Aidan comes into the room bleeding from scraps on and near his knee. He says how much it hurts. I ask him what happened and he said he fell off his bike. This is not too hard to imagine. He gets going fast enough that he loses control or runs into a curb and down he goes. I check out the wounds which are just a bit deeper than skin scraps and ask him to wash it off. He will be fine.

After washing it off he decides to lay off the bike for a bit. He grabs his skateboard. It’s not the kind of skateboard I grew up. I should say my friends grew up with because I never did learn to ride one. When I was a kid the skateboards had four wheels; two back and two front just like you would expect. The one in fashion now and the one Aidan was riding has two wheels, one front and one back, and the wheels are just as narrow as the four wheeled variety. And the board is the same length. One more thing, the board is actually split in two connected by a road in the middle which allows it to rotate the ends.

As you might imagine, this new style board doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence. It looks downright unrideable. And when we first got it and tried to stand on it last year it was comical. We quickly gave up and put it in the corner with all the other unused sports equipment.

I went downstairs to see how Aidan was doing and by some miracle he was riding the thing for 20 meters at a stretch.  And then 30. And then 50. And then he was asking me to buy him a new board. I could see his point, the board he had was kind of cheap and up to that point had served it’s purpose of being an inert object of child longing. I told Aidan that if he kept riding that weekend and still wanted a board the following weekend, we would get him one. Sounded reasonable. Plus I was guarding myself against the chance he might break a bone before I had to invest more.

The following Friday after school Yang bought Aidan a new board. Still two wheels but faster and a bit bigger. Yang tried it the next morning and soon she had her own larger board. Both kids, Yang and Aidan, got knee and wrist guards for the inventible fall.

Me, I tried it as well. I’m still at the 50 meter stage. Aidan said my riding was remarkable in that I could go that slow and mange to stay on the board. I’ve only fallen once so far. It was quite a graceful fall. Lean back as the board shifts forward causing a direct fall forward onto the cement. Pain, yes. Injury, pride.

I’ll be back out there tomorrow, helping Aidan up and delighting the neighbors being the old man on two wheels.