'The weather is no excuse.'

Skatepark School

Lesson 03 : ‘'The weather is no excuse’

I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard some variation of:

“Hopefully it’ll be nice so we can get outside.”

What I’m about to write is both maddening and mind-blowing.

“What if you just go outside regardless of weather?”

I know, there’s all kinds of reasons and compelling arguments for not doing all kinds of things when the weather’s…bad.

Why is rain considered “bad” weather?

Yeah, rain makes things more slick. Yeah, fog makes things more dangerous to drive. Yeah, probably shouldn’t do too much paddle boarding during a lightning storm. Lots of good reasons to not get outside.

But what about letting those be the asterisks, instead of the norm?

Just because it’s raining doesn’t have to be a prohibitive factor for doing something fun outside.

Playing outside in the rain is kind of like tent camping with children: the fun is in the misery, and when you embrace the misery and pretend it’s fun, it actually, seriously does begin becoming fun.

I love films, books, hot drinks, and cozying up inside. I love that.

But life is full of paradox, and paradoxically, I love to balance the extremes of inside and outside. Hiking, cycling, skating in the rain means you get to (maybe) enjoy a little television under a warm blanket later even more. There’s a balance to be had at the extremes.

One of my big pieces of advice as a photographer is to look in the opposite direction of where everyone else seems to be pointing their cameras (or phones). A lot of times there’s a situation or interesting situation that’s getting missed because everybody’s focused on the same thing.

Or everybody’s waiting for good weather to get outside.

There’s a melancholic and beautiful joy in having community spaces to yourself when everybody else is holed up inside.

Somewhere in there, I think there’s a good lesson about getting outside 12 months a year. You make the rules.

There’s no rule prohibiting us from going hard in every kind of weather.