Skate Inventory. Loose ends and new beginnings.

Total unplanned flashback. As a kid, long before Sour Patch Kids were sold in packages (they were only penny candy back then), I used to buy about 100 sour patch kids for each skate session. Daily, that is. As an adult I rarely have processed sugar, so it was cool to realize I reenacted my old Sour Patch skate habit on the night of this photo. The other bag contains wax.

This last week or so
Totally sucked. In my previous post I mentioned I got to skate 4 or 5 times that week. But since then I only got to skate once over the course of about 10 days. Everything that got in the way was good (work, stand-up comedy, writing projects, marriage, fucking eating, being of service) but taken as a whole I seriously have the inclination to just run away. Claustrophobia!

The actual session
The one skate oasis in the middle of the desert of adult life went like this: it was awesome. My skate buddy brought out another dude (we’re all adults here), and that dude was an awesome skater and super not pretentious. So the fun vibe was secured.

We skated for about 2 hours. Just grinding, trying new things, playing with manuals and flip tricks.

During that session I began playing with a few things I’d like to learn, and made a little progress. I’m adding these things to the below partial list of “loose ends and new beginnings.”

In the middle of my friggin’ frustrating skate drought, I found myself running errands at the Pavilions parking lot at Melrose and Vine. I used to live right by here, and would practice manuals and also landed some of my first varial flips here. Smoothest fastest blacktop around. Great night skating spot. No bust.

Loose ends
There’s tons of tricks I’ve landed just a few times and then sort of moved on without really getting into my standard repertoire. Part of my frustration with limited skate time is just never having the time to really play with these. These need work. And by work I mean, steady focused play.

• Fakie 180 backside heelflip (halfcab heelflip)
• 180 Frontside kickflip (frontside flip)
• Backside tailslide
• Frontside tailslide
• varial flip to 50-50/axel stall (never did the grind, just the stall)
• Backside flip to 50-50
• 5-0 grind
• 270 no comply to lip slide
• Fakie backside flip to board slide
• No comply to lip slide
• 360 ollies (frontside, fakie and rolling straight)
• Kickflips for height and distance
• Backside flip to tail

New Beginnings
The other night – and in other recent sessions – I started to learn a few brand new things, and I can’t wait to keep going.

• Kickflip to frontside 50-50 (I tried this for about an hour accumulatively the other night. Came very close.
• Manual to 180 no comply out
• 5-0 grind
• Frontside popshov to late flip (one of my buddies says it’s backside, bt the other agrees with me that it is frontside).
• Fakie backside no comply big spin

On top of all that
There are lots of other things that don’t make it to either list, which are still only dreams I’ve yet to begin. These all exist on the wish list of tricks page. While I just updated that page, there’s more to add to it. I’d now like to do a fakie 270 big spin to tail slide. I’d love to learn an ollie impossible, and a hardflip, and a 360 backside ollie, and a fakie tre flip.

What am I getting at with this inventory of desires? 
I’m overly excited to skate and play and learn, but I’m writing all of these lists now, at a time when time is tight, as a way to actually bitch about it. If unfulfilled desire leads to suffering, I am one hell of a suffering dude right now!

On the other hand, looking back to last summer, I was burnt out from pushing myself to learn, and felt like skating was becoming yet another thing I do militantly. I was like, “Fucking tre flips!” I was also very busy, but even during down time I mellowed out. So, looking at this state of unfulfilled skate desire suffering right now, I’m at least very grateful to even have the burn to learn.

Sprained wrist
I only briefly even mentioned this here. About a month ago I took a couple nasty falls. Even with the wrist guards I messed up my left wrist. Then I kept falling, over and over even afterward. So, at the moment, even a month later, my left wrist is still very sore and painful depending on the motion. It’s a work in progress. I can tell it isn’t broken though, so am not worried about it.

First Fakie Frontside and Backside Big Spins!

A still frame of a fakie ollie big spin! Fairfax High. 11.13.14

Skate steady
On my last post I wrote that I landed my first fakie no comply big spin. It was an accidental discovery, and I went with it, and then I did it over and over. That was from a 2+ hour solo skate session last Monday. I didn’t get it on video though, that night. I got it filmed on Tuesday night though (six days ago. Been waaaay too busy to blog, but skated almost every other night since, at least 75 minutes each time). 

Tuesday night
Contrary to sanity, fueled by tunnel skate vision, I went out again for a solo session on Tuesday night.
Location: Fairfax High
Duration: About 2 hours.
Practice Set: I practiced a complete Game Set 3.0, stoked to land the tre flips (though they were again, pretty shaky). And then I also practiced a round of Tre Flip Component Practice. This essential manner of keeping it proactive is evolving. I’ll elaborate in another post about it later.

