2014 Ultra-Skate vs. The Doors of Perception

Skating for 24-hours straight. This is the next thing on my agenda as far as major, tangible challenges go.

Some of you may have heard of it. Maybe some haven’t. “The Ultra,” in the context of our little skateboard community, is a 24-hour skate-for-distance. You could call it a competition, but far more would call it a challenge. The true competition is against distance, time, and oneself. The particular race that is coming up is the Ultra-Skate at Miami Speedway on January 20th, roughly three weeks away. Here’s the facebook link for event information: https://www.facebook.com/events/453971684710234/

Andrew Andras set a world record, topping Paul Kent’s infamous 254-mile skate where he dehydrated himself to the point of pissing blood (apparently his kidneys were rubbing together…live and learn, eh Paul?), with a 261 and change-long skate at this very same Ultra-Skate at the Miami Speedway just one year ago. Andrew showed that preparation, training, determination, nutrition, and loving support make for a winning combination, and it’s looking like this year he is on track to quite possibly set another record.

Not everybody is Andrew Andras or Paul Kent, however. Not everyone has a shot at breaking records. Yet many people are taking on the challenge, regardless. What is it that drives them toward such a level of self-torture? The reasons are foggy at best, and I’m sure we all have our own mix of them, but I’ll at least try to explain my own perspective, and who knows? Maybe it will help you further define your own. Or maybe you’ll just continue thinking I’m crazy. Read on anyway. Getting into the mind of a nutball can be entertaining!

Dylan Baist-Bliss on a Pantheon prototype “Embryo”

When you’re blasting down a hill at 50 MPH, the goal is clear…Get to the bottom in one piece! Maybe get to the bottom as fast as possible, but also in one piece. The rush is immediate, the sense of accomplishment is quick but lasting, the threat of pain is there, but if you’re within your limits, you’re playing pretty good odds. It’s easy to see why people get so hooked on downhill. For most people, it’s not as easy to see why people get equally as hooked on skating over massive distances. Much of the adrenaline factor is out the window, the threat of pain is imminent and lasting, and it can end up costing a lot of money just to provide your body with fuel to continue moving. Basically, when you’re traveling to an Ultra-Skate, you’re paying to suffer. And why?

Rick Schorr, 2nd place at 2013 Ultra-Skate in Miami

I guess what it really comes down to is perspective. And this is the hard part, because perspective is this ever-changing, ever-evolving thing, and in order to actually complete such a massive, daunting task of performing any activity at all for 24 hours straight without stopping…well, you really have to perform some serious mental training and establish that perspective–that purpose–solid as stone and able to weather the inevitable storm of your brain telling you that you should stop, over and over and over and over and over again. And I think by establishing a seemingly impossible goal that will require more energy than you have the ability to really realistically conceive and then putting that on the table and saying, “I’m going to do that,” what we’re really doing is training our minds to be able to push, no matter what…indefinitely. Or maybe even training ourselves to change that feeling of pushing into a feeling of flowing. To change our perception of work entirely.

Without getting overly existential, which may have already happened, I just want to take a moment to explain the significance of perception. I can already feel myself getting sidetracked, but trust me, if you haven’t gone there yet, you’ll be glad you did. You see, science is constantly developing new ways to explain our Universe, and one thing that constantly keeps popping up in my mind is this awesome experiment that puts some quantum physics theories to test and shows us a really awesome and important thing about perception. It’s called the “Double Slit Experiment.” Here’s a fun video that is totally worth watching if you haven’t heard of it:

So hey, that’s a big can of worms. We’re just taking a little peek inside the can and closing it back up for another day. But basically what this all boils down to, in my opinion, is that we ARE energy. That matter is energy. Einstein said it himself, right? E=MC². And the simple fact that we are observers and we are interpreting energy with our consciousness–our points of accumulated and stored observation–allows that energy to be perceived as matter. And we interpret energy by converting waves of various frequencies through our observation “machines.” Our eyes “see” electromagnetic radiation, aka waves, from 390nm to 700nm (basically red to purple). Our ears “hear” pressure waves from 20Hz to 20,000Hz. It is generally assumed that “notes” lower than 20Hz are “felt” rather than “heard.” There are even hypotheses out there that explain taste and smell as forms of vibration sensory, whereas we used to explain these senses through some sort of molecular lock and key function, which science has has had a hard time proving. The interpretation of these vibrations, from sight to scent, all happens in our accumulated observation storage machines called our brains, which are really just collections of neurons that fire at each other and form associative patterns that we call thoughts. And the accumulation and storage and association of these thoughts is what makes up our perception! What this means is that how these neurons fire is equally a part of what makes up our individually perceived realities as the input itself which we are constantly interpreting.

