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[Rio Ohki]

Scott Learns to Skateboard: Day 2 (08/05.08)

Essential items bought for Day 2:

Suntan lotion (Boots Soltan for Kids/Ginger people, factor 50)
2 T-Shirts from Primark, and a pair of sunglasses.
A Hat from H&M

The aforementioned hat is not being removed at any point until the sunburn on my head subsides and turns back to it's usual pallid state. This is the curse of the ginger, and as such my neck, and forehead are red as a post-box, as opposed to saying 'Pillar-box Red'(Tm), which, as I have learned with the aid of Altnation's number one Postie, KatinaKooker, has actually been trademarked by Royal Mail.

It's also the curse of the sunburned ginger that you will, if brave enough to venture outside, run into everybody (almost) that you know, and as such, I enjoyed the company of Pete(KatinaKooker), Laura (Fallen-Nemisis), Wee Dave (Wee Dave), Tom (Stem), Rachael (BunnyLingus), Christine (Who works with Laura), Mike (From the band), Rob (who also works with Laura), Eleanor (Ex) and Suzi (Who thought the forum was somewhere in Lenzie).

After buying said items, and loosening the trucks on my board a little more, I headed to the Park in Kelvingrove about 1pm in order to see if I could remember what I had learned the previous day.

To my utter delight, I have managed to improve ever so slightly. Whilst carving the bowl, So far I can now get around a good bit further before falling off in a tornado of limbs and obscenities, occasionally manage a kickturn (to kickturn is to lift the front of your board up, balance on your back wheels, and turn the board left or right, as far as you so wish) whilst on a slope of bowl, and also just about fly out and over the edge of said bowl. At the moment, it involves coming over the edge, panicking, standing on the edge and catching my board, however, this is a vast improvement on climbing out on hand and foot.

This of course, is nothing compared to Pete, who can pull off a flip (of the front or back variety, I forget) upon leaving the bowl, despite a hangover.

The other thing to make me smile that day was the fact that my enthusiasm has not, as of yet, waned in favour of sitting in my pants and watching films or playing online bingo. My board (and bank balance) have learned to live in fear of my awful attention span, but as of yet, the lure of the skate park is winning. It was also very nice to see some of the same faces from Day one skating, even the children who outclass me in every way.

I may have also pulled off my first semblance of a 'trick' outside Stavka (who do a damn fine chicken/Bacon/Cheese/Nom Burger. This 'Trick' involves four critical steps.

1: Running towards the board.
2: Jumping.
3: Landing on the board.
4: Not seeing the white light.

This is not big, or clever, or really any kind of 'trick' in the strictest sense. It is, sadly, the level I am working at, so I shall take what I can get.

Sadly, I must return to work tomorrow, so little skating to be done.
I'm incredibly happy to see people have been thinking about starting skating again after reading this, and aside from the sense of phenomenal cosmic power, it also allows the opportunity to bring up the question of indoor skate parks, as the good weather cannot last forever.

Thank you to all for the awesome feedback too, I love attention.

Happy skating

Scott.