Twentysomething...By David Lion Rattiner

Entrance

I live at the Montauk Shores Condominiums, which is right on the water over at Ditch Plains. It is absolutely gorgeous there. The condominium has a lot of kids running around, and a nice playground and swimming pool where, in the summer, at almost every hour of the day, children play. It is a pretty special place.

A big bonus living there right now is that when I drive into the complex in my Smart Car, the kids freak out. Sometimes they start chanting at the top of their lungs while on the playground, "SMART CAR, SMART CAR!" and other times when I am going over a safety bump, they'll run right up to the car and ask if they can check it out.

I freaked one kid out. He was about eight, and asked me how fast the car could go.

"The best part about this car is that it can fly, kid," I said.

"No way," he said.

"Yes. You see this button right here? If I hit that the car can fly off the ground using state-of-the-art technology."

"Why don't you fly it then?"

"I would, but it is a problem because the telephone wires on the road prevent me from going up very high."

He examined the car with great curiosity and also had a look at the "fly" button I was pointing at, which I believe was the defrost button. He acted like he was going to push it.

"Don't push it! The car will take off."

His eyes widened, and I could tell he was having a difficult time processing all of this, and then he ran off. My guess was that he was going to tell all of his friends that my car could fly, starting off the conversation with, "You aren't going to believe this, but..."

I laughed to myself, and then I felt kind of old. I miss believing stuff like that. But I was happy to give this kid a sense of magic for the day.

If there is one guy that actually can fly it is Tony Hawk. I checked out his fundraiser for The Tony Hawk Foundation at the Ross School in Bridgehampton. The fundraiser uses money to build skate parks around the country. Tony Hawk was actually there at the event, which offered everything from hats to skateboard decks.

The most striking thing about Tony Hawk is how tall he is. I'm 6' 3", and when I met him, we were either the same height or he was a bit taller then me. The other interesting thing about him that does not go unnoticed is how gentle he is around his fans. He gives off extremely positive and relaxed energy for a guy that lives off adrenaline for a living. He signed an autograph for everybody that asked him, and then marched off backstage to begin what I felt was one of the most incredible athletic performances I have ever seen.

The skate show was insane. Tony and his crew of skateboarders set up a huge ramp at the fundraiser and performed stunts that were hard to comprehend. Just going down a half-pipe looks impossible, let alone doing a back flip off of one. All of the skateboarders were launching themselves into the air, doing spins and flips off the half-pipe, making it look so incredibly easy. What they were doing looked so dangerous that I became nervous for everybody.

At the end of the show, everybody there, including me, was a kid again and simply could not believe what we had just seen. I felt like I needed to run off and tell all of my friends about the show, perhaps starting off the conversation with, "You aren't going to believe this, but..."

Tony Hawk makes you believe that you can one day magically fly like he can.

Guys like him are good to have around.

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