Daylight Savings Time? More like, “Skatelight cravings time”.

Just found this new SWEET indoor parking garage super waxed low curb! Security is on site but far away and I haven’t been kicked out yet! Night skating solution!

Overblogging! Underskating!
I’m wordy sometimes, so this is a challenge. Having a hard time focusing on work right now, but if overblog it will cut into my skate time tonight while I’m compensating for my online skate fascination time. I already used up my limited blog time watching youtube videos of people doing blunts and bluntslides on curbs. Not interested in the transition version for now. (Last night I dreamt I was doing blunts – not smoking blunts, but doing the skate version. I’ve never done a blunt before but after my dream I’ve got a new fixation). Also used up way too much time reading and commenting on a virtual peer’s blog. Check it out, he’s a great natural writer:
http://not2old2sk8.wordpress.com/

Sunday night’s skate session: due to friggin’ daylight savings I drove out of my way to sneak into this closed middle school where there are lights. There’s a cool old Koston video of him skating fast in here, doing a manual variation on each mini-pad at the base of each support post.

The last couple of days
I posted yesterday that I met Steve Olson – I met him on Saturday though. Just took me awhile to find time. Then today I ran into him again. This time I didn’t say anything, didn’t want to come across like a stalker.
Sunday night I managed to get in a session after work. I work 7 days a week, at least. Darkness fell early. I wanted to skate the new waxed pad in a parking garage that I’d found, (the top picture on this post), but I knew I’d get kicked out if I was there too long. So I drove to the school in the above pic, hopped the fence and over the course of 45 minutes busted out a Complete Drill Set 2.1. Lots of tricks, but that time it was an easy session. Not always the case.

Also did a Practice Set of 25 tre flip attempts. A few close ones. No makes.

First Varial Flip to Truck Stall
Then I drove down to the parking garage and skated for about 20 minutes. I was getting close to landing a varial flip to axel stall, so I tried to record it. I got one but rolled up onto the pad instead of off of it, reducing the coolness factor by about 80%. In the replay of the vid, I saw that the camera decided to auto focus unnecessarily right when I was flipping. One can still make it out, but I’ll have to return to do it properly! Am obsessed with not only making the trick, but figuring out how to do it so consistently that I can grind with it too.

I’m posting below a 5 second vid of that first varial to curb stall.

Had to work downtown yesterday (LA). Every block has 100 skate spots. This picture shows the most elaborate and overkill attempt to block skater’s roll away zone.

Backing up, breaking it down
Last night I didn’t get done working until about 11:30pm (6am to 11:30pm). I had another 6am this morning, so I only managed to skate about 15 minutes at the awesome waxed indoor, lit parking garage pad. I admitted to myself that I suck at grinds, and part of the reason for that is I’m trying to do too much too soon. Kickflipping and varial flipping into a grind when I’ve hardly practiced 50-50s or 50s in my adult life. So, during those 15 minutes I TOTALLY LOST MYSELF DEEP IN LOVE with little regular grinds.

Benches and ledges like this are eyepopping and mouth watering, but for real are too high for me for now. I know! I’m a 40 year old ancient skater! Yeah I could ollie into a grind, but that’s it, and it would be sketchy anyway. Better off practicing with a low curb. All the same, a marble ledge like this makes me CRAVE to get better before I’m too old.

More Video
I was pleasantly surprised that my first attempt to embed youtube video worked here on wordpress. For some reason I thought I’d need to upgrade to pro for that. To celebrate, I’m posting a couple more short vids from the last few weeks. I like slow motion because it gets dramatic, but also because my phone app sometimes speeds it up if I try to do it just regular speed. Looks shitty, like an old fast motion silent film. When I slow it down too much, I lose the audio.

Above: A few new flip tricks. 

Above: Rocking the 270 no comply to tail. 

Holy shit I just met Steve Olson!

Steve Olson, cover of Juice magazine.

Craving carving, grinding and sliding
Originally this post was going to be called, “Grinding or sliding is a whole other cousin”. But while I was writing it I met Steve Olson, and so that took precedence. Here’s the skinny on the original post theme:
Truck grinding. Tail sliding. I’m getting very slowly better at getting things in place for these desires, but it is an entirely different monster when it comes to getting it to move (grind). It isn’t just, “add speed.” Whether it be fronttail, backtail, frontside or backside 5-0 or 50-50 or even flipping into these, it seems I have to add speed and lessen the angle at which I make contact with the curb. Lessen it so it doesn’t absorb the momentum with a slap down. By decreasing the angle it might also affect the way I actually do the trick into the grind. I’m still a baby (40 year old baby), learning, but it seems one needs to be leaning back slightly in order to make the trucks or tail move along the edge. Then the wax factor kicks in, and needs to be part of the equation alongside the speed. Is it too slick or not slick enough?

Been working on my higher, more controlled ollie lately. Now things like fire hydrants are drawing my eye. Especially slightly smaller ones like this. Feasible for the future.

