I just sold my mini ramp. It was hard to even list the thing, but it went to a super rad mom. Her 9 year old son had just gotten into skating and is out on his board every day. Going into the summer she wanted to buy the ramp so he could get outside and skate at home. I let him take some test laps. It was awesome watching how stoked he was skating it, and knowing it would be in his yard soon.

His mom told him he better skate it a bunch. He said "I will. This is way better than Fortnite". This got me thinking about the rad parents out there letting their kids have fun.

Me and my parents don't get along the best, but they were pretty damn cool about my outdoor activities as a kid. I started building ramps for my bike when I was 7 or 8 I think. The first one was a small maybe 2' wide 1' tall dirt jump I built using Tonka trucks to transport material.

From there they grew. The random piece of wood on a cinder block, up to the sketchiest pallet jumps ever rigged up. One time I built a 3-4' one that consisted of several pallets precariously balanced on cinder blocks. It collapsed on me and I ate shit. I ate shit hard. Honestly, that happened a lot for me. My mom was never stoked when I'd come home all bloody from doing something stupid on my bike, but my parents never stopped me. Eventually I convinced them to let me buy a trampoline. Within a year I'd collected 2 more, and had 3 large round trampolines in the backyard. I bounced on those damn things all day everyday.

There are some really awesome parents out there. Making sure the kids get to the mountain, sometimes even being the ones to teach them how to ski. That's one of the coolest things a parent can do. Regardless of their skiing abilities, or if they ski at all, getting their kids into some of these hobbies is awesome. If you're reading this, it's probably because skiing has changed your life in some way. Whether you're in high school and just starting out in park, or a parent that has little shredders out on the hill on weekends.

Skiing, skating, etc are great sports to get kids into. It not only keeps them active, but allows them to challenge themselves, get frustrated, and eventually complete goals. That feeling of hiking a rail with friends, trying to learn a new trick. Falling off over and over and then it clicks, boom new friggin trick! There's really nothing like that.

To all the parents that take their kids skiing, bought them a trampoline, let them ruin the yard with a summer setup, helped them built a skate/bike ramp, cheers to you! Thank you for continuing to keep the stoke alive! You're rad as hell!