Beavers Skateboarding Lesson Part III

At the end of the first part of my lesson I was still in one piece. That didn't last long. Chris asked me if I wanted to try a different ramp. What the hell! He went over to one of the bowls. That's what they're called, right? Anyway, I'm thinking he's got to be crazy. He skates down to the bottom while I get down and crawl in. Basically, I'm doing the same thing that I was doing but on concrete instead of wood and it was a little more dangerous and it was a little beyond my ability. I took it all in and Chris asked if I was ok with it. I told him it was scary but I was going to give it a shot. He showed me how it all should go. My god, the kid is so graceful and he makes it look SO easy. He's also a kid which means he's made of rubber so if he falls he'll bounce right back up again. I'm not made of rubber, I'm more like cracked glass. If I fall someone had better have some superglue and a dust pan handy.

I give it a try and chicken out as soon as I start rolling. I give it a second try and I chicken out after I hit the incline. Chris was being great and reminding me to keep my knees bent as much as I could. My knees may as well have been bent, twisted and tied because nothing was going to save me on my third try. I was determined to make it through the entire thing and I kept telling myself not to chicken out and jump off the board. I thought about it too much and instead of jumping off the board I fell off. CRASH! I was stunned and my arm was dead, useless, just hanging there. I knew I was screwed. Chris asked if I was ok and because he didn't realize I'm not made of rubber asked if I wanted to try something else. I told him I was done. He went to get me some ice and I told him I'd stay put. I had no energy to move and all I wanted to do was lay down right there at the bottom of the bowl. Laying down wasn't an option because some kids started skating over there. With one arm I picked up my board and the few pads I'd taken off and waddled over to the more shallow end. I threw my stuff up top and managed to get myself on the edge. The kids were still skating around me. I wasn't worried about them hitting me but I found it interesting that they didn't even care that I was there.

I got the strength to pick everything up again and start walking. Chris brought me the ice and Mike was waiting for me in the front. He was worried but kind of shaking his head and amused all at the same time. It was one of those "Oh Beaver, what am I going to do with you?" kind of moments. I was laughing but I was also in pain and really uncomfortable. I tried to assure Chris that it wasn't his fault. I went there to have some fun and learn something new. Getting hurt was a risk I was willing to take. I really did have a blast and I learned enough to get myself going on my own when I'm all healed up.

I thought I could make it back to Nashua before going to the ER that didn't happen. The pain and discomfort got to be too much. I spent the next 4 hours in the ER at Exeter Hospital. All the nurses, but one, seemed to be amused by my skateboarding adventure. I guess I get some points added to my cool factor for that. One nurse actually asked me what made me think I could skateboard. I wanted to lay into her for that but I simply said "You're never too old to learn something new." I left it at that. Mike and I were laughing during our time at the ER. What else were we going to do. The whole thing was funny. I went 36 clumsy years not breaking a bone and you put me on a skateboard for 15 minutes and I bust up my elbow. It hurts but I'm trying not to complain too much. The injury was worth it. I did what I set out to do and I'm not done yet. I loved the feeling of being on the board and I invested over $200 in my equipment. I'm going to keep at it.

I start physical therapy on Monday and the doctor gave me a heads up that I'll be needing my vicodin after. That means it's going to hurt. If I don't do the PT and if I don't do it right I could lose the range of motion in my arm. I won't let that happen. No pain, no gain.

There's a video below of my moments in the bowl.

That's all for me and my multi-colored, bruised and swollen arm and elbow for now. I'll keep you posted on my recovery and you'll definitely be hearing from me once I get back on the board.

-Beaver

Beavers Skateboarding Lesson Part II

As you know, last Friday was my skateboarding lesson. I got there early so I could get myself situated and all geared up. I paid for the lesson and the kid at the counter says to the other kid "Hey, this is the lesson!" That's how they referred to me...The Lesson. I could see the amusement in their eyes and faces. They weren't rude or anything like that. It was more of a how is this going to turn out kind of thing. After I paid I went upstairs and got my safety gear on. It was hotter than hell in there so sliding the elbow pads up my arm wasn't as easy as I'd hoped. I started wondering how far into the lesson I'd be when I passed out. There is no A/C at Rye Airfield. The place is just too big for that.

