A close call with a car ends Kevin Roberts’ pastime of skateboarding with his dogs. But that can’t slow him and his high-energy pack down. That’s when he discovered the thrill of mountain boarding – and here’s the story of how he discovered his new passion in adventure.
The license plate of the car was clattering on the road.
The car had come out of nowhere. Speeding down the street. The driver was too busy texting to even notice us.
I saw everything as if it was in slow motion, but I was powerless to do anything to stop it.
River, at my side one moment, was just a few inches ahead of me as we crossed the road. She saw the car coming as well.
She tried to outrun it.
I was already moving, and my board took me right into the side and back of the car. I flew over the trunk, and while I was in the air, saw River smash into the front of the car, denting the bumper.
I landed on the boulevard on the other side of the street. A pain in my leg. A pain in my arm. River was crawling towards me, blood in her mouth.
When I woke up in the hospital, I asked how my dog was. I was told she was at the vet under observation, and that she was lucky to be alive. That moment, I decided to stop skateboarding with my dogs.
Now What?
My dogs are a high-energy pack, and I am a high energy person. I have been skateboarding since I was a kid. What was I going to do now? Skate, wake, surf and snow – whatever the weather, I need to be outside and moving with my dogs. I love to board, and my dogs love to come with me whenever possible.
Skateboarding gave them an outlet, where I could move at their speed. I would fly down the pavement, and they could run along on the grass. It was a great set up… or so I thought. After being hit by the driver, I had a pretty rational fear of skateboarding with my dogs in the city. We got off lucky – it could have been much worse.
So I put the skateboard in the closet. I decided to focus on getting out to the country to run my dogs. After all, we still enjoyed bikejoring, scootering, skijoring and sledding. But I still missed my board. I’m a skater boy at heart. I would still take my skateboard out for solo spins around the neighborhood, and the whole time I could hear the dogs howling from home. This wasn’t fun!
YouTube to the Rescue
It was around this time that I found a YouTube video from Pawesome dogs (watch the video below). Here was a dude, boarding on some sort of a skateboard contraption, with his two huskies down a wooded trail! I knew this was something I had to do!
The skateboard had three wheels (three HUGE wheels) that looked like the monster truck wheels of the skateboard world. It turns out that the skateboard is called a mountain board. So basically, an off-road skateboard. And it is perfect for running dogs with! Just watch this guy flying!
Tune in next week when I give mountain boarding a go, break a few bones and learn a few things from the pros.
