A love-hate story

I got my first skateboard when I was around 12 years old.

I remember the day when I asked my father to go to the mall together and buy that Killer Loop skateboard for me. It was spring, I was anxious and impatient, pestering my father continuously, which rightfully made him grumpy after a while. After I got my board from the store, I was immediately off to Heroes Square, famous gathering spot for skateboarders. I remember trying to practice the ollie, and thinking that it was impossible to do.

I was skating on and off from then on, up until I started university.
Every autumn, our opportunities to skate got sparser, and winter, with its cold and wet weather, marked a long, imposed break in our activities. Then when spring came, our enthusiasm sparked up again. Meeting up with friends and exploring different neighborhoods of the city together was part of the attraction - a piece of smooth asphalt here, a nice curb and a gentle slope there made our day. It was such a simple joy.

At 14 I got a new, more advanced board to replace my Killer Loop one.
I got it as a present from my brother and aunt for my birthday - we went to the Zone skateshop on Villányi út, together, and I picked a brown New Deal board. The owner has kindly attached my old trucks on the board for me, and advised me that I enroll in their weekend skate school for kids. I never did - I think I disliked the idea of organised learning, even though it would have helped a lot.

There was usually a period of 1-2 months every year when I was really into it, but I was never very persistent. I didn’t practice enough. Life was full of other activities to be pursued - playing computer games for endless hours, listening to rap, playing basketball. Then, a few years later, smoking weed and hanging out with friends, doing the same.

Injuries always caused a setback and curbed my enthusiasm. A bad hit on the shin, a hip or ankle sprain often prompted me to stop for a while. I sometimes hated the whole thing, hated that I can’t land that trick and that I hurt myself again. Other times, I couldn’t wait to go out and try something new. It is a very rare feeling, one that gets harder and harder to find as we get older: going to bed in the evening, and eagerly looking forward to the following morning because you want to try that trick so bad. That is something special.

I had a new appreciation for the stuff at 17.
At that time, my closest friend, who I used to hang out a lot with before, got deeply involved with a girl, so we spent a bit less time together. Somehow I got very friendly with his younger brother, who had a skateboard. He was maybe 14-15 at the time, and had an amazing positive energy and enthusiasm for life. We started going skating together and we had tremendous fun - it was magical. We had a few spots where we liked to go to, mostly in Zugló: little ledges, small platforms on the sidewalk, 2-3 steps to conquer with frontside ollies. Our favourite spot was a big patch of concrete behind a marketplace: a rusty, run-down area, big open spaces, a set of steps, and no-one to bother us. We did a few hours skating session, then, when we were all bruised and exhausted, went home to kick back, smoke some well deserved weed and listen to hip-hop in his dimly lit small attic room, a true boy’s den. Then some things made us grow apart, and we stopped skating together.

I don’t know exactly how and when my skateboarding journey ended. I’m sure I wasn’t skating any more when I went to university - a new town, new friends, studies and plenty of alcohol distracted me big time. After that came the uncertain 20s, mostly spent trying to find a path in life - no skating whatsoever.

I’m 32 now, living 1800 kms from my hometown, and have found a path to follow for now - and I have just started skateboarding again. I’m more fragile than I used to be - being heavier, taller and less elastic, I don’t bounce back from falls that quickly any more. But, with a wonderful relief, I’m happy to announce: the adrenaline rushes, the nightly cravings to go skating the following morning, the urge to skate is still pretty much the same.