I don’t really mean to turn heads, I just wanted to skate. No one is really approaching me, I guess most of them being younger than me doesn’t help. It is strange to feel old in the skatepark. I don’t mind it but it feels like I should move on. This doesn’t quite feel like my scene with all my friends having long since left. I wouldn’t mind helping a few of locals learn but I am still not quite ready to go so all in with skating. I have a few more turns on the halfpipe before heading back home.

“New board I see,” mum comments as I enter and remove my gear, her disapproval levels are hard to judge but it fades, I must be smiling more than I realise.

“Yeah, caught up with Stanley and went to the park,” I reply finally being free of my protective gear.

“Just take it easy, if you are hurting don’t force it. It will come with time,”

“I know, I just haven’t felt like myself in so long I went a bit more than I should have. I am going to get some painkillers anyway,” I grab one of my pill bottles from the bathroom cabinet and take a dose with a bit of water from the sink below it, never claimed to be anything but a tomboy and a skater.

“You really seem just like before everything went wrong, I am glad you are happy again,”

“I am not really sure on my plan yet but I guess I will figure that out as I push my muscles till they are strong enough to stop hurting from it,”

I spend maybe a week or so revisiting the old park and slowly working my way up to near where I used to be. It is a confidence thing more than a physical thing but I still bail and wipe out a little. I am taking painkillers everyday after some really solid skating and I can’t even describe how much I have missed it. Skating isn’t easy, in fact it is physically demanding and can have a very high skill requirement but it is where I get my highs, to just skate and enjoy myself like I could when I was a kid.

Finally I decide I am ready. I pack a rucksack with my pads, my board, a water bottle and my go to painkiller bottle while I wait for my taxi. I am dropped off at the end of the street and just use my board for the final stretch. I am a bit too lazy to use my pads on a flat boring area. I stop outside the local skate shop, pick up my board and walk in.

“Fucking hell, give me a warning instead of just dropping by unannounced,” Ryan is straight on his feet and hugs me, I hug him back without any delay or hesitation, “I take it you are the surprise Stanley warned me about, you all good now?”

“All good just getting back into it again,” I reply.

“Rad, I still skate a bit but had to get serious that I wasn’t going to cut it, Stanley offered me the shop expansion idea, technically a franchise deal and here I am,”

“I must admit it almost felt like walking into Stanley’s. Sorry for cutting you off back then,”

“No sweat, I get it, hard to be around what you can’t do but still love. As for the shop yeah it is basically the same even give the discount challenge if someone manages a kickflip but thinking about maybe upping it, kickflips are a lot more common,”

“Yeah I remember back then, I did a varial,”

“That I can imagine. Dam, not had anyone really do that but I mean when you moved here you were already a skater just never had the chance to be a true vert one,”

“Yeah I guess skating is in my blood but it didn’t really feel like it till that first tape and contest,”

“I know what you mean, I wasn’t dedicated enough to take as many bruises as you, I think that is the main difference between small time skaters and the pros, I always saw you covered in bruises and even now you have a few,”

“Just have to do your time, but you likely should have focused on street more,”

“Yeah I just liked both,”

“I can understand the appeal of doing vert,”

“You can understand the appeal? Understatement of the decade, you have even skated mega ramps, that shit terrifies me,”

“Yeah same, but if I had one here, right now, I would want to skate it,”

“In all seriousness how long you been back?”

“A week or so, picking it up again. It is going pretty well, like it was only a month break but I have to take some painkillers on days I push myself,”

“Tell you what, it is a bit quiet today, what about I call in a favour and we skate together, just like old times?”

“You sure you want to waste a favour on me?”

“I still technically owe you from that twenty all those years ago, I guess interest is a bitch,”

After a quick phone call he has someone come in for a bit of overtime pay and we hit the local park. He seem to have a crew here and a few people know me, likely due to Ryan talking about the old days, but they mostly leave us to catch up and skate. I have missed just hanging out with my friends, I don’t even know how long we skate for but I give him my new number and promise to drop in again soon. A promise I intend to keep. I am not sure if this will be one of my home parks but it feels more like it than the old park did. I guess it is the people that help make skating good, what better way to pass the time than skating with your friends.