Tonight I’m at a farewell party. One of my friends is leaving for London for a year. He's one of the coolest guys you'll have the pleasure to meet. He is focused on his goals and has a way with the ladies that'll make you jealous! Anyway, he's leaving and there we were, on his balcony celebrating his departure, happy to have less competition.
All the Camps Bay cronies are there, drunk and having fun. I get to catch up with mates I haven seen in ages. Peeps are mental yo. Kyle is going to attend the RedBull music academy in London, that’s huge! Paul has been on television breakdancing, he has mad control of his body. Decio is the number 2 downhill skater in South Africa, probably the most mental one of us all.
We say our goodbyes and wish our mates well, being 2am in the morning it was time to move on and move we did. We are on the road, the 3 of us. The three musketeers, the pioneers, or are we three blind mice, doing silly shit in the dark.
The silly shit was awesome. We make our way up to the highest point reachable in a car. The top of Kloof Nek road, we stop next to the cable cars of Table Mountain. One insane mouse finds his cheese in the form of a downhill skateboard, and he ate it up.
We have a moment, a prayer to the gods of speed, to keep our deadmua5 alive, and to remind ourselves of people like Lloyd MacPherson, who had died on his board on the same streets we are on. We utter words of the late great Ayrton Senna ‘Look but never stare’ and it is done.
Decio gets onto his piece of timber with tiny wheels attached and pushes himself once. I'm behind him in the car with my brights on lighting up the dark road for him.
He starts to pick up speed and so do I. Dennis is has the passenger filming what’s happening on my phone. Decio approaches the first corner he gets low and disappears. I accelerate into the corner hoping to sustain light for him but he's gone. Dennis starts getting really excited. I’m drifting the car to keep up with the insane speedster on a board.
I catch up to him going down a straight. I’m relieved to see him tick tacking down the road. I would have been tumbling down the side of the mountain right now but there he is, being playful with danger. A stop sign is coming up fast Decio power slides side wards to slow down for it. Dennis screams “YOU ARE MY HERO!” at the top of his lungs in my left ear.
I take the corner following closely behind him, now we’re cruising down Kloof Nek road. Decio tucks into a crouch and rides the road like a wave. Dennis peeks my speedometer, “90! His going 90 down this hill! Crazy! He is CRAZY!”
The road meanders, twists and turns till we get to Raffiks. The traffic light shines red we see green and run the light. There’s no traffic at this time of the morning, and we’re badass. Fuck traffic. Those cars up the road never stood a chance. We get to Buteinkant road the hill is over. Decio puts his foot down to slow himself.
He stops and gets into my car. “You the man! You the fuckin man!” You could feel the buzz like a chainsaw. Its crazy shit like this that makes life fun. The Great Escape from lives mundane monotony, to flirt with death. The rest of the night, blurr. It was awesome and id do it again.
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