Fear is the mind killer

I stopped on my way home outside the skatepark to watch this guy try to build up enough courage to drop in.  When I had waited for an embarrassingly long time without him noticing, I called over to him.  He was probably in his mid fifties, maybe a surfer, and had just taken up skateboarding.  He had fallen pretty bad the day before and the fear had him.

Really he needed to clock some hours just skooting and turning on the flat.  

In skateboarding if you think you are going to fall, you will.  If you are convinced you won't make it, then you won't make it. 

We shook hands through the fence and parted ways.