It's All About the Sound

There are certain sounds that I associate with certain pastimes. When I raced bikes, I always loved the sounds of spinning freewheels and Look pedals. More often that not, the sound that actually stayed with me was that of someone and his bike sliding across the pavement after a crash. In fact, the person losing skin makes very little noise as he's crashing. But the bike makes a particularly metallic sound. I can't even describe it. I know when it when I hear it. There's no need to see the crash. After years of sitting on those tiny little saddles staring at the butt in front of me while in a long paceline, I learned to quickly recognize (without ever turning around) when people in the back were hitting the pavement. The sound always seemed deafening.

I associate a variety of sounds with respect to surfing. Of course, the sound of the waves is ubiquitous. I, for one, am more taken by the sound of people waxing their boards. My love affair with all things surf wax-related has never waned. For whatever reason, I find the sound of a board being waxed kind of meditative. The only other surf sound that makes my ears perk up is one I don't hear often. I heard it the other day when another blogger and I headed up to LPB. It's the only spot where I've heard my fins hum. I heard it there on my Tyler first. I heard it again last week on my Hullaballoo. That's a sound that makes me laugh each and every time I hear it.

Skating? Nothing beats the sound of a good grind. Nothing. So when I discovered this video, I saved it, made it a favorite, then decided I'd post it even though my last post included a video. Metal on coping? Love it!! That will soon be the sound I hear regularly on the ramp . . . followed by the sound of me probably falling off the board with joy! Grind.your.face.off!