Nikki Yeager

Rain delays and cancellations aside, I finally got a chance to skateboard. Turns out I'm not half bad. 

I'm not half good either, but I didn't die. And that's always a bonus.

It all went down like this:

After days of responding to CL emails about teaching me how to skateboard (and weeding through the creepy sex-propositions) I came across one of the coolest 19 year old guys I've ever met. He wears blue shoes, lives in Upper Manhattan and skates like a pro. Plus, he's taught a bunch of girls how to work a skateboard so he's a pretty darn good teacher. 

I'm pretty sure he's used it as a pick up tool before, but so goes life. 

Anyways, I met Javen (the guy) at Riverside Park and started sweating around the time I got through his group of friends with introductory high fives. And by sweating I mean that I was dripping fluid  from every pour in my body. It was just cooling down from a 100 degree day... to 95. 

My arms were slippery wet, my clothes were sticking to me, my hair was dripping a little. If only my camera was better you'd be able to tell just how disgusting it was. Sorry you have to miss the ickiness of the experience.

For the first move Javen had me plant my feet on the board with my right foot in front. Since I ride goofy when snowboarding we decided to stick with my goofyness and keep the left foot in back. 

-- for anyone who's never been on a board of some sort - your strong foot, normally your right, is your back foot. I'm ambi-footerous so I can use either in most sports but opt for riding with my left foot in back making me 'goofy'--- 

I thought it'd be the accomplishment of the day if I could go straight, turn and stop. Turns out those things only take about 5 minutes to learn. The turning motion is really similar to a snowboard with the exception of the 'tic-tac'. 

And no, that has nothing to do with the breathe mints. It's this little turn move that I'm only halfway decent at. I'm actually pretty impressive at tic-tac-ing forward, but tic-tacing backwards... not so good. In fact, it's a little scary to watch me attempt while moving.

Anywho, when Javen asked me 'do you want to learn any tricks' I basically jumped out of my skin. Of course I did. Sure, I could only go straight at about 1 mile an hour and my turns were shaky at best, but I decided that it was time to jump into the air. AKA- do an ollie. 

Javen's friend grabbed his board (bright pink) and popped one effortlessly to show me how it was done. Apparently they wanted to teach me how to kick the board into the air from a standing position, magically float in the air for a split second while sliding your front foot forwards and then land safely on the ground without so much as a quiver. 

How? Oh I still have no idea how that's supposed to work. 

It took me about 100 tries to even get the tip of the board to pop of the ground. It also took a face-first fall, a sideways stumble and a lot of embarrassingly girly maneuvers (all caught on tape, will be posted tomorrow) to get anywhere close to the elusive ollie.

But alas! After hours of toiling away on that little skateboard, I jumped into the air and shrieked on my way down.

I ollied! Scraped hand and all I did one. 

And the video camera was off. 

You know how riding a bike is one of those things that you try and try and try to do. And then one day *BAM* you just get it. After that you can always ride a bicycle. It just sticks. Sort of like doing the splits- it's all down hill after that first one. Or tying cherries in a knot with your tongue. Skills that just stick after you can get it that first freaking time. 

I love those skills.

Too bad ollies are nothing like that. 

I spent another hour and although I got close, I never felt the glory of olli-ying again. 

However, I did have a blast and Javen thinks I'm a "quick learner" and insists that I let him make me into a "nasty" skateboarder. So on my to-do list it goes. 

Public vote- who thinks I could compete in the next X Games?