Old Man Back Pain reared his ugly head but the weather was clear and sunny, so I left for work roaring across the sidewalk tiles on the Black Beauty. I had only ever skated street a few times in my life before I came to Taiwan, and it took some time to feel natural. There is so much going on that cruising becomes an extended trick. Taipei during the day time is a crowded place. I think only a few cities on Earth are anything like it. When you can get ahead of the pedestrians and bicyclists, such as at a recently green light, you've got to contend with the last scooters and taxis running through the red light, and the first scooters and taxis roaring away next to you; sometimes with overlap. I haven't skated in NYC, but from teh footage I've seen, it looks empty by comparison. We have a lot of loose tiles here, but maybe that's common everywhere. Like I said, I wasn't a street skater before, and I used to drive to spots. We have a surprisingly small amount of stones and debris because the city diligently sweeps and sprays the streets each night. When the streets are empty, they are very smooth, but that's only between 00:45 and 05:40.
I had planned to cruise around teh airport after work and skate the old yuanshan spots, but lzyk called and insisted I eat luwei with her so she could gossip about what it was she talked about. Just kidding, I was totally listening. I ended up cruising through unfamiliar streets and finding a small marble plaza with a three stair down, and a lowish marble ledge coming off the stair. It also works to manny from the perpendicular direction. Unlike my cruise to work, which was hurried and business like and carried out on familiar terrain where I've pretty much memorized every crack and pothole and loose tile and weird tropical tree that drops something like tiny black stones into the path and will put you in the asphalt if you hit one; my cruise to luwei was all virgin, and weirdly rewarding. I limited tricks to *****s and ******s across whatever painted sections I came across. I tried to seek out trash to ***** over, and only ***d or **-******d when my pushing leg got tired. I went down some single lane alleys, with more trash and less cars and scooters, the brutalist concrete appartments towering up over me on both sides; dogs and children playing in the doorways.
I *****d a discarded orange juice bottle and a child shouted in astonishment.
For some reason, I already know that I will remember that forever. He stood in the road behind me, and shouted more things that I half understood, and I htought about going back to talk to him, but I was thinking of meeting lzyk and kept going. I waved back to him over my shoulder, and he jumped up and down and shouted more. I regret not going back.
Once, I saw someone in NYC ollie a manhole cover in maybe 1996. It was astonishing, and it was a reason that I started skating. Maybe this kid will remember the orange juice bottle.
By the time I had gone halfway across the city, I was feeling cocky, and going through flatground tricks. This is really the only way to skate flatgound. I don't watch any competitive skating, because it isn't skating, but I would like for skateboarding to have a competition that is skating flatground lines down a street you've never seen. I supposed it should also include whatever other things are there, like ledges or whatever...... nah fuck it.
Edit: I forgot to mention that while we were waiting in line for luwei, I saw someone pushing up the lane, with a scooter behind him, honking incessantly. It was pretty funny. I dont know what he did to piss off that scooter, but it takes some work. I didn't recognize the guy. Godspeed, sir.
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