Drills, Practice and grinds
Didn’t get to skate the night before last night. Was seriously bummed about that. Last night I got out, squeezed in a session. On a Saturday night!
Duration: 90 minutes
Location: Manual pad at a high school in Hollywood.
Drills: Did a Drill Set 2.1. Complete. Was jonesing to ignore the drills and just hit that manual pad. Take advantage of it. Glad I hit the drills though, as they made the following 45 minutes of skate time way more blissful. It was actually a very easily accomplished set. Sometimes every attempt is a make, sometimes not. Last night was the former.
Pratice Set:
Just focused on one thing: Tre Flips: Attempts: 50. Makes: 0.
Yeah, ok. Seems like nothing, and it is nothing numerically. However, I swear I’m feeling it more and more, getting closer and closer. It is all about leaning back to the tail, and forward toward the front (toe) edge, so most of my weight is on the tail, toe side. Toe scooped under. Then the quick hard flick of the foot needs to shoot the nose almost vertical and the tail goes around to the frontside but feels almost like it is going under into an ollie impossible. Time will tell. Been landing one or two every other night. I’m on the chase.

Random picture of slight bank to wall. Such goodies are EVERYWHERE in LA.

Goofing
After the drills and the practice set, I played around with nose manuals on the pad, to shovit off. I didn’t land any nose manuals, but it was one of my best practice sessions. Over the course of the night I didn’t land any tres either, but thought it was a great tre practice. I even started playing with doing a varial flip into a 50-50 grind. HOLY SHIT. A few times I came very close. One of the attempts was perfect: I did the varial flip, landing in 50-50, and even grinded along the most waxed part of the manual pad edge. I grinded about 3 feet! However, my speed was too fast or I was leaning back too far and I fell off. I see the future, and I love it. A year ago I was just relearning how to ollie, so this was huge for me.

Above: photo grid from the other night. 270 to tail. Just learned these.
Meeting Steve Olson
Not a whole lot to brag about, especially since I probably came across like a total vacant minded teenie bopper. Can’t believe I recognized him. (I met Gwyneth Paltrow three times before I remembered her name). Was exiting the yoga studio and saw him walking through the alley with a friend. His shoes and jeans were all torn up and he wore a very nice western-stylish button up shirt. Just like in other recent photos I’ve seen of him. Looks like a healthy, much thinner Artie Lang. Disheveled, with a rock star I-don’t-give-shit gait.
I didn’t say anything, just proceeded to the nearest coffee house. He was there as well. I had the most recent Thrasher on me, in which a current picture of him at the NHS museum opening in Santa Cruz. I looked at it, looked at Steve, and then saw him eyeing my skate stickers all over my laptop and my skate mag. I’ve met and worked with dozens of celebrities and never get phased or doting about it. No big whoop. Clint Eastwood, Al Pacino, Ashton K,…on and on, I never really care or bother them. However, with Steve Olson I turned into a total idiot. I asked if he was Steve Olson, he said no, pointed to his friend and was like, “But he is Steve Olson.” He walked away, and said something to his buddy, the only word I heard was “photograph”. So I assumed he was saying he doesn’t want a picture taken. Could be wrong. Then he walked back to me and said he was Steve Olson, and showed me an awesome photo on his iPhone, him doing a sweet layback grind way up on the vert of a huge pool. We spoke for just a minute about skating. I told him I skate everyday and looked up to him as a kid. His interest in the conversation picked up when I said my first skateboard was age 6 in 1979 (the year he was the world champion). We fist bumped and as he was walking away I pulled a total douche move and mumbled something about not wanting to bother him by asking for a photo (a passive aggressive way to ask without asking). It was a total mindless moment, am so glad he was already walking away and didn’t hear me. He was very active, all over the room, tons of energy. Total skater, totally reminds me of a young punk. Then he sat and read the paper and I didn’t look at him or bother him any further. It was chill. Glad I kind of withheld my starstruck moment to an inaudible afterthought.
He was the nicest dude and didn’t need to even talk with me first thing in the morning, or at any time. Thank you Steve, for all the inspiration. Fitting that this blog is mostly about trying to figure out grinding, as I met a grind king while writing it.

First 270 ollies to tail. First time embedding video.

About to touch tail on a 270 fs ollie to tail. First night making these.

Last night
Had to take the night before last night off, for work. On only a few hours sleep I worked all day yesterday, took a 95 minute yoga class and then skated for 95 minutes. My wife was like, “How did your hour all of a sudden become an hour and 35 minutes?” I’m acting like every minute I practice yoga is a minute earned toward skating.

Went to my favorite manual pad but once again it was blocked by a car. The lot fits like 500 cars, there were maybe 5 cars there, but the same brown car had to park right next to the pad. It belongs to like a 17 year old high school student, I’ve seen the culprit. It is good feng shui. For him, not me.

Flipping into a grind. Another new trick, as of a few nights ago. Came by accident while trying for days to flip to backside tail.

Big plans. Limited time
I had intentions to practice a full drill set 2.1, and then try 25 tres, and then spend about half hour jamming out against the curb. However, I ended up obsessing about the flips to grinds – for so long – I didn’t complete the entire 2.1 set, nor did I get in any tre practice. I do feel like I’m hot on the trail of the elusive tre, so I can’t believe I didn’t just spend my usual twelve minutes per session examining 25 attempts. It was now 3 nights ago that I landed a tre, and I haven’t practiced since. Right now I probably land one tre for every 150 tries. .5% make rate.

