Right, Down + Circle by Cole Nowicki
Publisher: ECW Press
Special thanks to ECW Press for sending a copy for review.
Summary:
An exuberant, incisive look at how Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater transformed a culture Going from a hobby toy for surfers to an Olympic sport, skateboarding has had a tumultuous history. Today, professional skateboarders land endorsement deals with Nike and Adidas, while popular television series like HBO’s Betty tell the stories of diverse crews of skaters living in New York City. So how did a fledgling subculture rise from its near-death knell in the ’90s to become ubiquitous today? It was simply a matter of finding the right messenger. In 1999, the bestselling video game Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was released, and a new generation was exposed to skateboarding culture right in their very own homes. Kids and adults alike could now spend hours playing as actual skateboarders, learning the vernacular, listening to the music skateboarders loved, and having fun onscreen before trying to skate IRL in the driveway. Right, Down + Circle explores how a video game starring the most famous pro skater in the world brought skateboarding culture ― and its ever-shifting markers of music, subversion, and coolness ― to the masses and ultimately transformed the culture it borrowed from in the process (Goodreads).
Thoughts:
Nowicki’s latest memoir shares the history of skating boarding. It’s based on the important role Tony Hawk played in the success and popularity of skateboarding today and how he helped inspire new generations of skaters including Nowicki himself.
For some backstory, in the 1999 X games, Tony Hawk did the unthinkable by being the first person to land the 900 (a skateboarding trick). This event acted as a catalyst that not only helped restart his skateboarding career but also prevented skateboarding from dying out. While this event significantly contributed to his success in professional skateboarding, the reason so many people knew of Tony Hawk throughout the years was because of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game that was released in 1999.
Many individuals, including Nowicki himself, grew up playing this game. This was the first video game to depict skateboarding. It allowed players to choose from 10 characters, including one female and one person of colour, all of whom were based on real life professional skateboarders. Despite its limitations, the diversity in these characters helped get more women and BIPOC people involved with this sport by normalizing skateboarding as something anyone can try. The video game also helped get rid of the negative stereotypes affiliated with this sport; for example, the false belief that all skateboarders were troublemakers.
The author does a great job of exploring the history of skateboarding and the different maneuvers in simple and easy to understand manner–especially for people who have never skated a day in their lives like myself–while also entwining how playing these video games helped shape who he is today. The change in narrative between the two plots is done in such a swift way that you don’t even realize it; it just happens. There is no bump or hiccups between the two plotlines. I also liked that the author included definitions of the terms and events at the bottom of the page where the new lingo is introduced; this helped me better understand what the author was trying to share.
For the most part, the author does a good job of relaying and explaining the events of skateboarding; however, in some parts of the novel, there are transitions between events and people that I found confusing. For example, at one point the author was explaining something about a specific skater from one of the Tony Hawk video games, and the next paragraph is about the skater’s history. In these parts of the novel, I feel like the author was trying to share too much information in a concise manner, and it was hard to fully comprehend without proper transitions between topics.
In general, I had a great time reading this book. It’s a quick read that explains the history of skateboarding in an easy to understand way. Prior to reading this novel, I had only heard about Tony Hawk and his success in skateboarding; I didn’t realize the magnitude of impact he truly made in this sport.
Reviewed by Shreya S.