Skatepark Debut
Having brought my bike helmet back from Arizona this weekend, I headed over to the Sunnyvale skatepark for the first time today after work. I hadn't visited the park since buying my skateboard two months ago, determined that I should at least become stable on the board before presenting myself as prime laughing stock to all the kids half my age at the park. In the past few weeks I've got my balance back and been working on my ollie. Frustratingly, my progression has hit a brick wall because for some reason I just cannot land a moving ollie correctly - the back of the board invariably kicks out to the left, forcing the board to land sideways, which doesn't quite jive well with my forward motion.
Today I wanted to go over to the park, check it out, maybe find somebody to ask what it appeared that I was doing wrong, and maybe, just maybe, actually try some skating. From reading online I found that the park's got a nice assortment of bowls, stairs, ramps, railings, etc. Cool.
I got there at 6:45, with about 20 minutes of sun left before the park would be plunged into darkness. Finding helmets were not even required (d'oh!), I strutted hopefully convincingly confident-looking into the park, took a seat on the edge of one of the bowls, as many others were doing, and just checked the scene out.
First observation: yeeeeeah, everybody's pretty much 17 and younger here. Oookay. Old man on deck!
Second observation: holy crap these kids are good! I had expected to see a few guys who knew what they were doing, but this was insane. Most of the 30+ kids were flying around and up and over the lips of these bowls, up sheer vertical walls of full-size quarterpipes, jumping between ramps, popping kickflips off of steps. I was clearly way outclassed here, much more than I'd thought I would be.
Friendly bunch, though: within a minute a kid who looked about 15 came up and asked me what kind of board I had. Embarassed to find I couldn't even remember, I joked "uh, cheap." We talked for a few minutes, he offered to let me try his plastic board, but I decided not to. What am I gonna do, kick/push a few feet then hand it back to him? I think he expected me to try an ollie over something, or a kickflip of some sort.
Intimidated, I sat and watched for about ten full minutes before even getting up. Walking slowly, I crept over to a flat section of concrete above a small ramp, rolled around a bit, tried a few ollies, and that was about it. I couldn't be sure that I wouldn't end up right on my ass just by trying to go down the wimpy little ramp, not to mention possibly going out of control and colliding with somebody else.
And then before I knew it, it was dark and I couldn't see anything clearly anymore. Kids were leaving and it was getting quieter. There was no point in trying to tempt fate by skating in the dark, so I left. And that was my first skatepark experience.
Pretty anti-climactic, huh? What I really need is to find a time when these kids won't be around, so I can relax a bit and feel free to try riding around without worrying about smacking into somebody else whizzing by me. Or being laughed at, of course.
Maybe I could go over one day before work? Or during lunch?
Today I wanted to go over to the park, check it out, maybe find somebody to ask what it appeared that I was doing wrong, and maybe, just maybe, actually try some skating. From reading online I found that the park's got a nice assortment of bowls, stairs, ramps, railings, etc. Cool.
I got there at 6:45, with about 20 minutes of sun left before the park would be plunged into darkness. Finding helmets were not even required (d'oh!), I strutted hopefully convincingly confident-looking into the park, took a seat on the edge of one of the bowls, as many others were doing, and just checked the scene out.
First observation: yeeeeeah, everybody's pretty much 17 and younger here. Oookay. Old man on deck!
Second observation: holy crap these kids are good! I had expected to see a few guys who knew what they were doing, but this was insane. Most of the 30+ kids were flying around and up and over the lips of these bowls, up sheer vertical walls of full-size quarterpipes, jumping between ramps, popping kickflips off of steps. I was clearly way outclassed here, much more than I'd thought I would be.
Friendly bunch, though: within a minute a kid who looked about 15 came up and asked me what kind of board I had. Embarassed to find I couldn't even remember, I joked "uh, cheap." We talked for a few minutes, he offered to let me try his plastic board, but I decided not to. What am I gonna do, kick/push a few feet then hand it back to him? I think he expected me to try an ollie over something, or a kickflip of some sort.
Intimidated, I sat and watched for about ten full minutes before even getting up. Walking slowly, I crept over to a flat section of concrete above a small ramp, rolled around a bit, tried a few ollies, and that was about it. I couldn't be sure that I wouldn't end up right on my ass just by trying to go down the wimpy little ramp, not to mention possibly going out of control and colliding with somebody else.
And then before I knew it, it was dark and I couldn't see anything clearly anymore. Kids were leaving and it was getting quieter. There was no point in trying to tempt fate by skating in the dark, so I left. And that was my first skatepark experience.
Pretty anti-climactic, huh? What I really need is to find a time when these kids won't be around, so I can relax a bit and feel free to try riding around without worrying about smacking into somebody else whizzing by me. Or being laughed at, of course.
Maybe I could go over one day before work? Or during lunch?
posted by GregP at 10:47 PM
4 Comments:
Don't be too hard on yourself. You have the advantage over the younger kids - they are in school all day so you should be able to get some private time at the park. Good luck!
Yeah, you're right. I just have to be serious about getting there either in the morning or during lunch. I think tomorrow I'll make my second appearance.
Umm, why didn't you ask the kid about your ollie problem?
I couldn't even try an ollie at that point - the park is not set up to leave any spaces open that are not either leading up to ramps or away from ramps, so kids are constantly whizzing by like on a highway.
Next time I go though, I'll try to find a quieter area and practice a bit.
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