Kick, Push

I have a friend (shocker, I know). You might know him. He’s a tall guy and can be frequently spotted cruising through campus on his longboard. He inspired me to take up skating again this summer.

I swear, when Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater came out back in 5^th grade it seemed like everyone had picked up skateboarding. I used to spend hours upon hours playing that game. It was so revolutionary because it introduced everyone to the previously fringe world of skateboarding. A world where something as mundane as a set of stairs could suddenly open up endless opportunities for tricks and combos. Where the pace was fast and the music even faster. Where everything was dangerous and exhilarating at the same time. Where it didn’t matter if you fell because you could just get up and keep going (in the video game at least).

Naturally I asked for a skateboard for my birthday so I could start bombing hills and busting 360 flips and stuff. Immediately I realized that skateboarding isn’t as easy as it looked in the video games. I got the hang of just rolling around on it pretty easy, but learning to ollie was freaking impossible! How was I ever going to boardslide down the handrail of a set of stairs if I couldn’t ollie up onto the thing? I hit a brick wall pretty early.

I’m surprised I stuck with it as long as I did though. I remember some of the most exciting days of 6^th grade were when a few of my friends and I would go to the skatepark at the mall after school on a Friday. In all the times I went there I can’t say I ever landed a best trick or anything like that. I just enjoyed the free feeling of going fast and riding up and down and the ramps. I learned that skateboarders weren’t just misfit athletes of an unconventional sport, but stuntmen constantly daring themselves to try harder and more complicated tricks. After a couple years of that my skating habit diminished. I guess I outgrew it.

Well this past semester I thought I’d borrow my friend’s longboard and take it for a spin. That was an awesome feeling. It was a little different at first because the board was bigger which made for a smoother ride. It was midnight and I just went up and down Jamestown Rd. a few times. I remember every time we’d get lunch at the Marketplace I would take it for a spin all the way up to Griffin St. and come back saying something like “sorry dude, I just had to get that out of my system.”

So now that I’m here for the summer I brought my two skateboards down. One I’m letting a friend have who’s also interested in picking it up. I’ve started skating all the time now. I skate to work at the ampitheatre, to my friends houses, to the bank, everywhere. Almost every night I’ve been here I’ve taken it out and skated through campus. It’s a great feeling. I love the air rushing past me as I whizz by Zable or tear up the Business School. Since no one is here I practically have the whole place to myself. I love that freedom of being able to go anywhere I want.

I really appreciate it now too because I feel skating through campus is another way to form my own special relationship with the school.  It’s hard to describe but there’s a certain magic skating through campus. It’s a whole new way of encountering it. I thought I was so familiar with the campus, but skating adds a whole new novelty to it.