I don’t smoke weed. Not because I have anything against it, mind you–I just can’t. When I was younger I sure could, but I don’t know what happened. All of a sudden, I was puking and spinning and in desperate need of sleep whenever I did. Oh, I tried to get over it. I tried hard, because I loved it. But I can’t. In fact, yesterday afternoon one of my neighbors left a bit at my house. It sat there looking at me after he left, all green and delicious looking. I still have a thing for it: how it smells outside when someone smokes a joint, how your fingers are just a bit sticky after rolling one. I like pot. But I can’t smoke it.
I tried yesterday, for the first time in about ten years. Rolled up a few tiny little specks and sat down in my favorite chair under a big oak tree. The sun was shining while a light breeze rustled the leaves above me, dappling my porch with shifting sunlight. The birds sang to each other and in the distance, a neighbor’s child was laughing at his dog. It was a perfect place to smoke pot. But I can’t smoke pot. Ten minutes later, I was on my bed, unable to lift my limbs and seemingly sinking through the mattress. It wasn’t a bad feeling, I suppose, but not a good one, either. But just because I can’t doesn’t mean I care if someone does.
I drink too much, and that’s a hell of a lot worse. Some people think that Weedmaps is a strange and unhealthy addition to surfing. It might be, but I don’t think so. No less harmful, at least, than alcohol or energy drinks, and they’ve been in it for decades. Nathan Fletcher smokes weed, and that’s fine. It works for him. If it worked for me, I would too. That’s just how he rolls, which also happens to be where the name of this short video from Weedmaps came from. How I Roll follows Nathan around on a tour of a regular day. “My perspective is, you know, I smoke pot. So what?” he says. “The positives outweigh the negatives so much in my opinion… I’m just trying to live my life and surf another day.”
