It's Thursday, Feb. 2, and I am heading out to Kiawah Island for an evening photo-shoot. Traffic grinds to a halt on the Ravenel Bridge, and soon most are out of their cars. Word is that there is a jumper atop the bridge, and most folks express concern. A rare exception, an elderly lady, fumes that she is all too happy to go push him off herself. A nearby telephone installer laughs and whispers to me that perhaps, at her age, she does not feel she has enough time left to be slowed down by anything. Camera in hand, I head across to the pedestrian walk on the bridge - I might as well get a shot of the harbor while I am waiting.

Into the vacant northbound lane comes a young man carrying a skateboard, and after eyeing the scene at the top of the bridge, he starts to skate a bit. He and I are the only people heading across the vacant lane, leaving me a clear shot. He skates a while, then jumps into the air just as I am taking a few shots up the bridge. After the resulting photograph goes viral locally on Facebook, the young man (Vincent Nagel, of Harbor Pointe in Mount Pleasant) contacts me. Several days later I had the pleasure of doing a brief photo-shoot and talking with him at Patriot's Point.

"I was heading into work when we all were stopped on the Ravenel Bridge" said Vincent. "I called and told them I was going to be late, and instead of sitting in my car stewing about it, I got my board to see if I could land a few tricks. We all decide what kind of day we are going to have, and I wasn't going to have a bad day."

Vincent says his mother, Patty Nagel who owns Arena City Soccer in Charleston, and father Mike Nagel who works for Roper St. Francis Healthcare have always encouraged athletics. About people's normal reaction to skate-boarders, Vincent says "Most people are really cool with it - they know we are not vandals or degenerate drug users. Every once in a while someone gets hostile - usually someone who doesn't understand it and has to deal with it."

Vincent, a student of film production at Trident-Tech and a kitchen manager for Chuck-Town Tavern downtown has gone on skateboarding trips with friends Will and Eric Sautter to Washington, D.C., New York, Maine, San Francisco and plans a trip to New Orleans during the Jazz Fest in May. His first video, titled 'Gnarleston,' about skateboarding in Charleston can be viewed on YouTube.

All in all, a situation that could have turned tragic on the bridge ultimately served to bridge a gap between myself and this fine young man.

(David Emch, a Mount Pleasant portrait photographer and copy writer, can be reached at 843-276-9096, on Facebook or by e-mail at davidemch@comcast.net.)