A New Obsession

Skating

I've decided that it would be a good idea to write about skateboarding.  I started skateboarding when I was 29.5 years old.  In the past two years, I've skated nearly every day, and improved quite a bit.  While I haven't recorded my progression in an organized way, I have some pretty epic early videos.

It goes like this: I grew up in the country, with no pavement for miles around.  I rode horses, ran through the woods, and climbed trees.  I did not skate.  When I was 14, my family moved to a house in town, on an actual block, with neighbors.  I thought I was too old to start skating.  Plus, I'm a girl.  That's a whole other issue.  Over the years, I would occasionally give it a go.  Someone gave me a dumpstered board with no grip tape and super hard, super tiny wheels.  I'd stand on it from time to time.  The first place my husband and I lived in on our own was in an industrial district, surrounded by parking lots.  It was so open that it felt private. While not having any idea what I was trying to do, I would mess around on my board in the lot next door.  Nothing came of it.  During those years, though, I did learn that I could start something new, and that being a beginner did not mean being embarrassed all the time.  It's quite the opposite, in fact.  People cheer on the gleeful, humble learner.  As I saw my 20s winding to a close, I decided that I should finally give skateboarding an honest to goodness try, in a dedicated, organized systematic way.  My awesome husband, who was preparing to turn 40, got on board, and together, we skated off into the sunset, or something like that.