I had long ago accepted that skateboarding was a past activity in my life and had moved on to replace it with other things. That’s just what happens with growing old and being responsible. And boring. I did briefly dream of building a mini ramp in one of the old barns here around ten years ago when we moved here, but then they got pulled down anyway; Plus it would never have happened because all the spare cash went on ponies at the time.
And then fast forward lots of years later and my younger daughter is not so young anymore and ended up wanting and getting a skateboard for her fifteenth. That was a bittersweet moment for me: choosing and putting together a first setup for her (Focus Pocus are good) since I’d finally given up skating not long before she was born; Although I guess the last time I was properly skating was twenty years ago.
She wanted me to teach her to skate. Living in the countryside the roads and surfaces are not really great for that. We had a tiny strip of resurfaced road which was just enough to get used to rolling along on. We tried the “main” road in the village, but although not busy it’s still a road and does get traffic. Plus it’s a 2km walk there and again back.
So we found a newly extended car park in the nearest town with a nice surface. Lots of flat area, gentle slope, not busy at all.
Pushing and cruising along is like riding a bike: I could literally jump on and it’s all still there. I decided to entertain myself whilst my daughter was rolling around, but promised to myself to keep things simple trick-wise as I was scared of knackering my ankles and screwing my running up (well, more than running itself already had, more on that another time). So no flipping tricks, just shove-its, etc to start with - after-all it had been a while.
I’d never been great at manuals, and was struggling to manual roll across a larger island so picked a shorter ledge/curb to try. I don’t know if I hit a stone or hung up, but I fell forward and rolled (good) without thinking about it. Jeez my hip ached. I couldn’t remember it hurting this much in the past. But I could kind of carry on with just pushing around, although felt it the rest of that session and for the week after. Mostly a lucky escape.
The next time we’d literally been there five minutes: I was just rolling along and hit a stone and I slammed forward onto my chest and arm before I could do anything about it. Just bad luck. I didn’t bounce.
I did get up and it hurt. I thought I could carry on, but then found I couldn’t. I must have cracked or bruised a rib as I’m currently one week down and the most I can do exercise-wise is a gentle walk. Yoga is a no-go and running is maybe some time away; Although I hope I will heal fast. So much for being careful.
I hope I haven’t put my daughter off though. Skating is actually still a lot of fun even with the pain.