Alek, one of my nephews, age 15, flying down a hill on his skateboard.
His grandmother has kittens when we talk about him doing this, probably because she remembers a time my Dad put my older brother on a skateboard and sent him hurtling down the steep hill near our great grandmother’s house in Kogarah. Brian didn’t fare so well, pretty sure some skin was removed that day, but at least he didn’t make it to the busy road at the bottom of the hill.
These days, kids are wearing helmets and kneepads and sometimes elbow pads for protection. While grateful Alek was wearing them he didn’t need them, seemingly gliding with ease down the hill on which speed was easily achieved.
He tells me this isn’t the big hill. In this park there is a bigger, steeper hill that he’s not brave enough to try, but I think he’s plenty brave to take this one on.
My brother, Greg, didn’t do so well, no protection means when he tried Alek’s skateboard, from about halfway up the hill, when he came off his knee became a bloody mess
Over the past weekend, Alek stood in front of my camera a few times. He’s a great kid.
The second day we went back to the park where we photographed the photo above but we walked around the place stopping at different places when it looked right. You can see the results below.
At one point we were down by a lake, using the stone wall as our backdrop and a guy approached walking his dog. I was all ready for Alek to want to stop, to go all shy and think it was “uncool” but he didn’t. He was ready to keep shooting. It was great that he has this confidence and self-assurance. I wish I had that at his age.
