This was way too fun. Launching up and off the side of a quarter pipe. Not quite old-school jump ramp action, but still was nice to float through the air.
Breaking the ice
I received lots of messages from readers wondering, even worrying about me. Thanks for the love. I see the concern, since I was skating almost every day but overwhelmed with responsibilities, and then my last post was called, “Fucking Tre Flips!”
That post was a temporary frustration, but also reflected how I’d gotten hooked on the fast progress, was bothered by the plateau, and then allowed my ego to strip away the pleasure. Considering the increasing pressures of my life, the last thing I needed was another unpaid, love-driven hobby turn into work. I tend to be intense like that, and that’s why I need skating in my life. That’s why I also just need to cruise around, bomb hills and carve it up.
Blogging became too repetitive and time consuming, and so I stopped (also didn’t make sense, as I was blowing off social media for my business). While I’ve been on my skateboard almost every day, I switched focus from the mechanical numbers games and drills and stopped challenging myself to advance every time I skate.
While I’ve gotten sloppier at tech tricks in general, I’ve continued to love each and every moment I’m on my board. There’s none of that, “Here we go, ugh these fucking tres!” I can still land everything, including tre flips. In fact I’ve slowly improved at tres.
Snapped my deck on this one. Rear foot was too far back.
Let’s bullet point some highlights of the summer
· Welsh/Expedition deck . While skating at Fairfax high, practicing tre flips on my beat up Element deck, another dude my age stated skating with me. Impressed enough to overlook the intense fucking dorkiness of my pads, he started talking, and pointed out how shitty my deck had become. Turns out he’s a rep for a bunch of skate products and then hooked me up with a brand new deck.
Second setup! New trucks The Welsh deck was 8.3 inches wide, just a bit too top heavy to really get into doing tricks on my 8″ trucks. However, within a couple weeks I was able to purchase some new 8″ lightweight hollow body Andrew Reynolds Independent trucks, and a new Toy Machine deck. I put those together as my new street setup, and then used my old Indys and big soft Powell bomber wheels with the Walsh deck as my commute board. (The slight top heaviness is a non-issue for just carving, grinding and cruising).
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Been eyeing this gap for awhile now. Looking forward to doing some kind of flip tricks over it.
·Carving and cruising. Have done a slap-happy ton of this on the Welsh deck. Two or three miles per day, bombing hills, acting like I’m surfing, fearless and fast (not wearing pads or wrist guard just for commuting) over sidewalk cracks. Grinding red curbs, ollies despite the big wheels, and one of my constant new favorites at which I’m improving, Shove its to manuals.
·Skate parks, Vermont and Chicago. Took some road trips and skated a ton with various nephews. In doing so I got to skate way more transition than ever. Getting better at it. Skated a ton in a mini half pipe, and got comfortable enough to do long 50-50s, fakie tail slaps and eventually frontside airs on the mini halfpipe!, grabbing the front of the board with my back hand. Kept coming super close to handless frontside Ollie to tail stall above and onto the coping. Also was busting out rock and rolls and rock and roll to fakie.
As per the pictures, I also had brief fun launching off the side of a quarter pipe. However, I snapped my Toy Machine deck landing a method air with my rear foot too far back on the tail.
· Cliche deck. After snapping the Josh Harmony Toy Machine deck, my sister-in-laws gave me the cash for a new deck. In principal I wanted a Girl deck, but couldn’t stand the more bulbous noses. The shops didn’t have any Toy Machine nor Element decks. I was drawn to the price and story behind the Cliche deck. Supposedly it was designed by Mullen, and uses stronger, lighter glue. On top of that, the tail is slightly steeper than anything I’ve ever ridden. In theory, once I get comfortable with it, my ollies will be higher.
A long skatepark in Vermont. It goes on for like 1/4 mile. Odd ramps everywhere.
Too much busy-ness
Granted, all of the above, about me switching focus over to just playing around more on the board, all of that is true. I’ve managed to be on my board almost daily. Yet my day-to-day life continues to be dominated by business, side jobs, marriage time-consumption, and outside projects. If I had more time -and less day-to-day pressures, to mellow into more technical skate practice more often, I certainly would do so.
Oh snap!
This new deck is super light, with great pop. Admittedly, I’m a bit thrown off by the steeper tail. Changes the timing of my ollies. Work in progress. Haven’t been able to skate much on it yet. I have a session planned for tomorrow night.
Switching out the Element for the Expedition, losing the flimsy yard sale Creature deck, saving the $10 Indy’s, Powell bombers and Reds.
Relearning to Skateboard 