Once my knee felt better I followed Raph to another skate park which I'd skated before. Praharan bowl has four main facilities: an enormous metal half pipe, a metal mini half pipe, a large but shallow concrete bowl, and street skating obstacles such as stairs, hand rails, and ledges of various types. Tightly surrounded by enormous government housing and adjacent to a basketball court, park, and swimming pool, it has become a hub for young people of all sorts. In fact, there tend to be more people hanging out there than skating. Their activities are quite basic and predictable, they sit and talk, have a few beers, and smoke cigarettes or, at times, a joint or two.
Raph seemed to know everyone there. I thought he'd be somewhat embarrassed identifying with me in front of his friends, after all I do look rather peculiar with my white shirt, black suit pants, long beard, and Tzitzit. Yet the opposite was true. Raph proudly approached some of the best skateboarders at the park and almost trumpeted the presence of a rabbi and Kabbalah scholar in the skate park. I was amazed - once again - at Raph's connection to 'twighlight'.
I attempted to perform a most basic trick, an Ollie, yet both knees hurt when I lowered myself to jump up. So I skated the mini half pipe for a short while but with one small fall felt acute pain in both my knees again. The pain lingered for several days and triggered me to worry that I have arthritis of the knee or some other terrible condition. I decided - with my wife's encouragement - to see a physiotherapist...
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