Fear of Flying (no, not THAT one)

I'm on a plane to California.

[And the fact that I can sit on an airplane and type something and hit a button and suddenly all the wired-world can read it is something too amazing to contemplate - but that's a topic for another post.]

Sitting in the airport waiting to board, I realized that although I'm looking forward to this trip, I wasn't really looking forward to the plane ride. And that realization surprised me, because for years I travelled as often as I could. I loved the anticipation, the take-off, the opportunity (when weather and flight plans permitted) to look out the window and identify landmarks (including once, on a trip back from Richmond, my parents' street and rooftop!).

But today I was a little unsettled, as I have been every time I've boarded a plane for the last ten or more years.

I know part of my discomfort comes from 24/7 coverage (on tv and/or online) of airplane disasters. And part comes with the territory of being a parent ("what will happen to the children if..."). But I also wonder if part of this fear just comes naturally with age.

When I was younger my brother and I often went skiing with our dad. I clearly remember my brother racing down a black diamond trail without me - although we were skiing at about the same level at that point in time (not quite ready for an expert trail, I might add). And I remember thinking that it was because he was too young to know to be scared. (If memory serves...and it might not...he was no more than 7 years old at the time.)

As a child, I believe I thought growing up would mean being less afraid.  And I suppose in some ways I am less afraid of some things.  I still occasionally get butterflies in my stomach before making a presentation, for example, but I am able to draw on years of experience, take a deep breath, and settle those butterflies by remembering that the worst that will happen is I’ll make a fool of myself – and I’m too old to care about that anymore!  And growing older and becoming a parent cured me of my fear of spiders (well…maybe not cured…but at least made me pretend I wasn’t scared so I wouldn’t pass along that fear to my kids).  And I’m less afraid to try new things – at least as long as those things don’t involve my fear of heights!  (I will NEVER go bungee jumping.)

But I’m definitely more afraid of things like falling down (it HURTS to fall down at my age!), getting sick (who’s going to handle the kids’ schedules?), and, of course, flying, which is not so much a fear as jitters (read: a panic) about what would happen to the kids if something happened to me, which is all about parenting, which really is very scary…

If you’re still reading, you must be wondering what this has to do with skateboarding since, after all, this is supposed to be a skateboarding blog or, at least, a blog about being the parent of a skateboarder.  And that’s exactly where I circle back to being afraid.

I wonder if skateboarding becomes more difficult with age – not just because some skills are more easily learned by the young – but because of fear.

When he started at age 5 or so, Sk8terdude had no fear.  In fact, as a parent it was a little worrisome to watch him try bigger and bigger ramps and skate faster and faster without seeming to have a care in the world.  But he’s older now, and a little wiser about things like gravity, and it’s a lot further to the ground than it was when he was younger.

When does this start to become part of the equation for skaters or for athletes in other extreme sports?  For example, if you don’t try the megaramp before you reach a certain age, are you destined to avoid it your entire life?

Is there a point at which skateboarders stop trying to learn new tricks and just celebrate a successful session (i.e. one without injury)?  Is this the ultimate obstacle - the one that skaters need to conquer in order to be great?  Is it that they don’t ever feel the fear, or that they learn to ignore it?  As a parent, how do I teach my child not to let the fear keep him from pursuing his dreams?

I watch Sk8terdude launch himself off the ramp and up into the air over and over and over again and I can’t help but wonder whether there will come a day when he’s afraid to let himself fly.

Time Warp Tuesday

It's Time Warp Tuesday - a Bereaved and Blessed blog-hop in which writers are asked to revisit a previous post and reflect on the journey they've taken since then.  Today's topic is "mothering" and, by chance, exactly one year ago today I wrote a post about my (un)official title as the "Best Mom in the Whole World" - a title I may or may not still hold depending on which of my children you speak to in any given moment in time.

Certainly, from Sk8terdude's perspective, I've done a pretty decent job in the Sk8termom category.  We've been on several skateboarding road trips since last May, including the biggie to SkatePark of Tampa in February.  We went to the Streetleague championship last August (despite the last-minute change of date due to the impending hurricane!).  I've spent countless hours sitting in parent lounges, videotaping, editing, and posting to this blog and, for the most part, I've done it with a fairly good attitude, considering the fact that in a million years I never would have anticipated being the mom of a skateboarder.

