The Answer Is Never - by Jocko Weyland (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

A high-spirited, free-wheeling look at the world of skateboarding-and the story of skating's emergence from the California surfer scene of the 1960s to its central place in today's global alternative sports culture

From the hard-ridden half-pipe of a suburban driveway to teens doing boardslides down stairway handrails in Rio de Janeiro, from the bright-light glare of ESPN's X-Games to the groundbreaking street-skating videos of Spike Jonze, skateboarding has taken the world by storm-and if you can't deal with that, get out of the way. In The Answer Is Never, skating journalist Jocko Weyland tells the rambunctious story of a rebellious sport that began as a wintertime surfing substitute on the streets of Southern California beach towns more than forty years ago and has evolved over the decades to become a fixture of urban youth culture around the world.

Merging the historical development of the sport with passages about his own skating adventures in such wide-ranging places as Hawaii, Germany, and Cameroon, Weyland gives a fully realized portrait of a subculture whose love of free-flowing creativity and a distinctive antiauthoritarian worldview has inspired major trends in fashion, music, art, and film. Along the way, Weyland interweaves the stories of skating pioneers like Gregg Weaver and the Dogtown Z-Boys and living legends like Steve Caballero and Tony Hawk. He also charts the course of innovations in deck, truck, and wheel design to show how the changing boards changed the sport itself, enabling new tricks as skaters moved from the freestyle techniques that dominated the early days to the extreme street-skating style of today.

Vivid and vibrant, The Answer Is Never is a fascinating book as radical and unique as the sport it chronicles.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Answer is Never

"Sharp and winning. . . . [Weyland] is at his best when he writes about what skating gave him as a kid--what it's like to awaken to a sense of possibility, and to realize that what you've grown up with is not what you're stuck with." --The New Yorke

"Well-documented and written lucidly. . . . Jocko does well to contextualize his history of skating within larger movements at the time. . . . Compelling. . . . [The Answer is Never] is so much better than so many others that try to cash in on skateboarding's popularity." --Wez Lundry, Thrasher Magazine

"A well-researched historical document, and the autobiographical memoirs of a keen observer and participant in skateboarding culture as it has evolved over the past 30 years. . . . Weyland [gives] readers some basis to understand how the sport is beautiful, challenging, and worthy of respect." --Joshua Nims, Creative Loafing

"The Answer is Never will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about skateboarding, but that might help parents, educators and critics of such alternative sports . . . to understand why, for many young people, baseball no longer is America's favorite game." --Terry Tomalin, St. Petersburg Times

"A curb-grinding, punk-rocking, no-bullshit-taking, balls-out shut-up-and-skate life history. . . . A rare work, overflowing with author Jocko Weyland's passion for the lifestyle, music, and philosophy of skateboarding. . . . Written by that kid, who is sill, to this day, floored by the narcotic feeling of freedom imparted by a four-wheeled board." --Mike Campbell, Willamette Weekly

"Weyland's spirited personal story of twenty years of 'life lived differently' should strike a chord with anyone who has ever felt outside the norm." --Aimee Bianca, Black Book

"For Weyland, skateboarding is an art--rather than a mere sport." --Flyer

"What makes it great is the personal story. It's a book about how a kid discovers skating, and punk, in a small town." --Ocean Howell, Slap Magazine

"As much an autobiography as it is an Odyssey on urethane and seven-ply maple, Jocko Weyland's love letter to skateboarding is the first (and best) book to have gotten its head around skating's impact on music and culture, and vice versa." --Alternative Press

"In prose that hints of Kerouac. . . . The Answer is Never could easily be recognized as the bible of skateboarding. . . . There were times when I couldn't put Weyland's book down." --Bianca Phillips, Memphis Flyer

"As intoxicating as it is mesmerizing. . . . Weyland's honesty, wit and intelligence bind together to create a thick, emotional, soul-filled soup. . . . A work of monumental significance." --Michael Brooke, Concrete Wave

"Here in one volume is the development of the boards, slang, an explanation of the skating lifestyle, the evolution of stunts, and publications promoting the sport." --Rollie Welch, VOYA

"The real strength of this book comes from the personal experiences he skillfully drops in the mix. . . . Weyland has written what amounts to a love letter to skateboarding and its culture. . . . A rallying cry to true skate punks everywhere." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Jocko Weyland is a contributing editor to Open City, and his writing has also appeared in magazines including Thrasher and Metropolis, and the website mr.bellersneighborhood. He is also an acclaimed photographer whose work has appeared in galleries internationally.