Articles

The Old Man and the Skatepark

Article posted on Sep 5, 2007 by Ian Lashbrook

The Old Man and The Skatepark

By: EddieCash

I've decided to make September the "month of health." Summer's over, time to cut back on drinking, smoking, eating bad food, and maybe I'll even get some exercise. Now, you'll never see me at the gym on the stair-master or testing myself to see how much I can bench. Last year when I went on an exercise kick, I blew the dust off my mountain bike and started riding it around town. I even made it over the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan. From there I cruised downtown a bit and ended up at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. It wasn't a fun ride home and I haven't touched the bike since.

Skateboarding is something I picked up after seeing Marty McFly skitch a cop car in 1985's Back To The Future. I was ten years old and little did I know at the time, but that silly little toy was about to change the way I lived my life and looked at the world around me. It would soon introduce me to punk rock, free thinking and the ability to proudly act, talk and dress the way I wanted without fear of being excluded from other members of the adolescent flock.

Once I learned how to ollie, the cornerstone of any trick, I was hooked. Skateboarding was all I wanted to do. After moving to New Jersey and rounding out a circle of skate buddies, I spent afternoons, nights and weekends hitting up the spots along Route 9 in Howell. The best of which was Union Valley, an office building with three sets of steps, solid white handrails, and beautiful concrete ledges. We could only go there after it was closed, but we went as often as possible. I'll always look back fondly at my time at UV. It was where I landed my first handrail and on one glorious night, even ollied over it. None of us had a care in the world.

As high school moved on and we grew up, we found that getting drunk and smoking pot was more fun than skating around town. We never gave up our boards, but we just didn't ride them as much. Even though I'll always consider myself a skater, after graduating, the time I spent on a skateboard grew less and less. 14 years later, college, a wife and a career hasn't made it any easier. To think someday I'll have kids with diapers to change and mouths to feed means time to myself will all but disappear.

Jump ahead to the current "month of health." After starting to miss my board, I got it out and figured it would be the perfect way for me to get some exercise. However I didn't realize how the years of abuse on my body, inside and out, had taken it's toll. These days I can't keep moving for more than two minutes without huffing and puffing. I'm looking to change that, but it'll take some work.

About a mile from my condo is a high school with a tiny little park in it. These are things we never had back in the early 90's. Skateparks were few and far between, if you even knew where there was one at all. Now I can hop in the car and be riding ramps in under five minutes. Oh how the times have changed.

So this past weekend I went over to Cliffside Park High School armed with a bottle of water, my board and a whole lot of determination. As I entered the skate area, there were two kids there screwing around, not doing anything exciting. It's times like this that I feel old. These kids were at least half my age, just starting to learn about life outside of what they're normally used to. It's about the same age I was when I began skating less and partying more. There are times I regret not sticking with skating. My friends and I were on to some really good things. If pushed hard enough, I have no doubt any one of us could have picked up a sponsorship or maybe even turned pro. Not that those things are super important, but it could have led to a different career path than the one I'm currently on.

After a little while, the two kids went their separate ways, leaving me to ponder my shortness of breath. I wouldn't be alone for long though. Only a few minutes later I heard the familiar rumbling of urethane wheels across concrete and three other teenagers came riding up, launching themselves off stairs and completely leaving my old ass in their dust. Irish author George Bernard Shaw said youth is wasted on the young and I've never felt a truer statement affecting my age at that moment. These kids had no idea how good life was for them. It took me right back to Union Valley.

So now as I return to my skating roots, I try to keep in mind why I'm there. It's because it's something I love to do, it's who I am. I didn't stop being a skater when I got my driver's license, I just didn't ride as much. I didn't lose the free thinking mentality as I grew older, I embraced it. These days, when I have time, I can go skate. I may not remember the names of all the tricks and I may not be able to do the same things I did 15 years ago, but I can have fun, and that's what's most important.