I just keep getting pleasantly sidetracked with slight variations of stuff I’ve been learning all along. Like these flips to grinds – I knew flips and I knew grinds, and I’m elated to put them together. Same with 270 no comply to tail, 270 ollie to tail, fake 180 frontside no comply, fakie everything.

Last night I completed most of a Drill Set 2.1. I left out the no comply and the 360 stuff.

Not too visually stunning, but it is my favorite state: pure potential.

Thrift store skate outfit!
Awhile back I wrote about how I destroy clothes while skating. Also, clothes aren’t part of the expendable monthly budget. Recently as a solution, my wife and I picked up some cool cheesy 70s outfits for a couple of bucks. I genuinely enjoyed my session last night in plaid tight pants and a nylon shirt.

First 270 ollies to tail
The other night in this blog I wrote that I’d theorized while practicing that I’d be able to do this 270 to tail. It was because, so often, while trying 360s, I only go 270. I tried a few times, and was close, but then dropped it entirely for a couple sessions. Last night after landing a bunch of flips to both axles, and grinding (disappointingly short grinds), I thought I’d give it a try a few times for a 270 ollie o tail. Two night before I felt these out with 270 no comply to tails, so it wasn’t much of a stretch. Landed a bunch. Felt awesome!

Experiment
I’ve never added or embedded any video on a post. Almost 200 posts! Let’s see if this works. It is a handful of makes from last night. Slow motion. Good times.

Tonight
Long day planned, including birthday dinner plans for a friend. However, faithful readers, you know me. If I can slip away and skate before midnight, I will do so.

First kickflips into grinds! 270 no complies to tail!

Soon enough I’ll link a YouTube account to this blog so you get a better visual of stuff like this. 270 No Comply to axle. Was also doing them to tail. Frontside.

Gotta stop judging it.
Total zen. It is what it is. I judge my skating even though I know I shouldn’t. Recently I had a couple superb sessions, followed by a couple struggling sessions, followed by one which was split. Any sense of triumph or tragedy is totally bullshit. It just is what it is. I’m a 40 year old skater and every moment of rolling is a blessed moment regardless of the “progress.” This goes for all of us: keep working on stuff, but don’t beat yourself up over it. Congratulate yourself for reaching milestones, but keep in mind that rust gathers quickly, moods and focus changes, and so the very next day it might feel like more of a pit than a plateau.

My previous post was all about appreciating the skating landscape, as though it is a comforting family member. I was getting water at this grocery store, where I’ve practiced manuals for hours. Was busy, but was full of fondness just being there.

The sessions
Since I last wrote I got in two more sessions. I think I’ve only missed one complete day of skating in the last 6 or 7 days. In addition to this I’ve ramped up my yoga practice. I probably practiced yoga about 12 hours during this same time frame. Yoga helps with everything, and it also makes me completely sore all over. Lots of physical movement!

Locations: Both session took place at a secret manual pad spot at a public school in Hollywood, where I had to sneak in.
Durations: Each session lasted about 80 minutes.
Drill sets: In each session I completed a full Drill Set 2.1. Like I’ve written before, they were not easy. It’s the new stuff that adds the bulk of time: heelflips (sometimes easy, sometimes not), fakie heelflips, fakie varial flips and everything 360. During the first session I even struggled with regular varial flips.
Practice Sets: During session 1 (Monday night), I didn’t do any practice sets. Yeah I wanted very much to keep my tre practice sharp, but I also felt like taking advantage of the waxed manual pad to practice kickflipping into a tail stall and eventually tailslide. I had my video camera with me and wanted to capture a few things on film. My skating got so shitty all of a sudden (even though the drills were smooth), I only recorded a bunch of 270 no comply to tail and axle stall.
During session two (Tuesday night), I tried 25 tre flips. I landed 1!!!! Make rate: 4%. Hadn’t landed one in awhile. I’m slowly, very excruciatingly slowly, learning how to land these rolling tre flips. More on this next time.

Even when (or if) I’m 90 years old, I’ll see something like this and think, “Ollie to smith grind.” Not with my cruiser. Look at those wheels!

What’s with these new tricks?
Throughout the course of my last couple sessions, I turned some weaknesses into new tricks. I kept trying over and over to do a backside 180 kickflip to tail. During flatground practice I keep rotating only about 120 degrees so I decided to approach the curb at that angle and see if I could do it to tail. Couldn’t. Still can’t. However, as a bi-product I kept kickflipping to axle. Not my intention. Due to the intended 180 rotation I’d land rotated enough to make it resemble a smith grind. Then last night I realized how easy it would be for me to intentionally under-rotate it and go into a grind instead of my 100th failed flip to tail-stall. And then, boom, boom, boom! I kickflipped into a beautiful 5-0 grind and a bunch of 50-50s. I find it funny how kickflipping into grinds has been my goal all along, but I was frustrated at almost doing it accidentally, and then immediately elated when I accepted the reality of it and did it on purpose.

Above: Do not park your car next to a manual pad! 

Similarly, very often my intended 360 no complies end up being 270. Very controlled though. Yeah I can always eventually do the 360, but this got me to thinking: Why not do the 270 to a tail slide? I nailed like 7 of my first 10 tries. Didn’t slide the tail, but am getting it in the right place to do so!

