My First Experiences with Skateboarding

There are some things in life you never forget and my introduction to skateboarding is one of them.

My first experience with skateboarding was at a young age. I don't remember how old I was or any of that, but what I do remember is the scene.
I was out with my family, parents and siblings, we were out at some shopping center. The kind with an awning over top and a sidewalk underneath with stores side by side. They're everywhere, atleast around here. It is basically impossible to remember where exactly I was at, but for some reason my mind keeps telling me we were next to a Ryan's.

So we were out for the day, probably shopping and eating lunch, like what a suburban family would do. All of a sudden I hear this noise coming from behind. I look back. There are two, probably teenage boys riding on boards and fly right by us. I think they went by and ollied off the curb.

(I now am proud to say I have done the same, stoking out kids riding through shopping centers on my skateboard. The circle is completed, but anyway...)

I was amazed. I had never seen anything like it before and it had all happened so fast. I asked my parents what that was and they told me they were skateboarders.
I knew I wanted to be just like them.
I don't know how long it was till I got an actual skateboard of my own, but I remember looking at skateboards in the Sunday ads in the newspapers. Sports Authority had some pretty sick looking graphics and I wanted the one with bloody eyeballs, I think. Not sure on that, but I ended up getting a different one with some sort of steel plating on it. This I remember. I think I could have gotten the one I really wanted, but I didn't want to wait on it to be ordered.
Haha, this next part is funny.
Once I finally got the skateboard and took it to the driveway at home, I took about two attempts to ride it and gave up. I thought it was too hard.
I didn't touch that skateboard for years, pretty sure. Looking back to when I was actually about 12 or so when I got another skateboard, and the Sports Authority one had wheels/bearings that would barely roll. It was that bad.

I became really into video games, and of course the Tony Hawk Pro Skater Series (1 and 2).
So for Christmas when I was 12, I got a "The Simpson's" skateboard and I suppose this is when I became serious about it. My two brothers had each gotten a skateboard too so we would practice out in the garage and driveway all the time.

After that skateboard got old, I picked up my first "real" skateboard from the X Games Skatepark at the Discover Mills Mall. It was a Flip board; light blue with a pixilated angel on it. I was about to get the Flip pixilated gangster one, but I asked my mom which one to get and she said get the blue one. So that's the one I got.
The rest is a blur. I don't remember much after that. Maybe getting my first set of Lucky bearings and Kryptonic wheels and trying them out on a huge hill in my then neighborhood. That's about it. I ate shit.

Keep Your Head Up

Over critical people like myself tend to focus on performance over simply being happy. This directly relates to me when I go skateboarding. I am always over critical of myself and putting myself down in my head, not so much these days as the past though. I have learned to just have a good time. My focus on skateboarding these days is to land my tricks first try every try. 

I see people going for the same trick over and over even when they have already done it. I find that rather pointless, unless your filming a part or for instragram or something and you want it perfect. 

I have learned to focus on what I can do as opposed to what other people are doing. Here I am doing footplants at the skatepark and here comes so and so 5050 grinding every wall at hyperspeed. Damn, that is something I just know that I can't do. I have tried and its not that I have given up, although that is arguable, it is actually that I have moved on. 

Move on and identify with your own personal style because you may be thinking that your style sucks when the next kid over is super stoaked at how you skate. Remember, it can't be that bad if it's all for fun in the end and I'm sure not everyone is countlessly picking at how you skate every minute of every day either. People are people and have different struggles than your own.

Skating experience is relative. Good, bad, in between. You may have spent a few hours earlier in the day digging the hole in the basement so you are just too tired to skate that day. If that is the situation, why are you at the skatepark in the first place? 

I know I can't compete with the skaters on Thrasher, but I go to the skatepark and have a good time with my friends. That is what is important. I do my tricks and it feels good to land them. Focus on the positive and more positive things will happen. Good things will come if good things are always on your mind. As I have been told countless times, mostly by bums, while I'm out skateboarding to just keep doing what I'm doing. I think that's all I can do.

I forgot this for a while, but it has all come back to me. Figure out what you are doing and try to be the best. If you're not the best, be the one having the most fun. Everything will be ok in the end.

Paranoia

Sometimes I feel as though the government will use what I post against me if I ever get into trouble. I will either look back at somethings years later and cringe at what I once thought or it will bring me warm nostalgia. Let's hope the second one. Only time will tell.

Anti-Skateboarding

Do I even skate anymore? Not really. I went out on my skateboard today and did a few tricks I haven't done in a while to keep my consistency up. I didn't make it a huge ordeal. Nobody was here and the only people I saw were in cars driving by me as I skated the street out front. No skatepark, no friends, just my skateboard, me, and the cat was actually out there with me.

I don't know if this is skateboarding; I was only out for probably 20 minutes. I just went out because I had that feeling. The feeling of energy needing to be burned off. Had I not done this I would have spent the rest of the day on my computer listening to music and browsing Facebook, other than working on the basement, which I did a little today. This is what I find myself doing to enjoy my time these days.

I didn't feel like watching the new Thrasher video. I am just going to keep listening to music. No desire to do much of anything. Then again, is there anything I need to do? No. It's all taken care of. I did what I had to do today and that's it. No need to be busy, I am happy doing this.

I think being free to do anything and doing minimal is the best. Minimal activity. I took a look at my horoscope the other day and it says I need to learn to relax. I think that is what I am doing. 

Music and isolation is amazing. Just keep the coffee flowing...