Making the drop

Finally I had a chance to get at the bowl at Five Dock without any pesky kids or anyone else. All I had to do was take a day off work and get there at about 9 in the morning.

The bowl is about 6 foot at its 'shallow' end. It is actually a series of three bowls - people that can skate say it is one of the best, if not the best, in Sydney.

Up to now I haven't had the guts to try this drop in - partly because I go to this park on Sunday mornings when the old boys come out and most of them are really good. I suppose you would be really good if you skated since the 80s.

Anyway, I finally dropped in - a bit sketchy but made it. I did it lots of times - couldn't quite get my front foot slamming down, but good enough to make it.

Since then I have been back to the mini-ramp at Glebe - the ramp I firt almost knocked myself out on - and I can now drop in no problems. At last.

About time

A few days ago I left work and went skating. I was alone at Dulwich Hill skatepark - just how I like it. This skatepark is where I started way back when. Like about two and a half months ago. Until the other day I had never tried to drop in there. There are lots of slopes and banks that don't require dropping in off, and the smallest ramp that you can drop in off is about five foot high. That's fully three foot higher than what I have made so far.

Anyway, the other day I gave it a go and, a little bit unsteadily, I made it. I did it about six times - wobbled a bit, but made it. Yay.

That night I went to the ramp at Glebe. This is a little mini ramp in the shape of a 'U' with a flat bit in the middle. It is made of metal. It is the scene of my first really hard fall on a skateboard. When I had been skating for about 4 days I decided to drop in on that ramp. The first time I nearly made it. The second time I found myself on my back, looking at the stars with a sickening pain throughout my back. The entire ramp seemed to be resonating like a giant bell. That was about two and a half months ago.

Anyway, encouraged by dropping in at Dulwich Hill, I went back Glebe. There was some other guy there, an old guy like me. I let him do his thing and then he invited me on to the ramp. I didn't try and drop in, but just went back and forth a bit. He gave me some tips, like I had never been on a skateboard, which is fair enouth.

Then I decided to drop in and almost made it. I tried again and made it and made it a few times after that. Then my new friend told me to try and bend my back leg a bit and that was it - I was off. And, even better when I got to the other side, I could turn around and come back and so on. Yay.

Since then I have been back and I am going tonight - now if I can just get that frontside...

RIP stick - the post mortem

Well, on the video it looked easy - dropping in on a ripstick, that is. So I gave it a try. The best thing was the strange looks from the kids and others in the skatepark. You don't see many ripsticks at Five Dock, let alone many dropping in.

To be fair, I tried to drop in off a very small ramp, but a ramp none the less. Anyway, after that I took it in the shell. I'll try and get a photo - it's a funny little bowl type thing - it was a surreal feeling heading off into this thing on a ripstick and, most amazingly, I almost made it back out again and only fell on my arse a few times.

I haven't bought one yet, but you never know...

RIP stick

So - Ripsticks, eh?

The first I heard of ripsticks was when my then 7 year old son told me he wanted one for his birthday. They were being advertised on TV a lot at that time.

That was before either of us had a skateboard. I was a bit skeptical and suggested I buy him a skateboard instead. As it turned out his mother bought him a Ripstick and I bought myself a skateboard.

Then he wanted to ride my skateboard, so I bought another skateboard so he could ride one too. The Ripstick was forgotten.

As I started to learn to skate, I noticed that some skaters were a bit hostile towards ripstick riders.

Then one day at the skatepark we saw some kids who could actually kind of ride their ripsticks. It did look a bit fun.

Then, a few weeks later, I had a go and to my absolute amazement, I could do it. Unfortunately I hurt my back and couldn't move for about a week.

Then, on youtube, I saw a 'how to drop in on a ripstick' thing and yes, this kid was dropping in - to everything - on a ripstick.

So what now? Well tomorrow is old man's day at Five Dock - I'll be there. So will my boy - I might just borrow his ripstick and have a go at dropping in on it.... should cause a few laughs.

that doesn't look high

No that doesn't look high. From the carpark, anyway.

It doesn't look high when you walk up to it, either.

It really doesn't look high when some kid leaps head first off it on one of those scooter things.

So how come, when you walk up, stand on the edge with your board sticking over, all of a sudden, it looks really, really high. And steep too.

Still, what's the worst that can happen?

Oh yeah, you land on your arse/head/hip/knee/elbow etc and it hurts like hell for weeks afterwards. If you don't break something, that is.

There's always youtube for motivation. Like someone going down a ramp the size of a small mountain and not making it. If they can smash themselves to bits, so can I. Yeah.

Today, Sunday, its raining, too bad - would have gone to Five Dock - Sunday morning is old man's day.

old v new

Where I skate, in parks, things are a little weird.

I go to this place where there are old guys. They come out on Sundays to the skatepark and carve. There's not too many kickflips going on, but they can skate pretty good. Not that I would really know, but they look pretty good to me.

The younger guys are even pretty nice, mostly. The worst things get is that they ignore me, which is ok.

Mostly people are pretty friendly, to me at least. I'm old, big and can't really skate. There's nothing like a big guy falling hard. You can feel it in the guts just watching. I fall a lot.

