I’ve always loved the concept of skateboarding as a sport and form of transportation. As a kid, I was too scared of it to ever do more than stand on one and let gravity and inertia roll me forward a few inches. Over the last few years, I’ve been thinking more about getting into it, not for the sake of doing anything flashy (though if I can ever pull off a kickflip, I’d be pretty stoked), but because I like the idea of riding down a sidewalk to quickly get between a coffee shop and a museum (etc).
So now I have a skateboard. Somehow, I have to learn to not be afraid of it. The first day I got on it, I sucessfully squatted on it a few times, and practiced stepping on and off it, and then twenty minutes into it, the board flew out from under me and I rolled my left foot so badly that I could barely stand on it for three days. It was intensely painful, the kind of pain that nauseates you. It took almost three weeks before my foot felt whole again. I haven’t gotten on the board since then. However, it’s still calling to me.
I think to start, I just want to set the board up next to a tree or railing (where I’m always holding onto something) and just spend a few hours getting on and off it and practicing my balance.