Quiet morning at skatepark

03 May 2024 - de Medeiros, J. E. M.

Quiet Morning at Skatepark

When I arrived at the skatepark in Dietenbachpark today, it was still quiet. No one had yet shown up. The park itself was quite dirty, littered with debris from the recent windy and stormy weather.

Community Spirit

The floor was covered in dirt and small pieces of trees, so my first task was to clean up the place a bit with the cleaning materials they have there for the skating community. This is one of the most important aspects of my experience in this sport. We take care of each other. More senior skaters often teach and offer advice, and we all share the space with the same diligence to make it agreeable and enjoyable for everyone. This means whoever gets there and sees a chance to take care of the place they then do it. In this spirit, I swept away the dirt and those little acorn things that fall from trees in central Europe.

Ladies-Only Course

As usual, the “Drop in Ride out” guys - or better yet ladies got there sooner than later. Today they had a ladies only course. It looked like a lot of fun and it made me consider taking some introductory courses myself. Specially as I am unsure if I am learning the basics as I should and getting the basics right is crucial. In most sports just as in music the beginnings are incredibly defining of the posterior development. Once you learn something wrong and get used to doing that way it is harder to unlearn. Well, at least I could see a bit of what they were doing. Maybe I will find one day the patience to go through the right stages step by step. I ran into an old friend and colleague from archaeology who had received a skateboard course as a birthday gift. We chatted a bit about how things were going and the circumstances our post-doctoral friends are facing - or even just archaeology graduates in general. I guess: hashtag #ichbinhanna.

Conclusion

A couple of minutes later a couple of “homies” came over. They had a free slot from school and used the time to practice with their boards. Later on another homie who I will call the Sensei came by too. This morning he had a breakthrough on the bowl which he had been chasing after quite some time: the front side curve at the highest point possible. After one hour or two I was tired. Maybe I had some progress with ollies, which I have not yet really landed. Overall, it was a really nice morning. Ladies-only skateboarding, I met a french skater more experienced that assured me as soon as I get the ollie straight things will get better and my homie Sensei achieved his goal. I had a feeling of improvement and chased some fear away from my curves that was mitigating the fun. Now I am back to freedom and fun. It was a nice friday and the last day of vacation before work starts next week. I will keep enjoying those peaceful skatepark mornings.

Categories: Surfskate

Tags: Dropinrideout, Ladies-only-skateboard-course, Morning, Community, Skatepark, Sensei, Ichbinhanna