Sai
I feel perfectly content at Earl Bales Snowboard Park, a winter haven amid the concrete forest of uptown Toronto, and a perennial gathering ground for fifteen-year-old angry youths. Outside of school and home, it is the place where I have spent the most of my life. Its landscape is so familiar, I could navigate all its crests and troughs with a blindfold over my eyes. Much of what I learned in life, I learned here.
A sea of back pats, fist bumps, and turning of heads welcomes my every arrival to this urban oasis. Here, I am variously known as Franklin, Franco, and Sammie Dong (long story). It is the only place on earth where, were an election to be held, I could almost certainly be president. Among the strange, sometimes defiant, but essentially good people here, I have found myself another home. I need them as much as they need me and as much as we all need snowboarding. This smooth plastic board brings us inner peace. Snowboarding is meditation in motion, a time to disengage conscious streams of thought and let primal instincts guide the body through …show more content…
I was fourteen when I bumped into a bullish, shadowy figure that I had heard mentioned only in faint murmurs. This man, known by the bold imageries he had chosen to affix to the cement pillars of Alamosa Park, had earned a reputation at Earl Bales as an accomplished snowboarder and graffiti artist. His impeccable switch-stance and on-board grace were known to much of the snowboarding community. I had barely immersed myself in the park scene when I crashed headlong into him, sending both of us spiralling downhill. I hadn't noticed him and apologized rapid-fire while trying to cover my bloody nose. When we both got back on our feet, Sai knocked me down again and left the hill without a word. It was the single most terrifying experience I've ever had at Earl Bales. Sai left the park that day, and I had seen him only a few times
I feel perfectly content at Earl Bales Snowboard Park, a winter haven amid the concrete forest of uptown Toronto, and a perennial gathering ground for fifteen-year-old angry youths. Outside of school and home, it is the place where I have spent the most of my life. Its landscape is so familiar, I could navigate all its crests and troughs with a blindfold over my eyes. Much of what I learned in life, I learned here.
A sea of back pats, fist bumps, and turning of heads welcomes my every arrival to this urban oasis. Here, I am variously known as Franklin, Franco, and Sammie Dong (long story). It is the only place on earth where, were an election to be held, I could almost certainly be president. Among the strange, sometimes defiant, but essentially good people here, I have found myself another home. I need them as much as they need me and as much as we all need snowboarding. This smooth plastic board brings us inner peace. Snowboarding is meditation in motion, a time to disengage conscious streams of thought and let primal instincts guide the body through …show more content…
I was fourteen when I bumped into a bullish, shadowy figure that I had heard mentioned only in faint murmurs. This man, known by the bold imageries he had chosen to affix to the cement pillars of Alamosa Park, had earned a reputation at Earl Bales as an accomplished snowboarder and graffiti artist. His impeccable switch-stance and on-board grace were known to much of the snowboarding community. I had barely immersed myself in the park scene when I crashed headlong into him, sending both of us spiralling downhill. I hadn't noticed him and apologized rapid-fire while trying to cover my bloody nose. When we both got back on our feet, Sai knocked me down again and left the hill without a word. It was the single most terrifying experience I've ever had at Earl Bales. Sai left the park that day, and I had seen him only a few times