Obstacles and skateboarding, or why there are no obstacles really

When I opened a fortune cookie the other day the following note slipped out of the shell: “Always filled with enthusiasm you break down all obstacles.”

This reminded me of my English teacher in school. English is my second language and for eight years I learned it under the stern eyes of “Prof. Doehrn” (or was it Dörn?). There was a joke about her going round: that she had been ordered to study English solely for translating the enemy’s communications during the last days of WWII – she was not from this world: much too strict, too many too difficult texts, way too much homework, fair only in her disdain of each and everyone equally. Nevertheless, all I ever learned about English I pretty much owe it to her.

One time she had asked us what the term “obstacle” was in German. I knew the answer: Hindernis. Why would I know this, she then inquired, unusually interested, to which I replied: “That is a common term in skateboarding.”

She continued to interrogate me about the next few words of the text we were working on, ultimately concluding: “Looks like skateboarding doesn’t get you very far, right?”, which in hindsight makes me laugh, because it really is a bit of a cunty way of being a teacher.

In any case, I was being reminded of Prof Doehrn and that obstacles in skateboarding have in fact been playing a major role since, maybe, 1980. This got me to think that it might be a bit weird to dedicate something we so very much love to acts of grappling with obstacles. And it’s true, if you’re not a freestyler (or a skate gymnastics athlete from the late 1970ies), everything you’ll be doing all the time will in one way or the other be revolving around grinding and sliding over a curb or rail, jumping down ledges and stairs, crashing against walls, falling down banks etc. Does this do something to you? A lifetime of trying to conquer obstacles?

I guess so, if the focus lies on the idea that an obstacle is, well, an obstacle – but isn’t it rather that obstacles for us aren’t in fact a barrier that needs to be gotten over but instead a ground we play with and work on, a tool for exercising what we love to do most. Also, who would, after having successfully surmounted a barrier, come back just a moment later and do it again, “but this time with more style”?

I learned English from Prof Doehrn, and it well got me through my studies at the university, but what I learned from skateboarding was, that there is no need to break down obstacles, or rather that there are no obstacles left at all once you start integrating them in your life as something you play and have fun with – and when you’re done you come back and work and play on them again, but this time with more style (and also go faster!).

18.11.2025