Yuta's lemonade

        'If life gives you lemons, make lemonade'

Switch kick flip

 Yuta is one of the best skaterboarders I've seen at Australian skateparks. He skates stylishly, performs highly technichal tricks, and has a diverse range of abilities.

 

Recently I observed him skating Prahran Skatepark, uncharacteristically failing to land much of his repertoire of tricks - even the easier manouvres. The cause: a chipped ankle bone in his left foot.

It was saddening to watch a prince abruptly - though temporarily -become a pauper.

But Utah was not perturbed. Instead, he skated in the opposite stance to what is natural to him. (That is, instead of having his left foot on the tail of the board and his right foot forward, he had his right foot on the tail and left foot forward.) A stance called Switch.

Switch 5-0

                                                         

This is comparable to a right-hander writing with his left hand. Except Utah was using his left hand better than the majority use their right.

Switch 360 Kickflip

Utah's way of dealing with his predicament reminded me of Dr DeBono's illustration for 'lateral thinking'. He explains how from the shape of a bicycle wheel one can predict the nature of the ride. If the front wheel is circular, the ride will be smooth. If it is oval, it will be very bumpy; if square... 

Switch lipslide

However, even one with a square front wheel can break our expectations and bypass the front wheel entirely by riding only on the back wheel as if on a unicycle.

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Switch Bluntslide

Often, we have expectations from life which are not met. We expect a large income but manage only a modest one, we expect our children will be obedient but struggle with their rebelliousness. Some individuals despair in the face of such dissapointments, others, however, think laterally and find alternate ways of optimising the situation...