What Josiah Gatlyn said... (In case you haven't seen it yet) Thanks for the kind words guys, I really appreciate it. Long story short, skateboarding never paid the bills or seemed like it was ever going in a direction where I could make enough money to invest in the next step of my life. Skateboarding doesn't last forever, and if you wait too long to enter the real world outside of skateboarding, your life is going to be pretty fucked later on. I’ve seen it happen over and over and over again. Where dudes are riding the wave for years and years, traveling all over, partying, skating and having a good time, and then when it’s all over they are barely making ends meet and have no back-up plan for what they are going to do. It’s a really rough situation. The average career only lasts around 5-10 years tops, and I’m pretty sure there’s only been about 10-20 professionals (at the very most, I feel like there are way less) out of thousands who have even gotten close to making enough money that they wouldn’t have to worry about a getting a career job after their career was over. I have no idea why people assume that professional skateboarders make so much money. That’s absolutely not true. Basically, every pro will eventually be spit out into the real world. That process only gets harder and harder the older you get. From age 20 - 25 are the most important years of your entire life and regardless if you’re a skateboarder or not, if you do not figure out what career path you’re going to take, you’re going to struggle pretty hard. I had a girlfriend that I wanted to marry throughout the short lived, 5 year skateboarding “career” that I had, so she was always in the back of my mind. So in order to invest in a solid future for us both, I felt like I needed to start investing in my backup plan as young as I possibly could. At one point of my career, around 3 years ago I think, I was homeless living out of my truck in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Costa Mesa. That’s when I decided to throw in the towel on pursing a skateboarding career and start investing all of my time in my design / animation career. I’m 24 years old now and my girlfriend and I got engaged last year. At first the transition from skateboarding to my career now was fucking scary as shit, but I do think I made the best possible decision I could have ever made. Life has been pretty amazing for us so far. I’m a full time Designer / Animator now and my fiancé is a UI/UX Designer. I’m very grateful for the opportunities that I’ve been given. I grew up poor. My parents worked minimum wage jobs their entire lives in order to raise me and my brother. Last year I bought my dad a car and it was the best feeling ever to be able to re-pay him for how hard he worked to feed my dumbass when I was a kid. I guess the moral of this story is: Don’t listen to the idiots who tell you that skateboarding is more important than an education. I’m not talking about college. I’m talking about the life education that can’t be learned in a classroom. The education of going out, getting your ass handed to you and trying to problem solve through it all as quick as possible. Skateboarding is the most amazing thing on the planet, but it was originally invented for one purpose: To have fun.
exactly! it's meant to be a hobby for self-expression. Only about 2 or 3 percent of the people in skateboarding live comfortably off of it. Work hard and provide for yourself and whomever you have to and then shred later. I love to skate late at night at the skatepark when no one else is there, helps with my depression and anxiety.
So much nostalgia, in my opinion 2009-10 was such an entertaining time for skateboarding. During this time skaters like Josiah Gatlyn, Cory Kennedy, and Shane O'neill really blew up. And for a good reason, each of them brought something fresh and new to the table and you could tell they truly loved to just skate and have fun. Thanks for the memories.
So sad that such a talent is gone now. Really makes you think about how much growing up sucks. He truly deserved to be one of the top pros and to make a living off of skateboarding. Makes me miss the good old days of skateboarding and want to stay young forever...
I mean he did it for the better. He still skates just not a career level. He loves skateboarding but he just prefers to make money his own way, doing his own thing, he probably makes him more happy. I dont think he ever had intention to go pro or anything, he said that he had interest in design since a little kid. so instead of skating as a career he just does it for fun and has a better career now.
He knew skatebaording wasnt going to provide enough money, he actually made a good decision to focus on his passion of animation and design and chase a long term career.
Sometimes it’s not the innovative craziness of the spots or tricks that are shown in a skate part. For me I enjoy the emotion, the style and the feeling to want to get out there and have fun. This part has it all. Much love Josiah you deserved the world for this one.
