Tre Flip Component Refocus: mellow out, spread the legs

I kept saying how much I loved my Toy Machine deck, it was my favorite.That changed when I got this Element deck. Still pretty new, mostly been doing flat ground, nose- and tail-slides, as evidenced by the marks.

The components they are a changin’
To save time, this post will only make sense if you read about what is The Component Game. In short: All tricks consist of different components, or “chunks” that need to be learned and then pieced together. Some tricks have more components than others. I’ve been tracking my progress with 3 numerals, the sum of which equals the amount of attempts.  It might look like this: 1-20-4. The first number is the number of attempts I’ve landed. The second two numbers represent rough categories of the components I’m working on. The actual categories change depending not only on the trick, but on where I am at in the development of the trick. 

Previously while working on tre flip practice, the second number stood for an un-landed attempt during which I succeeded in getting the board to do the 360. The third number stood for attempts where I didn’t even get the 360 (for whatever reason – front foot in the way, scooped it wrong, etc).

After the session I wrote about in my previous post, during which some kids helped me with my tre flips, I have switched up the focus of my component practice. I had gotten to the point where I could get it so spin 360 about 24 out of 25 attempts. Very many of those also included the proper flip. However, each attempt was going too high for me to catch, too quickly, or because I was hitting the scoop at too sharp of an angle it was flying away from me too far. I was putting too much energy into it, and even hurting my ankle (and my brain) nightly by straining and trying to jump 3.5 feet high at each attempt.

Skated past this last night on the way home! Wonderful spot! West Hollywood.

My new focus is this: The first number still represents the amount of makes. The second number now represent an attempt that was mellowed out with more of a scoop and less of a pop motion on the back foot, but still got at least 270°. Since another main aspect I’m focusing on is also to “spread the legs like mayonnaise” (making it easier for the catch), I also include a successful leg-spreading as an attempt to be added to the second number category. So, sometimes the actual tre attempt may look worse than the way I had the components defined previously (i.e., it may not be a complete 360 with a complete spin), but I can tell that I am way closer to landing these and building off it when I mellow out and spread my legs. The third component still represents attempts that didn’t scoop right and the front foot got in the way. It also now includes attempts that might look like tres in theory, flipping and spinning correctly, even catching it with one leg – but were further away from my current focus due to their being hit with too hard of a tail, too sharp of an angle, going too high and too far away, even hurting my ankle.

So, that’s what this is all about. Feels really good too. Many closer attempts, a few makes here and there, some accidental 360 popshovits again, and no ankle pain.

Nay Flip
Session from Dec 29:
Duration: 35 minutes (yes, readers, you used to only see longer sessions. As I’ve been writing, times are changing for me. I’m busier than ever. Still, 35 minutes is better than no minutes).
Location: Los Feliz. Pollo Loco/Valvoline
I did one: Practice Set 2.2
FAM Game: First attempt makes out of the 22 in the practice set: 10.
MAT Game: Most attempts before the makes, using the practice set: 10 (fakie heelflip). Second most: 7 (varial flip). I occasionally land all of these tricks on the first try, often on the 2nd or 3rd, but I always have a trick or two that seems to take more on any given night.
Tre flip practice/component practice: 0-20-5. Yeah, despite my writing all about these breakthroughs, I didn’t land any after landing a few in the previous couple sessions. Still, way more almosts than I had during the entire 30 days prior.

Wonderful waxed ledges are everywhere! I went to a meeting inside this building, while my mind stayed outside at the ledge.

Dec 30 session
Duration: One hour.
Location: Fairfax High manny pad
Warmed up and played the games off of the Practice Set 2.2
FAM Game: First attempt makes out of the 22 in the set: 13.
MAT Game: Most attempts before the make:10 (fakie varial) Second most attempts: 5 (fs 360).
Tre Flip Practice/Component Game: Attempts: 25; Makes: 1; Make rate: 4%
Game stats: 1-21-3. Progress. I feel it, though may not see it all that much. November was a strong month for a steady 4% to 8% make rate, but I had learning to do. I thereafter began overdoing the angle and intensity, and my feet got too close together. I had taken some unproductive advice from some youtube support vids.

