"Possessed to Skate"

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, rather than parking myself at the beach or pool all day during my two-week vacation, I tried to spend as much time as possible at the nearby skateparks. (St. Augustine is above; Hilton Head below...click on the pictures if you wanna see 'em bigger.)

Until I discovered the guitar, the only thing in the world that I cared about was skateboarding. After the guitar's introduction into my life, however, my time would forever be divided — forcing me to ultimately dedicate my undying devotion to the latter. After all, it was skateboarding that put my left arm in a cast for nearly six months, and broke at least one of every type of bone in my body at least once. Aside from a few bloody fingertips, what did my guitar ever do to me?

Although I never really "quit" skating, calling me a skater would definitely be a stretch. I've gotten in and out of it over the years, but haven't lived near any of my skating friends in quite some time (most of whom have long since quit, anyway). Plus, I'm too old to run from the cops anymore.

With free skateparks so close by to our vacation spots, though, I knew I had to take advantage, and I managed to spend probably 10 hours at each park over the course of several days each week. I was incredibly surprised at how quickly everything came back, and how much more in-tune with my body's capabilities I am now than I was when I was 15. Before long, I was doing tricks I couldn't do when I was a teenager. Maybe I'll try out for the NFL next.

At both parks, usually it was me and a bunch of pre-teen kids whose parents had found a convenient babysitter in the form of a city-run skatepark or a few teenagers who were too preoccupied with the ever present skate groupies to bother skating much, so I mostly had the places to myself.

A few of the older kids talked to me (one even asked me if I was sponsored...get that kid's vision checked ASAP), but mostly, everyone steered well clear of the dude with the tattoos and black wraparound sunglasses. If only they'd known that the sunglasses contained prescription lenses and that I have a low tolerance for bright light, perhaps I'd have seemed a bit more approachable?