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I witnessed him skate in person a couple of times and it’s fucking criminal that he isn’t mentioned as one of the best skaters out there. Also it’s true about his personality, he’s very quiet and looks serious skating, but he really is a good dude
Checks out with what Walker Ryan mentioned in last podcast episode that Tom Asta would be unusually chill when battling a trick and never freaks out
That's actually kinda creepy. Battleing a trick for hours and just shrugging it off.
It can be embarrasing for sure, but I scream a lot when I skate.
I think thats probably a sign that he has control over his emotions, which is a sign of intellect, imo.
Every new scream only deeper anchors one into the mindset that they probably really can't do whatever it is they're trying, too. It's not just an outburst and outlet, it's also self-imposed sensorial stimulus that resonates and conditions you to the present situation, the miss, and encourages you to repeat it over and over. That's actually contagious, too and why people who throw tantrums can really ruin the vibe on a group session.
There's this one older friend of mine who asked me to help with filming a few clips of him last year, dude takes every missed trick attempt personally and bases his entire self-worth on how well he's skating that day and yadda yadda, you see the type. Because of his midlife crisis and constant tantrums he will ruin someone's day though, so I told him I'd film but only if he never freaked out and stayed focused, otherwise I'd just walk up and leave. Honestly I thought he would never manage and fail as soon as day one, but he actually pulled it off and did pretty well until he was done with his thing after maybe a couple of weeks, although needing some coaching at times. But the whole time his consistency actually skyrocketed, and he instantly started really surprising himself with how little he now had to battle for his clips. Basically trying to make him realize how one really is in control until they let themselves be distracted (including by themselves). What's pretty cool is since he ties his skating to his self-worth so much like I was saying, I feel like what really was such humble experience and perspective allowed him to extinguish a lot of existential anguish, as a person he's been a lot more chill to everyone ever since.
Am halfway through the doc, Tom seems like a genuinely nice person with some pretty fantastic parents. There's something special and cool about seeing really just about anyone on the spots they grew up learning how to skate, too.