Seeing Red

The past couple of months I've skated worse and worse. Tricks that I could once do now seem virtually impossible, and I'm more timid in my skateboarding than I've ever been.

Skating the steps of this old apartment usually involves getting harassed by people looking to get your money, dodging businessmen who give you dirty looks and feeling the direct heat of late day as the sun sets.

Instead of getting unmotivated and aggravated by the people who seem to personify the weather in their hot-tempered, impersonal way, I began to build off of their negative feelings.

I hit on something right, and after she had run out of film, I started skating with a sort of recklessness that I'd forgotten I had. I'd previously taken a couple of falls like this one, and they made me realize that it just doesn't hurt that much when you fall (most times). Moreso, it made me realize how much fun it is to skate fast and aggressively, and that to skate any other way was really not doing justice to the sport. If you're not skateboarding with everything you have, you're missing out, honest.