Sunday, March 23, 2014

My Buddy Broke His Hip at the Vans Skatepark Opening Yesterday

Here's an update to yesterday's entry, "Vans Skatepark Huntington Beach Grand Opening."

It turns out my good buddy Todd, who skated with me 35 years ago back in the day, broke his hip yesterday at the skatepark opening. It's a horrible fracture. Todd's femoral head broke off and he'll no doubt require hip replacement surgery. I haven't heard back from him since yesterday afternoon, so we'll see. Please join me in prayer for him.

Todd Smoke Broken Hip photo 1920255_10203322636128264_459567575_n_zps01a3dd3b.jpg

I'm reminded of the piece at the L.A. Times in January, "Middle-aged skateboarders defy family skeptics, and falls." Old school veteran Steve Alba broke his collarbone last year. I saw Alba hanging out yesterday at the clover bowl but he did not skate (although he apparently did skate a secret pre-session last week or so).

I'm not myself looking to rekindle my glory skateboarding years (my teenage years, basically), although I can't resist the thrilling feel seeing all my old buddies, many of them out there hitting the bowls. I'll probably stick to the freestyle area, lol. It's been a long time since I did any serious skating, and like any sport, you need to train and maintain conditioning.

I'll keep you posted.

BONUS: At the O.C. Register, "Grand opening of Vans skatepark mixes legends, next generation."

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