Kelowna, City Park Reunion
LifeI recently celebrated a birthday so you can chalk up all the nostalgia to my getting older.
Actually it was in the winter while visiting friends and family for the holidays that I realized it had been 15 years since I started going to the local skateboard park in Kelowna.
What seems so normal and obvious today wasn't always so. I remember a time when skateboarding played a sacred role in my life. Between school, family, friends and life in general—City Park might as well have been an other world. When you were down there you left everything else behind you. The people were different, your friends were different and none of the rules applied.
It's funny how time changes things. And awesome how the things that impact us really come down to the people in our lives. If having a full-day barbecue skateboarding with those I hadn't seen in years with music, and beer in the park wasn't enough. Like some kind of twisted dream, my friends and entire family came down too!
If this and some of the other photos in the Flickr album appear oddly gold, it's because they are. And this day was.
After the skating was through we packed up our things, sent those with kids on their rightful ways and headed to the dock where we jumped in to the refreshing lake water simultaneously. Surrounded by thunder and lightning, euphoria ensued into the night. The turnout was far beyond anything I would have expected, including some "younger" guys I didn't get to know until we got our new park, Ben Lee. 'Epic' would be a fitting word, but still we missed so many heads I know would have probably liked to be there.
Lets do this again before we're all in a 40s! I'm claiming Saturday, July 13, 2013 The Official "NOBODY'S REUNION" That's 2 years notice! Bunyan, Balogna, Sam, Josh... hope to see you guys there. —Sandro