They called me down to the front because it was time for my lesson. To answer my question from last week....my instructor was not old enough to vote. I'm not even sure he's old enough to drive. It didn't matter. I didn't think Rye Airfield would have someone showing me how to skate if they weren't qualified to do so. So Chris and I went out to have us a skate lesson. The first thing I needed to learn was how to place my feet on the board. My instinct was to have my toes dangle over the edge and keep my heels on the board. I was wrong! Toes on the board. What a difference that made. It definitely gives you more control over the board. Not that I had much control of anything at that point. I tried rolling in a straight line for a few minutes. Ok, I seemed to do ok with that. Not great, but I had the idea.

Then Chris had me get a little momentum going and skate up a slight incline. We were at the bottom of a very tall vertical ramp. The idea was to go up the incline a little and then roll back down. Sounded easy enough. I got a little freaked out by this. I can't even begin to describe the feeling of rolling up the incline and then back down. It's the weirdest thing. It's like a rush. I don't ride roller coasters but that's what came to mind. It was like I was floating. Very cool feeling, yet very weird. I fell while I was doing this. When I fell I was thankful for all of the stretching I'd done. If I hadn't prepared myself with the stretching then I'm pretty sure I'd have torn myself in half. I do have a bruise on the inside of each knee from the fall. I'm not complaining about that. I was having fun!

The video I posted previously shows some of the rolling around I did. Mike was upstairs taking the video. I know it's not a great video but that was as close as he could get without actually coming out on the floor with me.

I don't want this to be too long and to be honest, my arm is killing me right now. I'm going to end this here for now. I have more of the lesson to tell you about, which will explain the pain in my arm, but I'll have to do that another day.

-Beaver

Beavers First Lesson Part 1

I had my first lesson on Friday and I'm dying to tell you all about it. Unfortunately I only have the use of one arm so typing is a tad difficult. I will try to get things all typed out in the next few days. In the meantime here is a short video of the beginning of my lesson. I am in the background rolling around. The person in red is my instructor, Chris.

-Beaver

Preparing for my skate lesson

In less than 48 hours I will have completed my first skateboarding lesson. Hopefully I'll still be walking upright and not be horrendously sore. I have to admit that I'm a little nervous. My biggest fear is falling. Falling hurts and it will be really embarrassing. After my lesson I have the option of going home or staying for the rest of the skate session to skate and practice. Not sure how I feel about that. Being surrounded by a bunch of kids who know what they're doing is somewhat intimidating. I guess we'll have to see.

I finally got some knee pads. I think I went to 6 stores before I found some that fit. I'm relieved that I have all of my safety gear now. It's all packed up in my back pack ready to go on Friday.

I've been trying to be more consistent with my stretching and strengthening exercises for my back. I think I may have overdone it a bit though. I'm very sore today. I can't be sore on Friday. I have to go in there with minimal pain. As it is, when I fall it takes me a bit to get up. I sort of have to roll around a bit to get myself into a position to get up. If I'm sore when that happens I'll just lay there like road kill.

Like I said, I'm nervous about my lesson, but I'm also excited. I can't believe I'm finally doing this. I've joined a few skate communities online and I've gotten some good feedback from a few people. One of those people is a professional skater. I thought that was kind of groovy. Two of the people happen to be teenage girls. That's a good feeling.

I'll be back on Friday night to tell you about my lesson. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

-Beaver

Mystery Skateboards - Dan Murphy - Hustlin' in New Hampshire

My first visit to Rye Airfield.