Final note
Last night while skating my wheel fell off! Holy shit! The nut was so stripped, and the axle had worn down. I went back home, got my rethreader and rethreaded the axle, but the nut was still too shot. So I had to cannibalize the other 8″ trucks from my $10 yard sale (Creature deck, Indy’s, Powell Bombers, Bones reds. Deal of the century). So now I’m a one-skateboard family for awhile.

Tonight I’ll be working all night long in the mountains on a commercial shoot. Totally sucks that I’ll miss a night of skating. Hopefully I’ll be able to skate tomorrow night.

A sense of place. Wilshire Trick Factory. Mariano.

Saturday night. Hanging out at the pad. No place I’d rather be.

A sense of place
One of the psychology classes I took in college talked about appreciating our physical surroundings as one of the most important factors of mental health. A foundation for everything else: vocation, recreation, spirituality. Not just talking shelter, or a vague fondness for where one spends time, but it was discussed as though forming a bond with ones world, exuding love – and feeling loved back – by the inanimate locations of our lives.

It felt silly to me at the time. I placed a huge, “of course” on the subject. Duh. I’m paying for this class? I felt very grounded in my childhood haunts, mostly the woods. Now, in the big city of Los Angeles, where intersections tend to look all the same sprawl (at first) and friends seem more like acquaintances, and future stability seems more like a mirage, this feeling of belonging is more elusive. There’s a slight, subtle though affective difference between having a sense of belonging, and lacking that sense. For the first couple of years in LA, the world outside lacked that cozy familiarity. It was all just the bright, hard world, the stage on which I struggle and through which I commute.

Guy Mariano, from Video Days, 1991. Over 22 years ago. Boardslide. 3700 Wilshire Boulevard. “Wilshire Trick Factory”.

Thankfully, skating has changed that. With history comes sentiment. Over the last year, mostly through hour-long nightly sessions, I’ve explored dozens of parking lots, curbs, walls, banks, parks, school yards, ledges. Running errands, going on auditions, traveling to work or the stand-up comedy shows I find myself surrounded by the relaxing and inspiring maw of my skate spots.

Same exact location 22 years later, as the Mariano picture above. Also Mariano, from Pretty Sweet.

Wilshire Trick Factory. Guy Mariano
For a couple of years, including during the first four months of this skate blog, I had a moralistic but totally gruesome day job raising money for good causes over the phone on Wilshire Boulevard, between Western and Vermont. It was extremely nerve wracking and I hated it (though I loved some of the people). It was there that I met a rastafarian whom lent me the skateboard that inspired me to relearn how to skate. Literally right next door was a famous rail I’ve seen in tons of skate vids (Gonz, Cardiel, Lee, and many more recent vids). A couple blocks away was a plaza where dozens of skaters would meet each night and weekend. This same plaza (3700 Wilshire) is in almost every Thrasher magazine, at least once. Above is a photo of Mariano skating it in 1991. Just barely out of frame to his right, out of frame, is the same exact spot where Mariano skates almost 23 years later in the below two stills from Pretty Sweet.

Mariano at the Wilshire Trick factory, in Pretty Sweet, same exact location as the Video Days board slide from 22 years earlier.

All I’m Saying
These locations mean the world to us skaters. I’m feeling very appreciative that  these hard concrete, marble and steel formations have become the cradle of a rewed love affair with skating and with a new phase of life. I totally get the subtle but pervasive need to form that bond and have a sense of place. While everything else is up in the air, it is wonderful to become bonded through skate spots.

“Wilshire Trick Factory”, (3700 Wilshire. Pictured above), went from being a place I had to pass on the way to a job I didn’t want to work, to being a marble skate spot I couldn’t wait to hit. I ended up going around back to the library more often than not, just because I had it to myself and at the time I was working hours upon hours to relearn how to ollie and learn popshovits. I don’t work in that ‘hood anymore, but my love of that empty library lot remains strong. I know it is there for me.

Learning about Mariano
The other day I posted a couple pictures of a spot where Mariano was rumored to have recently skated. I knew the name, I’ve seen a few photos of him in Thrasher too. Finally decided to check out his bio on Epicly Later’d, on Vice.com. Holy shit. It was easily the best Epicly Later’d I’ve seen, and I recommend it for anyone and everyone. It’s about as long as a feature length movie, and spans about 25 years of skate history. Awesome footage of Gonz and Jason Lee too. Dramatic story too. Got me very stoked to skate. It also inspired this post. Mariano had quite the stormy life in the middle there, when he struggled with addiction. He was strong enough and loved enough to come out ok on the other side. I imagine for him it must have been a good thing to be bonded with his environment. 3700 Wilshire was still there as a constant. Yeah it might also bring up triggers for the addiction, but once those are recognized and observed without reaction, the marble and the rails are still there for the soul.
I super recommend watching this 4 part documentary: Start here.
Also, if you haven’t seen his part in the Pretty Sweet video. Check it out here.

Another view of the “Wilshire Trick Factory”. In the above photos, Mariano skates up against the building, to the left. I used to stop here and do a few grinds each morning before work, throughout the winter and spring.

