Can’t skate update

My foot! This is a few days after the photos on my previous post. This angle actually doesn’t show the protrusion which is like a second ankle.

Fucking Vans
Alright, I really can’t blame the shoes. However, I have smashed my foot many times over the hundreds of hours I’ve spent relearning to skate during the course of the last year, and only once got hurt wearing DCs (jumping onto my heel from 14 or so feet up in the Venice deep pool. Stupid impulse move regardless the shoes). DCs have more padding and support than Vans. Vans feel cooler, much more of a connection to the board. I crave the thin-ness. Just like I crave more height, speed and balls. Yet all of these things have had to go by the wayside as I’ve hit 40. Bla bla.

(Hey I’m not just whining. I’ve been to the hospital way WAY too many times in the last year. A serious ligament tear and 4 – now probably 5 – bone fractures, all from different accidents).

During my first couple weeks of skating as an adult, about 14 months ago, I owned a pair of Vans. Felt like slippers. I broke a toe learning popshovits, and now it is permanently wider and flatter. I then decided this older skater was going to posh out more with beefier shoes from then on out. I’m no Cardiel. A few weeks ago I changed my mind and got Vans again. Second session in those shoes and the board spun and hit my foot. No big deal usually. This time though, with only a piece of canvas protecting my foot, it set me back at least a month. Right when I was getting better at tre flips!

Funny how skate spots are everywhere in LA, but sometimes I don’t see them until after I’ve passed them regularly. This is across the street from the Fairfax manny pad I love so much.

The actual update
I smashed my foot about 9 nights ago. The swelling went down somewhat, and then a huge bruise formed. Even the bruise is fading. However, above the arch of my foot is a little protrusion which makes it look like I have another ankle. Didn’t go to the hospital again. I’ve had X-rays about 7 times over the last year and they are always like, “Oh it is a fracture, nothing we can do about it, it’ll heal.” And this feels like another one of those. I figure worse case scenario it heals but I have a bump there.

It is starting to itch these days, which I figure is good. That mending feeling.

Great news! The manual pad at Fairfax High had it’s lights turned on again! While commuting past it the other day I went in and did about 10 manuals across it. Not nose manuals, if I bailed out of that the action on my foot would be too hard. Took (and takes) all my will power not to practice flip tricks.

Overdone
Even though my injury is still fresh, and I have a general dull pain, I don’t have any specific pain when I walk. Downward pressure is not a problem. Until I over do it. So out of necessity I’ve been skating around for transportation. Out of habit I’ve started doing manuals, and little ollies. Out of reality, at the end of such a commute, I feel like I overdid it. In a few minutes I’m about to skate 1.5 miles downhill to do stand-up comedy. Then I’ll walk uphill coming home.

So even though I’m obviously too active on the foot already, I’m using all my will power not to start trying tricks again. I still think I got a little fracture in there – maybe just a bone bruise. If I were to whack it again trying a tre flip I’d be in physical pain but also mental pain from beating myself up for acting like an idiot.

Oooooh, I will return and 5-0 this sucker.

The future
I probably will not blog again for another week or so, with another update. In the meanwhile I’ll just be commuting around a bit, doing little manuals and shovit to manuals. Not much more else. I don’t want to perform that jumping action over and over, compressing the bones. Yeah I’m pissed that I got hurt, yeah I’m pissed it was over just the 360 spin of a tre flip, front foot coming down about half a second too soon, but right in place, yeah I’m not stoked about losing progress. On the other hand, I suppose it is a good natural time for me to work on other things. This is my “winter”. I did 4 stand-up comedy shows since I got hurt, and that is 4 more than the zero I would have done otherwise. Good for the career I suppose. And my wife loves that I’m home a little earlier at night. That can’t be bad. But yeah, I miss skating.

A bit rough, but a bit doable. This is not far from the Hollywood DMV where I used to skate constantly. Another spot I’ve often passed but didn’t perceive.

Another fall last night
Skating back – only a few blocks from a comedy show – I was going medium speed, it was shadowy  – and jammed my wheels into a sidewalk crack. Slammed down hard on the sidewalk. Victory was mine! It was a pretty hard fall but it was the best fall I’ve taken in my adult life. I’m getting my instincts back! I immediately tucked my arms in to my sides and rolled a bit toward the back of my shoulder. Boom! Good thing too cuz I wasn’t wearing my usually-ever-present wrist guards. In the slide out I skinned my knuckles a bit, as they where tight against my ribs as I rolled. Yeah it was a fall, but again, I felt great about it. Not a bruise to cause the wife to fuss!

