There’s a lot to be said for being as young as you feel, except sometimes, ok, a lot of times I’m a big kid. So one sunny afternoon in the garden two of the boys were playing with a friend on the patio and I suggested bringing out the skateboard to add some fun to their game.
We got it out and they went up and down the patio a few times, but like a true stereotypical Dad, I knew I could teach them a thing or two about skateboarding, despite not skateboarding for any length of time for over 25 years!
I go up and down the patio twice with a single kick, having some trouble keeping it going in a straight line and blaming the ‘trucks’, which I think was skateboard speak for wheels.
Then I think, hey I’ll show them how to propel themselves along by wiggling the board from side to side – that’ll impress them!
Upon the first wiggle, a green blurry object resembling a child’s skateboard shot off into the distance as I felt momentarily weightless rotating in mid-air, like Tim Peake in the international space station until I was perpendicular to the ground. In reality, it was more like a granny losing her balance and tripping over a bush in the garden whilst trying to show the kids how to skip on You’ve Been Framed.
Anyway, physics being physics I fell like a lead mannequin to the ground and it felt like a ten tonne truck truck driving into my right side.
At first I couldn’t speak and luckily I didn’t hit my head, so I was switched on enough to see and hear my 6yo and his friend cycling around me laughing at how I fell off, but I couldn’t speak to tell them I was seriously hurt.
My son’s friend went in the house to tell my partner who was feeding our 3 month old upstairs. She called up to say ‘Uncle Daz has fallen off the skateboard’, to which my partner replied ‘is he ok?’ but by this point my sons friend was back outside so my partner didn’t come down as she thought it couldn’t be that bad.
So a minute goes by and I’ve regained my breath and managed to get to a sitting position. Another minute or two later I summon the strength to hobble upstairs, like my future self in about 40 years, to find my partner still feeding our newborn. ‘Oh my, what have you done?’ she says.
Turns out my hip took the brunt of the impact, then my shoulder and then my knee, which incidentally was bleeding yet I couldn’t see how it even hit the ground!?
Having had inflammation from my AS in my left hip at the time, I had now managed to double it up and injure my right hip.
Over the next 7 days the BIGGEST bruise I’ve ever had came through and below is a picture just before it peaked.
Is my confidence knocked? Yes.
Will it stop me from trying to skateboard again?…. heck no 🙂