Zen moment before a road trip

Back to manual practice day spot, but now incorporating other tricks.

Today
Am about to drive up by San Francisco and back to do a paid private stand-up comedy gig. I skated till late last night, slept, woke up (wife went to teach her class for a couple hours) and went straight back out to skate. Can you tell what’s important?

Tried going to my new long curb/smooth sidewalk, it’s a newly found good night spot. At 10am it was nice and shaded, but also the t.v. and movie production studio was working with their warehouse door open, right there. Retreated to my other spot, nixed the curb tricks from practice. (But loved a few nice backside 50-50s on the way there).

Today, more than any since I’ve drilled in a month, and since getting this new slightly longer 8 inch Powell deck (given to me by a team manager and a pro rider), I had some real tuned in Zen moments. My focus on the details getting finer and finer, smaller and smaller, and my perception of critical moments occurring in time that seemed slower and slower. Oh the nuts and bolts, names and results is nothing fancy, but it was the feeling of being in tune. These are moments when my board feels smaller and lighter and feels connected to my feet.

Drills

Stationary Kickflip Practice
30-11-9
Make rate: 60% Almosts/Spin fix: 22% Ollie fix: 18%

Rolling Popshovit Practice
10 makes, many more experiments and non makes.

Stationary 180 Backside Ollies
10 makes. Many more attempts, was analyzing the angles, getting zen, feeling it.

Rolling flatground 180 frontside no comply practice
I didn’t count these toward the 2,500 I’m honing while riding off a curb. Did 50 attempts. Lots of makes in there, and by far the best control I’ve ever had doing flat ground versions of this trick. I even started getting them around with height and control up to 270 degrees, landing some like that. I see 360 flat ground in my near future. Also, with some 180, my height and control was such that I could even tweak it out and pull it back in with my right foot, mid air.

Old deck nose over new deck nose. Same width, new length. Learning curve.

Old deck imposed on new deck, same width. Shows that I've got more wood to wield.

Tomorrow
Am hoping to get home safely around 4am, sleep, somehow satisfy my wife with some kind of adult responsibility that lends promise to the future, and then get out to skate at night while she’s teaching. I’ll work on more of the same as today, plus some curb stuff.

Mostly, I’m stoked to get fluid with kickflips again for starters, and get great board control.

Till almost midnight

Here's a better view than a few days ago, of the curb with good lighting.

Tonight
Long day. Then I went out from 10:30pm till almost midnight skating. Didn’t want to come home.

Had fun with working in backside 50-50s, manuals, backside Ollies. Mostly though, I worked on:

Frontside 180/360 no complies
Did 100 180/360 fs no complies attempts, landing a bunch but mostly just feeling what’s up. Felt good. Am now up to 400 total, out of 2500 that I’ll do before I film it again.

Stationary Kickflip Practice
Did 10 stationary kickflips. A couple of the makes felt good. Before my foot and ankle injuries a month ago I was landing 9 of 10, each one nice, and was starting to practice the rolling kickflips to be precise about where I’m landing. That’s so I can eventually Kickflip into a grind.
HOWEVER, I now have to rebuild that. I’m not as tight with with new longer board that also seems to have mellower tail. It’s a pro board used by Villanueva in an upcoming Powell Peralta movie, so I know it’s got the pop in there. In addition to just not being used to the deck, the main problem is that I haven’t been able to practice kickflips (or Popshovits, Varial Flips, or tre flips) in over a month. Heel is coming along nicely, healing, so stationary kickflips is where I’m starting.

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First ever frontside 360 Ollies!

On the way to the DMV/Cole Street area I couldn't believe how beautiful it is to skate in LA. I'm facing north here, toward the DMV and my new night skating spot pictured below

Yesterday
Worked all day and spent the evening with my wife. Between the two I snuck in about 75 minutes of skating at the Hollywood DMV. No homeless guys were sleeping there yet.

Practice? Play? A little of this, a little of that. Still not working on the same progression of drills I was moving through before the sprain/bone bruise or fracture, such as hundreds of repetitions of tech tricks each night. I find that manuals, no complies, grinds, and 180 and 360 attempts are easier on the wounded heel of my left than anything shovit, and tre, Kickflip and unfortunately K-grind. The latter I tend to use my heel more in either landing or my common front foot bail.

It’s all good, I love it all, VERY happy to detect some mending, very excited to be expanding in those old school directions, and am glad I’m only occasionally in bad pain when I land on my heel just wrong.

Drills

What’s the deal with the 180/360 frontside no comply off curb practice?
Attempts: 25. Total out of 2500: I’ll have to go back and count. Maybe 175.