HOWEVER, my Android smart phone totally shattered! Oh no!!! Ok, the wife had something to fuss about. It still works but the glass is spider-webbed and looks like the pieces are about to fall out. Aw shit! Second one of these expensive phones I’ve totaled in the last 7 months. New rule: Phone goes away into the recesses of my backpack when I skate. You’d all think I was an idiot – and I am – when I share that I was watching a Guy Mariano video at the red light, and that’s why the phone was in my hand.

Think I just broke a bone in my foot

Vertigo, the flu and now maybe a broken bone
In my previous post, 6 nights ago, I lamented about how I missed 2 skate days in a row due to work and then my very infrequently recurring case of vertigo. I get it sometimes and it zaps my immune system.
Was able to get out and skate for a couple of nights after the spins, prior to my last post. Those were easily my best tre flip sessions, about 25 to 30% make rates. Was stoked!
However, my 18+ hour days, sleepless nights and domestic struggles caught up with me. I almost never get sick, and even this time the cold or little flu was unable to obliterate me. But mixed with other demands, it did keep me off the board. It was the longest I went without skating since renovating the business in September. Before that I hadn’t gone that long, even through my many other injuries. SUCKED!

Above: I almost took this 8″ not-too-used deck I saw wedged in the light post. My current Element deck is just too sweet for me to start hoarding a hand me down with a chipped tail and worn grip. If anything, I’m craving my next Element deck, or Girl.

Tonight
As I write this I am icing my foot. My wife scolded, nagged, yelled and got nasty. We’re talking, divorce type blind rage. I figure, that kind of irrational anger is her deal, not mine. But I did engage. She’ll settle down. She is back on the, “You are done skating, no more!”, tirade. It has been that way before, but even without the new injury she’s all about the money right now. I get it, we’re always broke. I need to play sometimes though, and she understands that when she’s not having an anti-skateboarding/not-enough-income meltdown. Besides, I’ve invested tons of time in our business as well as into day jobs and recently been back at the stand-up comedy, so she really shouldn’t be on my case. Some of my material was recently used on Leno and fucking Dane Cook was talking about me on the radio not too long ago. In fact, my sessions are down to about 45 min, and I could’ve skated last night but I was at the Hollywood Improv. Bla Bla. Would’ve rather skated.

So tonight I went out for the first time in 5 or 6 nights. Was thinking about how every time I make significant progress with tre flips, something happens to set me back. I was like, “I hope that doesn’t happen again now, seems like it always does.”
Got to the Bank of America (because the Fairfax Manny pad’s street light is still off!), did an extremely satisfying Practice Set 2.2, and also incorporated three backside nollie popshovits and three 360 shovits. Did about half of my recent “Tre Component quality reps” practice. Was only part way through, and came very close to landing a few.
I noted that these new old-school vans, while hightops, offer zero padding. Great grip, ok support, but almost no kush. I know kids these days are into the minimalist footwear. Basically it’s cool to be retro and skate as though wearing soled socks. Ideally low tops. For me though I thought about how I’d rather have more ankle and foot padding, like with my old DCs.

A moment later while spinning and flipping toward a tre, the board wacked my front foot inner arch. Sharp pain. I have an enormous threshold for pain, and so I kept skating. A minute later I notice my left shoe felt too tight, and then I saw the huge, and growing, bulge in my shoe. I took that top picture, and called it a day.

At the moment
My foot looks ugly but I’m not limping. Yet. Will see what the morning brings. It isn’t direct-weight pain like the heel fracture of the same foot from last April. I am a touring professional stand-up comic, just getting off a year hiatus of trying to make progress in other realms/writing a screenplay/working tv background, and skateboarding. I am also a yoga teacher, and am not looking forward to my classes tomorrow, with this big welt. Even worse than the pain or the ugliness, is the predictably over-the-top over-reaction from the wife.

Skateboarding is not the hardest thing about being an adult relearning to skateboard.

Practice payoff: more tres in one night than the last 40 days combined

Found this downhill frontside tail slide night spot in the alley behind the Melrose Bank of America. Just needs a little wax.

Last bunch of days
Been too busy to write like I usually do, but skating as much as possible. Missed a day for the first time in probably a month, and then missed the next day too, making the first two consecutive missed days since maybe October. On one day I had to work a fun commercial gig right on Venice beach, from 8am until past midnight, plus commute. Watching skaters everywhere made me drool and crave to join. The next night I had vertigo. The super spins, stress related, couldn’t even stand. It is a condition I have which arises sometimes. Not often. Weird not being able to even stand, when normally my balance is my pride and joy.

