Josh Black always has his skateboard with him. He started skating when he was six years old and is a Burnside skatepark local.
“In the 90s, it was locals only,” Josh said. “We were pretty rough to people back then.”
He chuckled and described chasing away rollerbladers.
“I’ve chilled out a lot in my 40s, but I still love to skate,” Josh said.
He’s proud of the skate park and the community they’ve built around it.
“The park’s thriving, looking better than ever,” Josh said. “Burnside’s brought so much to this city, really has.”
Josh, who’s been vending with Street Roots for seven years, sells the newspaper to fund skateboarding and his other hobbies, the newest of which is tattooing.
“I kind of do it (sell papers) mainly for small odds and ends, like ‘I need bearings, I’m gonna go sell some Street Roots,’” Josh said. “When before, it was paying for drug habits. It’s not paying for those anymore. It’s paying for toys, as you can see with my delivery of tattoo stuff.”
He’s already tattooed “Burnside” across his knuckles in honor of his favorite skate spot.
“When I stopped doing drugs, I started buying toys,” Josh said. “I like toys. It’s a lot funner than spending money that just disappears, and the high doesn’t even last a day. Fun, not drugs, you know, movies — do something besides. Doing drugs is just a waste of time. It may feel good for a minute, but you’ll get to the point where it feels horrible; everybody does, if they overdo it, which luckily I overdid, and learned from it, didn’t just keep pushing it because then, I’d be dead.”
Josh takes every chance he can to skate, even when selling papers.
“I skate a little bit sometimes, which will grab people’s attention,” Josh said. “I’ll bust a couple tricks.”
Josh can ride just about anything with a board, even do tricks with a fingerboard, a miniature skateboard for when it’s too rainy to go outside.
“I do everything, anything with a board. I can surf, snowboard, skate, onewheel. And I like to ride BMX bikes too. I like to catch big air.”
In warm weather, Josh likes “to get in an innertube and float down the river for miles and miles and miles.”
He also hopes to stop by High Rocks on the Clackamas, where he plans to wakeboard and cliff dive.
“I’m not scared of heights,” Josh said. “I love heights. I’m not scared of being underwater or whatever the hell, and I think I could make really good money off of that — and I have a four-year-old son.”
He plans on putting his willingness to work in uncomfortable conditions to use, and he’s filled out FAFSA and signed up for a Pell Grant to go to school for welding.
“I want to learn every type of welding there is,” Josh said. “I don’t want to just half-ass do something. If I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it all.”
You can support Josh Black via @StreetRoots on Venmo by entering his name and badge number (323) in the notes.
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