But we've also had some not-so-great moments this year, including Sk8terdude's latest trip to the orthopedist yesterday afternoon for what turns out to be yet another broken bone...in the pinky of his right hand.

Don't ask me how many bones he's already broken, because I've truly lost count.  (For those of you considering letting your kids skateboard, the non-skateboarding injuries still outnumber the skateboarding ones, but not by much...).  So after years of people cracking jokes about bubble-wrapping him for safety, I'm starting to wonder:  am I being the best mom by continuing to support his love of skateboarding?  Or would I really earn the "best mom" title by putting my foot down and forcing him to give up his passion?

With Mother's Day in plain sight, and with a look back at the last 12 months, I have to wonder what's really in his best interest long-term.

It was downright embarrassing to show up at the orthopedist's office yesterday.  And I haven't called either set of grandparents to tell them because, honestly, I don't want to hear their reactions.  (I won't be able to hide for long.  My in-laws will be arriving in two weeks for a short visit - and Sk8terdude will still have a purple cast.  My guess is they will notice!)

In preparation for a workshop I'll be running in June, I recently asked a group of parents to tell me what keeps them up at night.  One mom said she worried that she would be "blinded by love and not see something right in front of [her] eyes that would prevent the expected outcome of raising happy, confident, compassionate, and wise children."

Now I'm not sleeping at night, either...but maybe that up-all-night-worrying is the essence of motherhood.

Double the Trouble and Double the Fun at 2nd Nature

This morning Sk8terdude and I picked up one of his friends and we took the drive - the long drive - back to 2nd Nature in Peekskill, reminding me why we need an indoor skatepark closer to home!  It's 31°F and snow flurries are blowing on this blustery day, so I am thankful for somewhere warm to sit while they skate, but, SERIOUSLY, the distance is really getting to me.

I was glad to have Sk8terbuddy along for the ride.  The boys are the same age and share a similar obsession with skateboarding, skateboarders, and skateboarding videos.  They are equally determined to get sponsored (the ultimate prize for tween skateboarders everywhere) and their discussion in the car was amusing in its own mind-numbing way:

Sk8terdude:  "Hey, did you see skater x do trick y at skatepark z?"

Sk8terbuddy:  "Yeah!  That was sick.  Did you see skater a do trick b and skatepark c?"

Sk8terdude:  "Yeah!  That was cool."

Sk8terbuddy:  "How much longer until we're there?"

This was repeated - ad nauseum - for most of the ride.  But at one point the boys started talking about their own tricks, and I must admit I started paying a little more attention.  What began as a fairly benign cataloguing of their recent accomplishments (hey, I landed the wall-ride - me, too) slowly started to sound like the competitive one-upmanship that frequently occurs between any two boys (can you backside/tailslide the quarter-pipe? - yeah, can you?) and quickly that deteriorated into the type of challenge (you should try this - yeah, you should try that) that, in my experience, often leads to someone getting hurt...and that someone is, more often than not, MY someone.

I tried to step in with some motherly advice.

"Boys, you know, today isn't a competition.  The idea is to go have fun together at the skatepark.  You're each going to learn different tricks at different times, and that's fine.  You don't have to try something just because someone else says so...and you don't have to try anything you're not ready to do."

The disdainful silent response from the back seat was palpable.

So here we are, at 2nd Nature, again.  I'm typing in the parent lounge.  The boys are skating in the park.  I'm afraid to look!

Skateboarding Shutdown

Okay, technically, skateboarding has not been shut down. But in the aftermath of Hurrican Irene, we have no power, no water, and no easy Internet access. I'm preserving I-phone usage for important texts and updates on local conditions (like the welcome news that the nearest Starbucks re-opened this morning). Once power is fully restored I will post photos and an update from our trip to see the Streetleague finals in New Jersey.

Stupid Is as Stupid Does!

I was enjoying my last few days of kid-free summer.  No worries.  No hanging out in parent lounges.  Sk8terdad and I stopped at the mall and he ran inside to pick something up.  Knowing he would be right out (the item he needed was in the first store inside the door), I waited in the car, thinking I could relax for a few minutes.