My sessions
Now that this post is too long, here is my skate update:
Session one
The night before last night I went back to the Chase bank on Vermont. Last night housesitting in that ‘hood. Got kicked out by security. She asked me to “come back later, after 7pm”. I was there too early. Was working under a marriage-time-restraint. Ended up spending about 20 minutes looking for another spot to skate, settling on a very rough and dimly lit parking lot near a hiking trail. Totally sucked for skating, but I got to skate uninterrupted. Affected my ollie. The total session ended up being about 75 minutes and was some of the worst skating I’ve done recently. All the same, I’m glad I got it in. I did a Drill Set 2.1. Wasn’t easy. Especially the nollies and fakie nollies and fakie varial flips. The drill set took so long I didn’t have time to practice tres or anything else.

Session two
Started at one of my favorite spots on Melrose Ave, near the Yoga Studio. Manual pad. I was trying to get in my drill set before playing with the pad. Want to play more with backside flips into grinds and tailslides, and play with manuals. I even played for a little while with 270 ollies into tailslides or tailstalls. Only tried a few times, and could see that it would be a possibility if I devoted more time to it.

While working on the drill set, a cop pulled up and kicked a different skater out from a different area outside the restricted fence. Well, I was inside the restricted fence, where it said I’d be arrested. Instead of waiting for him to see me, I slipped out and went across the street to a Bank of America lot where I’ve skated a few times before. Managed to do a Drill Set 2.1. Again, it wasn’t easy. A few nights before it came like a piece of cake. The night before, and night night, however, it was a struggle. Especially the heelflips.

Practice set: I tried 75 times to land a tre flip. I landed zero. Came close a ton. Especially number #62. Very close a ton.
Totally enjoyed playing around on the parking blocks. Front and backside boardslides. Even did a few fakie boardslides. A first. Am so glad I played around and did that drill set. Even if it wasn’t the most graceful (ok it kind of sucked), and it took forever, it was the only thing I wanted to be doing, and I’m so glad I could do it.

First lipslides since childhood

Photo from last summer. Same waxy purple parking block of my first adult lipslide.

Last few days
Had to work dawn till midnight since Sunday morning. Took some pictures of skate spots while I was out skate-commuting. Hey at least I had roll time while taking care of errands. As one of my work days I was paid to take rides at Disneyland while they filmed me for a commercial. I can skate forever, tons of motion, but damn those rides nauseated me! Funny to me how I stop and take tons of pictures of every small skate spot, but I didn’t take one picture at Disneyland and it was my first time there.

Finally last night I got in a session.

Duration: 80 minutes
Location: Empty parking lot of closed businesses at Western and Hollywood. Used to be Orchard Hardware and Supplies then it was “Halloween City” for October. Now it is just smooth, slightly trashy and lit. No security guards. Comes with purple waxed parking blocks and a bank to ledge. (Pictured with a grind to tail in one of my other recent posts).

My amazement never stops at the unlimited waxed curbs and ledges that exist in Los Angeles. New one to me here, I’ve passed it countless times, but just saw it.

Play! Meditate!
During the session I did a Drill Set 2.1. Even though it is a regimented practice, I super enjoy the structure as it allows me to totally play around every new tier of the 21 (or so) trick sequence. Totally playful, I’ll go out of sequence a lot, but it isn’t about that. In general I skate from easy toward the most complicated. The structure around the playfulness makes it seem like a focused but objective meditation practice. Time stops when I skate, always.

Had my best nollies to date. Had a beautiful heelflip and fakie heelflip. That’s all coming along. While attempting a fakie frontside 180 no comply I over spun the board 360 by mistake, but kept it in control and almost landed it. I realize now that it would’ve been called a fakie frontside no comply big spin.

An island of pure skateable mini-bank is a standard sight in some neighborhoods. If these were in my hometown we’d have skated them constantly. Here there are so many other spots I bet the kids don’t linger too much here.

Practice Sets
Tre Flips
Attempts: 25. Makes: 0. Coming along slowly. I had some close ones.

Frontside 180 flips
Attempts: 10. Makes: 0. Had a close one. Was just warming up.

Manual pad in Hollywood. I heard that Guy Mariano was here the other day, as well as at the curb in the next photo. (They are side by side).

Also while goofing around I tried literally 3 ollie impossibles. Since I’ve been doing no comply impossibles, the motion didn’t seem impossible at all. I get it. Like a rocketship ollie  mixed with the action I’ve been doing in those no complies. I’m way too spread thin to take on a new trick now. Not until I really nail tre flips consistently. I can tell the only hard part in the ollie impossibles will be getting the ollie up high enough.

Very waxed curb. I heard from a skater at the skate shop that Guy Mariano was here the other day.

Those lipslides
Almost forgot to mention the titular trick. Every now and then I play around with board slides. Not on rails, yet, just curbs and blocks and stuff. Front and backside. I’ve known for awhile that I could physically do such an easy trick as a lipslide on something low like that. I just never tried. Used to do lipslides a ton when I was a kid, but we didn’t call them lipslides at the time. We just said we were olleing into the boardslide. Or “ollieing over that thing and then boardsliding it.” Actually, we often called boardslides, “rail slides”. Not because we were going down rails, but because in the early and mid-80s decks we had  those plastic rails underneath for grabbing and grinding. We dropped those by about 87 though.

