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Streets of Town, Tuesday Morning

On Roscoe's first few days here, the many stairways and handrails throughout town had struck him as a delicious opportunity to practice his skateboarding moves. Today he was ready to give that a shot.

Admittedly, the heights made it more daunting than simply racing through the streets back home, but he was sure he could handle it.

He found a good spot where he wasn't too high up and there seemed to be relatively light foot traffic and set off at a glide before he tried his first jump.

"Nice!"

So... this was where he'd be for the rest of the morning. Hopefully he didn't break anything.

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"Yeah. There aren't a lot of places like this back home, either. Which is where I got these." Ringo balanced on one foot without apparent effort as she stuck out the other in Roscoe's direction in case he wanted a better look at the two wheels and mostly-covered motor assembly.

"Apparently no one else has anything quite like them." Her teeth flashed. "Which us too bad because they are seriously the best."

[ooc: Gotta run a few errands. Back in four hours or so!]

"Nice," Roscoe marveled, tilting his head to look at them. Okay, so he was an amateur, not an expert, but he could at least tell that Ringo's wheels were better than his own. "Are they for competing or something?"

"Well, there are AirTrek competitions," Ringo allowed. Having forgotten that she hadn't told Roscoe what AirTrek was yet.

"But this is just a casual pair for around town." Though 'casual' for Ringo was still pretty tricked out.

"AirTrek?" There, now that problem was solved. "Never heard of them."

Ringo had gotten used to responses like that over the past year. "That's what these are called," she said, waving at her feet. "Like I said, it's a thing back home."

She grinned conspiratorially. "And I'm kinda trying to get some people into it here."

"Well, fuck, it can't be that hard to get people interested in a sport where they can skate on walls," Roscoe laughed. "I'll just tell you right now I'm very interested in that."

Ringo laughed. "You might be surprised. But I will admit that I'm a pretty good salesperson." She nodded at the wall. "It can take quite a bit of practice to learn to do that."

"But if you're interested, I could get you a pair!"

"Yeah, please!" Roscoe said. "I'm a size 10. I could hook you up with one of these totally average, hundred-dollar boards in exchange if you're looking to slum it," he teased.

Another laugh. "Actually, I've never tried a skateboard." She flashed a grin. "They do look pretty fun, even if it probably can't do everything I'm used to."

Roscoe grinned. "You wanna try it right now?" he offered. "Maybe somewhere not on top of a staircase, in case someone else coasts around the corner back there."

"Oh, can I?" Ringo looked excited by the prospect, but then hesitated. "Oh, um, is it okay if I do it barefoot?" Probably hard to ride a skateboard with the ATs on.

It was a funny visual, but yeah, good call, Ringo. "Sure," Roscoe said. "Lots of people learn that way to get a feel for the board. You're just gonna want to shift your weight to move instead of kicking off the ground too much, 'cause without shoes that's kinda nasty."

He hopped on the board and coasted for a few seconds todemonstrate.

Edited 2016-05-11 01:21 (UTC)

Ringo watched him, her expression one of intense concentration. This was the kind of thing she took super-seriously. Fortunately, she'd spent enough time doing something similar that she had a pretty good idea of what to look for in the way Roscoe moved to control the board.

"That makes sense," she allowed. "And I think I can handle that?" Maybe? "Um, there's an open space about a block from here where we could probably find some safe space?"

"Yeah, dude, lead the way," Roscoe said, popping his board up off the ground and into his hand. He wasn't confident enough in his staircase skating skills to try to show off here and probably crack his skull. "I gotta warn you, I'm not like a skateboarding genius, but if we're on a flat surface I can pretty much make sure you don't die."

"Hey, not dying is a pretty good start." Ringo giggled. "Anything after that, I'll count as a bonus." She led the way over to a little space that, if it were bigger, might be a plaza. Open, but more importantly, out of the way. They probably wouldn't run into any pedestrians out here.

