Jolt Country

Took these earlier today at the local skate park. They were having a local/regional contest so I took Mason down to watch them. He said he didn't want to go, that skateboarding was lame, and that he had no interest. Now, three hours later, he's practicing on my old skateboard out in the street, "getting ready for next year's tournament."

Too many places, fearing liability or whatever reason, have closed down, restricted or gotten rid of places for kids to do things like skateboard or rollerskate or otherwise have fun with small wheeled devices.

Hell, if these kids have helmets and padding, and there are both easy and much harder places, there is room for kids who don't know how to learn in an environment where there's little risk of injury - even something as simple as learning to ride a bicycle carries a risk of injury - while giving the experienced skater a chance to practice on much more difficult environments.

I noticed a couple of ones you posted were real 'hard core' skaters, old school no helmet, and no padding style. Way to go, guys! I learned to ride a bike that way, got on and just kept trying.

I had to, my mother had just bought it and the way I learned how to ride was to walk it home and keep trying until I learned to balance. No training wheels, no helmet - who ever heard of such a thing back then? - no padding, just me, the bicycle and 5 miles to travel from the store in the 8000 block on Long Beach Blvd and my house at about 22nd street and one block over. I walked the bicycle while on the seat, making mistakes as I learned while my mother walked along. We got home about three hours later, but I wasn't walking the bicycle any more, I was riding it.

Coddling kids means they're not going to have any fun and part of the process of being a kid means you fall down, sometimes you make a mistake and you fall down really bad.

I mean, if an experienced skater misses on riding a rail - or whatever they call it when you use a skateboard on the equivalent of a handrail - and breaks his arm, it's not the end of the world, they're young and limber and it'll heal in a few weeks.

Seriously, I was just walking down some stairs in Century City near the middle of Los Angeles to go to a job interview and broke my ankle. I ended up having to be in a cast for six weeks. And I was a fat guy of 23 at the time, and I got over it. I'm sure if my foot was x-rayed even now I probably have a scar from that incident over 25 years ago.

A couple of these are the same, but cropped differently. I took over 200 pictures today, but I'm only posting 15.

You're welcome.

Did anyone find themselves with a gruesome injury? Would they like to?

I did see blood once.

After we got home, Mason got my old skateboard out of the garage and hit the street. About two minutes later he hit the curb and went down, scraping off a bunch of skin in the process.

Mason greatly enjoyed the tournament. Today I took him to the skate park near our house where he ... well:

[youtube][/youtube]

(PS: HIGH-DEFINITION!)

That video reminds of a time when it wasn't 100+ degrees every god damn day. And when wind existed.

That's really adorable, and better than I could ever do, even back when I was young and fearless (and limber).