This is a series where I share the different explorations and adventures I’m fortunate enough to have in my life in South Korea. My hope is that through these stories you can see how simple, healthy, inspiring and fun it can be to step out of your house and explore.
I’ve been told that I have an attention problem; that I’m too hyper; that I have Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD).
For your reference, here’s the Wikipedia definition of ADHD:
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a mental disorder of the neurodevelopmental type. It is characterized by problems paying attention, excessive activity, or difficulty controlling behavior which is not appropriate for a person’s age. These symptoms begin by age six to twelve, are present for more than six months, and cause problems in at least two settings (such as school, home, or recreational activities). ADHD often persists into adulthood, with resultant impairments of social, academic and occupational functioning. In children, problems paying attention may result in poor school performance. Although it causes impairment, particularly in modern society, many children with ADHD have a good attention span for tasks they find interesting.
After this story, maybe you can judge for yourself. But I think I’m just fun.
I’ve got this awesome mountain park behind my place. It’s got great trails, and I’m hiking or mountain biking on those trails at least three times a week. But it’s when I’m hiking that I really appreciate the features of the mountain. It’s probably because I have more time to “smell the roses” rather than zipping through on my bike. The main trails are wide, undulated, and hard-packed. In the autumn, the side trails are covered in slick alder, maple and beech leaves.
On my hikes I’ve always thought these trails would be awesome to snowboard or do some form of boarding on. I’d draw imaginary lines of the path I would take with my make-believe board: I’d ollie over those roots there, grab that tree there to whip me through that corner, hold my breath at that downhill and hope I make the corner, and use that uphill section to check my speed.
On the hike, I’d also dream of the best board for this kind of environment. In the laboratory of my mind, I created and discarded a number of board designs: long boards might be too long to maneuver, but they would be more stable; the wheels should be wide but not too wide so that there’s some skidding; pneumatic wheels versus urethane wheels is still an ongoing debate.
It got to a point where I had a hard time enjoying my hike because these ideas would fill the zen-like space I was trying to create with my mediative walks. It’s really hard to clear my mind of future plans and other distracting thoughts. The recent warm winter we’ve been having in South Korea hasn’t been helping either. I’ve been longing to get on my dusty snowboard for weeks now, but the inconsistent cold weather have made planning the journey up north difficult. And then there’s my mountain in my backyard, a 5-minute walk intriguing with potential.
So on Sunday afternoon, I hiked up the mountain again, and I came across this one section that often ignites my ‘mountain boarding’ thoughts. There are a few roots, the slope isn’t too steep, there aren’t many leaves on the trail, and the imaginary line I got in my head makes this theoretical ride look smooth and flowy. All my plans this weekend to go ice climbing and camping frustratingly fell through so I hadn’t gotten my dosage of fun yet. Knowing there was one cure for my dilemma, back down the trail I went towards home, grabbed my skateboard, helmet, gloves and elbow pads, and hiked back up to the trail.
The first thing I did was fall; ‘break fall’ that is. It’s a type of warm up we learned in wrestling where you learn to control your fall by absorbing the force and momentum with your arms and legs. I knew I definitely was going to fall, a lot.
After a good warm up, I went to that section of trail where I imagined I’d look cool. As expected, I didn’t look cool at all, and I took a few good tumbles, but I was stoked. It was fun. I had to play with the fear of catapulting off the board because of an unseen rock while keeping composure to steer the board from major obstacles.
To get a good ride I had to become very sequential. I divided the section of trail into smaller sections, like a bouldering problem in rock climbing. I tried to ride each section clean and then linked them up. Soon I was riding that section of trail like I had imagined, smooth and flowy.
By the end of the session, I had spent a few great hours on just a 100meters of trail. There are over 10 000m of trails on this mountain I can now explore with my new sport. I also met a few hikers wondering what I was doing and had a few laughs with them, which is rare in South Korea where strangers don’t usually talk to each other. The sun was shining, I had a good sweat going, and definitely got my fill of excitement for the day. It was another great day in the mountains.
Here’s a video on my first time trying my skateboard on the trails.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTs3n5-ZOsw
As I reflect on the day while writing this post, I think about how many times I just decided not to bring my board up that mountain because I thought it would be a hassle. But really, it’s a simple skateboard with basic longboard trucks and wheels; it’s not that heavy or difficult to carry. Another thing that kept me from doing this earlier was that I overthought the skateboard design. I put the cart way before the horse. While dreaming of this fictional board design, I thought of the fuss of ordering parts, the frustration of trial and error, and my lack of technical knowledge. When in reality, I just needed to try it first with what I had. Now I know what I really need to tweak on my board, and it isn’t much.
There are so many options to have a good time, but some times we over think things and make mountains out of mole hills. Most of the times, great adventures happen with the least equipment, minimal planning and lots of gumption. You just got to get out there and do it. And if you decide to go at it, give it your best and have fun. Oh, it also helps to have an active imagination to think of great ideas.
Does that mean I have ADHD?
Nope, it just means I know how to have a great time:)
Here’s my second time out with a buddy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oPL55GhFeA