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saturday.
i was supposed to join my brother to go skateboarding in silverthorne,
colorado. the plan was for me to hop on the bus at 12, meet him in denver
and we'd skedattle over to silverthorne, about 1 1/2 hours away. i woke
up today and the clock said it was 1 pm.
shit.
i jumped out of my bottom bunk bed. rushed to the showers bathed and
washed with just hand soap, but on some clothes, any clothes no
underware, no socks: commando again.(no time!) and rushed to the dining
hall to get some eats. but it was closed. wtf?
i checked my mail since i was expecting not one, but now 3 packages
from home plus a express mail letter with some dolla bills in it, a package
from my grandparents with raisins, bannanas and apricots, along with a
stamp and a letter to write a thank you; always a thinker those two are.
plus a computer i bought from a friend's company was supposed to- actually,
scratch that, i've given up on that one after two months waiting. thanks
for letting me down mr.
digitek enterprises.
 nothing
in the mail box.
i rushed back to the dorm to pack... left knee pad, helmet, right knee
pad... cd's for the bus, oh yeah, skaterboard. back downstairs, throwing
7 mini boxes of raisin bran crunch (yes the exact same kind they were
giving away at woodstock)
i worked for by juggling pins for on pearl street the previous day:
after explaining a geeky
perl script to my coworkers
yesterday, we checked out a fall celebration fair (people are happy its
goin to turn cold and miserable? ) i brought my pins to show off at work
and also did some on pearl street just for fun. a juggler from austrailia
was attracted by my skills and we started tossing balls and exchanging
tricks, i had to leave to work on some personal
web project, but before that, i stopped by where they were giving
away these treats. i took one, they said "hey juggle for us we'll
give you more." so i did.
i left my backpack in the cart with all the cereal and they piled it
in. i later pyramided all those boxes up on my roomate's computer monitor,
well just cause i was bored.
so rushed outta my dorm at what i thought was 1:05. checked my email
in the comp lab.
nothing.
then i looked at the clock on the computer. then i checked the clocked
on the rest of the computers. 10:30. its was only 9:30. all the computers
are 1 hour fast for some reason. explains why nothing was open, my mail
didn't come and why no one at all was around me. duh.
got on the bus and went to denver and then route to silverthorne. i lived
for a month before not a block away from where this skatepark is now, but
when i was there, there wasn't this huge concrete wonderpark, but only
acouple of wooden pieces in the parking lot and a crazy model of what
the new one was goin to look like. well there it was.
sick.
super crowded. the place is made like a huge pool. 7 people at a time
were trying to skate the darn thing at once and people were getting hit
by each other constantly. you had to keep a ninja balance of concentration
split between yourself trying to perform a trick and looking around to
make sure that your not about to get hit. kinda fun.
actually, everyone i saw was having fun, whatever ability they were.
you could use the skatepark as a model of a society, or at least that
was what i was thinking when i was skating it. i sometimes think too much,
and that gets me in trouble. all these wack environmental geography classes
i have been studying for has gotten my mind's syntax's or whatever firing.
or maybe its the fact i lived today on exclusively all those raisin crunch
mini boxes of cereal and the uneven macronutrient content of today's diet
has short circuted something in the o' noggin.
anyways,
even though there's about 50 people trying to skate the acre of concrete
at the same time, there's order:
the people with more abilities are given more chances to skate cause
you respect their them. you don't try to go when someone else is goin
right before you simply because, you don't want to get hit accidentally
by them and you don't want them to be pissed at you. if you see someone
just beginning, you give them space to go before you and other people
do the same.
an atmosphere of fun keeps it alive. no one was looking over our shoulders
like a rec pool lifegaurd making sure the printed rules (i didn't look
at em) were enforced. everyone knows their abilities. if you think your
goin to eat concrete, you wear a helmet. if someone does get hurt, people
stop and help you up if you need it. if you can't get that one trick,
someone will give you advice. if you do run into someone, it's automatically
ruled as an accident, no one wanted to get hit and it stops there.
no one acts like a stranger, jokes are never private. it's such a lovely
simple system, i don't want to make it sound more difficult by using phylacteric
words that'll just astigmatize my humble reader. thats all there is to
it.
 you
leave happy, sore and full of good things to tell everyone that stayed
home playing tony
hawk pro skater
leaving the park was like leaving a utopia. there was a functioning mini
ecosystem with no governing laws cept the unspoken one. positive anarchy
at work. made me feel bubbly all over. i take this example from a subculture
thats usually loathed
in city parks and buildings for their "distructive behavior"
and being a "nuisance" to the general masses. i think the law
enforcers and private citizens should take a step back to see what's really
goin on when i make a little mark on their ledges with my board, but ranting
about this has been done before, and i've heard so
much of it..
why did this skatepark work out so well? everyone there wanted just to
have fun. no one cared how much money they had to make or how they're
gonna have to pay rent. it made everything simple. objective: have a good
time. what's life's objective?
is it the same, or is it to get a big house, make alot of money, score
a fabulous wife to f--k, become famous so people will write books about
you that other people can buy and essentially take a piece of that popularity.
i can see a day (40 - 50 years from now?) when i won't be able to skate.
but i'll still be goin for that skatepark objective.
and i'll try not to run over anyone in the process.
sorry to everyone in advance.
-a.s.
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