"This is a job that doesn't feel like one"

Milton Martinez has just arrived in Argentina. Although he's originally from Mar del Plata, like his entire family, his profession led him to settle in California. He's just left his home in Long Beach to come visit them and bring his daughter, who lives in Brazil, to spend the holidays together.

Martinez's job consists of skating and filming. Skateboarding is an ephemeral form of expression: the only way to see again the tricks that professional skaters perform in remote locations is through some form of recording, whether photo or video.

While up until then DVD video was the most common way to spread skateboarding, the rise of Instagram disrupted the business. Videos tended to disappear and turn into clips of just a few seconds, and many brands began asking their riders to record in that format instead of traditional videos.

Thrasher magazine is an institution within the skateboarding world and the most important outlet in the industry. Appearing in it is synonymous with consecration. That's how Milton burst onto the American scene and became part of the regular cast. In 2012, a clip of just 26 seconds was enough to place him among the elite. Under the title "Magnified," the magazine published a trick on its website that left more than a few people breathless.

From then on, the career of the Mar del Plata native was on the rise. He became part of the teams at Creature, Volcom, and Independent, historic brands within the world of skateboarding. But it wasn't all easy. The previous year, while filming the last trick for his part in a Volcom video, he had an accident that dislocated his foot and fractured his fibula.

Surgery and seven screws later, Milton was ready to get back on the street: "It was a process to recover. Mentally it's the hardest part, and on top of that I had just moved to the United States and a week later that happened to me. And the pain too, because it hurts. But I knew I was going to recover."

"My dream was to get on a good board company and have a Pro Model." This year, the dream that drove him since he was a kid came true. At 25 years old, he achieved what only a tiny fraction of skaters on the planet can access: having his own signature board model. In June, Creature introduced Milton's model.

Milton thinks, lives, and breathes skating. His father, Tatu Martinez, is a legendary old-school skater from Mar del Plata. As Milton has said on more than one occasion, in his house they didn't watch football; they skated.

"This is a job that doesn't feel like one and that I love. The only pressure I put on myself is mental, not about whether if I don't do something they'll drop me. Never that. If you get dropped from a brand, it's not the end of anything. The feeling of skating isn't about that; it's something else. That's why if I didn't have sponsors, I'd keep skating."

Again and again, Milton emphasizes the same themes. The essence of skating. For the Greek philosopher Plato, the word essence was synonymous with archetype, the original model from which all other things took shape. This young man from Mar del Plata represents both things. On one hand, the source of skating, its original nature. On the other, a role model, an example of how to do things. And so, ultimately, Milton Martinez is the archetype of the skater.

This article was originally published in Pagina/12 on December 14, 2017.