Reality
Street skating is where the fun is and will
always remain, but it has left me with too many injuries, torn
ligaments, dislocated ankles, throbbing wrists, and more scrapes
and bruises than one can imagine. An aging man can not remain a
street skater if he expects to walk straight into his fifties.
Sadly, the time came for my transition into ramp skating. From
the peacefulness of our neighborhood pseudo-park to the
dangerous downtown streets, my journey slickly moved into the
steep transition of a half-pipe.
As a street skater I had always despised ramp skaters.
They wore helmets and pads, and they didn’t know how it felt to pound against
the hard cement after kick-flipping a set of stairs. But as I aged, my mind
slowly opened to other possibilities and I
began to truly contemplate options that were much less dangerous.
Frank’s ramp is in a fenced-in backyard, with nicely
trimmed grass and a donation box at the door. Despite the serenity of the
place, I quickly realized this would be a place to learn how to skate ramps.
After the discovery of Frank’s ramp, I would ride out to his place day after day
and practice skating his small four-foot half-pipe. However, as Frank became a
close friend, my fellow skaters and I eventually convinced him to add more to
his backyard skate park. Frank began construction on a new six-foot half-pipe.
Because I was too anxious to wait for the complete
construction of the half-pipe, I found myself getting seriously injured. Before
the half-pipe was built and the layers of skatelite were applied to the ramp, I
had to be the first to thrash up the ramp. I stalled on a 50-50 grind and came
crashing six feet down onto my shoulder. My collar bone snapped and nearly
punctured my lung.
Ok, maybe ramp skating isn’t so “wussy.” While recovering
from my injury, I swore to myself that I would go back and conquer Frank’s
ramp. So after dedicating about a month to recovery, I strolled out to Frank’s
ramp. Kids were ripping up grinds and slides, so I jumped in without giving it
any thought. Skateboarding was back; the adrenaline rush was there, and most of
all I was still having fun.
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