I remember when I was younger, I got a skateboard for Christmas. While my friends were trying to do kick-flip-lollies and 360-bank-it-to-rubbin', I was content to just sit on the skateboard and ride it down the hill. I used to do this for hours each afternoon, and found the practice to be both relaxing and thrilling. At the height of my skateboard abilities, I would even *stand* on the skateboard as it went down the hill.

I remember once I broke an axle on my skateboard (I think it was caused by a storage issue...It was not caused by me getting too frisky with the board), and so I took the axles off, and that winter, it turned into a makeshift snow board. In hindsight, I was much better at snow boarding that skateboarding; even going so far as to do 360s as I went down the hill, and ramping small mounds of snow. I suppose the idea that a failure would result in me crashing into a big pile of fluff rather than skidding across the asphalt in a bloody, pulpy mess gave me the confidence to take such risks!