The hot Los Angeles sun beat down on anything and everything making it sweat. The grass in the back of Jody’s house was yellow and flies buzzed in the air. Somewhere a dog barked and a car horn beeped loudly. But we were safe from the mayhem of the out doors in our workshop. It was the only place we could relax. In the last two weeks of my visit we had made it our home. Jody’s garage had recently been cleared and all that was left was some wood, milk crates, a table and two metal poles. The perfect place to design skateboard ramps. We rocked back and forth on our skateboards, drinking Coca-Cola.

“This is pathetic” I said between sips, “we have absolutely no more ideas for ramps!”
“I want to do something with more grinding” Jody whispered in his naturally quiet voice. Grinding in skateboarding is to go along an elevated rail. It is very hard but Jody is amazing at it.
“We could try my first grinding idea,” I suggested.
“Are you kidding me that death trap almost killed me,” Jody shouted pointing to his scratched hand and the dent in his helmet. I smiled. Usually I came up with ramp ideas but some of them backfired. We rocked back and forth for a little while more in silence finishing our Coca-Cola. I thought deeply what if we move the grind rail over and… yeah… yeah. We then stood up leaving our bottles behind; I had an idea.


We moved the crates so they were lined up. We then put pieces of wood on top of the crates so something could roll across it. We put a piece of wood to use as a ramp up and set a grind rail across to another crate with the same setup. We stood back and admired our work. We then deconstructed it then rebuilt it in front of Jody’s small brown house. We backed up all the way to the large palm tree at the beginning of Jody’s block. We looked at each other. I was nervous. I didn’t want to hurt Jody with my idea, or myself.

“Well… go ahead,” Jody said giving me a little push. I shot off down the street. “If you die I’ll tell your mom” he shouted after me.
My front wheels smacked the ramp up and I felt the familiar sensation of peril but excitement. I felt the metal on metal of my trucks on the grind rail, I went part of the way across feeling the metal bar sag, then fell on my butt. I fixed the damage on the ramp I had caused from my failure and gave Jody thumbs up. He charged down the street.

Half an hour past but it felt like days! Jody and I just could not get across that thing! Jody got really close and I did not. I was frustrated because he was doing better and he was frustrated because he was not doing well enough. We sat under a tree talking. It was then we nicknamed it “the impossible”. It became a major obstacle in our minds.

I gave Jody a look; he gave it back to me. It was a look of determination. I pushed the ground hard a few times until I was going fast. Too fast maybe I thought but I needed to push away the doubt because I flew up the ramp and skipped the whole crate because I flew into the air. Definitely too fast I thought. I landed hard on the grind rail clenching my teeth. It seemed like time slowed down I felt myself start to fall. Visions of past failures crossed my mind and filled me with shame. I wouldn’t; I couldn’t. I straightened and plunged off the end ramp with my board still under my feet.

Jody Rome ran up to me and tackled me laughing. My fists were above my head in victory. My mom stood in the doorway wearing a warm smile. I could complete things I shouldn’t be able to do. Not only that, but I finished it before someone who is a much better skater then I. I can complete literally the impossible I thought I want to do more; I want to achieve more! My head filled with a sudden rush of power; I laughed.
I kept skating with Jody and yelled encouraging words at him. We finished the day with both of us completing it twice. We were victors. The brothers of victory and I liked it.