Suddenly I heard a loud rumble and some shouts - and I saw this:

It's dumb stunts like this that give skateboarders a bad reputation.  Seriously.  This video (with apologies for the quality, but there's only so much you can do in a parking garage) was taken in the middle of a very busy afternoon at the local mall.

These two idiots raced down all the levels of the garage, over and over.  (I shot the video the second time they rolled by.)  The turns are tight and blind for drivers.  And I would point out that they aren't even wearing helmets but, really, a helmet won't matter much when they get hit by a car.

Where is mall security???  And what were these two drinking when they decided this was a good idea?

Yes, I called security.

I hope Sk8terdude is never dumb enough to try something like this but, if he is, I hope there's a mom (or someone) in the parking lot who cares enough to take action.

Sometimes it's not enough to "lounge."

Get a Grip

Sk8terdude's latest board is starting to chip at the tail, and since he's heading to sleepaway camp for the next month, I figured he might need a replacement board.  But the cost of new boards is getting prohibitive, so I finally went ahead and ordered a bunch of blank decks online in order to save some money.

The decks (buy five, get one free) arrived today.  We ordered medium concave 7-ply Canadian maple American-made boards.  I don't know how to tell if these are really 7-ply or Canadian or made in the USA, but I guess I'll take their word for it.

At first glance, Sk8terdude seemed to like the feel of the board and the cut.  He thinks he will get a lot of "pop" with the medium concave.

Of course, wearing socks and olleying on the carpet might not be the best test...

Although the decks can be ordered with grip tape, we decided we would wait and have them gripped once they arrived.  For those of you unfamiliar with skateboarding, the grip tape is the sandpaper-like surface that is added to the deck so that skaters' feet don't slip when they are skating.

At some point, every skater needs to learn to put his/her own grip tape on a board, but since the process includes using a razor to cut the excess tape off the sides, I haven't been anxious to let Sk8terdude do it himself.  (We are already experts at broken bones....I don't really want to add stitches to our repertoire - particularly when he's supposed to leave for camp in a few days.)

But at some point every skating parent needs to let go.  So despite my concern, and with a nod to Free Range Parenting, I decided it was time to give it a try.  And since it was already late in the day, we drove to the nearest skate shop.  New Canaan/Ridgefield Ski and Sport recently moved their Ridgefield store to the former Rugged Bear building on Route 7.  I purchased the grip tape and asked if they would supervise Sk8terdude while he put the grip tape on the board.

We purchased Jessup grip tape, which is sold in individual strips.  After peeling away the backing to expose the adhesive, Sk8terdude positioned the tape onto the deck.  He came close to needing a do-over...as you can see in this photo, the tape is positioned all the way up against one edge.  (Usually people center the deck under the tape.)  Fortunately, he got the tape just far enough that it was okay.

He smoothed down the tape, releasing all the air bubbles, and proceeded to the next step:  running the shaft of a screwdriver all the way around the edge of the board in order to crease the grip tape where it would need to be trimmed.

This process was harder than it sounds. Sk8terdude needed to apply a lot of pressure on the screwdriver to get the crease and to break through the grip tape.  Once that was done, it was time for the cutting.  Now I have to say that in all the times I've seen this done, every person in every skate shop has used a razor blade.  Free range or not, a razor blade sounded like a bad idea to me.  So out of my bag I pulled the box cutter.  [What?  Doesn't everyone carry a box cutter???  Okay.  I admit I brought the box cutter with me, figuring that it would be safer for him to use - since it has a handle - than a regular razor blade.]  Ken (the guy who was helping us at the shop) showed Sk8terdude how to hold down the board with one hand and slice through the grip tape with the other.  There were two women working in the shop.  Clearly both moms themselves, they said out loud what I was shouting in my head:  "CUT AWAY FROM YOUR BODY!"  Apparently, that isn't so easy when cutting grip tape, and since Ken is lefthanded and Sk8terdude is righthanded, the demonstration was a little complicated, too!

They worked together:



And then Sk8terdude finished on his own:

No blood...no stitches...  I'd call that a success!