For me skating is about facing your fears. Its about doing things that are probably going to end up in pain of some kind but doing it anyway.

Of course some guys don't fall at all, but I personally don't rate that.

I'm still learning to drop in without killing myself. I can do it pretty good on a mini ramp, but the bigger ramps are still a big challenge. I dropped into the bowl at Maroubra (the little part) easily enough. Now I want to go back and try and carve around the big bowl (there's a little bowl attached to a bigger bowl).

Yeah, I'll probably fall. So?

dropping in

Dropping in.

If you ride a skateboard you know what it is. In case you don't, dropping in is how a skateboard rider enters a ramp or pool from a horizontal surface.

The best way to think of it is like an empty swimming pool. Imagine you are standing on the side of the pool, on the flat surface. You want to skate down the side of the pool and up the other side.

You could just climb into the pool and start at the bottom, but that would be too hard. So you drop in. You just position your board with the rear wheels over the edge and the front wheels in the air. Your board, assuming it has a bit of an angle in the tail, will be pointing up at about a 45 degree angle. Then you just hold the board in place with you back foot, put your front foot on the board which is still pointing upwards. Then all you do is bend the knees, lean forward and stamp down with your front foot. The last bit is by far the hardest.

Dropping in, when it doesn't work, hurts. A lot. Like a everything, it gets easier with practice.

The hardest part is dealing with your own mind. Your mind, quite sensibly, will probably tell you that jumping head first off a concrete wall is not a good idea. It will probably urge you to go feet first.

Going feet first is not a good idea. What happens is your feet are ripped from under you and you either slam your head against the wall or end up falling hard on you back, or both. I've done both lots of times.

Right now I can drop in. Just. And only on a smallish ramp of about 5 foot. I first tried it after skating for about four days and that was where I learned that falling 3 feet and landing on my back really hurts.

Soon I will try and drop in to a proper 'bowl'. The idea terrifies me, which is the best part.

skateparks

The first time I remember going to a skatepark was about eight weeks ago. It was on a Sunday at about 8 o'clock in the morning.

This particular skatepark (Maroubra in Sydney if anyone wants to know) was empty except for a couple of kids and their dad.

The park itself consisted of a great deal of concrete arranged into various slopes and shapes.
There was also something that resembled a swimming pool with no water.

As I walked around the park I tried to imagine how anyone could ride such steep slopes on a skateboard.

I watched the kids for a while. They were having a lot of fun. Their father was not. He was put out that the boy kid was not going down the bigger slopes. He then did something that I have seen many times since. He encouraged, forcefully, his son to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous and guaranteed to end in injury. In this case he told his son to go down one of the larger, steeper slopes whilst sitting on the skateboard to 'get the feel of going fast'. Even I knew this was a bad idea.

He got the feel of going fast, alright. Then he got the feel of skin scraped on concrete. Then he got the feel of having some idiot (his father) yelling at him while he rolled around in a bloody mess.

You get that.

Soon after that a man turned up who could really skate. He was not young, but he was really good. At least I thought so. He glided over the concrete waves with speed and grace. That, I thought, is what I would like to do.

I was a bit shy of having a go myself. Mainly because I felt so hopelessly inept at even standing on a skateboard, let alone riding it. I decided that I needed to find an empty skatepark to learn on.

The park in the photo is of a skatepark (Dulwich Hill) that is almost always empty. I go there a lot, at least I used to. The reason it is empty is because right next to it is a new skatepark where everyone who can skate goes. The old one is rough. The slopes are at some peculiar angles. Still, I was left alone there to learn.

I realised pretty early on that there is just no point worrying about how you look to other people. A lot of good skaters don't wear any protective gear. At first I felt a little self conscious about wearing a full set of pads and a helmet, but pretty soon I couldn't care less.

I have found most people to be pretty friendly. Nothing nasty has happened, unless you count a bunch of drunk boys lobbing homemade bombs into the skatepark nasty. No one has been rude to me even though I can't really skate. Generally I am either ignored or people are friendly.

Lately I met a bunch of guys my own age who all meet a particular skatepark on a Sunday morning. They are really friendly and most of them can skate really well. They give me lots of encouragement, even though I am pretty hopeless.

I love skateparks!

beginnings

Where does an idea to do something stupid come from?

When does an idle thought or a daydream transform into a real event?

I suppose I must have imagined myself gliding across the road on a skateboard. I was probably graceful and fluid in my movements like a real skater. I doubt if I was doing 'tricks' though.

Whatever the details, I don't think I imagined twisted ankles, wrenched knees that randomly click and swollen hips that are a dark shade of purple. My imagining were accordingly inaccurate, or at least incomplete.

I bought a skateboard, my first, about two months ago at the end of August 2009. It cost me fifteen Australian dollars.

That afternoon I took it to a small ramp that I have since learned is called a 'mini-ramp' - a completely innaccurate description. For anyone interested, it is in Annandale at Jubillee Park. The ramp has two curved sections on each side and a flat section in the middle. The sides are concave, a bit like a wave just before it breaks.

I didn't try and drop in that day. In fact, I could hardly stand up on the board without falling over. I had a little push around until some real skaters came along. Then I hid. Still, I had started, and, stangely, I was ecstatic.