"Now just let me get these off." She sat down on the ground, unslung her backpack, and began unlacing her ATs. "Any advice other than take it slow?"

"Yeah, you're gonna want to keep your eyes on a fixed point at eye level in the direction you wanna go," Roscoe instructed. "If you're used to balancing on skates you're probably going to be a little wobbly unless you focus on something to help you stay upright. And try not to lock your knees or elbows."

There was something kind of funny about giving Ringo these instructions, and Roscoe remembered that it hadn't been too long ago that Lex had taught him how to ride. But that lesson had been much more hands-on, with a lot of making out interspersed throughout, and that was not in Roscoe's curriculum for today.

Ringo stuffed her ATs into her backpack, set it off to one side, and then stood up, wiggling her toes in her socks just because she could. "That's not so different from what I'm used to," she agreed with a slow nod.

"And if you lose your balance, just jump off," he added. "Can't do that on skates."

He set the board down on the ground for her and took a few steps back. To be honest, he was really excited to see what Ringo could do.

Hopefully he wouldn't be too disappointed!

Ringo took a breath, then stepped up onto the board. She found her balance instantly, so that wasn't a problem. Then, for a couple of seconds, she just stood there, shifting her weight just a bit in different directions and feeling the board beneath her feet.

"You're right. This is way easier to feel barefoot."

She pursed her lips. "And I get it rolling just by leaning?" She leaned forward, the twitched her hips forward to add a little bit of forward momentum.

"Pretty much," Roscoe agreed. "It's called pumping. You just gotta remember that even when you lean one way to move, you still have to face forward so you don't lose your balance. 'Cause I've been there and it's seriously not pretty."

It was pretty cool to watch someone with even less experience than him try this out. He crossed his arms, watching interestedly.

"Right. Don't get distracted." Ringo looked over to flash him a grin, but immediately snapped her head back forward as she tried that pumping thing again. Not building up any real speed, but rolling forward at a slow walk.

"This isn't too bad. Are there any cool tricks someone like me can try without breaking something?"

She was obviously a natural, so Roscoe didn't see a problem with kicking things up a notch. "Yeah, let's try an ollie," he said. "So just glide just like you're doing now, and when you feel comfortable, just jump up and kick the tail end downwards so the board pops up with you. It's like the first trick everyone learns."

Edited 2016-05-11 02:58 (UTC)

"Ollie." Ringo repeated the word and nodded, still keeping her eyes forward. "Why's it called that? Is it named after someone?"

She was really just absently making conversation as most of her attention was focused on following Roscoe's instructions. Still moving forward slowly, Ringo jumped and kicked downward with her back foot. In all honesty she kicked way harder than she needed to, and the front of the board rocketed up into the bottom of her forward foot. But at least that kept it from flipping off somewhere else? And Ringo's balance was good enough that she managed to land without looking too awkward.

"I did that wrong, didn't I?" she asked, shooting Roscoe a glance. "Unless it's supposed to sting like that?" Maybe the barefoot thing wasn't all good.

Roscoe had to laugh, but he at least had the decency to do it while covering his mouth with his hand. "Sorry, sorry," he said. "It's okay. Everyone does it. Going barefoot makes all the tricks harder, but you learn the lessons a lot faster. Try a lighter kick this time, and kick just a little further up the board. Further back equals less control."

"Okay." Ringo drawled the word out slowly, as if thinking about it, then nodded. "You're the expert, after all!"

She leaned to one side, getting the board turned around in a slow arc since she was running out of space in her original direction. Then she got a little bit of speed and tried it again. This time, with the lighter kick, she didn't immediately lose control of the board, but it also meant that she didn't have to over-compensate by throwing her other foot forward, and she nearly lost control of the board coming back down because she wasn't sliding her foot up to flatten it out properly.

Still, she landed safely, and let out a little laugh that was a mix of amused and frustrated. "I'm not sure that I'm any good at this."

Streets of Town, Tuesday Morning

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