In Loving Memory of My Hometown's Greatest Skate Spot
(Alternative Title: Getting Really Emotional About a Curb)
Surely over the course of your life, you've grieved an inanimate object. For me, it was my favorite curb to do skateboard tricks on. I still think about it months after its passing.
It was the very best curb in skating distance of my parent's house and it wasn't even close. Some curbs were too jagged and stony, others were too close to traffic, a few were even too tall. Bottom line, no curbs were appropriate for my skill level, except for one.
This curb was forgiving, nurturing, and one of a kind. It was smooth and rounded at the edges, but ultimately somewhat rectangular. Kind of like the metal coping you'd see at skatepark ramps, but made of rock and quite a bit fatter. This setup enabled me to learn and improve so many tricks that I was too intimidated to try elsewhere. Just to name a few: frontside and backside 50-50, and the slappy versions of each; slappy noseslide and slappy noseslide to fakie. I really wanted to do slappy front nose and slappy crook on it, but it's just not there anymore.
An asphalt path from the library entrance lead directly to the curb, allowing for me to pop a trick over the curb and into the parking lot (slightly) below. Once again, it was great for perfecting the basics. Ollie, pop shuv, front shuv, kickflip, front 180, back 180. I would comfortably pop my pop shuvs with force and level out my ollies really high because I had spent so many sessions there.
Since there was a teeny gap between the roll-up and curb itself, crack pop tricks were possible! This is by far the most unique aspect of it. This kind of trick is when the board is sent into the air from the wheels hitting a small crack or edge at just the right angle. I did fakie crack pop and nollie crack pop. Finding such a crack isn't too too hard, but finding one that precedes a small drop is a miracle and a blessing. I dreamed of one day doing a trick I'd never heard of anyone else doing--fakie crack pop flip. Now it will never be done at the spot that inspired it.
It's hard to overstate how much this curb meant to me as a budding skateboarder. It taught me things and pushed me to improve. It asked me to indulge the creative side my skateboarding. It gave me somewhere to enjoy myself, away from the rest of the world. It's no exaggeration to say I *loved* this curb; The grind marks served as proof.
One winter, I drove down the street and saw it was gone. I couldn't believe my eyes. I pulled into the lot and saw the nothingness where my beloved curb used to be. I laughed in disbelief, but deep down my little skater heart was thrashed. Oh how I miss you, Hometown Curb. The library parking lot will never be the same without you.
blakekathryn
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