One hot summer day I was skateboarding with two of my friends, Chris and Ty. I was having a good day skating, so I was pumped to try this line. I planned out what I wanted to do, I wanted to Ollie a three-foot gap and then Ollie up about a foot, then frontside shuv-it to a manual. It was fairly easy and it looked really good.

Before I tried it I heard Chris say “ C’mon man, you got this”. So I started my approach. I needed the perfect amount of speed to accomplish this line. I ollied and my back wheel got caught, slamming me to the ground ands sliding on the asphalt. It bruised my hip and scraped my elbows and hands, but I’m used to it. So I got back up and walked back to where I started. I had to find out where I messed up and I had to fix it. So as I gained speed I had to forget what happened last time, and start fresh. I heard my friend Ty say “ You got this bro”. So I ollied up and then slammed down the board perfectly. Now I needed to ollie up on ledge, as I ollied up again my back foot slipped and the board flew up and hit me in the knee. So when I got up, I decided to call it a day.

When I got home I couldn’t stop thinking about landing the trick. Then the next morning I woke up, and played some Xbox. Then after I got ready, I grabbed my board and left.

When I got to the spot with my two friends, I warmed up with a couple easy tricks. I tried a few times and didn’t succeed at first; I could tell that it wasn’t going to be a good day for me. I looked down and my board looked like it was cracking. As I tried a couple more times I got closer and closer and when I thought I had it, my board snapped right in half and hit me in the ankle sending a shooting pain up my ankle. Right then, I knew I was done skating for about a week.

When I got home I knew this was going to suck, I had to stop doing the thing I loved to do the most. So I tortured myself daily by watching skate videos and ordered new boards online. I just couldn’t get skateboarding of my mind.

So I grabbed my spare board, put gripe tape on it and screwed my trucks on. Then I went outside and started doing some easy tricks so I didn’t get hurt even more than I already was.

The next day, I felt a lot better! I was so excited to try the spot again! So I met my two friends at the spot. The first 2 or 3 times I tried I fell on my back, but then I started to get closer and closer. Then on about the 5th or 6th try I landed it!

This trick taught me too not give up and that you can do anything as long as you put your mind to it.