I remember buying a brand new Lester Kasai deck and then breaking it that same day doing a lipslide. I subconsciously held off on doing lipslides this year thinking my weight would snap the deck easily. Not true.

Future lipslide into downhill backside boardslide. Doable.

So yeah, the lipslides were from a frontside ollie into a backside lipslide and it was only the purple waxed curb pictured above. 2.5, maybe 3 feet? Still though, it felt awesome and now I want to do it on something higher and longer. Or 270 ollie into lipslide. Below is a picture of a waxed spot in Los Feliz where I’d like to ollie way up and then boardslide down it. (It is angled). That would be awesome. Someday!

Back to a smooth lot, no hassles, condom trash, drunk wards of the state or security guards.

Last night
I earned another skate session by doing all my husbandly responsibilities first. Had to wait forever: work, commute, errands, more errands, car shuffle. Then I got to skate. Kids, if you find this blog by accident while googling “skateboard drills”, make sure not to take for granted the ease by which you get to go skating these days. Not to mention the ease by which you gather skate friends and heal from falls.

The night before last night, as chronicled here in this blog, I got in a session despite being kicked out of two places by three guards and other distractions referenced in this subject line. Last night I returned to the spot I used to skate over the summer while subletting up in this ‘hood. At the time I was kicked out of that place, but they no longer have security, as the business has long-since closed down for good.

Drills
Slow and steady I managed to bust out a Drill Set 2.1. It took about 40 minutes. The weak points remain: Nollies (but I’m making total progress); backside 180s; backside 180 kickflips; 360 ollies (fakie and regular), 360 no complies. Heelflips have actually come quite a long way in the last month. Sometimes they are better than my kickflips, which frankly can be a bit “rocket” like (nose up toward the sky because I don’t always level it off with my front foot).

Photo from last summer, at the same place I skated last night. This was a frontside ollie into 50-50 with the tiniest tailslide on the way out.

Practice sets
Tre Flip Practice
Attempts: 25. Makes: 0. Every three of four sessions I land one or two. Yet even without landing in a few days, I still note that I am learning and none of this time is wasted. Currently the thing I need to do differently is: scoop the board with my back foot faster and with more of a vertical angle, nose pointing up more. As is, the board often does what it needs to do, but it is too far away because I don’t scoop it fast enough with a steep enough angle, and it rockets too high for me to catch it, because I’m not controlling it with the front foot enough.

Frontside 180 Kickflips
Attempts: 10. Makes: 0. These too I land sometimes. Ran out of time again. 10 isn’t even enough to warm up. By the end though, I remembered that I need to start with my back foot toward the heel side of the tail and give it a good vertical pop along with a frontside scoop, and jump really high to get my back foot all the way around to catch it. Lots going on there. It is a backburner trick, but it is also a glaring hole in my lineup.

Casper Slides
Ha-ha, I laugh to myself. I don’t know why I’m even adding this. I only played around with these for a few minutes during the last couple of sessions. I can’t even successfully do a casper with consistency, so forget the casper slide (half kickflip so the board is upside down, catch the board with the front foot underneath it on the grip tape, the back foot on the bottom side of the tail which due to the position of the board is “on top”, and then slide along with pavement or manual pad and somehow flip out of it to un-capsize the board and roll away). However, I want to do these soooo badly I just felt like playing around with the half kickflip part. Gotta start somewhere. Yet with my preoccupation to learn tre flips and all the other stuff, I imagine you won’t see these showing up in my notes too much. Time will tell.

Tonight. Tomorrow. 
Oh the anguish. Although it is Sunday I must work at the shop till 4pm, and then the wife has me earmarked for Church (boring. I don’t think it is necessary to go to church regularly, but it makes for a happy wife), and other wifely/marriage duties (like food shopping, preparing and eating) will kill the time. These are just some of the off-board challenges of an adult relearning how to skateboard.

I’ll probably get very anxious and be disappointed to get home so late, and then will have to work on some marketing for the business until later. Hence, no skating unless the wifely and marriage duties are low-maintenance. Tomorrow will be a fun day – I’ll be paid to go to Disneyland and go on the rides while they film me as background for a commercial. Yeah, good pay too. What?! All the same, it’ll be a 12 to 18 hour day, not counting commute, and I don’t care for roller coasters or other rides and I’d rather skate. Lots of down-time during which I’ll read Thrasher. I must be grateful for everything I have, including my health, my wife and these ridiculously easy fun jobs.

At church this evening I’ll be praying that I get to skate sooner than Tuesday night.

New Drill Set: 2.1

After going to bed at 1am (post skate session), I was up at 6am yesterday, skating less than a half mile down the street to work on a tv show that rhymes with “Sleigh’s Slanatomy.” ABC Prospect studio. Favorite show to work on.

Long days, late tired sessions
Title says it all. Each night I cut into my sleep by a couple hours to go skating. I never really regret it, but I sure miss the sleep when I’m up before dawn to work. Since I can’t go back to irresponsible childhood, I’m pushing forward toward financial -and schedule- freedom.

