It was two summer ago when I suffered a mild skateboarding accident that helped turn me into the photographer I am today. I was rolling down a hill and “slaloming” between some pylons that were by the side of the road (quick side note going fast is one of the most essential parts of riding a skateboard). I noticed that I had a little bit too much speed and with the upcoming parked van ( that’s not a typo, the van was parked) I tried to get my foot off of the board in order to slow myself down and swerve out of the way. The attempt was in vain, I was too slow and only made it halfway, the foot was off the board ready to extend just a few more inches before the sole of my shoe would hit the concrete thus slowing me down. But since my left foot was off of the board and my right shoulder was what hit the side of the parked van, this created a kind of forward momentum which only increased the pain when I landed. It was the dumbest idea ever to try and slalom through the pylons at that speed, it probably would of been better to simply hit the van full-on rather than try to swerve out and extend my foot. But by the end of this half second hiccup I came to an abrupt stop and all of my weight landed on the inside of my foot. I should be glad that My body wasn’t shifted slightly more to the right, because if it was I may have ended up landing on the other side of my ankle and the way that ankles roll I could’ve easily done more damage, probably broken or at least sprained. But speculative details aside It hurt like hell and I was off of my board for approx. two months in the middle of summer.
Skateboarding was and still is a big part of my life. After the accident I had a large section of my time freed up due to the pain in my foot keeping me off the board. I was still mobile enough to walk with a bit of a limp. At the time I was already taking long walks with my camera, it was this incident that made me do it more regularly. It’s funny to think that because of that injury I may not have become a street photographer. I don’t know if there was a literal butterfly under my foot, I was in too much pain to check, but I’m starting to think that it’s that extra time I spent taking photographs, and experiencing life on the streets that helped give me the experience needed to increase in skill as a photographer.