After the above mentioned thorough warm-up, I landed a few kickflips over a 10″ board on its side. That’s the result of a bunch of practice. Still only about a 10% make rate.

I landed more fakie no comply big spins (frontside), and got it on vid. I also practiced something I’d only landed once or twice ever (and only about 2 weeks ago): 270 frontside no comply to backside tailslide. I got video of that too. Below!

Above: The video from the session I was JUST writing about even further above!

Thursday night: First Fakie Frontside Ollie Big Spin
Wednesday night was all busy, but I got out for another 1.75 hours on Thursday.
Location: Fairfax High, but I got kicked out. Went to Bank of America and warmed up with a Practice Set 3.0. Again I included the Tre Flip component practice. Essential! Tres are at once so simple, but yet so complex. Especially if you are like me, an overthinking, overanalyzing ancient skater.
Duration: About 90 minutes.

After I warmed up at the Bank, I snuck back into my previous location (after the guy who kicked me out had left). On this night, based on my accomplishment of the fakie frontside no comply big spin, I decided to try doing it as an ollie instead of a no comply. I landed about 10 of them. Once I got the camera rolling though, it started to rain! Very rare for Los Angeles.

Friday night
I didn’t get to skate. Was super bummed about that. Am addicted. However, I was talking with a 14 year old son of an acquaintance, he saw my cruiser board (because I did skate a few miles during commute), asked if I skated. I showed him my vid of frontside fakie no comply big spins, and told him I’d just landed my first fakie frontside big spins. He was impressed and said he can only do them backside. It never occurred to me to try them backside until after I finished the natural progression of learning them from my accidental over rotation of a fakie 180 frontside no comply last Monday. He was like, “No way man, backside is way easier!

So I was jonesing to learn.

Small but tempting. It’s a high ollie for me to do into a controlled 5-0 moment, or rear truck stall, but I want this shot!

Frontside popshovit late flip
While doing the practice set on Thursday I floated a nice and high frontside popshovit. I got into landing position so early, it was like time slowed down for a long moment. I realized then that if I were to practice this height and timing it would be very possible for me to kick the deck out and down into a late kickflip. I even theorized that I should be able to do a late heel flip this way too. So I decided to try to do it the next time I went skating.

Saturday night
Location: Fairfax High
Duration: About 75 minutes.

Warmed up with the main stuff of a Practice set 3.0. I left out the 360 ollies and the no complies and didn’t obsess on landing a tre (I’d landed a few each time all week). But I did get in an abbreviated Tre Flip component practice, just to keep those neurons firing.

I tried a few frontside popshovit late flips, and they were way, WAY harder than they appeared in my selective idealization memory. However, at one point I did it except my front foot landed too soon. That’ll be a battle for later.

Then I went on to film the below. I landed some fakie frontside ollie big spins, backside half cab kickflips and fakie varial flips. With only about 10 minutes left to skate, I tried fakie backside ollie big spins, and they were ridiculously easy after first learning them frontside. I landed a bunch of them after only 3 attempts. Good times.

Now of course, I want to learn the fakie tre flip and then do a combination of fakie backside big spin plus tre flip.

Video of Saturday’s session below:

Above: Video of backside halfcab kickflip; fakie varial flip; 2 versions of fakie backside ollie big spin; fakie frontside ollie big spin. 

Sunday and Monday
Alas, the factors of adulthood are working against me. And then, because I’ve been so busy with no wife activities, I’ll most likely need to devote my Tuesday to a little householder catch-up. Then fucking Wednesday will also be busy. Shit! I just want to skate!!!!! There is a small chance I’ll sneak something in on Tuesday.

 

New trick: Fakie no comply big spin

This is from last week. Got my gear in the back of the rental car, ready to hit a meeting and then hit the manual pad!

Conciliatory session
Between work, more work, writing, wife-mandated church, friggin’ grocery shopping, me-mandated meditation, didn’t look like a skate session was happening. But then my wife took FOREVER to get ready for the food mission, and I skated in the alley by the rental car for almost a half hour.

I have a rental car because my transmission recently died. Great luck though, it shit the bed literally four hours before my 4 year extended warranty expired! Everything was covered. Back to the skate update…

These canvas Vans were given to me by my skate bro. He wore holes in the right shoe, and for me that is not my main ollie foot. He’s goofy, I’m regular. Same shoe size. Wonderful!

