My First Skateboard

It's interesting to look back on the different fazes we go through. In junior high school my shoes and shirts had to be an appropriate skateboard brand. This made Christmas and birthday shopping a bit of a task for my relatives. I had always had an interest in skateboarding, ever since I found my uncles' banana boards in my grandparents basement where I would push along with one foot, kneeling on the board as I rolled from the shelving unit, over the drain and to the washing machine. When I was 8 I asked for my own skateboard for my birthday, and I got one. It was one of those dominion boards you got at Wollcow, with one kick and a graphic on the top, no concave. I used ride it in my neighbourhood with an older kid named Greg, and sometimes this other guy, Darren I think his name was, the guy with the lisp whom I traded nintendo games with. No, Darrel was his name. Most of what we did was talk about cool moves without really doing them. We practiced ollieing, and I think I could get up onto a curb, but somehow I don't believe that. In these days we weren't really hardcore about it and like most childhood fun, it was in for a season and then out again, then back in for another time later on. It wasn't until grade 7 that my neighbourhood friends, Dawe and Zach, started getting into skateboarding. They had skateboards and banana boards and stuff too while we were growing up, but it was grade 7 that we began to mature, and we started to take on identity with out tasks. There was a time of roller blading, but skateboarding was king, so if I wanted to hang out with my friend and be able to do what they were doing I had to get a skateboarding. Showing up on roller blades, or "fruit boots" was not cool. I knew I liked skateboarding, but I think I was afraid I wouldn't be good enough, or that it was a new challenge to fail at; probably fear and knowing it cost a few dollar bills. I remember the day I got my first real skateboard. There were no skate shops in the city at the time so I got some black and white catalogues from Zach and Dawe, and I ordered from Boarding House in B.C. It cost $129 + $5 for express shipping. Less than two days later I came home from doing some boy like things out in the sun of mid-May and at the top of the stairs lay a box with my name on it. I opened the box and took out my first complete. A 60/40 blank with blank 48mm wheels, Powell bones bearings, and venture featherlight II trucks. The grip tape was so rough on my virgin fingers, which would become sour in the coming weeks. More importantly it was the 70th wedding anniversary of my great grandparents, Nan and Pop Stevens. At age 14, however, I was too excited about my new skateboard and ran out onto the street in front of my house where I was hit by a Dillorian and taken to hospital for the week, missing the party. No, not really, my life wasn't that tragic in May of 95. I practiced a few ollies before I was rushed off to the party. I don't remember much about the party really, and I think I spent most of the time outside with my cousins, or walking around the neighbourhood, but I do remember Pop sitting at the head of the table with his brewed around him and a great big scoff laid out on the table. After the party I was dropped of at Dawes house, because he had a birthday party, conveniently on the same day as the anniversary. I got out and showed off my new skateboard to all the boys who were out on the street, skating a fun box that was about 5 inches high. I remember Zach, Dawe, Lewis and Buttler skating, while some others were there too, like Sellars. I skated around with the bys and tried my hand at the fun box. I wouldn't get up onto it until the next day. Skateboarding was a serious thing, it was fun, companionship, anxiety and identity. To be a skater meant something. You dressed, walked, acted and spoke a certain way. You had an undercut and pants falling off your backside, with a shirt that was way too big for you. As a nice church boy I wasn't pulling this off very well, but I made my efforts without battling too much with my conscience. I think it was half way through the next day that I realized I was in need of some proper footwear. Not only was I selfconscieous of being seen with my Nike Air Pounds on, but I had warn a hole through the side of them from ollieing. I ollied up a very low curb that day and felt good about it. curbs and drains meant something in the progression toward become a skater and not just a poser who carried a board around. I look back on the slowness of my progression, and how I thought that eventually I would learn to do all the things I wanted to do, and that I would find it easier to try harder, scary things once I gained experience, but I never did reach all of my goals. I have always been too cautious to get anywhere in the sport. I always look at the thing I'm trying, or my friends are trying, and I think about all the ways I could hurt myself on it. I didn't care about falling down, but I did care about broken bones and cracked teeth, these were common themes in my moments of consideration when I battled with my fears, doubts, and good sense. I certainly learned a few things that seemed quite out of reach from the get go, including the kick-flip, which took me 4 months before I landed one. Skateboarding was fun, but it was also a task, trying to overcome fear and get all your body parts to function properly at just the right time. There is a lot of figuring out, trial and error and concentration, but the funny thing is that the moment you do what you set out to do you were probably not thinking about it at all, that is when you land it and ride away with a rush, and a sense of relief. I was always hard on myself skateboarding, but that goes for most everything I do. Sometimes when I'd writing it feel like I've written the same thing 20 times before, and I probably have if the topic is doubt, the heart, or confusion, or maybe I've just thought it before and only now have written it down. I love to look back and remember, and I don't think this feature will change much as I age. I do regret things, and wish I could change the past, but I love my life the way it spun out, and continues to spin, thankful for the moments I can look back on, even if there were some hard times. Go eat something nice now.