Skittles

Skittles from Reid Armstrong on Vimeo.

Justin leaves Monday after seven wonderful weeks. It was pure summer for him this year. I had intended to enroll him in camp, but after a week hanging out at the skate park across the street from Scott's office in Winter Park, he was hooked. He was at that park from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. almost every single day. He would come home at night, take the dog on a long bike ride, eat a refrigerator full of food, help put the kids to bed, soak his wounds in the bathtub and pass out on the couch by 9 p.m. And ... repeat.

As Scott describes it, the whole Hideaway Park skate scene reminds him a lot of his own surfing days. Justin made buddies with a bunch of other kids at the skate park and several times a day they would walk over to the skate shop to play with the tools, tweak their boards and pick up some stickers. Scott said the guys at the shop took Justin under their wing, like he was a little sponsored gromit or something. They gave him pro deals on gear, stenciled his skateboard and all shouted his nickname whenever he walked in. The culture at the skate park was also interesting, Scott said. It was a super athletic, positive group of kids. Everyone supported each other, and a lot of the older skaters gave Justin tips along the way. I witnessed this when I took this video today — the support, the positive vibes, and the tips from more experienced skaters.

So, Justin went from barely being able to ride his board down the street to what you see here in this video. A huge accomplishment in seven weeks. It took him the better part of that time for him to get up the nerve to drop into the pool, (he's always been one to watch and listen quietly and to take only carefully calculated risks when he's good and ready) but once he made the plunge — he advanced quickly. We're both super proud of him (Understatement — Scott is beaming), and Justin's rightfully proud of himself too. We can't wait to see how much this helps his snowboarding.