My wife saw my video of me doing one of these and challenged me to do 2500 more and then re-film. As I’ve practiced I’ve already felt into some height and spin aspects, and landed a bunch of 360 no complies. Am not trying to land and roll each time, am not tracking make rate, but I’m experimenting with dynamics and occasionally landing a nice floater.
Due to really feeling that scoop and 360 in the frontside no complies, I choose to once again try frontside 360 Ollies, off a curb for more height.

Frontside 360 Ollies (rolling)
75 attempts (not tracking make rate yet).
Last night I found myself on the smooth flat concrete of the DMV, with a good view of occasional oncoming traffic, and bombed repeatedly off the 9 inch curb a bunch, and I landed one! Felt amazing. Also, I ALMOST rolled away from a bunch of super close makes that were high clean 360s, but my foot fell off after the landing. A couple others I landed around 300 degrees and pulled around real quick while still on the back trucks. Time ran out on me or else I would’ve been trying to land another one for who knows how long.

Stationary Kickflips
10 makes. Felt sloppy and heavy and it hurt my foot. Will need to do a ton to get back to where I was a month ago, especially with a 31.5 inch board versus 30 but actually about 27 after all the wear and tear of my old deck. My new Animal Chin deck that I was gifted by a Powell Peralta team manager is the best, yet I’m still not used to the increased size and weight. This adapting is even harder because I’m also basically trying to start up again with flip tricks after a month off due to two different injuries. (As I write this my heel actually feels like it’s on fire, and that’s just from it having weight on it while driving).

Cole at night, facing south, towards the DMV. By this time of night there's usually a homeless dude sleeping at the DMV. Found a great alternative where I'm standing during this shot.

Today
Will see. I’m doing background for a movie in a prison in East Los Angeles. I’m actually behind bars as I write this! Might be a very long day and night. My wife, though respecting skating and loving how much I love it, she gets really mad and hates on skating if I spend dozens of hours per week doing it while neglecting my writing and stand-up comedy work (which I’ve neglected too much lately). Even under this scrutiny I hope to get out of prison and on the streets tonite!
Tomorrow I’m driving up to San Francisco to do comedy shows, and then will drive back as well, so if I can’t fulfill my already huge skate jones tonight, it may be a couple days.

Manifest synchronicity/First Ever 360 No Complies

I all of a sudden have a brand new Animal Chin Powell Peralta deck!

Yesterday
Frontside 180 No Comply off curb
75 attempts (am not drilling on our keeping track of the make rate. I’m in the phase of pushing myself beyond my limits, so don’t really want to be held back by makes just yet. If I wanted I could probably make most of them, but I’d be playing it safe and not be exploring how to go higher, faster, tweak it out, go 360).
About 5 were 360, and I’d prior never landed one 360. What!?

Synchronized
The day before yesterday, team manager for Powell Peralta, Deville Nunes, liked a couple of my photos on Instagram so for the first time I knew who he was and I now respect his work. Great photographs. Cool in and of itself. Then yesterday I ran into him and Powell pro Brendon Villanueva filming a part for a movie. Sick rail slides. Deville sees how shredded my deck was and hooked me up with a new deck, correct size! The photo is above. Brendon had used it for a few days during filming. Can’t wait to watch it that movie.

I’ve already skated about 5 hours over the last couple of days, getting used to the new board, and as you read, landing something 360 thanks to the concave and grippiness.

Today
Frontside 180 No Comply off curb
50 attempts. Playful, landed one 360 and a bunch somewhere more than 180.

New night and maybe day spot.

New spot
Found a great new night spot in my soon to be old ‘hood. On the north end of my usual dmv spot, at Cole and Willoughby, smooth sidewalk, very dealable road, great long painted curb. Practiced backside 50-50s and some other 180 backside into fakie 50-50s. Very rough, but fun. Almost completed a few. Prior to tonight I hadn’t tried a 180 Ollie into a curb grind (50-50) since I was a kid.

Other spots from tonight

All of the above photos are on Larchmont between Melrose and Beverly. There’s more spots along that stretch. I don’t have the ability yet to skate that bank/hip onto curb. Soon!

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Manifest synchronicity/First Ever 360 No Complies

I all of a sudden have a brand new Animal Chin Powell Peralta deck!

Yesterday
Frontside 180 No Comply off curb
75 attempts (am not drilling on our keeping track of the make rate. I’m in the phase of pushing myself beyond my limits, so funny want to be held back by makes just yet).
About 5 were 360, and I’d prior never landed one 360. What!?

Today
Frontside 180 No Comply off curb
50 attempts. Playful, landed one 360 and a bunch somewhere more than 180.

New night and maybe day spot.

Found a great new night spot in my soon to be old ‘hood. On the north end of my usual dmv spot, at Cole and Willoughby, smooth sidewalk, very dealable road, great long painted curb. Practiced backside 50-50s and some other 180 backside into fakie 50-50s. Very rough, but fun.Especially after glimpses of progress like tonight.

