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Kal* was only a year older than myself when we first met in high school but, looking back now, he was probably the most gifted self-promoter I have ever met. This guy could sell you on his abilities just through the force of his personality alone. You spent anywhere longer than 30 seconds in his presence and you'd come away convinced that this guy could do it all....music, sports, skateboarding - the whole nine yards and then some.

Funny thing was though...when it came time to step up and perform the myth really didn't meet the reality.

For months I'd been hearing from classmates and high school associates how Kal was just killing it with the skateboarding; progressing at a ridiculous pace that was leaving many of the old guard far behind. I heard from Kal himself how he'd just happened to chance upon skateboarding with pro-skateboarder Jason Lee (or was it Mark Gonzales?) who also happened to be in Italy when Kal was vacationing there with family (if I remember correctly - I'm going back over 30 years ago now).

To be honest I was intimidated by the prospect of skateboarding with Kal - everything I had been hearing from both himself and others left me feeling anxious about my own abilities. As he lived in a village 4 - 5 miles away from the town our paths had never crossed outside of high school.

Would I be good enough to even be in his presence? Would his brilliance show up the holes in my abilities? How would I fare against someone so skilled? How could I even begin to compare with what I had been hearing?

That fateful weekend finally arrived and despite my trepidation we met in the local park where the skateboarders plied their trade (so to speak) and, right from the start, I was shocked by just how sketchy and inconsistent he was. That's not to say he wasn't good - far from it (he attempted certain tricks that blew my mind - even if he didn't land them). He would try certain lines that would never have occurred to me or that I wouldn't have felt comfortable approaching. He was willing to try skating difficult handrails or urban architectural combinations that I would never have previously considered.

He was good alright....but inconsistent and very, very sketchy. Rarely did he make his tricks. Rarely did he roll away and those times when he did the trick didn't look clean nor smooth but quite 'clumsy'. He wasn't graceful nor stylish but definitely persistent.

I had never had much confidence in my abilities growing up. I had always underestimated and under-rated myself even when I was starting to surpass many of the more estalished skateboarders with my progress. I always felt I was less than I actually was so it was a huge shock to me, after the weeks and months of the Kal hype train, to discover that I was actually slightly better than this guy. I couldn't believe it! After all the weeks and months of hearing about this guy killing it and pushing it and now seeing him in action I realised (with a lingering amount of disbelief in the process nonetheless) that he wasn't living up to the pedestal he had put himself on.

This played out again and again in other sessions that followed when it became clear that Kal was a legend in his own mind. A master self-promoter but the myth being pushed would always fall far short of the reality of what took place.

Kal was my first lesson in the difference between myth and reality, between the hype train and delivering the promise but he wouldn't be the last.

Kal was also a lesson in not believing everything that I hear and, most importantly, to actually start having faith in my own abilities (no matter where they lay on the spectrum).

* Not his real name (for legal reasons)

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