I walked into Rye Airfield and the first thing I saw was little people on skateboards. Little people are children, in case you didn't know. I see the place where I need to check in. There are 3 young guys there. My first thought OMG, they aren't adults! and then I thought I feel old. I told the kid I wanted to take a lesson so we chatted a bit about that. We decided on next Friday with someone named Chris. I'm dying to know how old Chris is. Can he vote? Anyway, having a bunch of kids, and the occasional old lady, on skateboards and BMX bikes is a bit of a liability so there is a 5 page waiver that needs to be signed. I walked around the corner to sign it and I called Mike over. I whispered "How old are they?" and he tells me they're probably about 15 or 16. I forget that I'm not 18. In my head I am but the rest of me isn't. I look at these kids and I'm sort of thinking DUUUUUUDE and they're thinking Does she know my mom? Depressing.

After we got that all squared away I asked if we could look around and watch the kids skate. There's a balcony type thing that overlooks the entire place so we went up there. Most of the kids there were part of Ramp Camp. They were pretty good at what they were doing. I was impressed. I have to admit we did giggle when someone would wipe out. These little people, and some of them were very little, had it going on. It was fun to watch them. We even got to see a little bit of drama. At one point I looked at Mike and said "This is going to be a very embarrassing experience for me, isn't it?" and he said "Yes."

We left the skatepark and went down the street to find a skateshop I'd discovered online. We went to this place because I still need to get knee pads. I have to tell you, I didn't feel very welcome in this place. Nobody smiled and the guy almost seemed put out because he had to help me. First he asks what size I need. I tell him I don't know. Then he asks how much I want to spend. These things can run from $34 to $80. I wasn't looking to spend $80 and told him that. He gives me this knee pad and I ask him if I'm supposed to slide it up my leg or do I just velcro it. He looked at me and I don't think he thought I was serious at first. So I said "Do you really think this is going to fit up my leg? Really? I'm fat and I know this." Still, he's just giving me this look. He tells me to just velcro it on. Then he comes out with this giant storm trooper knee pad. I put it on and I gotta tell ya, as much as I tried to Use the Force, it wasn't working for me. At this point, not even 5 minutes had gone by, he asks where I'm taking lessons. I tell him and he says I can rent some knee pads there. OK! Was that a subtle hint to get lost? I won't be going back there. I didn't find them friendly.

My visit to Rye Airfield was great. The kid who helped me out was nice and knew what he was doing. He didn't laugh at me either. I thought that was nice of him. My visit to the skateshop, not so great. As far as I'm concerned they can shove their knee pads up their ass.

A week from today I will have my first lesson. I'll let you know how it goes

-Beaver

There's a lot more to buying a skateboard than I thought

On July 25 I made a plan to visit East Coast Skate & Snow in Merrimack. My intent was to just talk to someone and find out what I needed to know to buy a skateboard. I really wasn't looking to make a purchase that day. I told the guy I didn't skate and had no idea what I needed. I sort of assumed that buying a skateboard would be easy. Find one with a pretty picture on it and buy it. Not quite. I needed the deck, trucks, wheels, grip tape, bearings and hardware to put it all together. I had no idea what grip tape was. It's the sand papery stuff on the top of the deck. I had always assumed they came with that on it. There are different types of wheels and bearings. Some help you go faster than others. I always thought a wheel was a wheel. There's a lot more to it than I had imagined.

Next thing I know, I'm picking out a deck. From there the guy helped me with everything else. I didn't now what was what so I just told him I didn't have much money and that I didn't need to go fast or anything fancy like that. I decided against the wheels with the naked ladies on them. We picked out all the stuff I'd need and he put the board together for me. After it was together he told me to stand on it to see if it was too wobbly or not. It was too wobbly so I had to give the board back to him. I wonder if he noticed how slowly I bent down to pick up the board and how slow and stiff I was coming back up. At that point I was thinking "I'm going to kill myself on this thing." All of this took an hour.

