Read: Real “Skate Journalism” In ‘Atlanta Hellride’ | “He skates unreasonably fast + aggressively, a beautiful embodiment of skating’s ugly menace.”

 

Skateboarding writing. Seems like a joke term. Right? Well it did until Noel Gallagher Shannon came along and blew us away with this piece on Grant Taylor. It made the cut for the Oxford American so you know it’s decent for the academics, but it has that realness to it that can’t be faked. Noel must skate. No doubt about it.

 

Sample:

There was no telling how long the stoplight at the base of the 8th Street hill would stay green when Grant Taylor began bombing toward it. He was in a low crouch, muscling his skateboard against the blacktop, popping ollies and carving tight S curves down the center stripe of one of midtown Atlanta’s steepest streets. With each push of his left leg, exponentially more asphalt roared past him. He wore a gray t-shirt, green chinos shredded in the ass from weeks of slamming, and a pair of Nike Blazer Lows—Taylor’s signature professional skateboarding model. His corduroy trucker hat had long since sailed off. A half-mile ahead, at the intersection with Peachtree Street, four lanes of traffic stood idling, waiting for the light to turn. He pushed faster. 

When Taylor, who is twenty-six and one of the greatest skateboarders alive, flew through the intersection, a howl echoed back up the hill, where a dozen of us—videographers, photographers, skaters, one reporter—stood watching. We answered him back with howls of our own, shaking our heads and hiding frightened looks behind lifted beers. A boom box blared Iron Maiden’s “Phantom of the Opera” from the open windows of a 1998 twenty-foot school bus, which Taylor bought a few years ago for skate missions like today. Inside, the bus was decorated with stickers from his various sponsors—Anti Hero Skateboards, Independent Truck Company, Spitfire Wheels, Nike SB, Volcom. In one row sat several spare skateboard decks (Taylor can go through as many as four in a month), along with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of camera equipment and a cooler holding the day’s beers. One sticker bore a favorite mantra of Taylor’s, who likes to dirtbike: HEAVY REVS. Another succinctly conveyed the spirit of the day: FUCK OFF.

 

 

 

Click to OXFORD AMERICAN for Noah Gallagher Shannon’s ‘Atlanta Hellride’

 

 

 

 

 

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