Adrian I kind of dread meeting up with again. From what I have heard he is chasing a dream about making a private skate park and that he isn’t getting to skate as much. It isn’t like I can do what I did yesterday where I just dropped into a shop and found an old friend, I will actively have to hunt him down if I want to surprise him. I mostly spend the time scouting out nearby skateparks, I figure if he is teaching kids to skate safely he will likely be in a smaller one but I still hit up as many as I can over a few days till I finally spot him trying to teach the basics to a kid that has passion but little else, I think we all used to be that kid at one point. I don’t interrupt and just hit the park until he is finished.

“Heard you were back,” he says walking over and I quickly dismount.

“It was hard, but yeah I am back,”

“Sorry about making you wait for that lesson to finish. Seems you still have it after all these years. Going back to being pro?”

“I don’t know, I think I have unfinished business still, but as for going full time pro again that feels like a hard task,”

“Competition got a lot tougher from what I heard from Cas,”

“I am sure it has, everyone seems to be starting younger and younger I went to our old spot and felt like an old woman around kids, but I guess I just want to go at my own pace, the pro scene was somewhere I really felt like I belonged instead of being an outcast, but there is a lot of pressure,”

“But you still want a gold?”

“I wouldn’t mind one I guess but I actually had something I wanted to do a lot more than that,”

“Okay save the stalls for the halfpipe, spill it,”

“Well you know my last run?”

“Yeah, I can’t forget it, shit they weren’t sure you were going to keep your legs, that image is a scar on my brain, completely burnt in,”

“Well I didn’t get to do my big finish,”

“Were you going to go for a 900?”

“I mean that might be something on my bucket list but actually I wanted to do a new trick on the largest stage I could,”

“Care to show it?”

“I know your dream is opening a skatepark but do you happen to have a private halfpipe in your pants?”

He gives a slight chuckle, “Okay I get what you mean, don’t want to leak it, how are you going to get it out there then? Maybe a tape or work your way up? I mean I can help you record it if you like,”

“Haven’t planned that far ahead yet just doing the rounds, I know Casper is going to be a pain to reach,”

“You really need to talk to him,”

“Yeah, I know, just that is harder to do that visiting local spots,”

“Out of everyone, he took it the hardest and hated himself for not being able to be there, heck, when we figured you had moved and cut everyone off we had run out of options, after a point you just have to give up you know?”

“Fair, I am not sure what I would have done if I was you back then,”

“Where you live now anyway?”

“Same place but it might be time to leave home sooner or later,”

“Shit you didn’t move? If I knew that I wasn’t bugging new tenets I would have likely tried breaking down the door,”

“Mum would likely still freak out if you did that, we were friends back then, but even she has limits,”

“Yeah I remember what you told me about that man, him hitting you was the final straw,”

“It wasn’t about her it was about me. Never used Silver again after that,”

“Right you name your boards, Silver, Scarlet, care to introduce me to the newest one?”

“Shadow,”

“Pretty sweet, as in your shadow right?”

“Exactly,”

“Seems like you are serious enough to keep at it. Whatever you choose to do, I have your back, if I ever get the park come visit, old crew gets in free,”

“I might hold you to that, heck maybe if I decide to go big again I will sponsor it,”

“You know when we were kids I never dreamed how far our crew would go. I mean I am still working on it but Ryan has a skate shop, Cas is holding his own in the pro scene, and now you are back ready to take on the world,”

“The world’s our oyster,”

“And isn’t she full of pearls,”

“Still this isn’t just a catch up, want to skate like old times?”

“With you? Always,”

If I had to describe Adrian, I would say he was always the most casual skater of us, he tried some contests but it wasn’t for him, he wasn’t big on tapes and just wanted to skate basic lines. While he lacked the technical know how for a lot of what we pushed, he was able to just take the basic lines without worrying about going bigger. He wasn’t an adrenalin junky like me, he wasn’t about proving himself to the world or himself like Cas, he wasn’t someone that couldn’t decide on his path and got overtaken by those around him like Ryan but I guess he is closest to Ryan on the path he took. He wants to be in this world, and is making a place for himself even if he knows he has to act like a nine to five grunt while taking side gigs. Teaching children suits him. I can imagine in a decade or so, someone who makes it pro will be thanking their old skater coach Adrian for helping them get started. Actually, I really want to see that day.

You don’t have to make it big to change the world...