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Q17: What's the fastest you've wiped a smirk of someone's face?

By: Tom LaPlante

At the time I had been skateboarding for over 20 years, beginning with the advent of the polyurethane wheel and eventually ending up with sponsorship by Gullwing, Town & Country plus a small bit part with Oakley. I had graduated college and was beginning my corporate affair with an insurance broker. I lived in San Antonio, TX at the time. A new public skateboard park had opened and while on my lunch break I had decided to stop by the park and see what it had to offer. I sat there in my slacks, button down Oxford shirt, tie and dress shoes watching the young skaters working a well shaped pool. They were having a great time and brought a smile to my face as I watched them carving around and performing various maneuvers always trying to better each other. I had grown up doing the same thing for years and watching them really made me feel good. As I sat there, an uncontrolled board shot out, landed and rolled up where I sat. I calmly raised my leg and planted my foot on top of the board to stop it. A young man (16 maybe) came up to retrieve the wayward skateboard. He looked at me and asked if I would like to give it a try. He looked at his friends and smirked as they all chuckled thinking there was no way I would give it a try and would die if I did. I simply smiled, stood up and said "of course I would". They all stared incredulously as a rolled the skateboard to the edge of the pool, allowing the back trucks over the coping and resting the tail on it's edge. There I stood, 30 years old, leather soled wingtips on the deck, silk tie dangling from my neck looking like the last person on earth who wanted to step on a skateboard, ready to drop to his death in a skate-park pool. I looked at them, smiled from ear to ear and dropped in. The rush was exhilarating as I gained speed, carved around backside coming around to a front-side grind on the coping. Nothing earth-shattering as far as tricks go, but as I came back around, popped up out of the bowl deftly catching the board in my hand and handing it back to the owner, the look on those kid's faces was priceless. Jaws were hanging as I thanked him and sat back down. "WOW!" he said, "you're like the Crusty Skater." I'll never forget that moment and I have used that name ever since. Thanks for reading and helping me relive a wonderful moment.

Sincerely,

CrustySk8er