You might have already guessed it; this one has nothing to do with my riding or accomplishments, but my daughter Rhyley’s.
We have been leaving the trail-a-bike at home more often lately and riding the two wheeler. Its a rad little belt driven mountain bike that makes life so much easier for a 4 year old beginner. Rhyley has been making huge improvements every ride and now starts and stops on her own and can out run Dad every time. We’re almost at the point where I need to ride with her opposed to jogging along side.
Last Sunday we were at the Spit and riding in short spurts. She would go fifty feet and then stop to see where I was, or stop any time another person got too close to her. It was going OK, but I was hoping she would just ride around the people and not worry about me. Then we ran into her little buddy Ben, and the ride got faster as they both forgot they even had parents and focused just on riding. It was awesome to watch them encourage each other.
Now you’re thinking this is all normal stuff right? Kids learning to ride, improving, having fun. Billions of kids have done this throughout history – I agree, its not that much to be proud of really. Then, as her and Ben rounded the corner 100 meters away from us, she ate it! Speed wobble, accidental bar spin and over the bars she went for a very quick super man and then a good slide on the pavement.
As I watched from across the field she slowly picked herself up, checked herself out and then started running towards me. I was thinking the ride was over, but as she got a little closer I realized she wasn’t crying, but laughing, and as she approached she yelled, “Dad I crashed!” and threw me a huge high five. She was so proud of herself she couldn’t hold it in. After the high five she ran back to her bike, picked it up and took off again after Ben.
I am sure one of these days she will actually hurt herself and be less excited about crashing, but until then I’m just stoked she loves riding a bike!
I’m James Durand and I’m Goin’ Ridin’.
