Getting Old
I got my first paycheck a week ago now and, after I had taken care of my bills, immediately went out to purchase a new complete. I had been skating the same board for a year and it was totally falling apart on me. The deck was chipped and splintering, it had lost its pop and concave, and I made the mistake of setting it up with Tensors, which are the worst trucks I’ve ever skated. The hardware is also completely stripped out on it, so even if I WANTED to change the trucks on it, it would probably take an electric drill to do so.
I finally replaced it with a Kerry Getz’s pro deck (Habitat), some Indie lows (did you know that Independents are light now? Neither did I) and shop-brand wheels/bearings. The board is gorgeous, feels great, and I’ve been aching to skate it. Unfortunately, in order to afford the deck, I had to get one of those “job” things, which has left me no time to ride, save for my morning bomb down to the train station. Yes, I’m a corporate bitch now and my after-work routine generally boils down to the commute home, dinner, a couple beers and bed. Whee. I was very excited, then, for my next two days off, so I could really break the board in.
This lasted one hour.
Joel and I hit the Hillsboro park and despite the fact that I haven’t so much as tried to pop a flip for nearly two months, I fell right back into it, picking my usual repertoire of tricks very quickly and even surprising myself with a couple I don’t normally land. It was looking like it was going to be a pretty good session when I boosted a goddamn ollie off one of the hips, realized I wasn’t going to stay over the board correctly, and opted to step off — something you do on a skateboard a million times a day. Somehow, I came down juuuust right, with my foot at juuuust the right angle that all of my momentum was transferred into my knee, popping it inwards.
My train of thought went something like this:
“Oh sweet, this ollie is fuckin huge”
“Err I’m not going to land this right, time to step off”
“Well, better luck next time I GGGGUUUUAAAAGGHGHHHHHJESUSFUCKMYFUCKINGKNEEEEEEEEEAAAGGGHHHH oh bitchin, I have insurance AAAAGGHHHHHHHCCCCCUUKKKKKKKHHCKC”
The next several minutes were spent rolling on the ground coming up with new swear words and pleading with my leg to not be broken. Once I had convinced myself my leg was still attached, I moved onto convincing myself that I would stand up and walk this off. This nearly worked. Sure, it took me 20 minutes to get back to the car, and I had to pause every 15 steps to catch my breath and swallow vomit, but I showed that knee who’s boss.
It’s still early, but depending on how my knee feels tonight, I may be calling in broken to work tomorrow, since I obviously will have a little difficulty getting to the train station. The worrying part is I’m really beginning to question how long I can keep doing this to my body, especially since I really make no other effort to maintain it. If skateboarding at this age is going to mean carrying a duffel bag of tofu, guava juice and bottles of multivitamins and ginkgo biloba like Skatin’ Satan™, well…let’s just say we’re going to find out what I love more: skateboarding or not putting effort into maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
On the positive side, of my two bad knees this is definitely the worse knee, so it’s not like I messed up my good bad knee. On the other hand, the last time I hyperextended (junior year in high school), I quit skating stairs. We’ll see how bad this one scares me.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Did you cry? I bet you cried.
You’re such a bitch.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Dude, look at how ripped Skatin’ Satan™ is. Clearly all those double deck spacewalks do something.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I think it hurt too much to cry.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
bill stop killing the stoke and just walk it off
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Haha, I just remembered seeing how hard Skatin’ Satan™ rocked at Anthrax. He was there to rip it. Nosh.
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Jesus Bill, “Skate or die” not “skate or knee hurts” skate your body until it breaks bad enough to kill you.
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:51 pm
This morning the tightness had climbed down my calf, rendering my leg completely unusable for most of the day. This evening, my girlfriend coaxed me into a bath where I read a book while she served me white russians. After an hour I was finally able to extend my leg all the way.
Skate injuries aren’t so bad. I’ll be back on my board soon enough.