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Fun day at the wall

View from a skate through studio land in Hollywood. Searching for a manual pad.

Today
My wife needed to rest of this afternoon, and it’s a holiday weekend. So I had no trouble getting away for almost three blissful hours of skateboarding, exploring, and playing with my camera.

My wife challenges me, I love it.
Started and ended at the DMV, with shady manuals and 180 frontside no comply practice off the curb.
Yesterday when I showed my wife my video of my doing 180 frontside no complies off the curb, she said I should do 2,500 more attempts and then record it again and compare. She actually was that into it! She also rode my board a bit, so this is great for an adult relearning to skateboard.
Today I practiced the first 25 of the 2,500. Was sloppy, mostly playing with dynamics.
Eventually I want to tweak it out and grab the nose.

Manual pad quest
I texted a friend who’d once mentioned a manual pad near our part of Hollywood. He’s one of the only skating friends I have, but I know him from stand-up comedy. He gave me directions, and I manualed and grinded my way there, taking note of how shitty my backside Ollies are, and how much I want to learn 360 backside Ollies.

The manual pad my friend pointed me toward.

Plan B
I found the manny pad, but cars were blocking it. I’d actually skated that lot before, even took a photo of the manual pad. It didn’t stick in my memory tho. It’s very low, will be great to learn on.

Went across the street to an angled wall I’ve played on before. Spent about an hour trying Wallies and eventually backside no comply wallies, but putting my front foot down in front of the board instead of behind.

My afternoon at the wall. Don't know what this would be called, but it was fun.

Tomorrow
It’s technically today. Memorial day. Am sure I’ll get away for at least an hour. I’ll go back to the dmv and work on my 2,500 frontside 180 no complies. I’ll float ’em by the end! High and tweaked out. Tomorrow I’ll probably also go back to that manual pad. It’s all new and very enticing to me.

Drills?
Not yet. Many times I’ve started drilling K-grinds and bailed due to landing hard in my heel. Some sharp pain there. Drills and successful sets are the keys to learning, but I also repetitively land on my heel, and that ends the skate session too early. Especially when I work on tre flips, which is where I’m at. Can’t wait to work on these again, but in the meanwhile it’s great to really just play around with no set practice. Don’t get me wrong, I skate for pure fun, but I do have goals.

Healing for sure! Celebratory grinds.

Yesterday
After thinking about skateboarding all day I managed to get away in the evening for exactly an hour. During that time I skated at the DMV and absolutely love every single moment. After being injured for 3 weeks, unable to really practice drills I am for sure now feeling healing sensation. The pain is duller unless I really whack my heel, and when I do the sharp pain doesn’t linger as long. Prior to this I had a lingering worry that maybe I’d broken something and the healing process would take months.
I practiced rolling and stationary K grinds for a while until I did smash my heel and limped away from it. After that I went back to manual practice, pulling out some of my most beautiful nose manuals ever, in beautiful light just as the sun was setting.

Nose Manual at the dmv. I rode about 20 feet beyond the camera.

Later when the pain die down course I went back to the beautiful red painted metal coating on fashion herb where I begin practicing back side always 25050 Grimes
I’ve never really been solid with my backside 50-50 grinds since I’ve been a kid, but last night I rode out a bunch that were sweet and solid and about 6 feet long, on the beautiful red painted old-fashioned metal coping on the 9 inch curb.

Huge focus in my drills once I’m fully up to speed will be to get way, way better at backside ollieing into things like grinds. They are so fundamental and yet I suck at them so terribly.

Backside ollie into a nice 50-50

Today
I went on a public bus trip with my wife, skated and explored spots for over an hour. Found a manual pad where for the first time ever I had numerous makes onto the pad while holding manual position. That was a first! Felt awesome. Many times I got halfway across the pad before losing the manual, so that’s promising. Didn’t make a traverse.
Left quickly before getting kicked out. Then I found the long slightly downhill red curb where I busted out some long frontside 50-50s, like in the medley up top.

Explored around, practiced manuals, hurt my foot trying backsides onto a curb, did the same with K-grinds.

My eye has been very drawn to gaps recently. I'll get some down as board control increases.

Manual pad in Encino, first one ever I really tried skating. Manuals are the new fruit from my injury.

Saw some great ledges I'd love to skate off and on.

Cahuenga boulevard. Smooth transition onto this retaining wall. Skateable.

Tonight
THIRD SKATE SESSION IN 24 HOURS! I’ll hear about it, my wife will give me hell, especially or really only cuz we’re in dire straits here, fiscally and soon residentially.
My wife was teaching, I went back to the DMV, padded up and attacked the coping curb. A repeat of the morning, except I actually got in a few good backside 50-50s (This morning I only flailed at it). Smashed heel again. Backed off again. But I bet drills are coming again within two weeks.