Going in I didn't know how much this would cost. I was surprised when I got the total. I didn't even want to think about how much it would have been if I'd gotten fancy, top of the line stuff. Here's a run down of what it cost me:
Spitfire Wheels - $30 for all 4
Hardware - $4
Speed Demons Bearings - $10
Mack IV Trucks - $13 each (need 2)
Real deck - $50 (it was on sale)
Thankfully all the stuff was on sale and in the end I only (ONLY!) paid $109.41 As a bonus, I had my ass felt up by a dog while I was there and the guy who runs the place thought I was somebody's mom. WTF! How many moms do you know with purple hair? OMG! I was horrified but then I had to admit to the guys that yes, I could be somebody's mom. Sigh... I always knew that day would come.

So, last week I decided to go out and get myself some safety gear. I went to Eastern Boarder for that. I'd never been in there before. It's a lot bigger than I thought and there's a lot of energy in there. I was sorry my shopping experience was so brief because the place just had a groovy vibe and I wanted to stay. Some guy, I think his name is Brian, offered to help me. I told him what I needed and he started getting me stuff. Thankfully, he didn't think I was somebody's mom. He thought I was with the Roller Derby Girls. That's more like it! Brian, if that was in fact his name, was wicked nice. He hooked me up with a helmet, elbow pads and wrist guards. When I put on the wrist guards I said "Oh, these are like the splints I'm supposed to wear to bed." We both got a laugh out of that. They didn't have any knee pads in my size. Looking back, I probably should have asked what size I need. The safety stuff cost more than you probably think. I already knew that helmets were about $40 but I had no idea about the other things. Here's what my trip to Eastern Boarder cost:
Helmet - $36.99
Elbow Pads - $24.99
Wrist guards - $19.99
Considering the cost of a trip to the ER I'd say it's worth it to spend the extra money by getting this stuff at a skateshop rather than some cheapy crap at Walmart. Know what I mean? I still need to get the knee pads and then I'm good to go.

This coming weekend I'm hoping to check out Rye Airfield. That's where I'm planning on taking my lessons. I want to scope the place out and maybe talk to someone about their thoughts on an old, broken chick wanting to skate. I was told they had some 60 year old guy in there learning to ride a BMX bike. If he can do that then I can do the skating thing...I hope.

I'll let you know how my trip to Rye goes.

-Beaver

Beavers first skateboard

About a year ago, as a bit of a joke, I got a skateboard at Wal-Mart. Everyone thought I was crazy but I was tired of sitting around wasting my life away because of my back problems. Screw that! I'm only going to live once so I figured I should at least have some fun. As I'm writing this I can hear Joe Elliot, in my head, singing "...it's better to burn out than fade away."

I brought the board home and played around with it in the garage and the driveway. I was wobbly and terrified of falling. I got super excited when I let myself roll down the driveway and didn't kill myself. Just rolling down the driveway, a short distance, gave me that "this is so cool" feeling. At that moment it stopped being a joke and I knew I really wanted to learn to skate. Then, CRASH, I wiped out in the garage. Mike, my husband, was in such shock that I had gotten up off the ground before he got up out of his chair. I fell right out of my shoes and banged myself up pretty good. I learned something. Proper footwear is important, safety gear is a must and, joke or not, a Wal-Mart board is not made for adults.

After the fall we went out and bought me some sneakers that would stay on my feet. I got a pair of Vans. What a difference the right shoe makes. If you're going to skate then get yourself a pair of skate shoes. After I got the shoes I didn't really get back on the board. I didn't want to fall again. As funny as it was, it still hurt like hell. I knew I needed a proper board and some safety equipment.

The crappy Wal-Mart skateboard just sat there after that. My Vans, worn maybe once, lived in a box in my closet. The longer you let something go the chances of you getting back to it are slim. Well, losing my job this past March was a kick in the ass. Life changed and it changed quickly. I made some decisions. Again, I wasn't going to just waste away doing nothing, waiting for a job. I decided it was time to get off my ass and learn to skate.

I don't want to take up too much of your time so I'll stop for now. Next time I'll share with you my experience of buying a skateboard, and I don't mean at Wal-Mart.

-Beaver

"200 years of American technology has unwittingly created a massive cement playground. It took the minds of 12 year-olds to realize its potential." -from Powell Peralta - Future Primitive (watch the video)