Stoked session with kids less than 1/3rd my age: best tre flip support ever

After about 5 months and 4 tubes of shoe goo – completely replacing the soles – I have thrown away these shoes. No, I did not come up with the cash yet for new shoes. I just can’t handle these anymore. I have another pair of black low top DCs that I haven’t used for skating because they are part of my wardrobe shoes when I do background on Grey’s Anatomy. However, I will now start to thrash my Grey’s Anatomy shoes in hopes that I can pay January rent and then somehow get new shoes before it is too late. My monthly overhead is way too high. Kids: don’t take your parents for granted. Being an adult skater is a lot harder than being a kid skater. At least for me. Not just on the body, but on the time, the relationship, and the budget.

In my pads but out of my shell
Sometimes when kids approach I just leave. I don’t want to be in their way, I don’t want them in my way, I want to focus and skate, my time is more limited, am not into competing for coolness especially in my dorky pads. Besides, it’s just weird to skate with kids. Yesterday I just owned it though and kept to myself even though I was swarmed by about 7 kids. They were young, like about 11 to 13 years old. Yeah I could see their smirks at first as well as one mocking my set-up for tre flip practice. I was at my favorite spot – the Fairfax High manny pad. Broad daylight. Unusual. This holiday week has rendered me with a slightly different schedule.

Kept skating. Busted an 8 foot nose slide, and 11 foot nose manual, a half cab kickflip, a 180 backside flip. Was just doing my practice. The kids were a little younger than that super-ego phase, and they all approached me and asked me the most flattering question. “Excuse me sir, are you a pro skater.” Damn I laughed so hard! I told them that when I was a kid, probably before their parents were even born – I had a local skate shop sponsor and was also receiving flow from Tracker after winning some contests. The truth. (However, in way retrospect, I bet the flow also came from the local skate shop, and the owner wanted me to feel good about myself and encourage me to push for a real sponsor. Fucking junior high school soccer in gym class set me back from the actual Tracker sponsor, when I tore a bunch of stuff in my knee. Bygones).

Solitary practice
Before the kids showed up I did a Practice Set 2.2 and counted out the following games:
MAT Game: Most attempts before first make: 9 (fakie varial flip). Second most attempts before first make: 4 (varial flip)
FAM Game: Out of the 22 tricks in this practice set, I landed 15 of them in the first attempt. This was a second highest score since I invented this game.

Am just inserting this random pics of one of the many times I resoled those shoes before I just finally threw them away. This is recycled from a previous post.

Best breakthrough tre support from an unlikely source
I skated for about 70 minutes, about 30 of them being with those kids. Us skaters know about a certain feeling of getting “stoked”, or uplifted by the sessions heating up. We push each other beyond stagnancy and above plateaus. Never would have thought that I’d get that kind of awesome feeling from skating with a bunch of 5th graders. Ha, I’m even laughing as I write this.

Wanted to still practice tre flips, so I started the anti-climatic process in front of the kids. 3 of them approached me, “mister you need to move your front foot up toward the nose more.” And, “you are popping the tail too hard straight down, you have to scoop it more, less like an Ollie”. And another tip, “spread your legs wider when you jump, like you are spreading mayonaisse.” Also, “Don’t even think about the front foot, at all, all your attention goes on the back.” The final tip: “Sir, you have to mellow out, don’t put so much energy into it, or it will always fly too far away.”

Seriously, I’ve watched so many great videos, but those 10 minutes with them working with me made way more of a difference. In the end I lost count of my attempts, but it was about 25, and I ended up landing 2 tre flips! First 2 all month, after about 30 days of not landing one! About an 8% make rate! Thank you so much kids!
Note: I’ve gained lots of insight from a YouTube dude, Slow Mo Mike. However, the advice given by the kids, which immediately started working, was quite different than his tre focus on pushing the tail straight toward the nose after the scoop, and his emphasis on the front foot. I think this set me back a bit. I was overpushing the tail too steep towards the nose.

Tonight
Duration: 35 min. I wasted too much time before the session. Was mad at myself for that! Could’ve been an hour!
Location: Fairfax Manny pad
Did one Practice Set 2.2
Tre Practice/component game: 1-21-3. Make rate: 4%!
I actually switched up what the digits mean in this version of the game. Still is the component game, but now my focus has evolved. The first number is still the number of Makes. The second number is the attempts that were softer with less of an angle, so they stay closer and lower, and/or attempts wherein I remembered to spread my legs wider. The third number are still attempts that don’t spin 360. Just like before, the middle number is the one involving the component I must immediately focus on the most.
Not a big deal to have changed which component I’m working on. It is inevitable with most complex tricks. Skills are gained focus changes. I suppose now I need to go back to previous posts and indicate which component I was working in the past, and always mention what the numbers mean now. Again though, the rules stay the same. Counting and focusing on progress of components leading up to the whole.