On the grounds of ABC’s Prospect Studios, in Los Feliz (A few blocks east of Hollywood, up by the mountains). Perfect manual pad. Not happening right beside the security station. On the clock. Today.

New drill set
Felt I needed to make an adjustment to my skateboard drills. It was wonderful, I see progress, but it was again getting too long. Want more time for playing against curbs and trying even more new stuff. I just reduced each make amount down to only 2. Used to be 25 when I only knew 3 tricks back in March. Then it was 10. Then 3. Now 2. I think I have 21 tricks on this list.

Usually I hyperlink it, but for this first posting about Set 2.1, here’s the full deal. Everything in bold is new to the regiment, including the number of makes.

Drill set 2.1
Regular Ollies
2
Frontside 180 Ollies
2
Backside 180 Ollies
2
Nollies
2
Fakie Ollies
2
Backside Half-cabs
2
Frontside Half-cabs
2
Backside Popshovits
2
Frontside Popshovits
2
Kickflips
2
Heelflips
2
Backside Varial Flips
2
Fakie Kickflips
2
Fakie Heelflips
2
Fakie Varial Flips
2
Half-cab Kickflips
2
Backside 180 Kickflips
2
Frontside 180 No Complies
2
No Comply Impossibles
2
Frontside 360 Ollies
2
Fakie Frontside 180 No Complies
2
Frontside 360 No Complies
2
Fakie Frontside 360 Ollies
2

Another photo from the studio lot. I’ve written over and over how these lots are each like skate parks. This beautiful red curb going down a hill looks like it has never been skated!

The verdict
While I enjoyed the new stuff and the no comply practice of the new drill set 2.1, it felt weird only doing 2 of each thing, like it wouldn’t be enough. Also, because I was so tired from so many long days and late nights, my skating was off. Took me 40 minutes to do this set. During Tre flip practice I learned but didn’t land. That’s fine.

Note on the 360s: I don’t usually go a full 360 unless I’m going off of something, like a curb or sidewalk hip. In these drills however, I am working toward getting that ability, everywhere. So I count it when I land it close to 300 degrees, and when I add that nice feeling front axle pivot that I learned from Aaron Kyro. Just saying.

Ugh, night off
I was super dead exhausted all day today, to the point of not being productive and fearing a cold due to a low immune system. So after work and running around and dinner, I stayed in. Super hard to do. Makes the wife happy though. Happy wife, happy life. Otherwise it would’ve been another 11pm or later session. I want it, but I had to play it responsible. This challenge of juggling priorities is just another aspect of being an adult relearning to skateboard. Almost as hard of the tre flips. For now.

I’ll be pissed if I don’t get to skate tomorrow. That’ll be another challenge of priorities. I was invited by some of the stand-up comedy brass of Hollywood to backstage at their show. These are my peers actually, and I have fallen away temporarily (due to my addiction to skateboarding for sure), but I need to keep my self in the game, so I might have to go suffer through another stand-up comics set. Good news is, the comedy club is right down the street from a bright street light and different manual pad I’ve scoped out in the past!

Another long day, another quick session. Last 2.0 Drill Set.

While commuting to work I transferred busses here at Fairfax and Wilshire. Suiteboarding on this high marble ledge. Where the white car waits for the light in the background is exactly where Notorious B.I.G. was shot and killed.

More tempting suitboarding
I’ve worked on TV gigs over the past few weeks that took place in some of the famous Santa Monica/Venice area school grounds. And yet I was wearing a suit, working. Brought my skateboard too, but it was my bomber board (also an 8″, but with risers and big old soft wheels, for commuting). I was aware that I was a couple of blocks from another school, very similar looking, where Natas Kaupas skated in Streets of Fire and Wheels of Fire. On the way to work I spot hundreds of skate spots. Especially rails along Wilshire. Hence, imagine my craving to skate, but I was on set, working, in a suit. I’ll be back!

While taking a photo of my garment bag for set, and skateboard (above), I missed my bus. So I killed a few minutes by crossing the street to this always empty parking lot and ridable angled wall. I’ll be back!

Squeeeezing in a session. Progress through repetition
I got home at 10pm last night from working on that show Parenthood, had been gone for 16 hours. Hadn’t managed to skate for two consequetive nights, and I was exhausted yet determined to skate. My inspiration always goes back to Mullen and the book, “The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle. With that in mind I went out and skated from 10:30 until 11:30pm, and only thereafter bought thai food on the corner and ate. I love LA. Got home excited from my session and got 5 hours of sleep.

Location: Rite Aid parking lot. Los Feliz, LA. Western Ave and Franklin.
Duration: One hour exactly. Clocked it.

Drills: Complete Drill Set 2.0.
This was my last 2.0. I changed it after last night.
It was a very smooth hour, with focus on higher pop and a steeper angle of the tail.

Practice Sets
Tre Flips:
Attempts: 25. Makes: 1. Make rate: 4%!
First make in a few sessions. I see the future!
Frontside 180 kickflips
Attempts: 20. Makes: 2. Make rate: 10%
No Comply Impossibles:
3 makes
Fakie Varial Flips
3 makes

I’m writing about the above set on the next day, late in the evening. I just got back from skating again, after another 13 hour workday on set of a TV show. I’ll write about it later! I overhauled my drill set to include new things.