Is he too young for a box cutter???  I'm still not certain.  I did end the day with a stern reminder that despite his success, he still does NOT have my permission to use the box cutter without adult supervision.

Some New Trucks, a New Skatepark, and a Bunch of New Skateboarding Parents

We've been busy.

Sk8terdude likes to skate his trucks really loose.  So loose, in fact, that this week the Thunder Hollow trucks fell off his board a few times and, eventually, it became clear that he would need to replace them.  There just wasn't enough thread left on the bolt to anchor them to the board.  (Or something like that...)

I was in Greenwich on Thursday, so I stopped in at Capsule Boardshop for a quick fix and in the process I got a mini "trucks" lesson.  For those of you who don't skate, the trucks are the hardware under the skateboard that hold the wheels.  They come in different sizes, which are determined either by the length of the axle OR by the length of the hanger (the shorter piece encasing the axle).  And some companies report size in inches and others in millimeters, so it's important to know what you are looking for when you shop for trucks.  For example, a 129 mm Indy truck is approximately equal to a 5" Venture.

Since Sk8terdude is skating on an 8.5" board right now, he needs trucks that bring the wheels close to the edge of the board.  For 8" and higher width boards, 139 mm trucks are the most popular size, so he is now sporting a new set of 139 mm Indies.  Fortunately, his wheels still have some life in them, so the damage to my wallet was less than I anticipated.

Despite an unexpected detour through the back country of Greenwich, I did make it home in time for Sk8terdude to break in the new trucks at S.P.I.R.I.T.. where they are gearing up for the big contest on June 25th (raindate 26th).  Details should be posted on their website any day now...

On Friday I was in a parent lounge of a different sort...watching Sk8terdude earn his purple belt in karate.  He worked hard this spring to qualify for the test.  We celebrated that evening and he's still grinning from ear to ear.

Saturday found us driving down to Rye, New York, where Sk8terdude had been invited to a birthday party at the Rye Skatepark.  It's a small park, perfect for the mostly-beginners party.  It was our first time at Rye and, if we lived in town, I suppose we would be there regularly, but it did give me a renewed appreciation for our "local" park in Ridgefield, which is larger and nicer, as far as I'm concerned.

The birthday boy, a family friend a few years younger than Sk8terdude, has taken lessons through 2nd Nature, and the 2nd Nature guys were supposed to give lessons at the party.  Unfortunately, due to a scheduling misunderstanding, the party started, the kids were ready to learn to skate (there were a bunch who had never been on a skateboard before), and there were no instructors in sight.

We corralled the parents of the newbies and Sk8terdude showed the boys how to push and glide on the flat surface.  We had them practice that for awhile, then moved them onto the ramp with the least slope (off the funbox), with Sk8terdude and the parents holding their hands as they tried rolling downhill.  Fortunately, the kids all had a great time.  Eventually 2nd Nature sent a friend of a friend over to help out - although he arrived at the same time as the pizza, so guess what won out?  He was terrific - and patient - and worked with some of the boys after they enjoyed a slice.

Some of the parents (and the birthday boy's grandparents) were a bit nervous about skateboarding as a sport.  Mostly they are concerned about injury.  Since our trip to Kona I can no longer say that Sk8terdude has never broken a bone skateboarding but, hey, it was only a pinky!

None of these parents think twice about buying their child a bicycle, but consider these statistics from Safe Kids USA: 


They also note:

For all ages, bicycle crashes follow only to riding animals as the leading cause of serious injury due to sports/recreational activity.

How many parents who don't want their children to skateboard think nothing of signing them up for horseback riding lessons?

Don't get me wrong - I'm NOT saying skateboarding carries no risk.  But if you make sure your child wears correct protective equipment, skates only in supervised skateparks, and learns proper techniques, you can reduce the risk of serious injury.

After our trip to Rye?  Sk8terdude was back to S.P.I.R.I.T. for more skating....

