When I first started kidzense my daughter was 4 and the focus of the site was things to do with your kids. At kidzense we strive to present parents with great events and activities to share with their kids. However this past weekend my daughter presented me with an opportunity to experience something that I always wanted to do.
Let me give a little back story. For Christmas my daughter asked for a skateboard. I expected that she would try it out, but didn't think she would take to it like she did. On Christmas she was really excited to get her board and immediately wanted to try it out. On her first day back to school after Christmas break I received a video with my daughter skateboarding across a basketball court. Within a week she was riding down some pretty steep grades, performing kick turns and some other simple tricks.
A few weeks ago we went to an outdoor skate park and had our first experience with riding up and down a quarter pipe. We decided to look for some indoor skate parks and came across Garden Skate located in Pine Brook NJ. They offered a beginners clinic on Saturday mornings. So this Saturday we decided to check it out. The instructors worked well with the group demonstrating the basics and building upon that. Despite being a group clinic each child was given some personal attention. By the end of the clinic the entire class was able to ride into the quarter pipe, perform at least a partial kick-turn and ride back down.
After the class my daughter wanted to stay and skate a while longer. That's when it hit me. This was an opportunity to try something that I always wanted to. Instead of sitting on the sidelines as a spectator rationalizing that I was too old I could step outside of my comfort zone grab a board and take the ride of a lifetime or least the ride of my childhood. When I was a kid I loved skateboarding but growing up on the east coast there weren't any skate parks (at least that I knew about) I would have given anything to ride a skate park back then, but being able to do it in my forties together with my daughter was an special experience. I was so proud of her working diligently for the last month picking herself up from countless falls to try again. It was a truly amazing day where I was transported back in time. It was exhilarating, fun, and connecting experience.
I am so glad I decided to stretch outside of my comfort zone to be open to have this experience. I highly recommend that you follow your child into the unknown.