Gina Gardiner & Friends with Michael Brooke on The Power of Reflection Part 1

Meet Michael Brooke

Born in Leeds, England, Michael Brooke moved to Canada in 1972 and took his first skateboard ride three years later and never really stopped.

Over the next four decades, he built platforms across publishing, music, Xerox, television, nonprofit work, and systems thinking. In 1999, his book The Concrete Wave sold more than 42,000 copies and helped revive global interest in skateboarding history and longboarding culture. That work later led to Concrete Wave Magazine, which reached more than 100,000 readers worldwide and became one of the most recognized voices in the longboarding movement.

In 2012, Michael founded Longboarding for Peace, using skateboarding to support reconciliation projects, blood drives, youth outreach, and awareness campaigns around wrongful convictions. Through partnerships and donations, the initiative distributed more than $300,000 worth of skateboarding equipment globally while helping connect young people through creativity, movement, and community.

After selling his publishing business in 2018, Michael spent five years working in funeral services. The experience changed him deeply. Again and again, he encountered the same quiet truth: most regret does not come from lack of talent, but from drift, delay, disconnection, and living out of alignment with who we really are.

That realization sent him into a deeper exploration of systems, judgment, human behavior, and the invisible patterns shaping people’s lives and organizations. Those years of research and reflection eventually led to the creation of The Inside Atlas and BridgeWave Magazine. These projects are designed to help people better understand themselves, each other, and the systems influencing their decisions, relationships, and sense of meaning.

Today, Michael’s work sits at the intersection of systems thinking, communication, human potential, and practical wisdom. Across every chapter of his life, from skateboarding, publishing, nonprofit work, death care, and systems design, the through-line has remained remarkably consistent:

helping human potential not get quietly lost.

https://bridgewavemagazine.com

https://theinsideatlas.com