Sk8 to Live
Talking with Craig Nejedly, founder of The Satori Movement

"SKATEBOARDING IS NOT A CRIME." Over the past twenty-something years, chances are you've seen young skate-rats in your town rocking that message on their tee-shirts, decks, and bumpers. And while skating is in fact legal in most places, its outlaw status remains. Skating is the domain of criminals, or at least good-fer-nuthin punks. Right?

Not really. Skating might always be inextricably linked to punk rock (as the music-bed for the heavily marketed Tony Hawk's American Wasteland game only reaffirms), but so what? Punk's not a crime either, and plenty of stand-up people have come out of it. Fact is, skating is now mainstream, for better or worse. The documentary film Dogtown and Z-Boyz broke its artfulness down for your parents, and a couple of publications (BAIL, and Skatedork, two fine but now-defunct little publications) have addressed those who of us who have grown up and graduated to longboards -- and raising families.

So skating is not a crime. But can it be something more than just skating? Craig Nejedly thinks so, and he's put his money where his mouth is with the founding of several skate-culture companies, including Creation Skateboards, and The Satori Movement. The very model of the conscious entrepreneur, Craig runs his business with something much bigger than money, or even mere skating, in mind. Here's the Satori Movement's mission statement, from their website:

Craig was kind enough to take some time and talk to The Worst Horse about just what that means, why it's important, and why it works.

TWH: What was it about the concept of satori that clicked with you enough to name your company after it?

CN: I learned of satori from a book that a friend passed along to me, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, by Dan Millman. In the book, the author relates the state of satori in his experiences from gymnastics and how doing his sport brought him to higher states of being but without necessarily trying to go there -- [it] just happened. This experience summed up my whole experience with riding a skateboard, which I had been doing for over 15 years at that time. It just was just a great new perspective for me as I was also investigating my spirituality very much at that time, being about 20 years old then.

The company getting named Satori happened in the essence of the meaning of satori. My friend called me with the idea to start a company and I was like, "Yeah, lets do this. I have the perfect name: lets' call it Satori!"  Happened just like that -- we never even had to think about it. It just happened perfectly.
 

Do you or anyone in the staff/team have any experience with Buddhism, or meditation (in terms of traditional seated meditation)?

Well, I can not speak for others but I would say a good amount of our staff have a spiritual basis in their life, although they may not claim that they are traditional Buddhists. I would practice some meditation and sit in on meditation classes but I have strayed a bit from that regular practice and just try to find a degree of meditation in everything I do being overwhelming busy -- but I try. Stepping out and meditating is always so refreshing and allows me to come back into my work with more energy to handle what needs to be done, which is always more and more.

You (as well as many other skaters and other athletes) speak of the sport as a form of meditation. Can you talk about that? How would you describe the "new way" to explore life that skating and other forms of meditation offer?

Skating is like meditation because you learn about your self and your physical/mental abilities by practicing. Skateboarding helps me realize if I am holding tension in a certain part of my body. It's like a yardstick of health in a sense, keeping you in check 'cause you need to be in shape to ride a skateboard.  Because skateboarding is not easy, it takes a degree of focus to ride but after so many years of skating, the focus becomes a flow with less thought and more feeling/sensation. I think this  helps to explore life with a sense of wholeness as to how what you eat and what you think and  everything else affects your ability to do the things you want to do. These practices/sports help broaden awareness, and especially skateboarding; it brings you into the city and on the streets so you get more exposed to street life and other cultures and ways of life, and as you learn more about yourself thru the actions of others, you also gain more understanding of others. Skateboarders in general tend to travel and seek out spots in all corners so cultural awareness tends to be more prevalent among the skate community.

The company statement goes on to say that you are "producing the highest quality products which reflect our cultural and environmental awareness." I wonder if you could you speak to that?

The awareness is that the world and environment were not created just for humans and our conveniences. We as humans need to be aware of all life and the interconnectedness of all things from plants and animals to our fellow humans. The environmental awareness is in the products we make. We're trying to use fibers that are organic (and also lots of hemp), which use much less chemicals in the production of garments. Then of course, the graphics and imagery are progressive-minded. We also make wheels. These are not good for the earth at all but we are able to funnel a positive message thru the [design of the] wheels and we will always try to find a way to make the skateboard wheel more of a renewable product. We have to balance our ideals with being able to do something feasible within the system of our industrial society, so there is often some degree of compromise inherent to accomplishing just about anything involving others.

Does The Satori Movement get attention and loyalty from skaters and other customers because of the company's awareness and concerns? 

For sure. We are the 4th biggest skate-wheel company in the USA, out of over 40+ other companies. Honestly, young kids are very influential and because we have excellent professional riders that really live up to the image of the company, kids follow their heroes and tend to gain interest in what their heroes are into. So, since we have pros that eat organic food, do art and meditate, the kids gain interest in these things and that is so great -- we put forth positivity, so how could that not go over well with kids? It just feels good to be around positivity.

It seems like your graphic designs are influenced by Asian or Buddhist imagery, and even more so by Jamaican/Rastafari imagery. Do you perceive these to be at odds with each other, as Buddhists are often considered to be teetotallers, whereas Rastas are not? Or are they complimentary? 

I think all spiritual paths share many similarities in essence, and that  Buddhism and Rastafari compliment each other. All paths are to gain wholeness and all the principles of living upright and doing well are among the ideals of all spiritual paths. I read something by the Dalai Lama once that said something to the effect that one should choose a path of spiritual practice (no matter whether Christianity, Rasta, Buddhism, etc) and focus on that one path for clarity in direction and teaching, but that all paths are equal. It's just that some persons have different ways of arriving at the same destination. No path is more right or wrong than the others, but all have strengths and weakness per individual philosophies.

What's next for Satori Movement? (And will you ever make SM decks, or is that all in the realm of  your deck manufacturing  company, Creation Skateboards? I know I'd buy an SM longboard in a heartbeat!) 

The possibilities are many. I do not think we will make decks under the Satori name though. We started Creation Skateboards to handle the deck aspect of things and you can see more about that at the site. We have also formed High Grade Distribution; that will be an umbrella of collective progressive companies combined to bring a stronger offering to customers and people all over the world.

We are getting much more into our hemp clothing line also, and will soon be launching women's and children's lines in addition to expanding the men's line.

Thanks for talking, Craig.

Have a great day.


RESOURCES
http://www.satorimovement.com  
http://www.creationskateboards.com
http://www.highgradedistribution.com