Played around for about 2 hours this evening, but not all was roll time. Let myself get distracted by looking at some cool video I recorded tonight of me doing a no comply 180 off the curb. Now I’m home, and even though I’m a 39 year old skateboarder who should have a life, I only wish I was back out carving around, doing long grinds and manuals. (But I also look forward to resuming my technical drills and building on my brand new tre flip ability).

No Comply 180 frontside.

Couple adult firsts. Thudful experiments.

Many nights when I go to the DMV to skate, this homeless guy is already there. I took this photo the other night before moving on to plan b. This evening I got there early enough to nab the spot.

Today
Today had a heavy vibe at home because I fucked up a job and lost out on what would’ve been my wife’s and my only money for the next few days at least. And I have no work tomorrow. Nonetheless, under the watchful, bemused eye of my wife I left and skated after dinner. Hey, I gotta get it out.

My foot didn’t hardly bother me today before I skated. Felt braver. And sloppy after all this time. And had lots of fun.

Landed my first rolling nollie, I think. It was nice, about 9 or 10 inches high. Then I landed a few more. Before the heel injury I didn’t have confidence at these. I might have kind of landed a couple that were an inch high. But after all this rolling nose manual practice I have more ability up there. Felt sweet.

Also, busted out a few nice fakie Ollies. I might have goofed with these before, but now I noted it. I did them as a kid, but since I started to relearn how to skate, I’ve only played with fakie 180s.

Practiced 10 stationary backside k grind positioning, and 5 frontside before I really stomped on my heel and felt the bruise or break come on strong. I eased up, went back to various manual practice. Later, I experimented (with lots of board flailing and thuds) with foot positioning work, feeling out dynamics of various front and backside no complies, 180, 360 and Varial.

Did some very satisfying 50-50 grinds on the curb, and then hurt my foot again. Back to manuals. Later, tried some backside ollies, and shit I feel weak at these! It’ll be a huge undertaking to get these smooth, but then it’ll open up a ton of stuff for me.

Then I wacked my foot again. Back to no comply practice wherein I don’t try to land with my front foot, I just practice the back foot motions of spinning and catching. Good safe fun, a welcome variation to my very steady injured manual practice for the last two weeks.

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Late night, all night.

Mark Gonzales skated this at minute 5:44 in his part of the classic Video Days.

Yesterday
I went out and skated from about 9:30 till 11pm at the mostly empty CVS lot. Was a bit buzzed, actually, quite, and am still in sharp pain when I step on my left heel. I goofed around with more nose manuals, manuals , and lots of no complies over parking blocks.

No Comply

I was so energized and excited from skating, I couldn’t sleep, was up most of the night wishing I could catch some Zs and also that I was healed enough to catch some air.

Cardiel and Gonzalez Skate Spot

On Sunset Boulevard next to the Laugh Factory. Cardiel crushed it, Gonz crushed himself.

Yesterday
While skating home from a comedy show I stopped to take a photo of the above cool angled wall. Then I realized that this is the same spot that John Cardiel and Mark Gonzales skated in a ’98 Anti-hero video.

The quality is a bit grainy on my phone with a skate shattered front, but definitely watch it. They go off the roof, down the wall, and then the craziest part is when they skate straight into traffic.

Skating
In the morning I’d outlined a very proactive day, trying to get work, get money, stay housed (we need to move in 30 days and are b-b-broke). I still wrote, “1 hour skateboarding”on my list, as usual.
After knocking off a few items from my list I squeezed in 30 minutes. Under the radar. Later in the evening I got in another 30 while waiting in a smooth parking lot for my ride. Later, after my show at like 11 pm I skated home to Hollywood from West Hollywood, only a couple miles, mostly downhill. It was another 30 min of skating bliss. During each of these practices I stuck to the injured routine of manuals, nose manuals, both stationary and rolling.

Yesterday I could’ve sworn that my bruised, painful and swollen left heel was feeling slightly better, despite overdoing it skating the night prior.
Today however it feels very similar to how it’s been for almost two weeks now. Until it heals it’ll be more of the same: manuals. I love manuals, no worries there. But I am getting a bit jonesing for some other stuff, mostly Ollies and grinds.

Today
Not sure what the day will bring. As I write this blog it’s 11 am, I’ve accomplished nothing yet, and my wife has ambitious plans for apartment searching, whereas I have plans for job searching. I hope to get away this evening for an hour of manuals, nose manuals and maybe some no comply variations practice. If not, well, time budgeting is just one of the challenges surrounding this adult relearning to skateboard.

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