I was driving. Tyler (Treelo) was wakeboarding. Claire was with me in the boat. Suddenly, Claire yells, “Down!” I interpreted this to mean that Tyler had fallen and that I needed to turn around and retrieve him. I slow down dramatically and turn the boat around when Claire yells, “Up!” I’m amazed. How did Tyler go down then pull himself back up? I’m impressed. Five seconds later, “Down!” Now I’m really confused. I realize Claire and I aren’t thinking the same thing. I finally figure out “down” and “up” referred to the speed at which the boat was travelling, NOT Tyler’s position. For future reference, “faster” and “slower” do just as well. I wish I was watching rather than driving. It had to be funny to see Tyler’s face when I slowed down to 5 mph and started to turn the boat around.
Blind Faith
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 scare them out of going through with it.
One day, I was at the ramp with some other kids, one of whom wanted to drop in. He asked for advice, and I told him not to stare at the ramp. He walked up the ladder in back of the ramp, walked to the edge, placed his skateboard over the edge with one foot…and looked straight up at the sky. I thought he was praying…Then, still looking straight upward, 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 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 him, whom I was able to identify because of the 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 board and try not to fall.”