When I was a kid, I went to the 5th street ramp as often as I could find a ride. “5th Street” was a halfpipe that was 12 feet high and 20 feet wide, with 2 1/2 feet of vert. A major breakthrough for a 10 year old ramp skater is starting from the top and “dropping in.” The problem is when you are standing on top of the ramp looking down, you can’t see the top half of the ramp. What often happened was people would hang their board over the edge and stare down into the ramp. This would inevitably freak them out and foil any attempts at this rite of passage.
One day, I was at the ramp with some other kids, one of which wanted to drop in. He asked for advice, and I told him not to stare at the ramp. So, he walks up the ladder in back of the ramp, walks to the edge, hangs his skateboard over the edge with one foot…and looks straight up into the sky. I thought he was praying…Then, still looking straight up at the sky, he went to put his other foot on the board…which he very nearly accomplished…and fell straight to the bottom of the ramp.
Because of the ambulance and random chaos that followed, it took me a while to realize that I was to blame. He was just trying not to stare at the ramp. A few years later, I ran into the kid, whose face I was able to place because of a gnarly scar on his forearm. I felt terrible. Unfortunately, I was never able to give my revised advice for dropping in, which would be: “Put BOTH feet on the skateboard and don’t fall.”