I bought Alex his first skateboard 2 years ago, and since then, he's been hooked. This year he has really been practicing, and when he's here, we go to one of the 2 skate parks in town at least once a day. He attended a week long skateboard camp in June to learn some new tricks, and that only made him want to ride more.
I really see this as something he will stick with. Kids at this age like to explore new interests, as they should, and some don't stick for long, which is fine. His interest in other sports wanes. He has played baseball for the last few springs, but he never wants to play at home, just for practice and usually wants to quit halfway through the season, but we always make him finish. Soccer has been better, and it's something he actually practiced on his own. He also started a few years ago, and last year, we kept him playing-at his request-every Saturday from September to May. Basketball is something he likes to play in our driveway, but he has never shown an interest in playing more than that, and he briefly mentioned football, but that's only because his step-dad was pushing him to play. I'm glad he really doesn't want to play because Charly and I don't want any of our kids in football due to the number of concussions and brain injuries suffered. Sure, soccer and skating can be dangerous, but when looking at head injuries, nothing compares to football.
I just don't see Alex as a teams sports kind of kid. I may be wrong, but he's really always preferred to do his own thing, and I see him continuing with things like art and being really into gaming and skateboarding. Soccer, maybe, but I just can't picture him on anything like a basketball team. Skateboarding is something he loves to learn about, and wants to practice, almost begging for us to take him to the skate park. He watches YouTube videos of skaters to see techniques he is working on and then goes in the driveway to work on stuff before heading to the park. And of course, he never wants to leave the park.
This fall, we gave him the choice of taking soccer or skateboarding lessons, and guess which one he chose? We thought just one activity would be plenty with the baby coming, and we didn't want to have to run between 2 practices every weekend.
He is super excited to have a pro skateboarding instructor! I have to admit, I'm pretty excited to meet him too! He's a local, only 20 or 21, travels around the country for competitions, and is sponsored by 2 skating companies, so it's cool he's teaching lessons.
Here are a couple of videos of him:
http://www.aganation.com/Events/SummerSports/Wake/News/tabid/77/ID/22/Jon-Deezle-Depoian-2009-AGA-Cup-Skateboard-Advance.aspx
This one is the 2nd video down (Jon "Deezle" Depoian)
http://whatcoast.blogspot.com/2011/07/jon-deezle-depoian.html
Here's one of him at the Portage Park, Alex's favorite one. Now that Alex has seen this, he looks for him every time we go there:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZrUo53eXe4
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