When men reach fifty years of age, they get the so-called middle age crisis and buy a Porsche.
Not all of them, but some do. I haven’t got to fifty yet, but I already had my aging crisis. I was 31, so we can call it a third-age-crisis, perhaps.
Not having enough money to buy a Porsche, and not being interested in fancy cars, I bought a longboard. It’s essentially a skateboard, but bigger, longer, and tougher.
The relevant piece of information: I had never skateboarded before, nor I had ever possessed a skateboard. I had never spent time with skaters, nor I had played any video game of the Tony Hawk’s franchising.
It all started when I was in Amsterdam with Letizia, earlier that year. It was the beginning of 2011, and I was attending a conference. We took a few days off, as sometimes we do, and explored the city together.
We ended up visiting a modern art gallery; I don’t even remember which one, I just recall it was in front of a canal, which is no use of reference when speaking about Amsterdam, where everything is basically in front of a canal.
At this particular art gallery, there was a video, looping every few minutes. It was featuring two guys, wearing suits, riding their longboards downhill on an empty Californian road. I was hypnotized, I couldn’t help, I needed a longboard.
I ended up riding it for a few weeks, enjoying the new experience. However, it’s not hanging on the wall, covered in signatures. I quickly figured out that I need to turn it into something interesting, once the enthusiasm was gone. So I asked my friends to sign the bottom of the board, and now it’s a nice hipster touch on my wall.
By the way, this is the video I was referring to. Enjoy!
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