Christmas session. Fist fights, hungry ghosts.

All these pictures are from the “Food 4 Less” parking lot on Sunset and Western, Los Feliz (the ‘hood just east of Hollywood). I can’t really add captions on this replacement phone. My phone was stolen a while back.

Christmas day
Haven’t celebrated a Christmas with my family in exactly 20 years now. Lots reasons, all off topic. This year I did miss them fiercely, and my wife was depressed because her dad got ill over the holidays a few years ago and then suddenly died. Somber. It was literally my first full day off of work since September 5. Exhausted….almost didn’t skate. However, I’ve been missing days lately due to new responsibilities, and I only see my future getting busier. So I seized the day!

I loved seeing this huge parking lot completely empty on Christmas! So many awesome gaps, waxed ledges and parking blocks. I recently learned a cool new early grab fakie trick off a parking block. I saw it in Thrasher. You ride fakie toward the block, do an early grab, doesn’t matter how, and when your truck hits the parking block, you pull the board up into the air and over the parking block. I want to start trying them into 180 or 360 airs. Hard to describe, I’ll have to get it on video soon.

Hungry Ghosts on Sunset Boulevard
I noted tons of anger and “hungry ghosts” on the streets of Los Feliz on Christmas. I’ve written in the past about how it’s a pain in the ass trying to skate up in that ‘hood with all the junkies, drunk panhandlers, security guards and mental institution adult care facilities. I feel for all those dudes, but my compassion wanes when they cut into my skate time.

To extrapolate from Wikipedia, “Hungry ghost is…a concept in Chinese Buddhism… representing beings who are driven by intense emotional needs in an animalistic way….These beings are “ghosts” only in the sense of not being fully alive; not fully capable of living and appreciating what the moment has to offer. The English term has often been used metaphorically to describe the insatiable craving of an addict.”

Within 20 minutes of leaving our sublet I was angrily and aggressively asked for money 3 times, once by a huge Russian dude. A moment later he lurched at a very well dressed Hispanic family, probably returning from church. Russian drunkard grabbed for the mom. The father and teenage son kicked the shit out of him. He was bleeding from the head but kept following them down the street yelling stupid bullshit.

Then, 3 minutes later another drunk dude calls a jogger a fag and the jogger engaged in an argument. Drunk dude says he has a gun, jogger dude punches him in the face and another fist fight starts. Just then I see security rush up on a mountain bike. But instead of doing anything about the fight, he kicks me out!

Back to Pollo Loco and Valvoline
Not my favorite spot, but it was still day light, and both places were closed. I never get kicked out there, been there maybe 8 times now. Felt like heaven compared to Food 4 Less and all the rage.

Did a Practice Set 2.2. However, it was almost as though I did two of them, since I was super anal about making sure each make was high and in control. So I ended up landing a couple of each trick before moving on. Didn’t feel like counting out the stats of a game.

Weird feeling like skating is work
It was fun, not the most fun. Not like being stoked (which I was today!! Will write about it tomorrow). The skating actually felt kind of like work. Of course I know that not every day will feel like a honeymoon. I skated though, not just for pure escapism and joy, but to keep It fresh. I have my eyes on the goal of accomplishing my wish list, namely tre flips right now, and this means even practicing when I’m stuck on a plateau. But it was fun nonetheless. Like I wrote up top, the day had a sultry mood, or rather, desultory.

Tre Practice/Component Game
Attempts: 25. Makes: 0. Stats: 0-23-2.
Some close ones. Was getting frustrated a bit, after not landing one since November. In November I was landing at least one almost every night! This is the plateau of which I speak. (However, today, 2 days later, I feel like I had a tre breakthrough and I landed two! This blog is too long. I hope to write about that tomorrow).

Above: the only picture not at the Food 4 Less. This is the sky above the Valvoline/Pollo Loco lot. Sun was setting and it was still 75 degrees. Not bad for Christmas!

Element! New skate, new skater.

Above: new set-up!

New Skate set-up
I squeezed every last ounce of life out of my previous deck, bearings, grip and wheels, and I slowly accrued a new setup. On top of that, my old trucks had such axle end grind I could no longer get enough bite on the nut to hold the wheels. Not a rethreading issue. Only way they stayed on before was cross-threading but after rethreading even that wouldn’t work.