Josiah Gatlyn is a perfect example to show that you have to be lucky to become a professional skateboarder. I mean c'mon, LOOK AT THIS SHIT MAN. His bag of tricks is pro level, and I have no idea why he never turned pro. It's a real shame that he had to quit because it wasn't paying the bills. He had to though. I've looked up where he is now and he seems happy, which is awesome! The point that I'm trying to make is that skateboarding is a hobby, and that there is a very small chance that you would ever make a living off of it.
i discovered this part in 2010 when i moved to Nigeria for 3 years. This was one of the parts that i had saved on the computer that my brother and i shared and it always inspired me to keep skating. Its a bitter sweet relief to know that Josiah didn't just disappear but he truly faced reality and still left such a good mark in the scene. Still came back to watch it in 2016.
Still one of my favorite skaters till this day. I remember being at Tampa and he Frontside flipped the pyramid to flat. Much love to Josiah wherever he is in life! ✌🏼
Yeah, the fact that On Melancholy Hill played right after the intro of sad music didn't help. The skating is so fucking good, but it's so heartbreaking to watch this. 😢😂
I listened to “on melancholy hill” on someone’s story and had to Shazam it I was rushed with a wave of euphoria and couldn’t help but remember that someone really good skated to this song and i was stuck for a min I kept thinking what’s his name and what’s his name and Caleb cross came to mind and I knew that wasn’t it I sat there for a min as I looked down the list of suggestions and I remember the guy I was looking for did a trick tip for ride channel back in the day so I typed in bigspin truck tip ride channel and it popped up MISS WATCHING YOU SKATE JOSIAH YOU WERE MY BIGGEST INFLUENCE AT SOME POINT AND I HEARD A BIT ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED IDK THE SPECIFICS BUT I HOPE YOU DIDNT LET IT STOP YOU FROM ACTUALLY ENJOYING IT I HOPE YOURE DOING WELL AND ENJOY YOUR TIME AND LIFE BIG MISSIN AND LOVE❤
Josiah, if you're still out there, I just sent my friend this video and emphasized how much of an inspiration you are and how influential the top comment is. We're trying to get bsck "into" skating, (aka make our mark). You and I used to be friends on Facebook (not sure if we still are) and you were a legend, thanks for being an inspiration.
came back here in 2021. I feel like this part always brung the best out of me and i just want to say thank you truly. anybody reading this , YOUR DREAMS ARE STILL POSSIBLE. YOU CAN DO IT. KEEP PUSHING. godspeed fam. nothings over unilt we're underground.
Cant beleive this showed up in my reccomended. Me and my buddy used to smoke lots a weed back then after a long day skating , we came across a part that blew out minds. It was just unbleivable. We tried to recall that part we watched like a week later and just couldnt remember. To this day it alwsy bugged me that i couldnt remember this part. This brings back so many memories. My buddy has since passed and things are much different now. Not to be depressing but things like this weirdly provide a bit of closure. RIP daniel
you know this feeling when you watch one single part, and immediately after that you jump on your board and try a billion tricks in 30 seconds, thats pure hype... and this part delivers it on a golden plate
Finally someone uses a song that i love and edits with it perfectly. Great skater, great song, great editing, my favorite video right now. Thank you for this pleasant experience. :)
Truly still one of my favorite parts and Josiah definitely was one of the gnarliest skaters out there, too bad they slept on him. I guess that's life but I'm glad he moved on and found something else he loves doing! I come back here everyone once in a while, even though I barely skate anymore it's still so good to watch.
Josiah's one of the most underrated skaters out there in my opinion. he's been around in the public eye for a while, can get really tech, can go really big, has plenty of style. And to back that all up, he works hard and puts passion into everything he does(i.e. him running usko and supporting it so well). I'm surprised he isn't president, let alone am for a company and getting money to support everything he does.
These guys really are doing a fucking solid job with the video editing and making the flow of the part. Not a lot of people realize how much time and energy actually goes into making these parts for us to watch. A massive massive ups to everybody doing their thing. The skating was phenomenal in this part, stay up man!
Josiah Gatlyn + RVCA = Amazing!!! pretty much saying one of the best skaters repping my favorite brand is just awesome. Josiah keep it up i wanna see more videos up of your skating!
How has no company given this guy a shot yet.This part was great,plenty of tech,steezy catches,plenty of style,big stair sets,big street gaps,rails and ledges.This a pro quality part.
Josiah is the fucking GOAT! If hes skating or not we all have to grow up sometime im glad hes doing great now & if you ever need some hype his videos will always be here!
