The Zen of the Drop

When you drop in for the first time you'll make one of two mistakes. Either you'll undercommit by not pushing down hard enough with your front foot, sending your back wheels sliding out from underneath you. Conversely you can overcommit and push down too hard with your front foot, sending your body over the front of the board. Either mistake will serve as a reference point to learn from but only after you've made both mistakes do you realise that undercommiting and overcommitting, although exact opposites, lead to the same outcome.

To drop in without falling you need to find a third way that lies in between the two extremes and simply commit.

The kid looked at me strangely when I realised this. Down at my feet was a spattering of my tears drying on the concrete. The profundity of the moment had clearly gotten the better of my emotions.
"Why'd ya fall twice?" He asked.
Wiping my eyes, I chuckled at the youth and calmly asked back, "Well, how else are you meant to find the mid point?"
Expecting no answer I then closed my eyes to embrace the universal oneness and infinite peace now spreading throughout my body.
This peace didn't last long though as it was broken by a distinctly irritating scratching sound of someone drawing in the dirt with a stick. I opened my eyes in annoyance.
'This fucking kid' I thought while looking around for his mother. No one was in sight so I ran over to him.
"Hey kid! Where's your-" But then I saw his drawing in the dirt and froze. He had sketched a semicircle with a dot at the length of the radius. The dot would have been at the centre if the circle were complete. I stared at this and tried to grok it's meaning. After a few minutes had passed I finally saw it for the cunning trick it was.
"Kid where the fucks your mum?!" I yelled out all but too late to the speck on the horizon that was only getting smaller. I squinted and swear I saw him sticking out his tongue and giving me the finger. That fucking kid. That punkass enlightened motherfucker skateboarder.