As I walked up those stairs, I realized that I’d been ignoring a specific need within me for years. It had maybe even been a full decade since I’d ridden a beast like this. One step at a time, I shuffled up to the deck of the ramp, ten plus feet above the ground… They say “vert is dead,” but the only thing dead about this ramp was the wood harvested from previously living trees. And this thing was a masterpiece. Everything from the surfacing to the coping lay-in was nice. But the anxiety was still there.
My favorite type of skateboarding is skating fast, but I hadn’t skated any halfpipes over eight feet tall in a long time. So it took a bit of warming up and building confidence to get to where I wanted to be. Meanwhile, the fellow dudes were getting tricks and stringing lines together - they’d obviously been skating it with some consistency. But DAMN, that first drop in!
I felt alive again. The pure speed was most of it. But the wind on your face, the sweat coming in around the pads on your knees… The weightlessness experienced just after hitting the top of the transition. The risk of clipping and falling down 10 feet to your elbow… And the feeling of getting that first frontside grind. The boards tapping in approval and the “Yeewww!!” from the homies sinks in.
My favorite type of skateboarding is skating fast, but I hadn’t skated any halfpipes over eight feet tall in a long time. So it took a bit of warming up and building confidence to get to where I wanted to be. Meanwhile, the fellow dudes were getting tricks and stringing lines together - they’d obviously been skating it with some consistency. But DAMN, that first drop in!
I felt alive again. The pure speed was most of it. But the wind on your face, the sweat coming in around the pads on your knees… The weightlessness experienced just after hitting the top of the transition. The risk of clipping and falling down 10 feet to your elbow… And the feeling of getting that first frontside grind. The boards tapping in approval and the “Yeewww!!” from the homies sinks in.
The Ramp. Photo's borrowed from Chuey's instagram
It’s one thing to shred a tight miniramp or even a real pool, but skating that vertical wall, back and forth and back… It’s something I didn’t know I missed so much. Feeling gravity to an elevated degree, from straight down to speeding across the flat to slowing into zero gravity near the top of the ramp…. I can only hope for and anticipate getting airs back again. Truly floating in the air, merely waiting to reconnect with the beast, rolling away like a bat out of hell, mixing fear and pleasure like the symbolic blood oath, fusing experiences of risk and reward.
The young kid being grandfathered in by the "rad dad." The ramp owner (it was his birthday on this occasion). The random connection to a skater from your North Carolina hometown. The Gainesville native street skate legend, watching from the bottom… All these pieces contributing to the big picture of the session. There’s a certain chemistry to hype. And although this particular session was probably normal for the rest, I felt like a kid again. Winded from the previous run but excited as hell for the next.
Once the groove hits, the fearlessness takes hold. Fiending for the next one. Needing the speed, the ultimate rush.
Now, eight feet tall is small. Let’s go and shred them all.
Thanks Chewy,
- 7Ply Epic
The young kid being grandfathered in by the "rad dad." The ramp owner (it was his birthday on this occasion). The random connection to a skater from your North Carolina hometown. The Gainesville native street skate legend, watching from the bottom… All these pieces contributing to the big picture of the session. There’s a certain chemistry to hype. And although this particular session was probably normal for the rest, I felt like a kid again. Winded from the previous run but excited as hell for the next.
Once the groove hits, the fearlessness takes hold. Fiending for the next one. Needing the speed, the ultimate rush.
Now, eight feet tall is small. Let’s go and shred them all.
Thanks Chewy,
- 7Ply Epic
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