"A child's toy consumed my life.

"The kid went up this kicker--which, if you are not a skateboarder, is an incline or decline you go up or down--launched in the air (the board staying under him), and landed on top of a four-foot tall railing just ahead of the kicker, glided along it, then finally dropped off and landed down on the cement. Perfectly.

"It was love at first sight.

"Lo and behold, I became a skater. . . ."

Carl Klitz is an amateur local skateboarder in South Florida. Since he was nine...