NoPro Skate Show: 2007
The Old Man Slam Jam is coming to Indy, and you’re invited. Last year I wanted to rally old friends and new to skate the streets of Indy and adjoining parks, but things just got too busy and it turned out that there was a BMX clinic at the Indianapolis skatepark the same time we wanted to use the facilities. This year “no” is not an option. After sitting around and playing games for hours, getting out to breath some air and scrape some skin isn’t just a good idea, it’s mandatory.

So, bring your boards, bikes, and blades, kids. This year we’re falling down on concrete.

Zen and the Art of Falling
This past week I had the chance to get down to Boulder and Fort Collins. These days I’m either skating alone or with kids at the parks, so getting the hit the streets with old friends yields nothing less than heart-bursting joy.

Corny, but true.

We hit old spots on the CU campus, bombed a hill that left Rob bloodied, and even found 2 new skate spots that - somehow – we had missed the five years I lived in Boulder.

Skating involves the curious illusion of danger. We’re not really looking to get hurt, or at least the odds are very slim (says the guy with the titanium in his leg), and when we’re screaming down a hill towards a parking lot, I’m trusting that everyone else is skating within their means. To state the obvious, it never ceases to amaze me how practice makes all the difference, even when falling.

Put another way, we’ve become really good at falling down.

It calls to mind a quote I came across on the Goodman Games forums. It read, “An amateur practices until he gets it right. A professional practices until he can’t get it wrong.”

That’s me, an unpaid, professional faller.