The Best Trick Skateboard

THE BEST TRICK SKATEBOARD competition at the 2003 Gravity Games looked more like a Saturday afternoon at a crowded skate park than a battle between top riders. Twenty competitors tried hitting their biggest tricks on two different sections of the street course in Cleveland, Ohio, as seven judges took in the whole chaotic scene.

The first part had competitors fighting for space on numerous rails and transfers. After 20 minutes of grinds, kickflips, and gnarly crashes, riders spent another 20 minutes trying to impress the judges on two miniramps, a quarterpipe, a cutout wall, and a flat rail on top of a backwall box. Needless to say, riders took it up a notch with their creativity and technical skills in the second part of the competition.

Brazil’s Daniel Vieira appeared to have a lock on first by knocking out a switch frontside flip, switch hardflip, and a backside nollie heelflip. Then he pulled a 360 flip drop off the center gap. But late entry Chris Haslam, who didn’t skate in the street finals, brought out a frontside boardslide to kickflip that stunned the crowd. He also ripped off a 360 varial flip over the center gap and a frontside 270 heelflip, which left little doubt in anybody’s mind about who was going home with the gold.

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POINT The skateboarders in the best trick competition obviously wanted to take first place. But with 20 guys going at the same time, they couldn’t concentrate on each other. Every rider had to personally challenge himself to yank out his biggest trick in the midst of the pressure. If a skateboarder started comparing himself to his competition, he’d only waste precious time and miss out on an opportunity to wow the judges.

As Christians, God wants us to do the same thing—focus on our own actions. If we start comparing ourselves to others, two things may happen:

No. 1: We’ll see people not living for God and start feeling high and mighty.

No. 2: We’ll see others walking more closely with Jesus and begin feeling like a failure.

God doesn’t want either of those things to happen. He desires that we focus on our own relationship with him.

GOAL! Do you ever think, I’m doing a better job living for God than that person? It’s okay to admit it. Ask God to help you focus on him and his will for your life instead of comparing yourself to others.