Slam of the Semester

A new bar opened across the street from the bridge, and lzyk convinced me to go try it out before the skate session. It was good, but at western prices. I ordered fried shrimp, thinking of prawns, but instead it was the miniature, whole, super salty shrimp you can find at nightmarkets. They are briny and delicious but always make me have a diahrrea typhoon. I finally made it to the bridge just before lights out, and a rain storm. The weather has been blessedly cool because of the typhoons and it was almost chilly when I got back a little damp from the first toilet run of the night.

The dudes skating on this particular night were some of Taiwan's best. I usually don't feel like such a minnow anymore, but there some great white sort of tricks going down in rapid succession on the box, so I left that feeding frenzy to the ferocious predators at the top of the food chain. Their reckless savagery made me want to skate faster, so I tried to warm up on some mostly dry flat ground, skating just a little faster than I normally would. It went well, and soon I was skating a lot faster than normal. Predictably, my arrogance caught up with me. It wasn't that slam of the year, that was the neck injury out past the orange line when I didn't see an inch deep crack while cruising, but it was the hardest slam I've taken since then. I caught the board with my front foot, but something went wrong with the back and I found myself perfectly suppine, at about waist height. I thought fuck, I really, really don't feel like hitting my fucking head tonight. Actually, that's not true. I just thought, fuck. I didn't hit my head though. I landed hard where my ass connects to my back, and spent a moment just laying there. I kept skating for a few minutes, just to get back on the horse so to speak, but it had taken the vinegar out of me. A few days later, I still have weird tingles down both legs.