So my goal going into this thing isn’t going to have anything to do with any records. My goal is to try to find a way to mold my perception and change work into flow and then to hold onto that feeling for as long as possible…hopefully the duration of the event. My training has been as close to non-existent as it’s ever been, and I’m already finding that my body seemingly has limits. Maybe I’m due for a major wake up call. I had a minor one the other day when I took my first run in about 4 or 5 years just to see how my body felt, and I pulled both my calves after about 15 minutes of exercise. I was running way too fast; I guess I deserved it. Turns out there’s a physical element to this afterall, but I’ll tell you what. Before that happened, the legs were churning like butter and I was feeling good. So…I’m going to stretch next time, and maybe not run in my Vibram Fivefingers on concrete on the next run. My goal over the next three weeks will be to focus on training my muscles to work without injury. As long as they can do that, whatever distance is covered by means of skateboard at the Miami Ultra-Skate will be a mental game. And that’s really what I’m after. It’s not about seeing what I’m made of or proving to myself or to anyone else that I can withstand more than the next guy. It’s about further training my mind and perception for life after the “race”–about turning work into flow, and holding onto that feeling, indefinitely.

Surfer on Mavericks – photo, Shalom Jacobovitz

Pantheon Blog #1: Coming into Being

If the universe were a number, it would not be a prime. It would be divisible by two, that’s for sure, because all happening comes in pairs. Imagine the universe is as simple as being an idea followed by a decision. A possibility…and then a manifestation. Wait…that sounds too simple.

Let me boil all the little thoughts into this one summarizing concept sans metaphor:

Pantheon Longboards Universe is choosing to come into existence.

I chose to start Pantheon Longboards because I believe in the Universe and in the power of Ideas. Hell, the Universe itself is an idea if it is anything. The manifestation of one single thought (if it’s divisible by one). Or maybe a single thought followed by other thoughts, all reducing down to that original thought…and then, and then of course, that thought manifesting itself. Thought. And Action. And now here we are just experiencing it all, and it’s damn cool ain’t it? Welcome to Pantheon Longboards Universe!

What is Pantheon Longboards? Let me go back and just quote one of the first things I ever wrote about it and then see if it still stands. What better thing to first write than a mission statement–a reason for being:

“Although the company aims to generate profit, the primary goal of the Pantheon Longboards has little to do with money. When people are searching for an individual life plan, a common response to the question of what to do with one’s life is, “If money were no object, what would you do?” This stems from the belief that true success can never be had without the utmost passion and commitment. Pantheon Longboards is dedicated to the exchange of the teacher/learner–to expose truth and inspire others to settle for nothing less. We will build exceptional product to be sold at a fair price, and whether our customers are inspired to use our product as a result of quality design and craftsmanship or because they share the desire to spread our shared message, they will be further exposed to this truth nonetheless, and that exposition will open doors to greater teaching, learning, and understanding for all.”

What that means is that Pantheon exists for a purpose. If I felt like I had nothing I wanted to share with the world, I’d be happy to just give my ideas to someone else and let them declare whatever they wanted on my behalf. That’s the way we’ve created the world around us. But I guess I believe that the world ACTUALLY works some other way, IF we choose to make it so. I believe that ideas really are worth something…and not just ideas about stuff to sell, but actual ideas that can be worth something to someone’s existence outside of ownership.

So, first…in defense of everyone out there that exists and functions and sells skateboards without trying to throw you on some existential trip or maybe remind you of some big thing you already know but always forget, let me first say that skateboards are really fucking cool, and anyone out there that is promoting skateboarding, even if they promote not one single thing but themselves and skateboarding, those people are doing good things. They are spreading something that is capable of creating happiness through action, and that in itself is BIG. If they don’t understand the greatness of this thing they are spreading, then hey, they are the ones missing out. But here you are, and you’re skating and loving it. You get it. Go you.