Below are my technical notes on the three sessions I managed since my last post. It was the 8th and 9th I missed, and then after that break I came back stronger than ever. Holy shit, as the title of this post says, I suddenly landed about 25% of my tre flip attempts. Landed 8 in one night! Some really nice ones too. The next night I landed 2, back to about an 8% rate, but was still totally stoked on it, as  I’m very much a baby at them. I over or under do aspects and I still have growing pains. Don’t even expect to land one each night. I only manage about 40 attempts, but instead of counting each attempt lately I’ve been working on making sure I land a certain number of quality repetitions of the component parts. By that I mean, I’ll make sure to do 10 attempts wherein I keep my shoulders in line with the board and my feet rise and spread wide and land at least 6 inches wider than hip width. Then I’ll do 10 wherein I properly spin the board 360 and flip it at least 1/2 way, and wherein the deck doesn’t rise too high (for me, not above the knees). Then I’ll keep going until I accomplish 5 attempts wherein both the leg-spreading and the soft flipping/spinning both happen at the same time. When I get my makes, it is usually when I’m combining these two key parts.

To my two regular readers – you know who you are – thought you’d be happy for me that I finally got a new pair of skate shoes. I had the last pair for about 7 months and they were pretty much a set of laces and literally 4 tubes of shoe goo.

I have invested probably close to 2,000 attempts to get this far with tre flips. And yet, I feel the component practice and quality repetition of component parts practice were the most helpful. Also, couldn’t have had my breakthrough without the vids from Slow mo mike and the group of young kids I unintentionally skated with on December 28 (see previous post).

1/7/14
Tre practice: quality component reps:
10 legs wide/shoulders square.
10 mellow 360 w/ half or full flip
5 with both @ same time. 1 make. A bunch of very close ones
Did a Practice Set 2.2. Didn’t feel like doing the games.

You’ve seen this view before, but I was so stoked on this being sort of a breakthrough spot for tre flips, I wanted to post it here. My first ever (stationary) flip was at the CVS lot about 11 months ago. Then injuries and regular kickflip and heelflip frustration took me on a 6 month sidetrack. I think my first rolling tre flip was at the Rite Aid lot in Los Feliz in August with a long drought thereafter. November showed progress, but December was almost a tre-shut out. That is, until I received my breakthrough instructions from a group of 13 year olds, two weeks ago at the Fairfax High manual pad. But it was here where it all started coming together, Bank of America, across the street from Fairfax High, two nights ago.

1/10/14
Tre practice: quality component reps:
10 legs wide/shoulders square.
10 mellow 360 w/ half or full flip
5 with both @ same time. Plus about 10 more attempts….8 Fucking makes!!!!!!! Didn’t count all attempts, but I reckon it was about a 25% make rate. Best ever, including back when I learned them stationary, before the heel fracture and ankle sprain, about 9 month ago. Stoked! The last one was high and tight and complete!
Did a Practice Set 2.2. Didn’t feel like doing the games.

1/11/14
Did a Practice Set 2.2. Didn’t feel like doing the games.
Tre practice: quality component reps:
10 legs wide/shoulders square.
10 mellow 360 w/ half or full flip
5 with both @ same time. 2 makes.
Many almosts.

Foreshadow of new practice set 2.3
Over the past week, the light at the Fairfax Manual pad has been out at night, forcing me to go elsewhere. The closest alternative has been the Bank of America at Fairfax and Melrose. There’s always a homeless dude there, literally pissing all over the place, but luckily he stays to the east side of the lot. There is always cars interrupting my session. Last night there was a kid and his dad who kept asking over and over again if he could try my board. Obnoxious, cut into my time. However, it is the closest, best alternative.

With no pad for my tailside and manual practice, I’ve been practicing (and nailing) 360 shovits and backside nollie popshovits (plus the extra focus on the tres). My time has been reduced to about 45 minutes per night, unfortunately. Once I get better at tre flips (Like a steady 20% make rate) I’ll incorporate one make of each, as well as the 360 shovits and backside nollie popshovits into a new practice set 2.3. Of course, even after that I will be militant and anal about continuing with a steady diet of about 40% of each session spent on getting tre flips better and better and better.

Tonight
Busy day (work starting in 10 min), busy evening (church and food) and busy night (with a meeting until 10pm), thereafter my wife is already trying to get me to do something other than skate (read together a book her friend wrote and expected us to finish reading 6 months ago). It is a great book, have already started it, but ugh. Will see. Challenges facing adult skaters are more than just tre flips, they are also time flips.

Therapeutic manuals; Slowmomike; 7 tre flips; 360 shovits; backside nollie popshovs

My newest skate tool. $3 on eBay, shipping included. It’s fun and helpful, since I’m always counting out makes, percentages, attempts and concurrent game scores, competing against myself or making sure to hit a practice quota.

