DOWNHILL SKATEBOARDING:
The History of Warrior Boarder

In the fall of 2000, my friend Nate and I both bought skateboards thinking we would become great skaters. However, It was quickly apparent I sucked at it in real life, and I then came up with a way to get enjoyment out of my $40 skateboard. I called it "Warrior Boarding", which was finding a brutal, steep hill, and then riding down it on your skateboard for dear life. It was an intense adrenaline rush, and my friend Lance still has a heinous scar on his elbow to prove the danger involved. Sometimes you would get going so fast, the board would wobble, and you needed to jump off and starting running like a bat-out-of-hell so you didn't end up on the ground rolling, getting eaten up by the pavement. That moment of "bailing" as we called it, was just like getting shot out of a canon. Nate and I skipped a great deal of our college classes and just went skateboarding, or rather, Warrior Boarding, and got kicked out of golf courses, and nearly tackled to death by an old man. It nearly happened.

In 2004 I was creating an animation for my portfolio at Dakota County Technical College. It was like coming full-circle, as my first flip-book as a kid in the 80's was a skateboarder on a vert ramp (the first flipbook was inspired by my older brother Troy circa 1987).

Originally, Warrior Boarder was going to be called "Super Skater", and the concept was "a skater doing cool tricks". It evolved into a skating superhero saving people through heroic actions. The key to a superhero "skateman", I told myself, was not to take the character and story too seriously, as it can get cheesy much too fast. Rather, the character must have an edge to him and flow moment-to-moment not knowing where the next trick or heroic adventure will take him next. Also, it helped to google "skateboarding superhero" in 2003 or 2004 and realize, hey, no one else has created anything like this yet!

The first Warrior Boarder animation helped me win the portfolio show in December of 2004. Since then many things have changed in my life, and I do not go "Warrior Boarding" anymore, but I have always tried to make time to continue the series, as well as improve it.