Beyond that though, I guess the biggest reason to start a longboard brand was because for one, I love skateboarding and I have spent years of my life learning everything I can about it, and two, I felt like I had more that I wanted to give. More than just my time for a paycheck. More than just a product for money. More than my ideas for some false sense of future security for me and my family. Hell, I’ve been making what I perceived to be great money for a couple years now, and I haven’t been able to save a dime nor have I been able to afford to do all the things I wanted to do. I didn’t jump on a plane for one single event last year that wasn’t sales oriented. It just became more and more clear to me that I was in a trap. That as long as someone else owned my time, I was going to be stuck, always depending on that next paycheck, depending on someone else to give me the tools I needed, and never putting out into the world the true manifestation of the ideals which I hold so dear to my heart. I guess I just desire some level of truth of existence that I really think is possible, but I was unable to live it by trading my passion for money.

Well, life is just too great a gift to go through it like that, wouldn’t you agree? Even if you don’t–even if you’re like, Jeff, you’re a fucking snob…you had it made–that’s okay. I started Pantheon to create a universe that was true to myself, simple as that. What comes out of it will be a manifestation of that, and I hope you dig it. If you don’t, well, I just hope you see it. Just the act of exposition is enough for me. And those that wish to grab on, fucking do it and come along for one hell of a ride. This isn’t going to be some massive wave that smashes into everything in its path and takes over the world. We’re not making revolutionary shit here…this is skateboarding! But if you choose to ride this wave, our wave will get bigger, and it will be harder to ignore. We’re not aiming to start a movement, moreso just to add momentum to one that is already in motion. Everything you see is designed to inspire this, to inspire you, to inspire ourselves, to just simply accept and appreciate what we have and to push toward one thing we don’t. Our current societal concept of competitive existence is not sustainable, and we want to create a future where we can all thrive doing what we love. Our existence is enough…we don’t need you to buy our boards. This is built into the design! I will go do something else to put food on the table if I have to. I LOVE learning new skills! But what I’m not going to do is take something that I am so passionate about and piss it away in the name of profit. Fuck that. That’s not how I’m steering this ship. I am going to use this passion as fuel to take me where I want to go. If it runs out of gas, I’ll push it down the highway. That’s what Pantheon is.

So what should you expect from Pantheon? I’ll refer to another little diddy I wrote for our facebook page:

“Pantheon Longboards is focused on high end skateboard/longboard design and cost effective, time-tested, socially responsible construction. Our goal is to make killer skateboards/longboards, stoke out riders with awesome content, provoke thought and open thoughtful and necessary discussions through graphics and our overall message, and engage in longterm and socially responsible business strategies. We want to use Pantheon Longboards as an outlet to skate as much as possible and have lots of fun with the intent to feed and house our families through skateboarding while retaining our moral obligations to society and ourselves through our business practices. We will settle for nothing less, and we believe our world society can support this dream.”

What we’re looking to do is be able to focus our energy toward the Pantheon message, and we’re hoping that we can focus as much energy as possible toward this and in turn we will be able to put food on the table. That overall message is sort of hard to define without sounding like a lunatic and rambling on and on and on like we are clearly headed toward already, but we hope you get the gist of it, and we hope what comes out of the Pantheon Longboard Universe will inspire you in some positive way. Sort of like the reason I chose to tattoo a giant crop circle on my chest or put a 40-inch gong in my living room, I want Pantheon to be there to remind us all of the connection that we have to ourselves, each other, and our shared Universe. That, to me, felt like something worth creating.

Lots of love from me and the fam to everybody out there taking interest in our project. Thanks for reading. We’ll try to continue putting our interesting content here on the blog. There’s probably a way to subscribe. Feel free to do so, or just follow us on the ol’ social media business @pantheonlongboards

On the product side, we’re hoping to have our first board (pictured above) around the beginning of 2014. We’re working with a pretty small American manufacturer in North Carolina and starting with some pretty small quantities, so it’s been a little slow getting started (they got bills to pay, and we’re not the ones making it happen!). The good news is they make great quality boards, and we work together really well. We’re super stoked that they believe in our project and just happy to be making progress. We’ll keep you up to date. ‘Til then, it’s getting warm on the east coast this weekend…Go enjoy your skate!