Life Lessons and Skateboarding
Above is a pic of Montgomery College, Rockville MD campus taken this afternoon. I understand if it doesn’t seem particularly auspicious. Let’s see if I can make it more interesting.
There is a minor piece of trivia about this campus: this was the fictitious home base of the mock-documentary/horror flick “The Blair Witch Project.” But that’s not why I’m bring it up. It’s the best location for longboarding I’ve found anywhere in DC.
The wide berth of the parking lot allows me to get fairly impressive speed on my longboard without bailing out. Instead I can carve uphill and regain control. Then I can pick up speed on a successive run without worrying about going so fast that my brain explodes.
Roughly speaking, my brain explodes around 10 mph. That’s the point that I start to panic, wave my arms around and start swearing. On a narrow downhill run I’d try to jump off the board. At ten mph it’s pretty tough to hit the ground running, which means that you’ll scrape the pavement with your kneepads for a few yards. Assuming you were wearing knee pads. Again, that’s the beauty of lots like this, you turn uphill, regain composure and take it up a notch.
It’s like snowboarding without the price of a lift ticket. At some point I hope to get proficient enough that my brain will explode at 15 mph, 20 mph, etc. I have no doubt that the lot allows for speeds in that neighborhood.
I wanted to take a moment and review how I got here. I wasn’t trying to take up a new hobby, or live out some middle-aged fantasy. I just thought it would be funny. And maybe something I could make a documentary about.
Next: How I got here.
