Peer Pressure

     In the words of one of my best friends growing up "peer pressure is a b*#@$." Not to be vulgar, but I always thought that it was a funny quote. Honestly, I would like to think of myself as being inpenetrable from such forces, but I now have bruises to demonstrate otherwise. No kidding, peer pressure is an interesting thing in the skateboarding world. Although many would claim that what I am talking about now is simply competition, I feel otherwise. Competition would be manifest by one skater saying to another, "If you do the handrail, then I will too." That's competion right? But peer pressure happens more like this, "Can you do the handrail?" or "You should try the handrail."
     To get to the point, I was skating last Saturday night (June 28th, 2011) to "relax" after a bitterly long four day work week. The park was pretty packed and no doubt with some of the best skateboarders in the area. I have been eyeing the four stair handrail there for years now, and have seriously considered attempting it for months (It's the one I call "lengthy" and can be found on my Handrail Hitlist! page). The funny thing is, like many handrails at skateparks, that people rarely try it. So as I am sitting on the ledge talking to a couple of people, this guy attempts it and falls. But he didn't fall on his face or rack himself or anything dramatic, so it sort of eased my fears about the rail. When he skated back I told him that I'd been thinking about trying it for some time. He told me that I should just go for it and then he landed it with ease. So then the atmosphere got to me. I knew I could do this rail. However, I told myself that I would try it on a quiet morning when no one would see me fall on it. But after watching him land it so artlessly, I wanted to do it right now. So I made a few run ups and then just did it. I landed it on the first attempt that I commited to. Several people popped thier boards for me and gave me props. My landing felt a bit sketchy, so I wanted to land a smoother one. I tried again and landed it much cleaner. Then, because I have this obsession with doing things in threes, I tried it again and the cataclysm ensued. I "bonked" the rail with my front truck and landed on the rail with my thigh. I sort of just slid down the handrail on my thigh until finally coming to a stop several feet later.
     So the moral of the story, I suppose, is that peer pressure can be great. I probably wouldn't have tried the rail otherwise. On the other hand, and even though I think it was worth it, I probably wouldn't have been as embarrased after falling had I done this on a Monday morning when the place was vacant. Although the bruise appears horrendous, it really doesn't feel all that bad. I guess this is the blessing of being cursed with "thunder thighs."

My apologies to anyone sensitive to "man thigh" (namely my wife). For some
reason I bruise worse over time, so this may actually look worse
now than when these pictures were taken.