Future Skatepark Hopes to Go Green

I was in Milford, Pennsylvania on Monday, where I happened to meet twins Joe and Sam Kelley, who are attempting to build a skatepark in an otherwise skate-deprived land.  (Trust me.  Last summer we took Sk8terdude to the skatepark in Port Jervis, NY when we were heading to see OlderBrother on Visiting Day at camp.  Let's just say that a few ramps and a fun box in an empty parking lot do not a skatepark make...)

The Kelleys have begged and borrowed their way to most of what they need for this park, including land (thanks to a family member).  They hope to bring the Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! motto to skateboarding (and hope to keep the project light on the wallet) and to that end they are searching high and low for skateparks who are replacing equipment so that they can refurbish and reuse old ramps, etc. rather than purchase everything new.

According to the young men, the most critical missing piece is Skatelite or alternative products with which they can resurface the donated items.

So...if you or someone you know is retiring anything they could use, and if you are located even remotely in this part of the county (recently they drove to Indiana to haul away ramps), give them a holler.

And be sure to tell them Sk8terdude (or his mom) sent you.

A Chipped Tail and Pretty in Pink

For most of today we had good weather in Connecticut, which meant Sk8terdude was back at S.P.I.R.I.T. despite his still-broken finger.  About 90 minutes into his session, he called home to say that he "landed hard and chipped the tail" and needed me to drive back with a replacement deck.

Um...it's only been three weeks since we purchased the last deck...and that one replaced another one that was only a month old.  Can you hear the giant sucking sound in my piggy bank?

So although I'm glad I bought two decks at once from Enclave Skate Shop (since it meant I didn't have to go shopping for a new deck today), I'm beginning to think it would be easier and cheaper to start chopping down all the maple trees in the backyard to make our own.  (LOL - I'm sure Sk8terdude would just LOVE that idea!!)

I am seriously considering buying him blank decks in bulk and using those instead, an idea that one of the skatepark monitors tossed out while (very kindly - thanks, George!) attaching Sk8terdude's trucks and wheels to the replacement deck.

What do you think?  Have any of you tried this?  Any suggestions for reliable sources?  There are a bunch of online resources, but how do I know if the quality will be any good?  (On the other hand, at approximately $10 per blank deck, it might be worth the risk even if they aren't so great...)

By this point in the afternoon, the clouds were rolling in and the skies were threatening a major thunderstorm (oh yeah, The Weather Channel was predicting one, too), so I decided to hang out at the park in case the rain began and Sk8terdude needed to beat a speedy retreat in order to keep his cast dry.

We used to use the Pro-Cel Waterproof Cast Liner material made by Gore Industries (of Gore-Tex fame), which made having a cast significantly easier for all of us.  Sk8terdude went to Florida twice with waterproof casts:  once to Disneyworld, where it made water rides and the hotel pool possible, and once to visit his Florida grandparents, where he was even able to go snorkeling in the ocean.  Unfortunately, Gore has discontinued the product line (maybe we were their best customers?  we were certainly their biggest fans!!), so this cast means rain is a problem.

While I was hanging out in my "personal parent lounge" (yeah, the car), another mom arrived with her two kids.  Although they live in NYC they have a weekend/summer home up here, so we know them from the town beach as well as the skatepark.  The daughter, V, was sporting this skateboard:

I was really delighted to see the hot pink grip tape!  I'm not personally into pink, but clearly she is, and she couldn't have been more excited to have something different on her skateboard.  Unlike the barriers to entry I talked about with the women at Kona Skate Park, this was clearly an effort on the part of some savvy marketing executive to encourage more girls to skate.

Or so I thought.

Turns out that as soon as the boys in the store saw V getting pink tape on her board, they all started clamoring for the same color!  And a quick google search showed me that more than one company makes pink grip tape, so clearly it's in demand by more than just the handful of girls who skate.

I wonder if Sk8terdude will jump on the bandwagon and demand a hot pink cast next time he needs one?

It's Official - a Salter 2 fracture

We pulled into the orthopedist's office five minutes before they opened this morning. Since we are "frequent flyers" here, they double-booked us into an appointment and got Sk8terdude an x-ray. Not surprisingly, he has a salter 2 fracture, meaning he broke the bone and the break turned and went into the growth plate.

This is what the bruising and swelling looked like this morning.  He's getting a bright green cast and then I'll drop him off at school.  Good news:  the cast will come off four days before the first skateboard competition of the season.

