Easing Up

It has probably been two straight weeks, maybe even longer, since I have touched my own skateboard. I need to go out and skate to relieve all this tension. All this tension is coming from these end of the year assignments that I fear I might not be able to complete. I always stress out, but end up doing good in the end. The stress is what pushes me to do such a great job. I need the stress. Without it, I will crumble down into a worthless slacker. I am starting to miss out a lot on friends and such because of doing these projects. I have not had a session ever since two Fridays ago. But, this will all be over soon, and it will be summer. I will finally be able to hang out and play with my friends for hours without having to worry about school or grades for at least another two months.

I plan to put this summer to good use. Last summer, my friends and I had progressed our skateboarding by a lot. One of them started landing 360 flips, the other got dolphin flips, and I finally got stylish pop shuvits every try, landing them on the bolts of the skateboard ("proper form"). It is a shame that I am taking a break from skateboarding because I had just landed two kickflips of mild height, on the bolts (proper form), within a month. I was so happy because I only landed one a year ago, and lost hope after that, until now. I can finally feel the trick within my grasp. I want to be able to do them consistently.

What makes me even happier, is that I did the better looking and feeling kickflip under pressure. It happened two or three weeks ago. I was with a couple of friends at one of their houses. His house is pretty cool because he has a long driveway and his parents allow him to build many "skate-able" objects. One of them we were using a lot. It was a nine of ten foot long movable manual pad that was approximately mid shin height. Some of us were playing a game of L.I.N.E. This is some sort of complex game that we heard of on the Berrics. Well, I was losing, and my friend set the trick by doing a kickflip and after that manualed the ten foot pad. I was pissed at the time because I knew that I did not have kickflips. I had proper rotation, catch, and height (knee high sometimes), but my front foot just never stayed on. I watched my other friends go and do their attempts, but none of them were able to copy, so they received their letters. Then, it was finally my turn, I did my first try, did not get the proper flick, so the board spun wrong and I did not land it. The second time was the charm. I caught and landed it. I looked back at my friends and they were screaming with joy, but I remembered that I had to keep going and do the manual pad. I thought that I was not, going to make it, but I told myself that I will not let anything get in the way of this moment. So I ollied lifted up the front end of the board bracing myself for the back wheel impact. I felt total concentration flow throughout my body. And finally, just as briefly as it had started, the manual was over, and I was rolling away, back to my friends to celebrate my accomplishment.