The Uncle Drew of Skateboarding

      Yesterday, I decided to go back to Tetuan Skate Plaza for one last time before I leave. This park has been my favorite of the three I have visited here in Madrid and this session sealed the deal on that.

      I was at the park for about an hour or so and was chilling on the bench taking a break, when a group of old people came up to everyone else that was sitting on the long bench. They were speaking in Spanish and I could barely make out what they were trying to say. But basically, they were asking if this old man could stand on somebody's skateboard. All of the skaters were saying that he was "mas mayor" or too old, but eventually someone gave him a shot.

      It was at this moment when he reached out to grab the board, that I noticed the smoothness of his hands. I was still struggling to translate what they were saying and what was all going on, but I had a hunch that this wasn't just some old man.

       After the old man's group of friends helped him get onto the board, he slowly started to ride around with the help of one of the locals. What came next wasn't as surprising to me as it was for others around me. He went up and did a smooth 50-50 on the box and started a line that went throughout the entire park. This is when my hunch was confirmed and I thought that most likely this guy was a professional doing some sort of skit for a video.

      He finished up one of his lines by falling pretty hard, and his elderly buddies helped him up. I am pretty sure that he fell on purpose as part of the video, because it was hilarious to see an old man falling on a skateboard even if he wasn't actually old. 

      The camera crew came out from behind all of the surrounding bushes and started talking with some of the skaters. One of the locals told me that this skit was being filmed for a Spanish TV show that is to be aired next week. It's too bad I won't still be here, because I definitely would have watched it.

     The camera crew and the elderly group hung around for a while and got some more clips for their show. Before they left, a lot of the locals were getting pictures with the old man skateboarder, so I got one of my own.

       I had never heard of the skater's name before, but I found out that his name was Danny Leon.I watched one of his parts on YouTube from last year, and he is super good. He is actually only 20 years old, but you wouldn't have guessed that by the way he looks in this picture, huh?

      There is this viral video called "Uncle Drew" that shows Kyrie Irving, a basketball player in the NBA, going to a local park, dressed up and given make-up to make him look old, and joining in on a pickup game of basketball. I am assuming this video was inspired by that, but it was such a cool thing to experience first-hand. This was probably the coolest thing I have ever experienced through skateboarding, and I am so glad that I went to the skate park instead of taking a nap after getting home from El Escorial yesterday.

Thanks for reading,

      RCE