Last night while watching one of those “extreme skateboarding” television shows, I was reminded of an old skateboarding story of mine. I actually have several entertaining stories about my old skateboarding adventures, but this is one of my favorites.

In the mid-to-late 80’s, skateboarding was experiencing a rebirth. Longer, wider decks replaced the skinny plastic decks from the 1970’s, allowing for a multitude of new tricks to be performed. The first “real” trick (excluding “wheelies”) for every skateboarder to learn was the ollie. In an ollie, a skateboarder (while riding on a flat surface) leaps into the air, with his skateboard leaping along with him. An ollie is performed by lifting your front foot while slamming your rear foot down at the same time. This action causes the board to fly up. At this same moment, the skater leaps into the air, and slides his front foot back down, levelling out the board. The end result is the appearance that you (the skater) and your skateboard have magically jumped into the air.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yPsQyI1CAc

Despite being one of the first tricks all skateboarders should learn, it’s much more difficult than that video makes it look. In fact, I tried for months to no avail. Almost inevitably I would pull my front foot sideways, turning myself 45 degrees. It worked okay, as long as I wasn’t moving. If I was actually moving forward and tried to ollie (called a “rolling ollie”), I would land at a weird angle and throw myself to the ground. Remember, this was way before YouTube, the X-Games, or any of that. All I had to go on was things I’d seen on TV or in magazines. To me, it looked like these skaters were simply leaping into the air and their boards were magically sticking to their feet.

That gave me an idea.

Using an old worn out pair of high tops, a hammer, and some nails, I attached a pair of shoes to an old skateboard. The high tops were snug enough that my feet would stay in them even without being laced up. The end result was exactly what I was seeing on television. On the corner outside my house, I would wait for cars or kids to come rolling by. Just when they would look, I would jump into the air, sometimes spinning, without the board ever leaving my feet. I can only imagine how amazed some of those onlookers must’ve been Occasionally I’d fall, at which point I’d land on my back with a skateboard still sticking on to my feet — if that happened, the jig was up. But, more often than not, I’d land on my feet, impressing passersby by performing great aerial maneuvers (well, at least in my head).