Slowmomike
One of my biggest inspirations and most helpful resources during this fun struggle to relearn how to skate has been a fellow named Mike with a youtube channel full of in depth support vids and tips. With any given trick he gives both general advice and encouragement as well as very specific trouble shooting tips. The other day he actually stumbled upon this blog of mine and commented on it. I don’t generally give a shit about celebrities, as I work with them all the time, but when it comes to interacting with a good skater whom I respect, I feel like I have something to write home about. For all of us full-on adult skaters, as well as kids, I recommend checking out his channel. Here it is: Slowmomike.

Angry Therapeutic session
This blog entry spans 5 different sessions. Been too busy to write, but have FORCED my schedule against the grain to make time to skate. On 1/3/14 I was ready to skate but ended up having a huge blow-out argument with my wife that left me totally pissed off. (Hey no judgement, she’s a loving wife, we’ve been together for about 12 years. Arguments happen). I skated over to my favorite manual pad on Fairfax but instead of padding up and getting focused on my skate agenda I just furiously, quickly, repeatedly attacked that manual pad. Over and over and over. One manual after another. Probably 100 manuals. Not trying nose manuals, and not messing up many regular manuals. In fact, I never had a more perfect flowing more powerful feeling manual practice. And it brought me down enough to return home an hour later and work out the problem.

Shoe goo has saved my shoes, knee pads, garment bag, air mattress, waste paper basket, invasive backwards security peep hole on my door, and now it has totally given a new life to my extremely beat up (and appreciated) wrist guards.

Session 1/4/14
Duration: 1 hour
Practice Set 2.2. This was the foundation for all the games played on all these days in this blog.
FAM Game: Makes on the first attempt: 17. Tied for my then current high score.
MAT Game: 9 (fakie varial flips) 7 fakie 180 fs no comply. Otherwise everything was 1st or 2nd make.

Tre practice: quality component reps:
10 legs wide/shoulders square.
10 mellow 360 w/ half or full flip
5 with both @ same time. 1 make. A bunch of very close ones!

1/4/14
Duration: Maybe 50  minutes.
FAM Game: high score. 18 first makes out of the 22 trick set. 2 makes on 2nd try.
MAT Game: Most attempts before the make: 5 (bs 180 flip). Second most: 3 (half cab kickflip).
Practice stuff: (I do this every practice, whether I write about it or not)
3 nollie backside pop shovits (This is something new I started to incorporate. I actually retained this trick from childhood, but haven’t worked it since)
3 fs tailslides
3 bs tailslides

A view from my biz, the yoga studio. Just learned that a big hip-hop store used to be right here, and Tupac would hang on my balcony smoking fatties.

Tre practice: quality component reps:
10 legs wide/shoulders square.
10 mellow 360 w/ half or full flips
5 with both @ same time. 2 makes! A bunch more very close ones!

1/5/14
45 min. Can’t believe I fit this much in!
Practice Set 2.2
MAT Game: 6 180 fs no comply (usually at 1 or 2 attempts, but kept over doing to 270). Second most: 3. No comply impossible.
FAM Game: 15.
Practice stuff:
3 nollie backside pop soviets
3 fs tailslides
3 bs tailslides
Tre practice: quality component reps:
10 legs wide/shoulders square.
10 mellow 360 w/ half or full flips
5 with both @ same time. 2 makes!

New trick
First time since childhood: 360 backside shovit (not popshovit, this with only front foot action, no tail, but air, like a nollie pressure spin. Felt awesome!

You can’t see anything? Me neither. All of the above sessions took place at the Fairfax High manual pad. However, last night the lights weren’t on. I had to go over to plan b, the nearby Bank of America.

1/6/14
Location: Bank of America. Flat. Well lit, smooth parking blocks. No curb for tailslides and no manny pad though.
FAM Game: 16
MAT Game: 8, Varial Flip. 2nd most: 4, frontside popshovit.

Practice stuff:
3 nollie backside pop soviets
Another 360 shovit. (Nose, not popshovit).
Tre practice:
Round 1 quality component reps:
10 legs wide/shoulders square.
10 mellow 360 w/ half or full flip
5 with both @ same time.
Zero makes. Many very close ones.

I’ve skated here maybe 6 times in the past, when the Fairfax manny pad was occupied by cars. A decent back up plan.

Loving the boardslides.

Round 2 Tre practice: quality component reps:
10 legs wide/shoulders square.
10 mellow 360 w/ half or full flips
5 with both @ same time. 2 makes!

