motley crew

The kids and I showed up at the skate park just after 11 a.m., and there was a lone rollerblader dipping up and down the smooth bowls and ramps. I was excited to have the park all to ourselves in the middle of the day. The kids and I usually sneak over an hour or so before closing time, just as the sun is setting.
The toddler even remarked, “we can’t skate, the sun still up.”
We hit the shortest incline first—not at all bad, maybe a two-foot vertical drop spread over three feet. The flat is another four feet or so, and then there is another transition, which is roughly the same size as the first.
I thought this would be the easiest thing for the kids to try, but they both were having trouble making to the top of the second transition. They can ride down the first without having to bail and go through the flat without a problem, but just can’t seem to get enough steam to make it the top. I keep telling them that they need more momentum; need to give themselves at least two hard pushes to make it to the top.
The surface is very smooth and fast, not like regular concrete—the fear of falling or losing control is just too much for them to overcome. I take them to another part of the park, where the transition is even higher, but it’s just plain concrete .
There is an even higher transition on the other end, but I told them I just wanted them to make it down the first one. They both made it down, after a little encouragement, a little ridicule. They also managed to get in the way of some of the other skaters who were filtering in by twos and threes, but that’s the price you pay for skating at a public park.
I am a little impatient with the kids, but I want to start riding the walls, want to start skating the bowl and the pool. They need to become more comfortable on the board yet and that is going to take more time and practice. I just hate seeing them not try something because of fear—fear of failing or fear of falling or whatever.
I’m still too chicken to drop in to the bowl and the pool is still a couple of years off, if I continue to skate into my forties. E goes along with us, but he still won’t stand on a skateboard, which is fine by me. He needs a couple more years before I’ll introduce him to it, but it’s really funny watching him slide into the bowl on his butt. There are a couple of kids who don’t appear to be much taller than him skating around, but they’re at least six or seven, whereas E doesn’t even turn four until September.
He’s REALLY big for his age. Z-man is kinda small for his age and I look really young for my age; and Nan, she looks older than her eleven years. A motley crew for sure, but we’re having fun, together, and that’s what counts, right?