I have no natural talent for longboarding. I’ve been on one twice and managed to injure myself both times. The second time I was wearing elbow and knee pads and a helmet and still managed to make myself bleed.
Today I watched a few videos about how to longboard, including this one:
As you can see, Margaret Wallis-Duffy (!) rides a longboard smoothly for about 20 feet on her first try. IS SHE A SUPERHERO? All my rides together haven’t yet added up to 20 feet, and I’ve bled from my knee, elbow, ankle and shin, and also damaged my wrist. TWICE.
Now I will admit that it doesn’t help when the surfaces I’ve been riding on look like this:
I mean, when you land on that, you’re going to bleed. But it’s more fundamental than that.
Apparently I have no balance. I can ride a bicycle with no hands. I can stand on one foot. I can walk along a balance beam at least a bit. Or along the top of a wall. But put me on a longboard and I can’t even stand up. I fell at one point WHILE NOT MOVING. Just standing there and BAM meet the ground.
I’m committed to figuring this out. Honestly, though, I’m a little scared of it. It’s exciting to get hurt, in a way, but not so exciting that I relish the chance to cut open new parts of my body. But I’m not giving up. I’m horribly out of shape, I’m 41, and I apparently possess the on-land coordination of a wounded manatee. But I will learn to ride this goddamn thing if it kills me.
Let me rephrase that.
You have too many jobs to do to get badly injured. Take up frisbee.
I think it’s cool you’re challenging yourself in way that does not come naturally for you. It’s all too easy for us to fall into doing what is “comfortable” because we know we are good at it or even excel at it. The real effort comes in pushing ourselves outside the comfort zone of our own capabilities. I say keep at it. But get more padding. (Also, a blooper reel would be nice.) xo.