You take your car to work, I'll take my board.

"Ahem", I have a small announcement.

I am now cool.

I can skate!! 

So one amazingly hot tuesday afternoon in august, a little drunk on one third of two jugs of cider and gossip at So-cro I had my first lesson. Soo exhilarating! The speed! The sore ass that validates it as exercise! The feeling of superiority zooming past pedestrians!

First it was by the metal statue of the dude leaning off the harbour, and then it was past Macs and the Herd Street apartment building, by the big warehouse where the undie/perfume sales are. 

Two days later I needed another fix and, more confident late at night, i whizzed around practising turning and weaving in between the big ball lights down by the water looking out towards all the boats parked up on the water.

A week or so later, late for a Mongolian bbq birthday dinner and kinda drunk off post work wine and tequila, i actually used the board as a tool to get somewhere faster. Huge milestone. It didn't work. Aro Street, seemingly tame, is actually a huge downhill slope from my house. Eek!! So I spent the ride shuffling along stopping and starting.

A few days after that i discovered skateboarding utopia: oriental parade.

Wide. Smooth. Flat . Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh. On a sunny day: bliss.

Even more highly recommended on a still night with harbour side low-carb beers, grainwaves and a fishing line.

The coolest thing about actually having been on a skateboard now is realizing how much of Wellington is designed with that vehicle in mind - and what a well designed, beautifully simple, sustainable vehicle it is! Iain Borden knows it.