On the 21st, winter solstice, I assembled my new goods. Had to cannibalize my Indys from my cruiser deck, luckily they were the right width. Best $10 I ever spent, yardsale score. Now I have just one skateboard put together.

Above: The wheel on the right was originally the same size as the new one on the left. 54mm.

I then managed to cram into my evening a short session at the Fairfax manny pad. 35 min. I thought I would have a steep learning curve, as I have with other new decks. Holy shit, not the case at all! I felt like a completely different skater. Highest ollies, highest heelflips, super grip and board control. These Indy 7s bearings are fast.

When I first received my new slightly used 54 mm narrow Bones STFs in the mail, I was bummed they were narrow. However I super love them. Light,, grippy, perfect!

I’ve now had 3 sessions and honestly never skated better in my life. With caveats of course, like I’m not as ballsy as I was when I was a kid, but am more tech, and I’m still working on landing Tre flips. I got a bunch in November but none in December despite 35 attempts per session. Lots of very close ones though. I know for sure that I will eventually land 8 of 10 tre attempts. Just tons of practice is needed.

Above: I always unceremoniously throw away my old decks

From the 21st, first session on this deck
Did a Practice Set 2.2.
Games: FAM Game. First attempt makes: 13. Second highest score ever.
MAT Game: Most attempts before first make: 7 (fakie kf) 2nd most (6, varial flip). I think this was tied for my best score. Often I get these 2 tricks on the first attempt, but my new setup is so light it took my a couple sessions to not over flip.
Tre Flip Practice/Component Game: 0-23-2.
Attempts: 25. Makes: 0. Admittedly I am getting frustrated, and a bit bored with learning these. Yet some attempts are so close I shout and groan in anti-climactic excitement. Although I felt better at them last month, I’m aware of forward progress.

Above: Promo photo of me for a Venice group called Yoga for Skateboarders. They don’t know it yet, but I wish them to come do a workshop at my yoga studio.

Practice from the 23rd
Did 2 practice sets 2.2. Was up in Los Feliz, no manny pad or curb. Just interrupted flat ground. Kind of a shitty spot, but am grateful. I was at the Valvoline/Pollo Loco lot on Sunset Blvd where I’ve skated maybe 6 times before.
Duration: 85 min.
Tre Practice/component game: 0-24-1. Attempts: 25. Makes: 0.
FAM Game: 13 first attempt makes.
MAT Game: Most attempts before make. 5 (heelflip) 2nd most: 4 (varial flip). This was my best score ever.

Christmas eve session
Duration: 70 min
Location: Fairfax manny pad.
Did a Practice set 2.2. Did not feel like counting out the tricks into games. Loved it tho. Also nailed a bunch of front and backside nose and tailslides. Did a nice nose manual across the pad too.
Tre Flip practice/Component Game
Attempts: 25. Makes: 0. Game stats. 0-23-2

Above: A spot within the lot at Fairfax High (I jump over the fence here). Looks smaller in the photo than in person. Kids Ollie the curb, do 50-5Os on the wall over the dirt gap, and then land in the lower lot below. I’d like to do it someday too. Played with it a little bit. Doable, however, the 5 foot drop at the end just isn’t necessary for me to have tons of fun. Still tempting. Maybe not worth it. Will see.

Another rare daytime shot of the Fairfax pad. New set-up in the foreground. In the far background is another view of the same ledge gap as pictured in the previous picture.

Security love bogarting my roll time

A photo from my last session on this deck. I will certainly be purchasing another Toy Machine deck in the future. It was the most solid, best shape and best pop on a deck I’ve owned. Collin Provost. Love how it is almost symmetrical.

Abbreviated
Last night after work I had more work to do. Figured I had an hour to skate. All of a sudden my wife couldn’t find something (I helped look), then she wanted to share some loving info with me. All of a sudden I just had 45 minutes. Got to the skate spot and the security guard shows up. He sees me there all the time and doesn’t mind me. Must’ve been in a good mood because he approached me and asked me if I wanted a job as a security guard. (He was kidding). He was very chatty – and a nice dude – so I figured me chatting with him would be an investment in future skate sessions. All of a sudden I had just 30 minutes to skate.

