Apart from a few suspicious looking old guys in tattered tracksuit bottoms and grubby beige jackets [I stay well away from them and their dog], there is absolutely NO-ONE in, near, or around Kelvingrove Skate Park this early in the morning. It’s 9.20 AM, and I’ve just boarded along Sauchihall Street to get here for that early morning skills session. The low grey clouds seem to blend in with the concrete of the park; making it seem a long way away from the carnival atmosphere the park can have when the sunshine, ice-cream van, pretty summer dresses and KBG are here. I guess it really is a blank canvas, just waiting to be brought to life.
So, determined I shall be the mighty painter carving brushstrokes of life across the park with the arc of my board, I stride into the park and am immediately confronted with The Enemy. Oh dear. I’d been warned about this. NME was very thorough in their album review. But seriously. I had been warned.
“Don’t get your grip tape wet.” – My friend, Mike Gormley.
“I moved from Britain to Spain because the weather is so wet.” – Some guy in a skateboard magazine.
“I used to cry when people wanted to go home or it started to rain as I wanted to go on and on but couldn’t.” – Some other guy from Manchester in the same skateboarding magazine.
I had come up against Skate Park Enemy No 1: Puddles. But here. They weren’t all over the park. I could skate round them right? And anyway, what’s so bad about getting a little wet? Is this whole “Ooooo the rain!!!” thing not a little wimpy?
With this in mind, I charged on. Maybe it’s because I’m from the Highlands of Scotland I have a higher tolerance of rain. But more likely it’s because I’m new to this and totally ignorant to the effects of rain on skateboarding.
Anyway, I had a blast! I couldn’t do the biggest wedge ramp I wanted to try as it had a puddle right at the top and right at the bottom. So I did a smaller one. Once I got bored of that, my snaking path in the park weaving round puddles led me to the small/ big bowl combo.
Ah. This is what I want to do. Z boys style. I want this kind of skating. Well. A small nucleus inside me does; the rest of my body is screaming “NO NO NOOOOOO DON’T DARE GO IN THERE!!!!!!!”. Defying this sensation, my stomach clenched to the size of a ping pong ball and my heart in my throat, I gingerly cruised along and dropped in the bowl. AND DIDN’T FALL!! So I kept trying and trying, and although I couldn’t steer in the bowl (so tricky!) I did manage the transition between small to big bowl. “FEEL MY GREATNESS” was the sensation experienced after this however inaccurate that was.
Before I go, I have to give a shout out to Adam from Newcastle who I met that day. Apart from the skiving thirteen year old ned who tried to buy a fag off me [“um, I don’t smoke mate”], Adam and I were the only people in the park at that time of the morning. He’s been skating for eight years, and taught me loads about doing an ollie [I managed to do one! Albeit one inch off the ground, but it’s a start!], tic-tacing [continually lifting and dropping the front of board whilst moving side to side, thus making forward motion], and “pumping the transition” which helps smooth movement between features in a park. I learnt a lot, and once again, it shows how experienced skaters are very good at encouraging newcomers to the game.
I may reach such dizzying heights of skill one day…
Bye!
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