He took this photo on his way to school:

How bad is it that we've already started repeating cast colors???

Kona Post Script: Footprints and Memories

There's a saying about protecting the environment that says "Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but memories."

We didn't leave many footprints at Kona, although Sk8terdude probably left a little blood here and there, thanks to some minor scrapes.

We did take home many terrific memories...and what seems to be a broken finger:

He jammed the pinky around 2 pm on Friday while riding down the high side of the pink bowl.  Good parent that I am, I told him to suck it up and keep skating.  After all, it wasn't going to hurt LESS if he was sitting in the hotel with nothing to do... We flew to Jacksonville so he could skate at Kona, and he was going to skate at Kona no matter what!  Besides, it's not like he skates ON his pinky...

All in all, a fabulous few days in Florida - and on the flight home we started planning next year's skate trip.



Kona - The Parent Lounge

We're back at Kona today. The sun is out and, for Jacksonville in May, it's delightfully cool - about 75 degrees Fahrenheit - and there's a light breeze. Perfect for me!


Sk8terdude was here as soon as the doors opened at 1 p.m. He took a one hour private lesson with Grady, a local teen who's been skating here for about seven years.

While he was skating, I was at my favorite parent lounge: one of the many Starbucks which populate the Jacksonville landscape. (Is it just me, or does everyone think Jacksonville is just one giant strip mall?) Many thanks to L. (my friend B's sister) who took an hour out of her busy parenting life to meet me for some conversation and some passion tea lemonade.


When L. headed out to pick up her kids at school, I returned to Kona, where I'm currently blogging from the parent lounge (pictured here).




When they said the parent lounge consisted of a few booths in the skate shop, they weren't kidding! Fortunately, Erin and Amber, the two young women behind the counter, have been both friendly AND informative.

Erin tells me that the skate park covers approximately 1.5 acres, although the property totals about 6 acres. Open since 1977, it is the oldest continuously operating commercial park in the United States (maybe the world?). Over the years they've hosted everything from the Tony Hawk Pro-Tour to the first-ever vert ramp contest in skateboard history.

I asked Erin and Amber if they are also skateboarders. Both admitted that although they used to skate, they've mostly given up the sport. We had an interesting conversation about the barriers to entry for women in skateboarding, including the fact that the male-dominated park can be intimidating to women (especially young women) trying to learn. Kona does host "Ladies Night" on Monday evenings, when women can skate free, and there's a discount every day for women who want to skate at the park.

According to Amber, Kona also broke ground by hiring women to work in the skate shop. And although she acknowledges the sexist undertones of the decision (after all, cute girls behind the counter might lead to additional business from hormonal teen boys!), she also says she loves putting the boards together. With a lot of friends who skate here regularly, Amber says the job is fun, even when she works six-day weeks (in the summer) and long hours (during contests).

Apparently there are some young girls who skate here (although I've only seen two so far) and I'm told there are some skating moms, too...but not THIS mom!

Kona Skate Park - First Impressions

Well let's start with big...as in enormous...as in GINORMOUS (a word I might have heard from Sk8terdude today if Kona weren't so large that I couldn't see him half the time, much less hear him)... The skatepark covers so much area, in fact, that I needed to pan the camera from two separate angles in order to video the entire thing.

Now for some annoying technological reason that is beyond my sleep-deprived brain to comprehend, I haven't been able to get those videos onto this post, so hang in there and I promise to post them...somehow...eventually, so you can see for yourselves. In the meantime, you'll just have to take my word for it. (Or go online and search YouTube for some Kona videos. I'm sure there are a gazillion of them.)

We pulled into the parking lot a little after 5 p.m. Since it's Jacksonville in May, the sun was still shining, the sky was bright blue, and the temperature was just under 80 degrees fahrenheit. I don't think we made it to the check in desk before I was bitten by the first mosquito. (note to self: buy bug spray along with sunscreen tomorrow a.m.!)