The session
Wasn’t going to have time for a full practice set  with games, so I just did one or two quality of the following: ollie, fakie ollie, nollie, 180 bs, 180 fs, 180 fakie bs, 180 fakie fs, kickflip, heelflip, 180 bs kickflip, 180 fs no comply and a varial flip on the first attempt. That was to warm up for a real tre practice. Was nice to enjoy that flash warm up without games.

Tre Practice/Component game:
Attempts: 25. Makes: 0.
Some where quite close. Am definitely learning bit by painfully slow bit. My ego drools over the weeks in November when I was landing at least one per night. I’m in a learning curve right now, and believe it or not this potentially frustrating practice actually felt very good, oddly fulfilling.
Component break down: 0-22-3. These are good stats. Read the description for what it means. I know that I’m overpowering, putting too much oomph into the back foot. Although it completes the 360 and often the spin correctly, it is going too far away from me often, or too high too quick and it hits my legs no matter how hard I jump.

My life is getting very busy with other stuff, and I genuinely love the other stuff too. I am just so very jonesing for consistent tre flips tho, even more than I am am clawing for more stand-up comedy showcase booking throughout the best clubs in LA. So, no choice but to keep plugging away, night after zero-for-twenty five night.

About to put this new stuff together with my current trucks. Can’t wait!

Darkest and then moving toward the light
In a hippie kind of way I timed this. Today at 12:11, pacific time, it was the moment the northern hemisphere was furthest from the sun. Thereafter (for the last 2 hours) it has been moving closer again. That’s winter solstice for you.
So I figured I’d time the rebirth of positive energy with the coming together of a new skate set up.
I got the birthday gift certificate for the above Element deck the day after I got my Toy Machine which is now shot (1/2 tail, compromised grip, reduced pop). It has been on deck for 4 months. I got these narrow Bones stf on eBay for $15, free shipping, about 2 weeks ago. Indy bearing a week ago. If I don’t stop blogging now, I might not get all of this assembled before life gets busy in a half hour from now. Hoping for a skate session tonight. Not sure.

Time constraints are in inverse proportion to my desire to skate. This is common for adults like myself whom just want to keep it fresh and relearn how to skateboard.

Role revert

En route to a late evening meeting – before I knew I’d be getting in an 11pm skate session – I skated past the Bancroft Middle School (one of my favorite spots. A Koston vid was filmed in here). As always, very tough to keep going. The presence of cars made it easier, as a kick-out would’ve happened anyway.

Shit, wow, I got to skate last night!
As an adult relearning how to skateboard while having jobs, a business and a marriage – and a long-winded blog – it isn’t always easy to get roll time.

Had a long day and a meeting last night, got home exhausted around 10:30pm. My wife was like, “Are you going to skate?” I was like, “I want to but…” She cut me off, “Go!! It is your practice, you need to skate!”. I had been about to say, “But I should work on pressuring my manager and agent, write a log-line for a script and I’m too tired,” when she convinced me to go skate! Was originally going to call this post, “Role reversal”, but “Role revert” seemed more skateboard appropriate. Historically over the last year she’s appreciated skating but has always nudged me instead to work harder on my career.

Once I got out on my board my energy shot through the roof and I had the best time. After the practice and games noted below I jammed out to some Bob Marley, George Harrison, Ramones, Iggy Pop and The Clash, while doing front and backside tailslides, nose slides and manuals. That’s how I’ve been ending my sessions, so as to leave the best uplifting feeling that will linger and encourage my sentiments to want to skate despite adversity next time.

Otherwise, I don’t listen to tunes while focusing intensely on practice.

While taking this photo I was listening to “All Things Must Pass” by George Harrison. This most favored Toy Machine deck of mine is soon to be put unceremoniously into a dumpster. This deck too shall pass. Will probably squeeze another couple weeks out of it, but tempting to assemble my new Element deck along with my new Bones STF and new Indy bearings all at the same time.

The session
Location: Fairfax manny pad
Duration: 75 minutes (past midnight)
Practice Set: Did a Practice Set 2.2, using it as the basis for the games.
Games:
MAT Game: Most attempts before the make: 6 (heelflip and fakie varial flip tied). 2nd most: 5 (Fakie heelflip). This is probably my best score so far.
FAM Game: 14 (second highest score)
Tre flip practice/Component Game: 0-21-4. (See the link for what that means). Attempts: 25. Makes: 0. Yeah, like I wrote yesterday, it is getting frustrating, going night after night hurting my ankle and not making tre flips as much as I was a couple weeks ago. However, it’s all good. I obviously have learning to do. Some of the attempts were pretty close, but most of them went a bit too far away from me after spinning and flipping correctly. Makes me think I’m hitting the tail at an angle which is not close enough to 90° (should be a bit less than that I think), and am putting too much oomph into the front foot flick, sort of kicking it away.

