Paul Halcomb is super enthusiastic about skateboarding. I met him at the sportsman’s skate park in Joshua Tree to talk to him about Go Skate Day, and an event called “Aaron and Paul’s Go Skate Day Event.” It was early in the day still but the sun was warm with only the slightest breeze – a nice day for an outside interview, and an even better day to go skateboarding. I started skating during the pandemic. I’m in my 40’s and don’t shy away from things with wheels… but skateboarding always seemed too cool for me – an out of reach sport that required a kind of vulnerability that I couldn’t muster when I was younger.
I had talked with Paul on the phone about the Go Skate Day event he and his friend Aaron are putting on this Wednesday at the Luckie Park Skatepark in Twentynine Palms. But I found his enthusiasm for skateboarding exciting, and it made me want to meet him and hear about skateboarding here in the hi-dez.
Paul Halcomb: “Yeah, I grew up here, basically my entire life. If you’ve been to the skatepark.. Everybody can point me out of the crowd. It kept us out of trouble. I lived super close to the skate park so there was no reason for me to go anywhere else. Every day after school you get done with your homework, so it was just so close there’s nothing else to do. I like the desert – it’s alright – but that skatepark is something magical down there in Twentynine Palms.”
That skatepark is going to be host to the event. It’s backed by the Twentynine Palms Parks and Recreation Department. They provided prizes, promotion, and insurance for the event – which takes place on the longest day of the year and starts at 6PM to keep things cool. Paul runs down what he has planned for the day:
Paul: “I like to keep some things secret, that way everybody has a fair chance. Everybody knows that I’m going to do a game of SKATE which is basically like a game of HORSE but with a skateboard: I do a trick you have to repeat it and if you don’t you get a letter.
Then there’s also a skateboarding race and that is no rules just as fast as you can – just get to the finish line and that’s very fun and exciting to do. We’re also going to be doing a best trick for flat ground which is very interesting I think.”
I think so, too. When I first showed up, Paul was on the halfpipe, doing tricks that I have only imagined doing – with the kind of confidence you think you are going to have when you are sitting in your living room playing Tony Hawk – but out on the skatepark it can be intimidating, especially to me, who only only gets vertical when my board flies out from under me during a friendly hills wipeout.
Paul’s hosting the free event – and it is open to everybody. It’s put on by him and his friend Aaron, along with a lot of other people who just come out to compete, help or just watch.
Paul: “Last year we had 20 participants, and I think over 100 people showed up just as viewers and that was really that was really exciting to see. Over a hundred people came out to see us skateboarding… amazing. Because it doesn’t matter what you look like, what you’re wearing, as long as you got a board under your feet you have a community of people that are going to be there with you…”
I had brought my skateboard out to the interview but really hadn’t expected to use it. Most of my time learning to skateboard has been alone or with a friend – never with a stranger. Nevertheless I skated with Paul a bit. We stood and talked some more on top of a small quarter pipe, and I placed my board on the edge of it. It probably wasn’t any taller than two feet but I may as well have been dropping in on the hoover dam. I thought about quitting while I’m ahead, and just carrying my skateboard down the pipe and back to the car but Paul steps in and gives me a few tips that gave me the confidence I needed.
Paul: “Just bend your knees and lean forward a TINY bit.. put your weight forward… You did it! First try dude!”
I feel alive, the sun is warm and the wind is blowing and I have a board under my feet.
You, too, can experience this feeling at Aaron and Paul’s Go Skate Event taking place this Wednesday, June 21st at the Luckie Park skatepark in 29 Palms.