Riding the Wave…Board!
Many years back…
It was simpler times when summer vacations meant that we spend most of the time outside and playing till it rains or we are too tired to play (that never happens!) or we get a call from the house! Or the most important reason is when we have to answer the nature’s call!
The first thing we usually used to do was finish most of the Holiday work like writing pages in Hindi or English or making some dumb project about the planet!
Apart from that no one was seen inside the house and that is how it was!
Since I was a big bookworm, when we were forced to spend time in the house then it was either devouring the comics or some novel!
If there was no one to play then I would simply take my roller skates and skate away!
Indoor meant that either it was raining or we were tired of skating or it was too late or too early time of the day! Or it was simply that the place you were posted (not me as such but my Dad!) was not a city!
This was when we were posted in a remote place called Missamari which even many Assamese also do not know and the only time we used to get comics or newspapers was once a month or week when the delivery guy in his unmistakable Bullet Enfield Bike used to get it and deliver much to our delight!
Since my uncle was in the media group we used to get a steady supply of comics especially the Disney ones and they were so great to read!
One such comic mentioned this new plaything called the Skateboard! The depiction and the illustration was so nice and that was the apparent new craze especially since Huey (the nephew’s of Donald were called Huey duey and Luey! I may have spelt them wrong here since it is from memory so bear with me since this has nothing to do with the story!), mentioned that it was more cool and better than roller skates!
Since I was already skating for one year now this new contraption which unfortunately had not made its way to India looked very interesting! When I showed the snap to my brother, he remarked that this is just a wood on wheels which we can easily make with our skates!
We had this piece of Plywood which was almost like a family heirloom and supposedly very lucky and every time an examination was looking nearby we took turns to use this wood for supporting our books when we read!
Also that was the only thick wood available! So my roller skates and the wood and all we needed was a rope or band! There was this white and blue elastic which was very common those days and I am sure many will know the actual function of that now! We of course were interested only in the mango and not the seed so to speak!
Anyhow, the skates were placed in either corner and tied by the elastic thread and it looked almost like the skateboard especially if you see it from the side and keep one eye closed! Of course the modification meant that we cannot stand on it but sit and maybe in the later version work on standing version!
In most new things which requires one person to sit and another to push, the fight is usually for sitting since no one likes to push or pull the other! But since this was a trial run in a fishy looking apparatus, my brother graciously volunteered to push and said that anyway I would not be able to push!
We had a long corridor and mom was busy in the kitchen so that was the testing location! The dangling wood was hard to balance but somehow I sat in the middle and my brother then gave me a push! It was awesome for one split second after which everything went awry! The “Special Skateboard” version 1 went sideways and turned with two skates going in opposite direction and the wood hitting the wall and getting cracked at the edges and me falling with a thud on my bottom!
Since the noise was not much, the damage control team (my brother and me!) did not have much trouble in cleaning the crime scene! Only indication of something amiss was my slight limp when I used to walk or sit especially in the right side for a week!
That was the end of the Skateboard chapter! We covered the board with brown paper to hide the evidence and moved on to other such amazing ‘experiments’!!
Cut to the present!…
So I again learnt how to ride the roller skates since I used to ride only the quad skates but later on to teach my daughter I learnt the inline skates! She also followed suit but then not long after we both saw the Waveboard! This was like the upgraded version of skateboard! This had only two wheels which moved in all direction and looked much more complex to drive! It had a self motion and in spite of all the fear looked so cool to ride!
We were both trying to hold our temptations but when her best friend not only got a wave board but also became good in riding it, we finally gave in and went to the sports store to get one!
The guy there showed us the good and sturdy one and one look at that and my hand by reflex went to my emotionally sore bottom!
In any case I decided that it was time to bury the past and try this one!
First attempts were in the house and later on we moved on to the corridor (another one of course!); all with guards and helmets and back straps and what not!
After many tries and you tube video tutorials we finally got to know the theory and after lots of practice we got the flow!
Of course there were obstacles like when I did not wear my back support (yes I wear a Back belt to be safe!) and the sudden twist gave me a back pain which lasted for one week and nearly dented my enthusiasm to learn! But when my daughter used to look at me and at the Board, I knew that this was not the time to give up!
Of course most of the time I will do it first and hold my daughter when she does the same! That is why it was important to be confident and not fall thinking of the past!
The trick is to have a firm first step and a slight push and then place the second leg firmly but be mobile and rock the back and front in a smooth movement and you will be mobile till you rock the BOARD!
The best thing of course is the amazing feeling of moving the board on land and it feels like moving on top of a wave like surfing and since I do not surf (not yet anyway!), I can always imagine that this is how it feels!
It may not be a great achievement but for a guy in his forties to first do Quad Skates then Inline Skates and now Wave Board which I realise now may be more difficult to ride but is much safer (since It is a rule that if you do not fall you can never learn to cycle or skate! But the Wave Board you can control yourself quite well and not fall!)
Just remember that you protect yourself well and do not think about your failed attempts or in my case, a sore bottom!
So if a non Athletic nerd like me can do it then I am sure you can also try to ride the Wave (Board!)!…
ramadocblog 