Speed Wobble

Huntington Beach, CA 1985

During the day Central Park was a mostly dried up lake with some rolling hills and lots of trees. After dark however, the asphalt path that snakes through the park seemed much narrower and a lot steeper. This was a perfect gathering place to hang out at night and race each other down the hills on our skateboards. The trick was to see who could make it to the bottom of the hill and be able turn and stop without heading into the lake. Sounds simple enough, right? Should be, but the degree of difficulty went up by having 4-6 people heading down the hill at the same time. The beauty of this was trying to make it without getting speed wobble, being "nudged" off into the grass at high speed, or running over someone who spun out in front of you. It was always entertaining to try and run in the air, when your board came to an immediate halt after careening off the side, to avoid the inevitable "grass burn" that was coming. Of course this never worked, but a "grass burn" was always better than picking the pebbles out of your "road rash". Good times!