pete

photo greg lippiatt

Early one morning last summer, I went and had a look at a skatepark that I knew about, but hadn't seen before. I wasn't planning on staying because I was on my way to a swimming race, but even if I'd wanted to, I would have had to wait for the group of about twenty elderly Tai Chi practitioners to finish their session first. They took up the whole bowl with their slow, fluid, synchronised movement. I though about how similar it was to the movement made by the skateboarders who would no doubt trickle in as the day warmed up. Movements that are repeated and practiced, refined and perfected. Tai Chi, slow, skating, fast.
As I turned to leave, I saw a young man, sitting quietly like this on his skateboard, as if meditating on the moves he would make when the others left.