Equal to martial arts like kendo (剣道), aikido (合気道), or sado (茶道, tea ceremony) Skateboarding is a “dō” – a path and a way, the physics of finding poetic lines with your board through various terrains, and an ethics towards your fellow skaters, your sport, and your art.

Hayakawa recounts his childhood entry into the world of skating – a time when this American cultural phenomenon had barely taken root in Japan.

Searching for a way to get more contact time with his sport that was largely outlawed and socially marginalized led Hayakawa to explore various pro-adjacent jobs.

Skateboarding is a way of expressing oneself. Hayakawa discusses his role in brand building, design, and the building of Japan’s rising skate culture on his way to becoming a pro skater himself.

Skateboarding is freedom itself – an art that can be a sport, a sport that can be a culture – whatever you make it. There are as many ways of skating as there are skaters. What is the freedom mindset, and what can it do for your life?

Experience Tokyo through a skater’s eyes, which like all urban landscapes, becomes a field of both obstacles and opportunities.

Coach Hayakawa recounts the earliest days of skating and the handful of legendary skaters who first brought skateboarding to Japan. Encounters with these skaters showed Hayakawa that a life in skating just might be possible, and would be the way to a freer, happier self.

The tale of how the DIY spirit infused skate culture in Japan through the 2010s from the building of skate parks, shops, brands, magazines and media culture to the very way of relating to one’s fellow skaters and to carrying oneself in the world.

Hayakawa recounts his travel to the US at the dawn of the internet age, and how the exchange of videos through social media has contributed to the global spread of skate culture and the innovation of new tricks. It has also given rise to a new generation of skaters in Japan ready for the world’s biggest stages.

Coach Hayakawa tells of his most impactful moments as a coach. How did he select and coach global competition winning athletes like Yuto Horigome?

In the center of the games, during the first skateboarding competition in Olympic history, what was it like to work with Japan’s incredible athletes? Coach Hayakawa shares parkside tales that illustrate what it takes to bring home gold and skate with pride intact even after medals are painfully out of reach.

For most, skateboarding is not a road to riches, but a road of pain, injury, and 90%+ failure. What lessons can such a challenging and dangerous sport offer us? It begins with mastering trauma, and accumulating the mental strength to let your physical abilities mature. Enduring pain and skating through fear while knowing your limits will put you on the path to success and enjoyment.

Assembling your own skateboard deck is not only a matter of pride and personal style – it’s a skater’s way to customize every detail for the way their body rides. From grip tape to ball bearings, this is how to get rolling just as you like.

All skateboarding competitions are divided into events, and skaters tend to specialize. Explore key characteristics of various types of skating, from park to street and vert ramp.

Skaters Yurin Fujii and Kairi Netsuke join Coach Hayakawa at the legendary park Bashi Burger Chance.

Yurin and Kairi help Coach Hayakawa demonstrate the basics, from stance, to pushing and gaining momentum, to the very first tricks on which all advanced tricks are based.

Kairi shows what you can do after mastering Ollies (basic jumps to get your board in the air). Shove-its are done by jumping and adding subtle foot motions to send your board rotating front-to-tail (or vice versa) and allow you to start putting flair into the basics.

Kairi takes us to the next level of tricks in which skaters kick down on the edge of the board to make it rotate on axis – it’s time for kickflips and heel flips!

Skaters Yumeka Oda, Sena Watanabe and Nishiya Momiji join Coach Hayakawa at the scenic Kashiwa Shonan Yume Farm skate park.

After mastering the Ollie, skaters can leap up onto rails and slide in many ways. Momiji and Yumeka demonstrate as Coach Hayakawa introduces the basic techniques of sliding.

Variation on slides by switching front side (facing the edge) and back side (facing away from the edge), or nose slide and tail slide, can add style to your slides. Sena demonstrates as Coach Hayakawa walks us through the finer points.

Momiji and Sena teach several more advanced grind tricks.

The skaters demonstrate how they string tricks together in complete lines. Whether its streets, parks or ramps, skateboarding is a holistic culture, and the attitude of freedom, camaraderie, and creativity are essential to finding a path deep into the art and sport of skateboarding.