It started around the 4^th grade. I was introduced to a guy who I think was named Brock, who in turn introduced me to punk rock, rap and skateboarding. I was only ten, so I can’t say what made these things so attractive. Perhaps it was wanting to be like someone older than me, or perhaps it was how different all of those things were from everything else I had experienced in life. I suppose it doesn’t matter. I was enthralled.

Being only ten and having somewhat of an addictive personality, I really got into the idea of skateboarding.¹ I had no clue how to skate, nor did I have any clue how to learn to skate—Youtube did not exist in those days—but I loved watching the videos that were coming out around that time. And not even knowing what type of board to want, I fell prey to childish wishes and asked a parent for a skateboard. In hindsight, this was a mistake.

That Christmas, I got a skateboard.² It was probably a Walmart special. There’s nothing wrong with department store boards for kids if they’re only planning to ride around on a flat concrete slab like a garage. The problem was that I didn’t realize that’s all those plastic boards were good for. I would bomb down driveways, large hills and attempt riding down the street with it. The summer after I got my board, a friend got a similar board. In our childish innocence, we attempted to ride up his driveway on our boards. On our knees. In hindsight, this was also a mistake.

I faceplanted. There was blood on the driveway. There was blood on my face. There were bits of my front teeth laying about. I made my way to my friends bathroom and washed my face. I looked like I had fangs for front teeth.

My mom took me to the dentist. An hour or so later we ate at McDonalds.

The following Christmas I got a standard board. It helped. I skated around neighborhoods for a few years, but never really progressed much. Every time we moved there seemed to be fewer spots to skate. As many things do with children, my little hobby fell by the wayside. Some would say I grew out of it. Clearly, I did not.

Restart

A few years ago, I bought a new board. I played around with it occasionally for a couple years, but this year my friend and I found a skate park not much more than a mile from where we work. We started going fairly regularly this February. As long as it’s above freezing and the weather and our old bodies cooperate, we head out to the park over lunch.

I’ve got a full set of pads: helmet, elbow, knee and wrist. I’m old. When I fall, it hurts. A lot. It hurts worse when I fall when I’m not wearing my pads. I found that out riding down the driveway. I hit the curb with my weight too far forward and fell on my left side with my arm wedged behind my back. I bruised my ribs and broke my elbow. My wife was not happy.

It’s fairly obvious now that I just need to stay away skateboarding on driveways.

Fast forward six or eight weeks and I, with full permission from my doctor, finally make it back out to the skate park. After being gone for so long, my balance was quite a bit off, but it felt good to get back to it. Coming back, I decided to set my sights on a couple of different immediate goals: simple lip tricks in the bowl and ollie-ing up a ramp.

I’ve taken the first major steps to lip tricks in the bowl by becoming comfortable with dropping in. The video below is one of my first “restarting” attempts. I had dropped in before, so it wasn’t all new, but it was still quite scary. And for your amusement, I uploaded the one where I slid on my ass trying to get up the other side.

I’ve gotten quite a bit better since this was taken. Watching the video helped me realize where improvements could be made. The next time I went out I used the info from the video to correct my form. By dropping my front shoulder, I can keep a better center of gravity, which means more speed and better balance heading towards the other side.

I’m on the verge of actually doing something on my skateboard and it feels quite good. If I can keep at this pace, this item from my 40×40 shouldn’t be a problem. Assuming, of course, I can stay unbroken. That’s a joke, Dear. Just a joke.

¹ Come to think of it, this is also about the same time I started my cassette tape collection—I think these brief meetings pointed me in a lot of interesting directions. It’s strange what you remember…
² See photo. My favorite is my right sock, hanging halfway off my foot, over the board, refusing to obey it’s owner.