God I really lost steam with that rote recitation of my skateboard history timeline. When I feel bored writing, I can never figure out if it’s because I’m not being patient enough or if I should trust my instinct that it’s fucking boring. Well anyway.
Highlights of this past week spent with my skateboard include!! I skated the bowl at Potrero for the first time! That was awesome. My excellent friend Bob Lake talked me into it. Bob in the Travelodge at Cunningham He is up first in the yellow helmet, then you see the also deeply great Roger.
My notable adjectives so far: awesome, excellent, great. WOW.
I have stayed away from skating Potrero because the bowl always seemed too deep and too impacted by drunk 10-year-olds who suffocated their younger siblings then came to skate. I realized that those li’l drunkards are actually busy rolling the flow bowl and stuffing their friends in garbage cans to bother with the bowl, and it’s easy to get plenty of runs even in the middle of the day. I think I went three times last week and hit the bowl with Bob. The tight pockets and pool coping are especially fun. I stuck my first backside grinds. Now I can think of little else except maybe food and love. Everyone I’ve run into at Potrero is sweet and chatty, especially the older (OLDER. Probably about my age.) dudes who ride by on their bicycles which invariably have fifty mirrors and reflectors attached, and their outfits are black and tight and resist moisture. Their helmets have rearview mirrors. They stop by the fence around the bowl and always they were skaters in the eighties who want to get back into it but don’t know how and fear the pain. They SHOULD fear the pain for it is REAL. The mix of totally hardened teens dressed in black plus nerdball mountain bike men in neoprene is a blessing and a pleasure. Mike Giant walked in as we were leaving one of the days last week. He had an old school Dogtown board that was so flat and wide it looked like a freaking boogie board. Wheel wells and everything. I love this town.
On Saturday a bunch of friends and I went up to skate the Dish in Bayview. Possibly one of the oldest skateparks in the USA?? Owing to a very hard slam I took on Friday at Pacifica I didn’t skate much. I hit my head (but was wearing a helmet) and have felt tired and headache-y since. I’m going to the doctor today. Pray I am not going dumb. When I woke up this morning I thought, “God I should pull all my non-fiction off the shelf and start reading so I form new brain synapses and stay reasonably intelligent even if I have brain damage. Maybe I can just make a different part of my brain really strong so it won’t matter that I have one intellectual flat tire.” Then I started tripping out on people who don’t get new experiences every day or get out in the world and mingle, and how your life can become safe and boring and you lose your resilience and can’t cope with normal daily stresses. Which is why I think everyone who works in isolation should get a volunteer gig.
Do you admire my great ideas!!!
Thank you for reading.