Downtown skate dreams and midnight sessions

Perfect wall-riding to be had in the Hollywood/Western station. After the zombie apocalypse this is my destination.

Downtown LA suitboarding
Suitboarding is the term I use when I’m traveling around wearing a suit, wishing I was skating, photographing spots. The only time I’ve ever worn a suit in my life though is: 1) The day I was married. 2) A few occasions when stand-up comedy clubs required me to wear a suit. Lucky I had my suit from my marriage day. 3) The most common: I’m background “acting” as someone on TV who has to wear a suit.

Ledge or manual pad? Depends on the size of the ollie. Either way, it is marble and it is awesome.

Skateboarding with a suit underneath my skate clothes
I just worked a 3 day commercial gig in downtown LA. On the first and third day I actually put on my suit and then put on my baggie cargo pants, hoodie, etc, over the suit. This allowed me to skate commute, and also allowed for a couple of sessions around midnight. After two of my all-day workdays,  I put the suit into a backpack and enjoyed about an hour skate session. Getting home at 1:30am and getting up again at 7am or 8am was tough, but that’s just one of the challenges facing many adults relearning to skateboard.

Suitboarding and skateboarding! On the way to work, about to peel off the skate clothes and play the role (in a commercial) of businessman.

Drills
In one of the sessions I managed to get in a Complete Drill Set 2.0.
In the other session I did everything in another Complete Drill Set 2.0 except the 360 ollies and backside flips and halfcab kickflips.

Each session lasted about an hour. Loved each one.

This building is crying out to be skated upon.

Practice Sets
On one night I didn’t really do practice sets. I focused all my time on the drill sets, and it took longer because I was actively working on playing with the angles to make everything pop higher. The second night, when I didn’t complete the drill set, this left me time for the following:

Tre Flip Practice
50 attempts. Zero makes. I made 4 a couple sessions ago. None since.
Frontside flip practice
25 attempts. Zero makes. I made a bunch a couple session ago, not since.
No Comply Impossibles
5 makes. Didn’t count attempts. These come very easy now. I initially made a few, then none for awhile, and now I feel like I have them down. I just want to adjust the way I bounce my back foot up in the air as I go into the trick.
Fakie Varial Flips
3 makes. Just going for the makes, not counting attempts of these. I’m probably about 20-25%. These will be added to the next complete drill set line-up.

I actually did ride on this side of the building. Suit and everything.

Studio world
I love working on TV and Movie lots. Universal, Warner Brothers, CBS. There’s a ton. One thing they all have in common is that they look like skateparks to me. Only twice have I been allowed to skate inside the studios. Once while running an errand to a wardrobe trailer, and once while being paid to skate on Fox.

An all-marble television studio fills a complete block in downtown LA. It is filled with rails, stairs, curbs and ledges, all for the purpose of being in the background of many different TV shows and movies.

Another spot I’ll never skate. Not just because it is in a TV studio lot, but because I’m 40 and this is out of my league. Can’t help but look and drool though.

Would love to do a lip-slide on this long perfect TV studio piece of granite. This isn’t out of my league.

Studio breakfast after suitboarding
This post is mostly about my commute to and from work, and otherwise relatively standard nights of working on relearning how to skateboard. So to round out the details of my journey, I’m adding the photo below. After skating and taking the train my total commute time is 30 minutes, plus 30 minutes of goofing around with my camera and skateboard. Arriving at the TV studio on most days there is a caterer willing to make any kind of omelet I want, and often a table spread with about 30 other breakfast options. For free! Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

On the day of this post I chose an omelet with an extremely high ratio of basil to fried onion. Skate or die, and Basil or die!

While suited up, my skate clothes and pads (in backpack), wait 12 hours for me to get done and have some fun. Often surrounded by effeminate, snobbish actors, my display of skate stuff is foreign and glared at.

First ever rail slide attempts
After work, I went straight to these rails. I’ll admit these first attempts at boardsliding down rails were pretty weak. I only tried a few times and I didn’t have the balls to stick my board to the rail during the ollies. Instead my board just kind of shot out in front of me. I tried this rail and another one up the side of the building more, at a place where there were a couple more steps. I chickened out because 1) I was thrown off by the way the rail kinks out flat at the end. Probably not a good first rail 2) I wasn’t warmed up at all! I’d been working for 12 hours straight 3) It was dark, but that’s a lame excuse. It wasn’t totally dark. 4) I doubted my ollie, even though I know I can do it.

This rail is closer to my league. I bet that I’ll be able to do it within a year, after I practice straight rails.

The future
I already skated again after this post was drafted. I’ll write about it later if I have time. It was a breakthrough session. As I write this blog, I’m squeezing it in between other work, and I’m quite bummed that it is raining outside. Very rare for LA. I already had to miss skating last night for work and some much needed marriage time. I’m going out of my mind mostly because I feel like I need to really work on my tre flips! I don’t want to lose any of the ground I’ve gained, and it’s already been a couple days. When I was 17 getting more into guitar, writing, partying and girls, I never thought I’d be 40, worrying about my tre flips.