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Although it wasn’t so long ago that I posted up my first Ode to Heath Kirchart, I’m afraid the unkindness of time has mandated my next one go up regrettably soon. The skateboarding Internets are all atwitter about the announcement that Heath will retire after his part in Emerica’s much anticipated Stay Gold. It just came out today and I have yet to see it for myself, but if Heath goes out at all like his part in the last Emerica video, This Is Skateboarding or better yet, his most recent part in Mindfield, it’s going to be a hell of an exit.

Unfortunately, from the sounds of it, he’s only got a handful of tricks — fortunately, a handful of Heath Kirchart tricks go a long way.

I seriously think this is one of the best video parts I’ve ever seen. But Heath Kirchart full parts tends to have that effect on a viewer.

From his last (ever?) interview in Thrasher about his decision to leave the pro ranks:

I can’t take it anymore. I’m sick of hating skateboarding, and that’s what all this filming was coming down to. I couldn’t do it at the level I wanted to anymore. I’d just be out there struggling. You don’t skate as much ’cause you’re constantly sore. And then you’re not as good, ’cause you don’t skate as much, meanwhile the tricks get harder and harder. It’s a vicious cycle downward as you start getting older and older. At some point it’s got to end. You either lose your fucking mind or you walk away.

Skateboarding could learn a few things from Heath’s approach to skating — sticking below the radar and then every few years, suddenly coming out with a savage assault that leaves jaws all over the industry decorating the floor. But skateboarding can learn a lot from his retirement as well. Not content to milk dry the spoils of skate victory won from so many brutal battles, he’s choosing instead to etch his legend status in the concrete forever. I picture him riding off into the sunset on a Harley, like a mysterious skateboarding cowboy in search of that next adventure… and that’s probably exactly what he’s going to do.