Nostalgia Strikes Again
Not too long I found myself warning the twins, yet again, that one reason I move so slow in the morning is because I spent too much time riding dirt bikes and fast bicycles when I was young and waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time crashing them. Not only do I bear a number of scars now because of that, but when I wake up and try to get out of bed in the mornings my joints sound a lot like a bowl of Rice Krispies when you pour milk on it.
However, I am finding that as I get a little older, the crazy s**t I did as a teenager is mellowing in my memory and is being replaced by, instead, nostalgic feelings. I actually considered buying a longboard skateboard recently, until I took a moment and thought about what it would be like when I took the (inevitable) spill.
I just saw a movie that brought back a lot of fond memories. "Boxboarders" is a funny, light hearted movie about a couple of teens who think up the idea of strapping a box onto the top of a skateboard and barreling down hills, and it is a movie I highly recommend, particularly if there are any former teen daredevlls who now limp through life until about noon when their bodies finally loosen up. I'm sticking links to it and the Dogtown movies below,
One thing I did, back in 1976-1977 or so, was to introduce my small town in Louisiana to aggressive skateboarding when I went there to hang out during the summer.
There were a few other people in town that skateboarded, but they generally stuck to flat areas and worked on perfecting slides and 360s. I, however, found the biggest hill in town and started skateboarding down it. This was in the early days of polyurethane wheels and the occasional small rock would still cause you to go ass over elbows, but soon I had all of those cleared off of the hill.
The problem arose when I got bored with just skateboarding down the hill and so started doing it with two skateboards, one foot on each. That soon grew boring as well and the next experiment was to go down on one board, backwards. Eventually that got pretty easy too and I decided to ramp up the excitement and do two boards, backwards.
This was the last progression and I got my first lesson in what is now known as the "Peter Principle".
People rise to the level of their incompetence.
My first trip down the hill was a success. Perhaps I should say my only trip completely down the hill while still standing on the skateboards was a success. My second (and last) attempt, a few minutes later, was a disaster and was achieved at terminal velocity.
Watch "Boxboarders". It's a blast.
All this in the days before pads and helmets.