Over the course of all these sessions, that makes 7 nice completed rolling tre flips. Tre flips are my biggest goal, and my biggest struggle. I have been making very clear visible progress thanks to the vids by slow mo mike, and due to the session posted on December 28, wherein a bunch of 12 to 14 year olds surrounded me and critiqued my tre flip problems. I never skate with kids, I avoid it, but those kids were the coolest kids in the world and I still actively appreciate the first one to approach me and say, “Mister, if you are trying to do tre flips, you need to move your front leg up more and spread them wider in the air.”

Last of ’13, first of ’14; Quality reps with components

Hopefully all these similar photos of the flat ground and manny pad at Fairfax High are not as obnoxious as that one friend we all have who does like 10 selfies a day on FB or Instagram. That box is 20 inches tall, been ollieing it with a few inch clearance. That’s about my threshold right now.

New Years Eve
Wonderful session. A year ago, for almost 4 months surrounding New Years, I was skating in a splint from an October fall. Tore my ligaments. Only knew a few tricks, didn’t have nearly as much balance. Was mystified by a the smallest anything involving a curb. Thought tre flips were like a trip to Mars. Landing a nice rolling tre flip on New Year’s Eve felt good. Of course, there is work to do. Skate work to make the play more fun, and play to make non-skating work life more bearable. It is not easy to get away and skate as much as I do. Also, since I have saturated my schedule with skate time my extreme hunger for it has been satisfied. With the rest of life’s business increasing it is getting easier to think, “Well, I should just take a night or two off.” It happens, but I fear the laxity that this may bring. Rust forms quickly. The uphill battle to skate is always worth it though, as it always brings energy and satisfaction.

Last sunset of the year as I practiced at Fairfax High, alone, loving it.

New Year’s Eve Location: Fairfax High
Duration: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Did my games off of the Practice Set 2.2. I explained in my previous post about how I was breaking down the components of the much fought for tre flip, in a different way. It did work for me to practice it this way, but it gave me an idea for an even better way to isolate the movements, which I excitedly explored the next day.
MAT Game: Mat: 3! (Lots) second 2! My best score ever.
FAM Game: 15! Tied for second highest score. Would easily have been a high score though, except I messed up a bunch of basics that I often land on the first attempt, such as front and backside popshovit and my first kickflip and heelflip attempts. Acuna Matada.
Round 1: Tre flip practice/component game: 1-20-4. So, 4% make rate. Round 2: Tre flip practice/component game: 0-23-2. Some close ones.

Last rays of the last day of the year, hitting my favorite deck on my favorite manny pad.

New Year’s Day Session
Location: Fairfax High
Duration: 60 minutes
Did a Practice Set 2.2. Didn’t feel like counting out games out of it, just felt like making sure each make was a good quality. So I ended up landing a few of each trick, honing until I was satisfied.

Tre Practice: I worked on the “components” of which I write about in the Component Game. However, instead of counting percentages of each category, I did a different type of practice that works on forming even firmer neural circuitry, faster. Quality reps. Not rocket science. It is like when I decide I’m going to land 3 backside and 3 frontside tailslides every night (which I do), regardless how many attempts. But in that example I’m working on landing complete tricks. In component practice I isolate the different “chunks” or motions of a more complex trick, and I must get good at executing those components before I can piece them all together in more consistent quality makes.
So…in during tre flip component practice on New Years day I made sure to accomplish 10 quality repetitions of the 2 main problem components I’m working on 1. Spreading the legs wider both as I rise up into the air (front foot especially); and landing with the feet about 22 inches apart, 10 inches to the toe side of where I began.  2. Maintaining the 360 spin with the proper scoop action but “mellowed” out with less of an ollie pop, more of a shovit scoop going into it.
In doing these “reps”, I came closer than ever before, over and over, at wonderful smooth makes. The future looks super bright with this type of practice and focus. Also, because I have “mellowed out”, I don’t need to jump as high and my ankle does not hurt after 35 attempts. Before I was jumping as high as I could – like waist high – but the board rose so high and so far it could just hit me in the shins, or it would do the correct action but end up landing too far away.
Due to the mellowed approach and no ankle pain, I was able to work longer on Tre flips. Ended up doing two rounds of each rep set. So, that’s two complete sets of 10 reps (so, 20 reps) of wide legs, shoulders square; and two sets of 10 reps (so, 20 reps) of mellow, in place 360 spin.

I landed one nice tre flip, while the others were mostly pretty close. The board was mostly landing correctly but I was coming down a little bit too far forward – Slowmomike says to get a little more speed to correct that, and Aaron Kyro says I’m leaning too far forward. 1 make. No % tracking.

Also enjoyed the standard nose manuals, regular manuals, backside and frontside tailslides. Good times. Happy New Year!