So as I’ve gotten older and my body gets less and less coordinated at skateboarding, certain realizations have been setting in. No longer do I strive to learn the professional-caliber tricks that I see in skate videos and magazines. It’s just unrealistic. I’m never going to backside lipslide a 15-stair handrail and I’m okay with that. Instead, I’ve set a couple realistic goals for myself: learn 360 flips and learn frontside airs. To me, other than ollies, those are the two tricks that are plain and simple, raw skateboarding. One for tranny, one for street.
Now when I say that they are realistic goals, I don’t mean easy ones. I’ve been skating for 8+ years now and up until yesterday, have not really had either of those tricks. There’s been days that I could 360 flip every three or four tries, but its never stuck with me. I get frustrated with them and stop trying them for weeks at a time and to tell you the truth, I really don’t know if I’ll ever “have” them.
Back to the good news though. I’ve had a more than usual amount of time to skate the last couple days, so I figured instead of dicking around in some parking lot missing flip tricks, I’ll go to the skatepark and toss some airs. Easier said than done. The first day proved to be unsuccessful. I tried a bunch of times, but by the time I got the feel for them I was way too exhausted to even think about landing on my wheels. Yesterday was a different story though, I had the feel for ‘em and I wasn’t gonna leave til I put one down. I took a beating, but after 10 or so tries, my 22 year old carcass finally got above the coping and came back down on four wheels.
I rode away from a few more and then took a hard slam and my neck got all numb and I couldn’t breathe very good. Called it a night after that and for once, went home happy about skateboarding.
Hey 360 flips, watch your back. I’m coming for you next.
