In Jr. high school I had this friend named “Mike.” He was mostly a flatland BMX freestyler, but he also skated bit. He quit both a few years later.
He recently picked the board up again. One day this past summer, I went skating with him at a local mini ramp. He was just working on pumping the transition, and doing kick turns—it’s been about 25 years since he’s been a board.
Afterwards we got coffee and hung out for a bit. He said, “Back then I was never even a decent skater, but I had fun. I always had fun. I remember that as one of the best periods of my life.”
He didn’t notice it, but I had to fight back tears when he said that—because it laid bare, at least to me, the naked power that skateboarding has, and how deeply it touches even the “common man/skater,” and that is a deeply profound, and staggering thing…that can stay with someone their entire life. The magic is real.
