Skateboardings appeal typically starts with disbelief.
Strangers love to stop skaters on the street to interrogate the ollie.
How does the board stay attached to your feet like that?
Michael Burnett
You sure there arent magnets in there somewhere?
Thirty-year-old pro skaterJimmy Wilkinsgets that kind of reaction from skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.
Hes unlocked some ancient secret of how to do ollies, Hawk says.
Jimmy figured out this way of scooping his board and keeping it on his feet.
Its refreshing, but its also confounding because … how?
Skateboarding is most notably a visual medium.
But up close, and most importantly, under your feet, the allure is equally sonic.
Skating is loud on purpose.
Style is the way you look on a board.
Wilkins flies higher, grinds longer, and grabs his board less.
His lanky body contorts in directions that dont make sense except in their apparent ease.
He makes skaters already accustomed to bending the laws of physics question just how far they really flex.
The things I want to do are grind long and go high, Wilkins says.
My process is basically just brute force.
Try it until youre exhausted enough to forget to bail.
Thats how Ive learned most things.
There will be no vert ramp in Paris.
In eras past, that debate was driven by vert.
What does [the future of vert] look like?
Watch the tricks hes learning.
Thats what its gonna look like.
The neighbors threw a party to celebrate.
Jimmy remembers the fireworks.
It was fucking terrible.
Always quiet and a bit of a loner, Jimmy struggled in conservative Columbus.
His only friends were local skaters in their 20s, and they only hung out at the park.
Fourteen-year-olds and 25-year-olds can be peers at the skatepark.
I was pretty fucked, socially.
On vert, the pads are mostly for bailing, not slamming.
That might sound contradictory, but the difference is commitment.
Slamming is to commit totally and fail.
It basically creates a lever for you to compound fracture your arm, Wilkins says.
Ive seen it plenty of times.
Wilkins has suffered a major injury every few years since he was 16.
Hawk hasnt brought the loop out of storage since.
He found escape on the ramp and happiness in progress.
Both of the ramps he grew up skating are now gone.
Jimmy moved from Columbus to the oceanside paradise of Encinitas, California, when he was 17.
Thats where the ramps are.
Jimmy chose Encinitas for the YMCA and the warehouses.
He didnt go to the beach until he was 26.
In vert, unlike street skating, contest wins are where the money is.
Id given up on being a pro skater, Wilkins says.
In one interview, Hawk recalls being handed a $4 million royalty check for video game sales alone.
The glamour was gone, but vert skaters never lost the itch.
North County San Diego is not like other places, and neither are their YMCAs.
Creature turned Wilkins pro in 2018.
Wilkins seven golds are one shy of Bucky Laseks record eight first-place X Games vert finishes.
X Games is vert skatings premier and for most of the late 2010s, its only pro contest.
The Olympic snub is largely due to participation numbers.
The bottom line was there werent enough vert facilities throughout the world, Hawk says.
Skateparks were the common ground because there were parks everywhere.
He isnt motivated by winning, and he doesnt particularly like contests.
Most of Wilkins close friends still work nine-to-five jobs between vert sessions.
But the things you remember about skating … its not who won.
When hes not injured, Willkins wakes up every day looking to skate.
Wilkins is eternally grateful for the consistency and quality of Hawks ramp, but moreso for Hawk himself.
Hes the perfect ambassador; it couldnt have been any better, Wilkins says.
Today, 25-year-old Shea Donavan meets Wilkins in the empty parking lot at Hawks compound.
The office clears out on weekends so Jimmy and Shea have the place to themselves.
He whistles to himself on the deck.
He whistles in the car and at home, too.
With Jimmy, he carries that same power, but hes also light.
He floats across it.
Wilkins left Creature and joined Real Skateboards in 2022.
Real, as the name suggests, is a cornerstone of the skater-owned industry.
The skating that makes him feel the best.
Jimmy is your favorite street skaters favorite vert skater, Hawk says.
Hes one of the few where his style alone will draw attention to what hes doing.
Social media has no doubt bolstered his career and visibility, but Wilkins isnt a fan of the scroll.
He could live alone, but he doesnt want to.
Chaz is a friend, and Jimmy is always down to help out his friends.
Hes more relaxed than ever.
Until he forgets to bail.
For years, it would have been unthinkable that skateboarding would be added as an Olympic event without vert.
