary. Still, Vadi clearly takes great pleasure in the vocabulary and syntax of skateboarding; at times, this pleasure feels contagious, even for non-skaters. Occasionally off track, but a largely illuminating collection about skateboarding, race, and relationships.
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