How to get up your nerve

Yesterday my son went to the Dry Spot indoor skatepark in Vancouver and spent nearly an hour psyching himself up to “drop in” on this ramp in the picture.

By the time I arrived and took the picture, he had done it about 10 times, “without bailing once,” he reports.

He said he felt “scared as all hell” when he decided to try it. I asked what he was thinking and he said his initial thought was: “Oh my god, I’m going to break my neck as soon as I try.”

So, how did he find the guts to try it? (Because, I can honestly say, there is not a hope in hell I would ever try that!)

“By saying ‘I know I can do it’ and just doing it,” he said. “Ben helped me by standing in front of me and holding my hands and then telling me to push down with my front foot really really hard.”

He was talking about Ben Chibber, owner of the Dry Spot and Monke Skateboards. Ben gives private and semi-private lessons along with skatepark day camps in August (some spots still available).

Ben is a natural mentor – calm, patient, and encouraging – and Toby has a great connection with him. Toby said another reason he “just did it” is because Ben was coaching him.

“I just decided to do it because I didn’t want to be annoying,” he said, describing the adrenalin rush it gave him, which he says he loved. “I felt it go from the tips of my hair to the bottoms of my feet in a split second!”