I filled out the waiver while Sk8terdude watched the REQUIRED Kona orientation video, which explained park rules (helmets...call your moves...yell "loose board" if your board gets away from you, etc.), and showed him which areas of the park were for beginners and which were for advanced skaters. I have to say I was really glad to see the video (I mean, I was glad that it existed and that Sk8terdude had to watch it). The park is really intimidating to newcomers and the video helped explain a lot. I love that Kona takes skateboarding safety seriously.

While he was watching, I was paying - or not paying - for him to skate. During a quick look at their website during our planning stages, I noticed that kids can skate free for five consecutive days if they have all As and Bs on their report cards. Luckily for me, Sk8terdude's most recent progress report qualified him for free skating, as well as a discount ($5 instead of $7) on the one-time registration fee. I brought a copy of the report card with me and took advantage of the opportunity to save the cost of entry for our three days here.

The park was busier than I would have expected on midweek after 5 p.m., but the bigger surprise to me was the number of parents (fathers) skating with their kids. Kona has a "parents skate free with paid admission for children" policy - but I promise that's not enough to get ME on a skateboard! It was great to see, however, and one dad gets a big shout-out and thank you. He called in his two kids and their two friends and introduced them all to Sk8terdude and, within minutes, Sk8terdude was skating with a pack of "new best friends." Later, as we were leaving, the dad said he would be out of town tomorrow, but he would make sure his daughter drove the boys over after school to skate with Sk8terdude again. Talk about a warm welcome!

My advanced planning paid off in a few other ways, but failed miserably in one really important one. When I called Kona last week to finalize details (and book a private skate lesson for tomorrow), I was careful to ask key questions.

Does Kona have a parent lounge?

They told me the parent lounge was an area in the skate shop with booths and tables.

Does Kona have free wi-fi in the parent lounge?

They told me the parent lounge does indeed have free wi-fi.

They neglected to tell me (but I was delighted to see) that there are also many areas outside where parents can watch the action. In addition to bleachers near the "street course," there are picnic tables on a deck overlooking the lower half of the park and, my personal favorite, picnic tables in a covered area up above the bowls. This is a view from down below:

And here's the best part: there is an electrical outlet up there and...MAYBE...the wi-fi signal will be strong enough for me to sit outside tomorrow and work (or blog, or waste time surfing the internet) while enjoying this beautiful weather.


As for my big research failure - it was a question I never thought to ask:


What about the bathrooms???

If you've been reading this blog from the beginning, I can already hear you snickering. (If not, you can read my very first post, which includes the bathroom saga, here.)

Well it turns out that the Kona bathrooms are currently being renovated. That's probably great news for local folks and future visitors. But for us, this week, the only options are the port-o-potties outside in the hot Florida sun or a trip down the road to anyplace with running water. I'm sure Sk8terdude won't care...but I will!

Black and Blue but Better than Usual...Sk8terdude also pays the price of skateboarding!

Just for the record, we do NOT beat him with a baseball bat! These are the lumps, bumps, and scrapes that go hand in hand (shin in shin?) with skateboarding. Sk8terdude has been practicing some tricks that involve the board spinning around and, until he masters the tricks, most of the spinning ends with the board hitting his legs. In fact, his legs looked worse a few days ago, but I kept forgetting to take the picture.

Note to grandparents: stop freaking out. He's fine. And happy. And he sees these bruises as impressive testament to his perseverence.

Enclave Answers My Questions (Part 1)...and a Cautionary Tale about Helmets

Many thanks to Tony and Alex at Enclave Skate Shop in New Haven, who saw my skateboarding questions and decided they would step in and try to answer them all.  Their first installment is here, where they've done an amazing job with the first set of questions!

This should be required reading for all parents of new skateboarders...and maybe even not-so-new skateboarders.  With about four years of skateboarding behind us, I don't think of us as beginner parents, but we still have a lot to learn about the sport.

Safety is a big issue for me - as I hope it would be for any parent - and I was particularly glad that the Enclave guys tackled the helmet issue.  They write:

One of the biggest differences between a standard bicycle helmet and a skateboard helmet is durability. A bicycle helmet is designed to be replaced after an impact as the styrofoam and plastic is designed to crush to absorb heavy impacts. A skateboard helmet absorbs the impact in the plastic dome and soft fabric/foam inserts inside and can withstand hundreds of impacts without failing.

