What was supposed to be a virus in China only, became quickly global in a few months. If it’s not the case yet in your city, there is a lot of chance that a quarantine will start very soon for you. As Skateboarders we love to be outside, explore the city, skate spots with friends, or making new friends. Which Skaters will have to adapt for a sanity sake.
Here at Love, we’re gonna give you some tips to help you out during your quarantine, and stay mentally healthy and productive till the better days come.
First and foremost, a lot of skaters will be in a sketchy spot, monetary speaking. Skate shops owners, employees, local artists, filmers and photographers, who are already barely surviving from the industry. They will have a hard time making money. If you can, It’s very important to support them as much as possible, they are the blood of the industry. Buy some art, a T Shirt or Gift cards from them, that will help a lot to make it through. To sum it, help your bros and sisters.
Early spring cleaning
Let’s be clear, being in Quarantine means you will have a lot of free time for yourself, all that time you were skating and working, will be spent in your apartment losing your mind quickly. Playing video games and smoking weed might be fun the first couple of days, but after a week not sure how you’re gonna handle it. The first good thing to do, to start that forced holiday would be a good moment to start to clean your house.
We all have some used extra boards, shoes or clothing that you can sell for cheap to youngsters and people in need, or give it away to organisations who will take it and send it to less fortunate countries. For the Sneakers maniacs, It’s a good time to clean you old pairs of shoes too.
– How to clean your shoes
– Donate your gear in Canada
– Donate your gear in USA
– Donate your old skate mags
Skate History
For the oldest ones, and the ones who are living in a skatehouse, there is a lot of chance that you will have some skate mags, skate dvd to read and watch. It’s the best time to (re)watch your classics. You can also keep growing your skate culture with Memory Screen youtube, and listening to the skate podcast, read some old Thrasher scans. You can also order plenty of books about skateboarding online.
– Memory Screen
– Skate Video Vault
– Sk8 Archives
– Skate Video Collective
– Golden Era
– The best Skateboarding Podcasts
– Thrasher Mag Scans
– Online Skate mags
– Order Old Skate mags (special Quarantine package)
– BobShirt
– Chromeball Incident
– FTC Book
– ’93 TIL
Stay Creative
Skateboarders are known to be genuine creatives, with all that free time you can start to learn how to play guitar, drawing or painting and writing. Staying focused on something, will help a lot to keep your own mental sanity. There are a zillions of podcasts and websites to learn whatever, photography, editing, cooking. Name it, its on Google and Youtube.
– Photoshop 101
– How to shoot pictures with a flash
– How to play an music instrument
– Free Music Ressources
– How to be a Writer
– How to be Painter
– Free Ressources and Tips for Drawing & Painting
– Video Editing Tutorial
– How to Screen Printing
Keep that body in shape
The hardest part of being at home, will be the lack of physical activity. You can keep exercise at home for cheap, you just need a floor, push ups and stretching for 30 min per day will give enough adrenaline to pass it through.
You can also buy online some jumping rope or elastics, it’s very cheap and very efficients for cardio and muscles. Here again Youtube has a multitude of tutorials about it.
– Leg workout for Skateboarders
– Simple exercices for Skateboarders Part1 and Part2
– More exercices for Skateboarders
– Cheap place to gear up
You don’t have it, build it
For the lucky ones who have enough space at home, you can also start building some stuff. Former Chocolate pro Anthony Pappalardo, used to build some stool to balance his pro career. You can reshape some old boards or wheels, build a curb or quarter pipe that could fit the garage. If you have the right tools, you can also make sculpture with old boards. Or just fix what your partner asked you to do for months now…
– Build a Skateboard
– Build Skate obstacles
– Build a Miniramp
– Build a Miniramp (with Billy Rohan)
Cultivate yourself
For the nerds, it will mean, finally, having time to read that book you’ve never finished, watching all that playlist you saved on netflix, or listening to countless musical playlists going from classics to new stuff. You can also play Session and discover all the history challenges hidden on the map or get busy with a 2000 pieces puzzle.
– Skate Books list to Read
– Books Skateboarding related (means not much pictures)
– Movie about Skateboarding to watch
– More Skate Movies & Docs
– All Historical Challenge in Session
– Skate jigsaw Puzzle
Showcase your art
The main thing that creative people need is: time. And guess what, you have it now! It’s a very good time to update your online portfolio, and even start to build that website you’ve promised yourself a couple years ago. Why not start a zine with all these pictures you’ve taken about your friends. Or even starting an online class, to teach your skills to the newbies and make a buck while you’re there.
– How to make a website
– Create an online Portfolio
– Create your Zine
– How to Teach online
– Art of Isolation
Stay connected
Yeah, you need to be isolated for your own sake, but it doesn’t mean you can’t communicate with the other. In 2020 you have too much tools to keep talking with your bro and family. Communication is the key, especially when you are alone, and not feel good, stay in touch, talk about it, don’t stay aside.
