Hello. My name’s Tony Gale, and for my first article on here, I feel like I should explain something about myself. Some people might know me. Most, I imagine, won’t. But nonetheless, I’d like to explain the last five years of my life, and I hope both groups find something of interest in it.

See, once upon a time, I skateboarded a lot.

Actually, I skateboarded a hell of a lot. So much so, in fact, that it took over my adolescence completely; I didn’t have what some would perceive to be “normal” teenage years. Instead of going to my end-of-school prom, I was practicing competition runs, alone, in an empty car park. Instead of preparing for my exams, I was learning fingerflips in my school uniform in basketball courts. And while my friends were getting drunk, I was spinning a board into my shins repetitively. I imagine this story – or something very similar – would be commonplace amongst freestylers. And I guess it worked. I never set the world on fire, but for the first time in my life, I felt like I was pretty good at something.

Why did you choose Freestyle skateboarding? This is the question I get asked everytime another skateboarder watches me do a no handed truckstand or railflip to rail. In this article I am going to explain to everyone why I made the choice to skate the way they did in the beginning. Freestyle is another word for Flatland or Flatground. When you see Tony Hawk and Mike V, you only see what they’re famous for. But in truth, they too, were Freestyle Skateboarders and it evolved into what is now known as Street and Vert skateboarding. Individuals like them helped pave the foundation of what skateboarding is today.

But why did I choose to become a freestyler, a rare style of skateboarding that no one pays attention to?

Was it easier? No. Was it because I wanted to be the next Mullen? No.
Before I became a freestyler, I was a street skateboarder for about 5 years, I skated before school, after school, and after midnight. For that whole 5 years I did not miss one day of skateboarding. Minus injuries of course. All that time I did it for the fun and challenge. But, no matter what you skate for, you still want to explore your own bounderies and become a better skateboarder. After skateboarding so much, rarely taking a breaks, I was a bit better after 5 years of skating, then I was at 1, the only problem was, that I still didn’t feel I met my goals, after all that time I felt that a lack of progression was a sign that I shouldn’t skate. After meeting my wife I slowly stopped skateboarding, I did a bit of freestyle for only a month before I quit skateboarding. I was 17. When I turned 21 I started skateboarding again. My first week back I fractured my ankle trying things I used to do on high ledges. I was out for almost 3 months (Was totally out of shape)

On September 1, 2010 I made the the stupid decision to go down a giant ass hill (and i mean this thing was huge, every time i tell someone about my injury they call me an idiot for even thinking about bombing it, let alone on a longboard) and break my leg in two places. Surprisingly, the pain from the break wasn’t as bad as I imagined. Anyway, I was ambulanced to the hospital, x-rayed, morphine, all that jazz, and just stared at the ceiling for about six hours until I got my surgery.

On the ground waiting for the ambulance I thought about a lot of things. I had recently moved from the beaches of Jersey a town directly outside of New York City, one day later, SNAP, hit me like a freight train. My father, had been laid off two years prior to my moving after being the highest payer at his job (through years of working there). At the time, we were on (I believe) Charity Care and spent all of the money on our move. “How the fuck am I going to pay for this hospital bill”,”Will I be good for Philly?”, “Will I be able to even skate again…”. Worst feeling in the world not knowing what you have to go through before hitting the light at the end of the tunnel. Also very awkward! My girlfriend was supposed to visit me that same day from my old town! Sadly my leg contributed to the downfall of our relationship as well, for I couldn’t take the train down to my old town until two months later. What sucks even more, my former doctor, told me I’d be able to walk 8 weeks after the accident. It wasn’t until 3 months after until I could walk, and 5 or 6 until I could walk normally! Nothing was looking bright, new school, new town, broken leg, no money coming in, no skateboarding. I went insane.