Erin Wolfkiel: Kickflip Until I Can't. A Short Doc You Will Want to See

Erin in Kickflip Until I Can’t

"What do they say the definition of insanity is? Repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? That is literally skateboarding, but with micro changes." ~ Erin Wolfkiel

That's Erin Wolfkiel, laughing between tries in Kickflip Until I Can't, an 8-minute short from Valentine Di Marco's What a Life series. Spoiler: it's one of the most honest little skate films you'll watch this year.

Erin grew up in Liberty Township, Ohio, and started out on rollerblades because they were easier. Then a neighbor showed her up with a trick. Her reaction? "Oh, hell no." She took off the blades, dropped into the bowl on a skateboard, didn't slam, and never put the rollerblades on again. That was almost 20 years ago.

She was short, she wasn't getting picked for the A team, and she wanted to be good at something. So she decided: "I'm just gonna get good at skateboarding, because then I don't gotta be on a team." Vert, bowls, competitions, trips to California... and after her mom made sure she finished college, she moved out here in 2017 "to make my skateboarding dreams come true." She's since competed at events like Exposure and Red Bull Origin.

Then, at 32, came her first broken bones from skating: both bones in her leg, and a titanium rod through her shin. (Her advice: "Don't break your leg.")

She doesn't sugarcoat the comeback. She cried at the skatepark. She had to relearn how to walk, from one crutch to a cane to her own two feet. For about nine months she wondered if her leg would ever feel normal again. So she put the frustration into PT, workouts and careful flat-ground sessions, setting small goals and hitting them. "I really just wanted to prove to myself that I can heal and I can get back to where I was." Two years later she puts her leg at 98 or 99 percent. Her favorite trick, the nollie flip, still comes and goes, but she's chasing it on camera anyway.

Erin at Manhattan Beach Skatepark

What stays with you is how she talks about why she keeps choosing skating: "It's so hard. That's what it is... it takes so much time and determination, and once you figure it out, there's a level of confidence that it gives inside of you." And on the injury: "You're not invincible, but you heal."

The title says the rest. Erin plans to kickflip until she can't, and she's just getting started.

Watch Kickflip Until I Can't below. Directed, filmed and edited by Valentine Di Marco (@whatalife.stories), whatalifestories.com