I find myself in another season of aggressive inline skating and I think to myself, am I getting to old for this? I definitely am a lot less balanced than I used to be though I am in better shape than I have ever been (sans the time I was hiking for two months out in Colorado).

My feet hate me every time I land a jump but I think this was always true, just that I didn’t notice it as much back when. I think it is the thought that if I break a hand or wrist or god forbid my head I won’t be able to do my other passions in life. I still prefer not to wear pads though I keep them in my trunk on the off chance I end up at a skate park that requires them.

I’m not even part of the scene anymore. I used to watch the videos, salivate over the new tech coming out and even hang with some of the pros. Once in awhile I will peruse the message boards to see what is happening.

But there is something that keeps me coming back year after year. It may be a lonely sport but there is a feeling of freedom when hitting a trick. I’ll never be dropping two or three stories into a quarter pipe like some of the pros do. I’ll never be able to do anything more that an allyoop spin into a grind but I still can do a Lu Kang and Flying Fish with style. Besides, I skated pretty well today and that is all the incentive I need to keep playing.

This all brings me to some advocacy I want to do. You see I don’t do street skating anymore because well, the thought of running from cops for skating on public property doesn’t appeal to me these days. I stick to mostly parks. Well the parks in the Boston area mostly suck but there is a project to create a huge one in downtown Boston. The Charles River Conservancy Skatepark Project has already raised $641,153 but the building costs have been estimated at around $2 million dollors. Donations are needed and the cool thing is that according to the web site an anonymous donor has pledged to quadrupal any donation made by a skater or biker (which I assume to meen anyone donating directly to the skatepark and not just the Conservancy).

I know there are a few skaters in the Linux community who might be interested. I have even talk to a couple of inliners who use Fedora on their servers at school. Even if you are not a skater but live in the area, studies have been done on the effect that skate parks have and by in large they have shown to have a possitive effect on the community. I know I will be donating some money and perhaps some time to the effort. Even if it gets done after I have decided to hang up my skates for good at least it will be there for others to enjoy.

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