Tonight
Any reader will observe that I’ve been skating at the Fairfax manual pad mainly since ending a November housesit near an indoor parking garage. My wife and I are professional housesitters/inexpensive subletters while we funnel much of our resources into our new yoga studio. I’m grateful, but unfortunately our next housing gig starts tonight and is back up in Los Feliz (a quiet neighborhood) just east of Hollywood. Tons of my skating over the summer and in October was in Los Feliz. Los Feliz SUCKS for night skating. Actually, one of my favorite spots is the Chase bank on Vermont near Sunset Blvd, but just the skate commute to and fro eats into about half of my skate time. Otherwise, it’s the Orchard Hardware lot or the CVS lot where I keep getting kicked out and where there are too many junkies spare changing and too many used condoms laying around. Even those options cut into my skate time by about 20%. Oh well. Still hoping to skate tonight.

Hollywood, Koreatown and Mid-Wilshire are way way way way better for skating than Los Feliz.

Holy shit, I just met Lizard King!

Lizard King! On and old cover of my favorite magazine. One of the best skaters to ever grace a plank.

Holy Shit!
The title of this post is sort of a parody of a post of mine from a few weeks ago, “Holy Shit, I just met Steve Olson!“. Yet it is true, yesterday I met Lizard King!

It wasn’t as random, and wasn’t as unlikely of a recognition, as I met him at a local skate shop (Brooklyn Projects, as opposed to an alley and a coffee house where I met Olson). Also, Lizard still looks like most of his photos, whereas Olson has tons of photos online from various decades and various ages, but most of the latter’s photos are from the late 70s.

Not much to talk about, other than me feeling super lucky to have met the dude. The yoga studio I own with my wife is a couple blocks from Brooklyn Projects, and so I stopped in to give them some little flyers which give discounts for Stand-up comics and Skateboarders. (I’m both, hence the love. They are my people). I gave him a flyer, he said he’d come to yoga class. I told him he’s an inspiration to me, as he has endured a longer career in skating than most. I’m older than he is, yet all the same just knowing that he shreds as much as he does at almost 30 years old inspires me. Also, regardless any current ups and downs (of which I know nothing, isn’t my biz) I let him know that his recent Thrasher interview, mentioning his intended quest for sobriety, is also inspirational. Eye contact, kind words, hand shake and see ya later.

Get on there! Get in there!

The session
Anyone who reads this blog knows that it is a completely long, drawn out documentation of my quest to relearn how to skateboard as a middle aged man. It started out just for me, but after awhile I made the blog public. Glad I did, as I get many thanks from many dudes my age whom are inspired to also gets up on it.

Duration: 90 minutes
Location: Fairfax High manny pad
Practice Set: Did one Practice Set 2.2
Solitaire Skate Games:
Counted a round of the MAT Game: Most attempts before the make: 11 (no comply impossible). 2nd most attempts before the make: 6 (Fakie Varial Flip).
Counted a round of the FAM Game. First attempt makes: 11 (of the 22 tricks).
Tre Flip Practice/Component Game: 0-21-4. (See the description for what those stats mean). Attempts: 25. Makes: 0. For a couple of weeks I was landing a couple every night or every other night, but now it has been over a week since I’ve landed one. All the same, my middle component stat – the 360, not the flip – is improving, and I’m feeling it out all too slowly. Came super close a couple times last night. The bummer is that my front foot ankle always feels fine every morning, but by the time I’ve done the Practice Set, 10 warm up tre attempts and the 25 attempts during the tre practice game, my ankle is once again quite sore, and I must force myself to stop.

Inserting an already used pic from a couple months ago to break up the monotony of the text. No comply impossible.

Another first
Following the stream of thought from above. Sore ankle time is when I switch to manuals and tail slides. Each night before I split I make sure to land at least 3 each of the frontside and the backside tailslides. Did a nice long fs to fakie out last night, thanks to all that wax.

