The need for speed and skateboards

[dirtlooter]

When I was a kid, back around 1970, we were into skateboards like a lot of kids. I was living in San Antonio at the time in a huge trailer park. We would skateboard on the sidewalks and around inside the pavilion at the swimming pool. It was a pretty flat area there so hills were hard to find to really get going fast. A couple of years previously, my brother and I had made crude skateboards using old roller skates and we had a very steep hill with a sharp turn at the bottom. I think that finally after about twenty tries, one of us made it through the turn (but only a little ways.) We didn't have safety gear of any sort and ended up with the normal cuts and bruises as we crashed into grown up stuff at the bottom.

But now we had for real skateboards and were chomping at the bit to do jumps and go fast. Our jumps sucked and we were getting pretty bored when Steve, a friend, decided to sneak over and get down behind a car that was about to leave and hold onto the bumper. I tried to stop Steve but he assured me that he knew what he was doing and away they went. I remember Steve looking back with this big grin on his face as they picked up speed but then in a blur, Steve and skateboard were tumbling hard and fast. My brother and I ran as fast as we could to see how bad Steve was hurt. It seems that a patch of gravel didn't agree with the skateboard at all and as Steve go up, with him either.

Now I am not going to say that jeans and a long sleeve shirt would have saved his legs or arms etc but they might have helped a little bit. Ole Steve was a bloody mess and we were busy picking gravel out of his many wounds. Anyways, it was an eye opener for my younger brother who now decided that holding onto car bumpers was not the thing to do. And poor (stupid)Steve, about a week later he decided to jump into the swimming pool in spite of warnings. The chemicals in the water treatment don't like open wounds and Steve was back out on dry land faster than you could blink an eye. After the moaning ceased, he assured us that he wasn't getting back in for nothing. Skateboards have come a long long ways since then and people are really getting super crazy fast on them but lying on their backs. I'm not going to say anything about our parachutes. DL

 

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[SD51]

Thanks for the great story DL, how did we ever survive childhood? I remember when my dad gave my oldest brother a bow and arrow. When dad went into the house, my brother decided to see how high up in the air he could launch an arrow. When it disappeared from sight, I knew we were screwed so I started running. Should have stayed right where I was because the arrow came down and bounced right off my spine. We kept quiet because the new gift would have been taken away...

 

[dirtlooter]

Thanks for the great story DL, how did we ever survive childhood? I remember when my dad gave my oldest brother a bow and arrow. When dad went into the house, my brother decided to see how high up in the air he could launch an arrow. When it disappeared from sight, I knew we were screwed so I started running. Should have stayed right where I was because the arrow came down and bounced right off my spine. We kept quiet because the new gift would have been taken away...

Yeah, we did the same thing. We made softer tips for our arrows and played real Indians with each other LOL. guess we could have lost an eye but we didn't. After I learned how to make flu flus and use rubber tips, we really got dangerous. we also would shoot straight up at the buzzards(a mile high) and also loose sight of the arrow, we quit after a near hit.

 

[xcopperstax]

When I was a kid, back around 1970, we were into skateboards like a lot of kids. I was living in San Antonio at the time in a huge trailer park. We would skateboard on the sidewalks and around inside the pavilion at the swimming pool. It was a pretty flat area there so hills were hard to find to really get going fast. A couple of years previously, my brother and I had made crude skateboards using old roller skates and we had a very steep hill with a sharp turn at the bottom. I think that finally after about twenty tries, one of us made it through the turn (but only a little ways.) We didn't have safety gear of any sort and ended up with the normal cuts and bruises as we crashed into grown up stuff at the bottom.

But now we had for real skateboards and were chomping at the bit to do jumps and go fast. Our jumps sucked and we were getting pretty bored when Steve, a friend, decided to sneak over and get down behind a car that was about to leave and hold onto the bumper. I tried to stop Steve but he assured me that he knew what he was doing and away they went. I remember Steve looking back with this big grin on his face as they picked up speed but then in a blur, Steve and skateboard were tumbling hard and fast. My brother and I ran as fast as we could to see how bad Steve was hurt. It seems that a patch of gravel didn't agree with the skateboard at all and as Steve go up, with him either.

Now I am not going to say that jeans and a long sleeve shirt would have saved his legs or arms etc but they might have helped a little bit. Ole Steve was a bloody mess and we were busy picking gravel out of his many wounds. Anyways, it was an eye opener for my younger brother who now decided that holding onto car bumpers was not the thing to do. And poor (stupid)Steve, about a week later he decided to jump into the swimming pool in spite of warnings. The chemicals in the water treatment don't like open wounds and Steve was back out on dry land faster than you could blink an eye. After the moaning ceased, he assured us that he wasn't getting back in for nothing. Skateboards have come a long long ways since then and people are really getting super crazy fast on them but lying on their backs. I'm not going to say anything about our parachutes. DL

Perfect opportunity for my "how I started metal detecting story"..... Was skateboarding at a new park and went to ride up a ramp that went up a wall ...during the first 4 seconds I rode it. On the wall my wheels caught a piece of metal that should have been smooth completely unexpected... I fell all the way to the ground....must have been 6 or 7 feet and broke my hip. Started metal detecting a couple months later. I still skateboard and still metal detect. After 27 years of skateboarding I explain it to people that its like a marathon runner breaking their ankle walking out their front door. Great story there! Thanks.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Thank you for sharing!