Trevor goes to a skate park, tumbling ensues....

When the sun woke me up today I didn't know if I could bring myself to run or bike today at all. Quite frankly, I felt like crap and had no motivation to run. I've been doing so much over the last 10 months that I've decided I need to mix things up a bit. I didn't know what it was, but I just wanted to do something else. Gears of War on the XBox? Not today. Ice Road Truckers on TV? .... Maybe I'll clean my room? HA!

As my roommate, Sarge, and I lumbered around the house, he said he was heading out to the skate park just few minutes down the road here in Arlington. Having never been to one, my curiosity perked up. I poked my head outside and saw weather was beautiful and at that point I wanted nothing more than to just be outside. Sarge extended an invitation to come along, and against better judgement I agreed. My first thoughts were, I'm going to get hurt, not be able to train, brake something, not be able to race. Ef. What am I doing? Yep, I'm going to die. Twice.

After finding the biggest shoes I could find, and the most skater-like clothes and we were there in fifteen minutes. I had even pulled out an old flat brim hat so I could look as rad as all other kool kids at the park, which I ended up not even wearing. From the trunk Sarge pulled a number of boards and he put on his most comfy of old skate shoes, and I watched him rolled down toward the park on his long board.

Little did I know, it was here I began my education of a whole new community of people. I've grown accustomed over to the years to the running, climbing, and similar athletic lifestyles, but this was a completely new culture to me. My only real knowledge of skating is from outdated experiences from the early 90's when skateboarding and in-line skating appealed to me and I lived briefly as one. We wore baggy jeans and listened to 90's punk and alternative. Sarge warned me that things were a little different these days. Jeans became tighter, music got worse, styles changed. But on a whole, the passion for skating remained fairly intact. As long as I didn't see any big JNCO jeans or too many wallet chains I figured I'd be okay.



I stepped on the board he lent to me and I wobbled, rocked, and swayed down the slight incline toward the park entrance. This was going to be a long afternoon. There were a lot of kids, probably in the 12-15 year old range around the entrance, which lay just under a raised platform designed for parties and parents who wanted watch their kids glide from end to end along rails, jump over ramps, and scrape around the bowls. My immediate sensation was intimidation, yes, even by 14 year old kids. Was I okay with that? Yes.

Arlington Skate Park

I sat on the bench as Sarge took to his stunt board. All the kids around yelled and awed at his style of old-skool free-styling. Apparently this is a somewhat lost art in the concrete playground of the skateboarding world. Very few even recognised the type of board he used, a board specifically built around free-styling. The certainly didn't seem to mind too much, and the younger ones were eager to watch Sarge move about doing handstands, jumping on the edge like a pogo stick, and flipping the board back and forth.

Boy got skillz (note, don't know why YouTube won't rotate it):

And entertains....

I wasn't entirely sure if I was up for doing this anymore. Sarge suggested I try just getting my balance and plinking around the flat area till I found my balanced and learned my way around the board. Finally, I gathered the courage to do so and went back and forth as the kids began to watch. I watched others fly by and loose boards cross my path every few minutes. It was busy! As I found my bearings and stared to feel confident. I decided to take a pause and go watch Sarge over at the bowls where an older crowd carved the concrete and whizzed around the banks of the pool-like area. 

This was an older crowd, maybe in their late thirties for some of them, who were ripe during the 80's when skating was still skating. They had music playing from an amplifier and took their turns sinking into the bowl, changing turns every time the skated bailed or lost their board or speed. Something I took out of watching them was that it was a very courteous exchange and no one ever contested when their time was up. No one ever took too much time, and there was always a tapping of the boards to recognise rad moves from the skated (much like hockey players tap their sticks on the ice to applaud another).

Okay, so in the title of this post I mentioned tumbling, right? Enough of this cultural experience stuff :P 

Feeling more confident in my abilities on the flat ground I thought I could, and should, attack some ramps. Go down one end, roll across a long flat area, and up a short ramp on the other side. Sounds easy enough. Using a standard sized (I think) board I managed to go down one ramp and the board flew out right form underneath me. No fall, though. Sarge immediately said I should try with his longer board. A few times back and forth I was getting the hang of this, so naturally I wanted more speed. The end result being my ass on the ground, rolling, then laughing. So, quite literally, ROFLing. Also, I learned that I needed taller socks...   

Owie of the day.

When it was getting nearer time to go I really wanted to try jumping with the board like a pogo stick. After trying a few times the balance came, but really I'm no good at it. Definitely out of my element, but it was fun. Sarge has this great ability to transition from one element to another, so he somehow convinced me to try something called a truck stand. It's going from standing on the trucks of the board and flipping the board around and landing on top. A few tries and many falls later I finally stuck the move and it was an exhilarating experience.

This is Sarge's demonstration of what it's like to pogo on the board, as well as his best impression of me at the end...

I was really happy to get out there today and learn something new about someone else's sport. Hopefully I'll be a little more stable the next time I'm out.

I hope you enjoyed this slight tangent from racing, but it was certainly a welcomed change of pace from my normal routines. What new thing have you tried lately?