Last week I wrote that I finally did my first nose manual all the way across a pad (11 feet wide) and got off it without putting my back wheels down even at the last second on the pad. I got that make (and a few since) by doing a shovit out of the nose manual. Yet I had never done a nose manual across a pad and off it the way most people do, which is by doing sort of a contact-less pressure nollie motion with the nose. Am sure the regular was is easier than the shovit, but for me it wasn’t (so many falls) that’s why I committed to learning the pad exit via shovit. After a few months of occasionally trying it the regular way, and numerous falls on my chest/stomach and a couple scraped up elbows (I was at skateparks those times, too egotistical to wear the elbow pads), I began practicing that exit each time I messed up the first half of the pad crossing. I finally got it! I give thanks to a P-Rod video (and lots of recent practice) for this new skill.

Tonight
I don’t think I’ll get to skate tonight, other than skate commuting to a stand up comedy show. Commute manuals will be a must.

I should rename this blog

A little black widow spider has set-up camp at my skate spot. I’ve been watching the poisonous arachnid grow to adolescence. When it gets really old, I’ll teach it how to skateboard.

Last night
Busted out a Practice set 2.2.
Played the MAT Game: Most attempts before the make: 14 (no comply impossible). Runner up most: 6 (fakie kickflip). Not surprised about the no comply impossible, but usually I can get that fakie kickflip within a couple of makes. Before those two “mosts”, everything else was down around 2 to 3 makes again.

Figured out a way to overcome the danger of practicing with these games while accepting cheesy first makes that don’t advance my skills much. I might technically “make” one of the tricks, but from now on if it still wasn’t up to par with the height or board control that I desire, I accept it as a make, but I keep working on the trick until I get a sweet “make”. So I’m playing the game, but also working the technique without cheesing out.
FAM Game: First attempt makes. Only 7. Probably a low score. However, most of the makes were second attempt, so I wasn’t all frustrated. 

That’s what she said.

Tre quest
Tre practice/Component Game: 0-19-6. Attempts: 25. Makes: 0. Am too busy now to note what the 0-19-6 means. It is all in the description of my games in the menu.

This post has the title that it does because in a way it seems like my entire year has been working toward the one goal of learning tre flips. Should be called, “Adult trying to fucking tre flip.”

Oddly, I was landing a 12% make rate of tres only about 4 months into relearning how to skate. 8 months ago! Those were stationary though. While I know I’m a lot better than I was that long ago, I actually have a much lower make rate now (however I’m trying them all while rolling now, and I had a few injuries that set me back).

While I can track the fact that I’ve been getting better and better at the first most important component of the tre flip, and the future looks bright, I cannot help but to get frustrated or at least feel a bit plateau’d when I go night after night of not landing one. Hurting my ankle.

Outliers: 10,000 hours! Gotta keep going! I know I know I know I will eventually get these fuckers. Pardon my language. I’m not in a bad mood – I love skating more than ever. Sometimes though, plateaus get a little boring.

I keep landing accidental 360 popshovits when I’m going for the tres, which is actually great news, because it shows that I am getting a necessary foundation of the 360 spin. The timing of my front foot for the flip is the next component to work on.

Gotta go! Thanks for reading what must be the most repetitive blog in the world.

Tre-pidation: ankle threshold

This little flat spot leading up to the manny pad in the distance, is the 15 foot stretch on which I practice most of my flat ground stuff these days. On the pad you’ll see another deck. Nope, no friends. I had to run a bunch of errands before the session, so I brought my big-wheeled cruiser board for that part.

Ankle threshold
I’ve mentioned this before. When I practice tre flips I tend to super commit and necessarily must jump quite high to get my legs out of the way. Since I’m very rarely landing the tres, I very frequently land on my front foot first with a strong forward momentum. Even when I first learned to tre flip while stationary I would notice front foot ankle pain after a session. Back then I would try like 75 to 100 attempts per night. Then I rolled my ankle trying casper flips (it’s like a pop-shovit late flip), and that stopped my tre progress for about 4 months. And then I put off resuming my tre practice, as I was locked in for a few months with a time consuming battle with betterment of kickflips. Oh, and I also had greatly reduced skate time from mid-Auguest until mid October.

Starting up again, I notice I can only attempt about 35 tre flips per night before the ankle pain resumes. As I write it has been about 36 hours since my last session and I still have dull pain due to trying more than 35 attempts the other night. (Yeah I was getting frustrated, but was close, so I kept trying and trying, even after I was done counting out the practice game).

I’ve missed two sessions over the past four days as I necessarily must resume the job I went on hiatus from over the last year. It sucked SUPER badly to have to skate right past my favorite spot to attend business last night. That red sign is above my favorite manny pad at the Fairfax High School.

