One of the greatest monuments to the power of freedom to overcome tyranny stands in Letna Park, in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Letna Park once deployed the world’s largest monument to Josef Stalin. It is now a skate park. In 2021 the Check historian Erika Cizek described the scene:
Today, the platform at the centre of Letná Park holds a massive metronome sculpture, and the tiled area surrounding the metronome is used by local youth as a skatepark. This is a place of near constant movement, seemingly permanently occupied by young people skateboarding or taking in the panoramic views of the city. Beyond this vibrant contemporary presence, however, lies a deeply significant history: the platform where the metronome stands today was once home to the world’s largest monument to Stalin. This monument held immense symbolic power, and remnants of this monument remain today in the form of the massive plinth left behind, as well as the enduring name of this location: U Stalina (at Stalin’s). The youthful energy of the Metronome starkly contrasts with the tangible memory of a brutal regime of the past, and its symbolic proliferator.
We’re holding an Anti-Communist Film Festival this fall, and one of the films I hope to screen or at least talk about is called King Skate. Released in 2018 and directed by Šimon Šafránek’s, this documentary looks at the way Czechoslovakian skateboarders defied their communist rulers, who during the Cold War tried to suppress skateboarding as a “hooligan” activity that promoted capitalism. King Skate focuses on the pioneers of Czechoslovak skateboarding, including Ivan Pelikán, Petr Forman, and Luděk Váša. Through makeshift materials, attitude, and an unrelenting desire for freedom, these riders turned the dynamic art of skateboarding into a defiant stance against totalitarianism.
That includes the totalitarianism of the left. As I noted in a piece earlier this year in Chronicles, skateboarding, which has always been an iconoclastic and outsider sport, has in recent years also questioned the orthodox of the left. Earlier this year, a skateboarder took to the pages of Thrasher magazine to object to the activity of ICE. You’d think he would be met with a chorus of supporters – not so. Many of the comments supported ICE. Here’s one from skateboarder Dave Killebrew:
Why are so many American skaters, musicians, actors, etc. against borders?
Like, I get it, you wanna skate where you want and stuff. I’m all in favor of the rebel mentality and doing what you want, especially in a creative context… but not at the cost of the sovereignty of my nation. Especially when I live in the most prosperous and powerful nation that has ever existed. When my nation has contributed technological and medical advancements that have doubled, if not tripled life spans in many parts of the world. We’ve lifted many societies out of the stone ages, kickstarted the Industrial Revolution, created cars and planes, put people in space and walked on the moon. The U.S. and yes, capitalism did that.
Sorry, I’m not in favor of opening the floodgates and handing the reins to people of other nations, many of whom would change the very foundations our nation is based on.
In his 2012 book, The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches from a Skateboard Life, skateboarder Kyle Beachy makes the point that skateboarding is one of the few things in life that doesn’t lie to you.
When you’re standing at the tip of a hill and ready to shred, you will either be able to do it or you won’t. Nobody is going to soften the landing for you. Beachy:
How many of us, I wonder, are lucky enough or doomed enough to have a force such as this in our lives? A practice, I mean, a pursuit or activity, an entity, in reality any kind of thing whatsoever, that we fear or respect enough that we will not lie to it, or try to trick it, or approach it with anything less than total candor? A thing that we know can see through us.
A thing that won’t lie is a thing that will conflict with the left. One of the strongest female athletes to stay against the nonsense of transgenderism is a female skateboarder named Taylor Silverman, who is also the host of the YouTube show Boonies HQ. Silverman has competed against biological males three times in skateboarding contests. In two of the three competitions she came in second, losing to a man who claimed to be a “trans woman.”
Silverman openly objected, even blasting the National Organization of Women. She told Fox News:
I take the National Organization for Women claiming that fairness in women’s sports is white supremacy about as seriously as I take them claiming men can be women. They are blinded by this lie and desperate to scare people into silence. Men in women’s sports impacts all women, including minorities that the National Organization for Women seemingly want to erase to push their ridiculous narrative.
Finally, in his recent book Land On Both Feet: A Skateboarder’s 11 Lessons That Transition to Life, skateboarder Brett Sorem offers this primary lesson: Don’t “mongo.” Mongo is a term for skaters who use their dominant foot to push rather than leaving it on the board and pushing with their non-dominant foot. Why the emphasis on what seems like a small thing? Because it’s not such a small thing after all. It’s about developing focus. “The point is, small, purposeful actions create momentum,” Sorem writes:
Without them, the whole routine can unravel. Skip making the bed once, and it’s no big deal. Skip it a few more times, and soon you’ve abandoned the habit altogether. It’s a slippery slope, but the reverse is also true: small, intentional actions can snowball into greater discipline, confidence, and purpose. So, why is pushing with your back foot so important? Because it’s about leading with your front—being balanced, grounded, and focused. When you push Mongo, you’re steering with your back foot, leaving you off-balance, unfocused, and looking down. It’s chaotic. But when you push correctly, you’re stable. You look ahead, out at the world, not down at your feet. And once it’s second nature, you don’t think about it anymore—you just go.
It’s not surprising that Jordan Peterson is a fan of skateboarding. What do shredding, Ollies, and rail slides have to do with anti-communism? Everything.
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