On Saturday April 14, kc, John Michael and I drove to Long Beach to see the “Grand Prix” racing. We watched the IMSA Prototype and GT race and saw the last IndyCar practice.

Prior to watching the race action, we were able to visit the paddock and were walking about, watching the race engineers prepare the cars for the practice session. While looking into the Carlin team garage, one of their drivers, Max Chilton was sitting on a table with his super gorgeous girlfriend or wife. She was making goo-goo eyes at John Michael and poking Max, telling him to get John Michael over there! He did and we got this photo. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a few thousand photos of her!

kc introduced John Michael to the YMCA skatepark last summer. He uses a scooter there (by far the most popular vehicle). There are some kids there on skateboards, BMX bikes and even a few roller skaters. He did a camp last summer and we took him a few times.

We returned last month and he just became obsessed with this. Wants to go everyday and he and I usually go after school for an hour or two.

Something clicked with him last week and he suddenly became determined to do things he recently said he thought he’d never do. It’s very fun to see this self-confidence blossom in him. He’s one of the younger kids there and has earned some respect from older kids and young adults who have begun to offer him tips to improve.

Here are some things I promise you I will never choose to attempt.

Update:

Here’s a GoPro video of one circuit of the big ramp section of skatercross (and some advice from Alex).

https://vimeo.com/264523023