So, that’s my threshold: 35 attempts. I’ll just have to learn at a slower pace, over more time. I usually warm up with 10 attempts, and then track my progress of learning the component parts during the last 25.

The session
Duration: 65 minutes
Location: Fairfax Manny pad.
Practice Set: I did one practice set 2.2.
FAM Game: 8 out of 22 first attempt makes in set 2.2. Didn’t bother me to be less than half my high score, as very many of the tricks were made on the second or third attempts.
MAT Game: Did something different, by warming up with no complies. So am not surprised it took so long for the makes. Most: 17 (no comply impossible)/Runner up most: 6 (frontside fakie no comply).
Tre Practice/Component game: 25 attempts, zero makes. Came close. Stats: 0-22-3. This was my “best” night so far as per getting the 360 correct. Once it becomes part of my “muscle memory” I’ll be able to focus more on the other components.

Misc
Kept up the frontside and backside tailslide practice by insisting I got in 3 makes of each. One of the frontside tailslides I accidentally rode out into a nose manual, but I went with it. Looked cool, but don’t think I could do it on purpose.
Got another 11 foot nose manual across the pad to shovit out. This makes my fourth one ever.

The night before last night (the night of the session in this blog), I skated and thereby directly took about 2 hours away from my only-3.5 hours of sleep I got. Had to wake up at 4am to go to a job. This picture was taken at 4:30am as I left for a looooong day. This is how much skating was on my mind though, I brought my stuff hoping to go to Venice or Stoner Skate park after work. Work day went too long for that though. Ugh. Being an adult skater has so many obstacles!

Tree ride
While waiting outside of CBS studios the other day, waiting for security to let me and my friggin’ suit onto the lot, I saw two skaters probably in their 30s doing ollies to tree rides across the street. Oh I was jealous. Marked the spot though, and I will return and do them myself!

Winds of change

While skating and playing concurrent games I keep losing count of the “makes” for the MAT game. So I grabbed a bunch of pebbles and put one in the right pile each time I make the trick.

What are these bittersweet winds?
I didn’t get to skate last night (career move), and I’m already lamenting my entire future of skating. However, as I prepare to begin once again hitting the Hollywood stand-up comedy scene I am painfully aware that this will take a toll on my skating. I heard through the grapevine that Dane Cook was talking about me – saying on the radio that I’m a very talented stand-up comic but I need to keep at it to overcome my comedic handicap of being too handsome. Bla bla bla. I look like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. The radio hosts were like, “Yeah, and he just disappeared on us.” I respect them and they are correct, I need to get back up again, just like after my body slam on that manny pad the other night. Either way, my future awaits and this relates to skating in the way a lover might be tempted between two mistresses.

The session
Duration: 90 min
Location: Fairfax High
Practice Set: Did one Practice Set 2.2
Counted a round of The FAM Game. 12 first attempt makes.
Counted a round of The MAT Game. Most attempts before the make: 15 (fakie heelflip). 2nd most: 5. 360 no comply. If I had made the fakie heelflip in the first or second attempt (like I did a few other times recently) it would have been a high score.
Tre Flip Practice with the component breakdown: 0-20-5. (25 attempts, zero makes). 20 of them I figure the 360 spin was close to right on. In fact I landed 2 accidental 360 popshovits, felt awesome again, but wasn’t what I was going for. Either my front foot is not engaging enough, or engaging too much.

Got in my front- and backside tail slide practice while once again falling once during the bs attempt. Practiced manuals a ton too. Super fun.

Last ditch effort to remove the embedded wax from my grip tape and extend the life of my board by a few weeks.

Wax removal
I took a bunch of pointers on bearings and wax removal from another blogger whose style is totally natural (as a writer, sounds like as a skater too). Check out his blog. not2old2sk8.wordpress.com. He pointed out that rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover and a brush can help remove wax that gets all stuck in there while landing upside down by mistake on top of waxed ledges. My rubbing alcohol was only 50% alcohol, and it seems to have improved my grip by about 50%. However, I can also now tell that the grip itself is shot in parts, regardless the wax. Thanks dude.

Above:That same dude, not2old2sk8, and I had an exchange about backside no complies. Jonesing to learn but I’m fixed on tres at the moment. However, here’s a little vid of me doing a backside no comply wallride. Probably way easier than flat ground.