We have always had a skateboard helmet for Sk8terdude (and OlderBrother, when he was still skating), but it always amazes me when I go to the skatepark and I see parents strapping bike helmets on their kids...and 9 times out of 10 those bike helmets aren't fitted properly, either.  And it boggles my mind that the skateboarding industry and the insurance companies aren't pushing for more stringent safety measures, particularly when it comes to helmets.  (Although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised here in Connecticut, where helmets are also optional for motorcycle riders, which is even more mind-boggling to me.)

A study of the national trauma database confirms that "Skateboard-related injuries are associated with a high incidence of traumatic brain injury..."  Why would anyone want to risk permanent brain damage just so they could skate without a helmet?  For more information about skateboard helmet safety and standards, click here.

Even WITH a helmet, there are no guarantees.

In June, 2008, Sk8terdude went to the now-defunct Vertigo Skatepark for what was supposed to be a fun Saturday afternoon of skating.  Sk8terdad settled down in the parent lounge with a good book, but about ten minutes after they arrived, Sk8terdude returned to the parent lounge, crying and asking to go home.  He was hysterical, and asking for me, so Sk8terdad packed him into the car and phoned to let me know they were on their way back, saying that he wasn't sure what had happened.  I spoke to Sk8terdude briefly, but he was hard to understand through his tears, and he wasn't giving me much information, just repeating over and over that "it hurt."

I ran out to meet them in the driveway.  When the door opened, I saw that Sk8terdude had a rapidly developing black and blue mark on his face.  It looked like the edge of the skateboard might have hit him.  I took him inside, handed him an ice pack, and tried to figure out what happened.  As the conversation progressed, my concern increased.  Sk8terdude asked repeatedly where OlderBrother was (outside, playing football with a friend in the front yard).  Then he asked me what happened.  When I said that I wasn't sure, but that I thought that either he had fallen at the skatepark or the skateboard had hit him in the head, he asked me which skatepark.  It took a moment for me to register that he was serious.  He had no idea where he had been skating, and, as it turned out, what I thought was unwillingness to tell me what had happened was actually an inability to tell me - because he didn't remember how he had gotten hurt.

As it turned out, that wasn't all he didn't remember.

We took him to the emergency room.  The doctor started her assessment by asking Sk8terdude some simple questions, including the standard, "How old are you?"

Sk8terdude gave the wrong answer.

I was surprised (and now REALLY upset).  "Don't you remember that you just had a birthday?" I asked him.

It turned out he didn't remember his birthday, or the fact that to celebrate we had taken him to his very first Yankees game, or a whole host of other things.  In the end, it seemed that he had lost about six weeks worth of memories.

One CAT scan later and we were out of the ER with a confirmed diagnosis of a concussion, instructions to follow up with our pediatrician, a very black and blue face, and two very upset parents.

Over time, Sk8terdude has regained his memory of the baseball game, although he still doesn't know what really happened at Vertigo that day.  We know he was skating the big half-pipe at the time.  (There were no cameras at Vertigo, so there's no videotape to review.  We phoned the park when we were on the way to the hospital, since we knew any information about how the injury occurred would be helpful, but none of the kids skating that day saw him get hurt - or were willing to say that they saw it.)  To this day we don't know if the skateboard hit him or if he slipped and hit his head on the edge of the half-pipe, and I suppose we'll never know.

It was many weeks before he was allowed to skate again (doctor's orders...my orders might have kept him out longer).  And many months before I let Sk8terdad take him to the skatepark instead of me.  Yes, I know that was completely irrational.  The injury had absolutely nothing to do with which one of us was sitting in the parent lounge that day.  But for months I would watch him skate, instead of reading a book, etc., because somehow I felt like if I was actually watching, he couldn't, or wouldn't, get hurt...or at least if something did happen, I would be able to tell the doctors what had transpired.

Sk8terdude has long since recovered from that concussion.  Me...not so much.

I know that most parks don't require helmets for skaters over the age of 18 but I hope Sk8terdude NEVER skates without one.  I can't even let myself think about what would have happened that day if he hadn't been wearing his.

May this never happen to any of you.