It's funny because you mentioned Steve Caballero, and I've been cutting up Caballero all day. He repeatedly refers to how good a person Tim was, and holds him as a model for other skateboarders… pretty much echoing exactly what you said.

If you want to talk more, you can hit me up at jeremey (at) jadedmultimedia.com. What company did you work for?

However, the author's very first claim – that nobody's stood up and addressed what's wrong with skateboarding – is patently false: as far as I know, the first book dedicated to addressing what's wrong with skateboarding was a book we published in 2003 titled "Manifesto: Read About Skateboarding."

Also, Davidson laments that nobody in skateboarding has the gall to speak of the audacity of being a good man; that, too, is also false. Think of Steve Caballero as just one of many obvious examples of skateboarders who express higher ideas than the day-to-day grind (no pun intended).

So, while Davidson may have a valid premise from which he's launched his book, I think he's also overlooked a few things and given short thrift to other skaters with similar thoughts who came before him. Either way, thanks for covering this. I had no idea this book even existed.

You said, "To put it another way, the strength of skate culture is that it has existed mostly outside of the mainstream."

That's it, right there.

You said, "A couple of years ago when I was working for a hip international media company, I found myself producing content about skateboarding. My philosophy for that content was firmly rooted in telling what I believed to be the true story of skateboarding. A story that was dirty, DIY, and underground, but also community centered and creative. I tried my best to pick subjects that illustrated those themes. Because of that, I sometimes found myself arguing with higher ups who were more interested in broadcasting a cartoonish image of skateboarding that involved lots of televised competitions and SoCal caricatures. At best I found that image hilarious… and I never slanted that way when I was in control of the final product."

I completely relate to that, and had the same experience as a screenwriter with a skate-based television series produced by NBC in 2001. I had to fight hard just to get basic vernacular right.