Fakie no comply big spin
I was just goofing around with fakie 180 frontside no complies. Have had these for awhile. I’ve noticed that when I hit the tail with more of a vertical angle, the no comply pops higher. When I do it with more of a lateral motion, it tends to want to spin more than 180 degrees. Of course various combinations of the two can lead to nice height with nice spin. Sometimes my intended 180s spin almost 270, and still with control. So I decided to try to spin it 360 and do a 180 body varial (as I normally would do in the “fakie” 180 no comply. They could probably be called Frontside halfcab no complies).

Within a few tries I landed the first 360 with the 180 body varial. That’s also the definition of a big spin, whether it is fakie, nollie, straightforward. It felt great. I tried about 20 more times and didn’t land another one, but there were many “almosts”.

The above mentioned gifted skate shoes have now worn out on both sides. Shoe goo to the rescue!

Redacted
In my previous blog post I mentioned how I’ve been practicing kickflipping over another board on its side. I wrote that I’ve felt progress, and they are coming more easily. My first session trying this, I landed 1 out of 50. Six sessions later, as mentioned in my previous post, I landed 1 out of 10, and almost landed an additional 3 or 4.

Yes indeed, my timing was better than it was before, so there is still progress. Yet am feeling like subtracting from any boast about great progress. I was getting the board up and over the target without smacking it, more than I used to. I was getting the cleaner flip too. And more almosts. However, I tried about 35 times and didn’t land any. Mostly, I was getting a clean flip over the target board, but landing with my front foot near the middle of the deck, and my back foot on the pavement.

Commitment problem? Maybe. Flicking too hard with the front foot? Maybe. Am I a 41-year old dude relearning how to skate? Definitely.

Tonight
Oh man I’m hoping I don’t get suckered into the “let’s do laundry together, ” and then the old bait and switch, “Let’s get mexican food and watch a movie, we’ll do laundry tomorrow night.” I have clearly earmarked the evening to skate! Yet I’m trying to be a more physically present husband nonetheless.

These are just some of the challenge of an adult relearning to skateboard. It isn’t just all about the hardness of the pavement or the timing of the front foot.

Updated Wishlist of Tricks; Bondo Elves.

This thing is waxed! I want to try ollieing up onto it and grinding up it, and then I’ll just drop off the other side into the lot.

Updated Wishlist Page
I hadn’t updated that page in about a year, and I’d accomplished about half of the old listing. Some of the tricks on that page are already works-in-progress. Some are just dim hopes for the future. Here’s the link!

Still have never done a boardslide on a rail. As I kid I kind a few, but it was a concrete, low rail (and I broke my wrist at that spot). This looks doable. It’s at a residence on a side-street.

Skate update
This has been a good week of skating. Any time this is the case, I have to admit it has been a bad week in the old domestic wife-life. Skating is only one of my extra-curricular activities that doesn’t bring in money, yet like all my extra-curricular activities it is healthy and gets me very excited about life in general. One of the biggest challenges for this adult relearning to skate, is dealing with the reality of having lots of potential to earn more money and have a more comfortable home life while having an awesome wife whose patience with the current situation has run short.

For every time I mentally repeat, “I must learn to consistently land tre flips” I hear at home, “When are you going to sell your screenplay?”

The sessions
This last week I got in 3 sessions. Two were at Bank of America, and one was at an undisclosed location east of Koreatown. I was alone.
Duration: 75 minutes, each time.
In each session I completed a Practice Set 3.0. They weren’t easy. The no-comply impossible and the fakie heelflips were troublesome. On one of the nights, the tre flip was like, “what the fuck?”.

However, on another night, I landed 5 tre flips easily, and almost landed another 15. Tre flips continue to be my total nemesis. It was very frustrating to have such a strong Tre night, and then the following night struggle for 30 minutes (half the session!) to land two of the shittiest tres in the world.

Across the street from that rail picture. I’m thinking ollie to tree ride, frontside air off. I’d need to use my board with the big soft cruiser wheels.

Something old, something new
The old thing is that I’ve once again began to practice Tre Flips using the very Talent Code (book) influenced Tre Component Practice. Cuz I’ve been struggling. It totally helps, both with the practical baby-steps, but also with the patience and sense of value. So this way, “makes” come more regularly, but even if they don’t, I feel satisfied knowing that I’ve successfully accomplished an aspect of the multi-faceted trick.

The new thing is that I’ve been practicing kickflipping for more control and height. Each time I skate I’ve been setting my 8″ deck with cruiser wheels on its side and attempting to kickflip it at least 10 times. I’ve done this for maybe 6 sessions. The first night I tried like 50 times and landed only one. Last night I landed my second attempt, and almost landed 3 or 4 of the other 9. Progress!

