Sometimes the mind comes first followed by the heart; at other times, the heart comes first followed by the mind. My decision to try out skateboarding followed the latter pattern. It was the flow of childhood skateboarding memories evoked during my conversations with Asher and Jonathan that warmed up my heart toward skateboarding. My mind then followed suit and proceeded to rationally justify my interest in the practice.
The next time I saw Raph, I was keen to start skating. "Nu, where is the board you offered me?" I asserted. As mentioned, Raph is a busy person, so I had to play the 'nudnik' in order to procure a board. I called Raph several times and he eventually went to a Chapel st skateboarding store, EVOLVE, and generously arranged an entire set up for me. [A set up includes the deck, trucks, and wheels - yes, the entire shebang]
It was during a Chanukah function in Caulfield Park that Raph phoned me that he had a board ready for me. I was so excited to experiment with the skateboard that despite the function finishing late, and putting my kids to sleep made it very late, I was still adamant to get my hands on a board. So at around 10:30 in the evening I went with Raph to his home where he presented me with my new skateboard - that is, its separate components. All I had to do was go home assemble the board and then I could skate.
About one hour later...
I was triumphant; the setup was complete; I could go out and have a ride. But where can I go so close to midnight without disturbing the sleepers? I remembered that Caulfield Park has a large new car park surrounded by at least 150 meters of park in all four directions; a decent sound-buffer indeed. The car park surface was smooth and I spent a good half-hour simply carving the road as though I was surfing a concrete wave. I felt a pleasant rush, I laughed, I loved it, but I also felt terribly fragile... am I too old for this?
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