You can also lurk on the net to make some new friends from Instagram or on the SLAP forum, if you are diving between the regular skate talk shit, you can make some great contact. And maybe plan a future road trip somewhere or starting an E-Band on Facetime.
– Create a Band online
– Zoom for online conferences
– Twitch for Gaming and podcast
– Slap MessageBoards
– Skulls & Bones MessageBoards
– IG (Yeah we know you know)
– Skype
– WhatsApp
– Mental Health/Suicide/Help lines (Canada)
– Mental Health/Suicide/Help lines (Worldwide)
Recommendations to keep skating outside
Depending on where you are and what are the rules of the quarantine your government established. You may still be able to skate outside. If you do so, stay away from 6 feet to everyone, go for solo sesh only rather than call the crew. Don’t go skate for the entire day, but go for a quick hour sesh to keep these legs up. Don’t call your friends to chill at your home. Don’t share your weed as well. Avoid skateparks and popular spots. Avoid skating ledges, rails or gaps. Flatground only sesh are recommended.
The virus can travel surface to surface, and can be dangerous dependly how much the surface is infected. Means, touching your board with your hand, who will slide and grind any kind of surface infected, can potentially infect your board too , that you will carry with your hands. One of the many ways to contract the disease is by inhaling the virus by the mouth, the nose,and eyes included. We all know how it’s hard to not touch our own face during a skate day.
Quick facts from the Covid-19 :
- The covid-19 or SARS Cov-2 is the disease from the new virus called “Coronavirus”, is a from the family of viruses from the 60s who has muted to the actual form, that countries from all over the globe are trying to fight now. To this day there is no vaccine or cure available.
- Despite the media calling it a flu, it’s not a regular flu, it’s a virus that you can die of, who has the flu like symptoms. Big difference.
- Most of the people who are bringing the virus to your countries, are the travellers, if you are or someone of your surrounding have travelled since january 2020, they could have contracted the virus, while travelling, or just being close to people infected who travelled. Like an airport. You don’t necessarily need to travel in China or Italy to be infected. People who are traveling from an infected city to another other city, inside a country are also a high risk of contamination.
- The virus is dying after 72h on plastic, 48h on stainless steel, 24h on cardboard and 4h on copper.
- You can have the virus without having any symptoms.
- It can takes 5 to 14 days before having the first symptoms
- You can’t compare the Covid-19 to any other mass killer. For the simple reason the other viruses have stopped and we don’t know the final count of deaths yet.
It’s been only 4 month that the Covid-19 started and we still don’t know how many months or years it could run, and still could kill. China, the first country infected, is the only country who has reached the peak of the disease and took 3 month to get rid of it, with a lot of very strict rules of isolation and high tech method to track infected people. - Being young doesn’t mean you can’t have it. Everyone can have it and potentially die from it. You need to be extremely precocious if you, or someone of your surroundings is smoking, had some lung issues, Hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, cerebral infarction, chronic bronchitis or parkinson disease.
- Most of the official number of cases given by your local health aren’t the real ones. There are not enough resources to test globally, meaning only people with the symptoms will be tested. But you can have the virus and no symptoms, means no test for you. Most countries count the deads who are only dead in hospital from the virus. It means the official numbers are lower than in the reality.
- It takes at least 5 years to create a vaccin, The authorities are saying that will make it happen in 18 month.
- You can spread the virus by touching any kind of surface or other people or animals. It also spreads by your saliva and the small drop you have in your mouth while talking, sneezing or while a physical activity.
- Even if there is no vaccine, most people can heal naturally of it, by developing antibodies. but it doesn’t mean you can’t have it again.
- The best way to this day to not contract the Covid-19 is to stay at home, avoid as much as possible to go out, wash your hands with soap for 30 sec, the 2 sides of the hands, between fingers to the wrists, under the nails, sides of the hands.
(Facts compiled the 30th April 2020. Knowledges from that virus is evolutive, and can change some facts in the future.)
Source :
Canada public Health
Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS Covid-2
Map of infected, death
Johns Hopkins University & Medecine
AFP
Institut Pasteur
World Health Organization
Covidgraph
Be safe in the streets just go out if its needed, you can buy online the rest or ask someone to get it for you, don’t be fool and thinking you are invicible, everybody possibly can get sick and die of it, even you, and especially your old people. Don’t be selfish and stay home. Keep yourself aware from the evolution of the situation. Don’t believe your uncle or mama jo on Facebook. Get the real facts from the health authority.
If you have recently travelled anywhere, please stay home, isolate yourself for at least 14 days, and if you have symptoms call your local service to have help. Don’t go to the hospital. Stay Home.
Illustration By Olivier Patenaude
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