Bondo
I’m not taking credit for someone putting bondo on my favorite skate spot. There were some cracks and gouges in the otherwise perfect old-man skate spot. 11.5 foot long manual pad with a waxed low curb, perfect for safe, fun learning. Allegedly, and apparently someone took the game to a whole new level by filling in those cracks with bondo. Looks like this person might need to return to touch up a couple areas.

Allegedly, someone put bondo on the cracks in this manual pad.

Pipe Dream
There’s a 17 foot ledge over a gap, which starts mellow and then would end up being like a 5 foot drop off to land. Perfect for a regular-footed guy to land a frontside 50-50 grind. Long. It’s made more difficult by the fence in front of it, which constricts knee-bending action. At the moment it is a far-off pipe dream to make this trick. I’m not even that great at grinding the 11.5 foot low manual pad. All the same, I’m thinking about it and will work my way up to it. Here’s the picture:

17 foot grind over dirt gap to drop off. Would have to ollie the curb at the top to start (next to the barely visible black bag). Would have to be done in the day when the lot is closed and the fence gate at the top is closed. I saw kids trying it once. It was newly waxed!

Updated Milestones Page; First Skate Lines

Old fashion over-the-parking-block-no-comply

Updated Milestones Page
There’s a timeline page here on this blog where I’ve added bullet points for my different major skate phases, dark ages and accomplishments. Until this week I hadn’t updated it in almost a year. This entire blog is a real-time journey of relearning to skate, but this here updated Milestones Page displays it in a succinct list.

For the new reader, keep in mind that when I began relearning to skate, almost exactly 2 years ago, I could hardly even ollie straight, and had zero board control.

Above: A medley from skating with my only adult friend who actually shows up to skate! Yeah that fall was painful, and it wasn’t even the worse one. Until I get better at doing back-to-back tricks, I’m just doing the easier tricks. Or I’d never get in a decent line. 

Learning how to time tricks while skating lines
This is a new skill. Over my time relearning to skate, I’ve rolled around slowly, completely focused on landing any given individual trick, with nobody watching. Have managed proficiency with most of the tricks in the Practice Set 3.0. Yet when it comes to rolling around with a buddy while he’s filming, trying to land consecutive tricks, my timing naturally changes, I get more in my head, and I rush everything. Everything is harder to land. And if I DO land the first trick, I seem not to land the second or third one.

Yet no worries, oh faithful adult skateboarding enthusiasts! I now have a new special magic ingredient which is helping me to transcend all potentially frustrating aspects of relearning to skate: It’s my new skate bro. We all remember this from childhood: There is nothing quite so cool in it’s unique way as skating with a buddy (or multiple buddies). It might be a dim memory for many of us, but I guarantee it is one of our favorite memories.

When I was a kid we would have skated at a place like this all day! Even with it’s shitty surface. I’m from a small town. Banks and curbs, stairs, marble and ledges are everywhere in Los Angeles! Year round!

I have many blog readers who are not ancient, adult skaters. So this message goes out to you kids: Enjoy skating every moment you can with your crew. As you age your options to find someone with whom to skate become increasingly rare, and even extinct depending on where you live. Unless you are totally weird in an unsavory way, you probably won’t be 35 years old and look forward to skate with the young kids in your neighborhood. Cherish your skate bros and your more abundant free time, and your fast healing age, and skate every damn day!

A visit from my sister!
Last week my 38 year old sister was in town, visiting Hollywood from the east coast. She still skates, and is pretty good at it! This next video isn’t really much to look at, it is all blurry. Yet is was a moment. Her and I went and skated Venice Skate park, we bombed hills, and one night we skated down the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame. I was unaware she was filming me as I was doing manuals across that smooth marble.

Above: More of a moment to cherish with my sister, and a slice of life, than a great visual display. 

Upcoming
Now that I’ve updated my Timeline and Milestones page, my next trick will be to update my Wishlist of Tricks. It keeps changing. I’m actually going to re-do the format of that page. You’ll see!

I cannot believe I just spent a few hours on this blog. It actually takes away from time when I could be skating, and also, tonight when I get home I still have other shit to do, which I’ll do, and that will take away from time with my wife, and sleep. However, instead of getting back to life, I’m about to sneak into a closed, empty school parking lot and practice kickflipping for height. And those fucking tre flips. And grinds. I’d also love to work on a varial flip to board slide on a parking block.

I’ll keep you all posted within a couple weeks!

Old school Per Welinder Boneless. Still from the Vid above.