Life and Limb: Skateboarders Write from the Deep End

By: Jared Jacang Maher

The pieces in Life and Limb are diverse in subject and voice. Some of the narratives in Life and Limb deal directly with the subject of skateboarding; others are about completely non-related subjects such as tree-eating, the historical and cultural significance of boulders, and setting fire to cemeteries.

Despite, or maybe because of this diversity, they all express certain aesthetics common to skateboarders everywhere: an iconoclastic sense of creativity fostered by a lifetime spent (mostly) outside the restrictive bounds of team sports, a collaborative artistic spirit and a disdain for overt competitiveness, humor, an appetite for risk that often borders on self-destructiveness, a youthful distrust of authority and a reluctance to resign one's self to the "adult" world of commerce and responsibility. While all the contributing writers have been heavily influenced by skateboarding, the stories in Life and Limb don't glorify or idealize the sport. In fact many of the pieces reveal the dark side of skateboarding--the curse that accompanies the blessing of a lifetime spent rolling very fast over very hard surfaces.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 193236028X
• ISBN13: 9781932360288
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Soft Skull
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Dude, I Totally Wrote a Review

Many people have written about shred-stickery, but this book, for the first time, dismisses notions of the bong-toking, Tony Hawk Pro Skater-ing, Gravity Gaming, Tech Deck fingerboarding demographic of vidiot savant vandals who demoralize and destroy society with their wild antics on four wheels. This is a book written by skateboarders who convey more passion and garner more respect than any Tiger Woods or Mark McGuire, while simultaneously defying all that is conventional about "sport." Life and Limb shows that talented skateboarders can also be talented artists, deep thinkers, and true souls in a society overrun by celebrities and sports aimed at breeding consumers. With pieces by many influential skaters whose lives have been touched, and in many ways shaped by the sport, Life and Limb is a revolutionary anthology that any skater, philosopher, activist, literati, industry entity, or martial artist can relate to. Its reading is therapeutic, reassuring, and restores lost faith in an ideology that has been packaged and sold to the branded masses.

Not just another skateboarding book

Life and Limb winds through a wide array of experiences and perspectives, demonstrating the depth of a sub-culture of American life. With the use of humor, introspection, and fury; the collective authors are able to demonstrate the thoughts and feelings of the lost youth. This should not be considered just another skateboarding book. This is an excellent read, and provides a vastness of thought that can only be attributed to many voices and many thoughts.