Killer session. Huge inspiration from past blog posts.

I was irrationally excited to return to the Rite Aid in Los Feliz. I skated over 100 hours there over the summer – I estimate, and didn’t know I’d return.

The blog has paid off!
The other day I reread the first couple months of this blog (January and February, 2013. Nine months ago). Holy shit it blew my mind to see the struggle, patience and growth.

Some things haven’t changed. I’m still totally stoked to learn. Still suck at transition, still not ready, or too chicken, for rails, or anything too big or too fast. Already been injured enough. Still prefer to skate alone at night. While I love it and blog it, skating is a very private thing otherwise. Maybe it’s that I just don’t skate well with other folks around, and I’m a hard critic. Or I’m not used to the pads yet, make me feel like a leper.

Those posts reminded me not to take anything for granted.

When I first started relearning to skateboard, I could ollie, 180 frontside ollie, shovit (not popshovit), nollie-popshovit (don’t ask me why). That’s it. That was about last September. However, I count my real “start again” date as the end of October because until then I was borrowing a mix-matched old set up: 7.5 board, no tail, with 7.75 trucks, no bushings, and 20 year old bomber wheels. On October 20 last year I got an 8″ deck, and it took until the beginning of November for me to afford the right size trucks and wheels.

Little ledge across the street from my business on Melrose Avenue. These cool street obstacles are everywhere!

The thrilling struggle, and more to come!
My drills and practice sets, now very long and variable, used to consist of only  “100 popshovit attempts. Zero makes. 100 kickflip attempts, 1 make.” Over and over. Then it grew. I learned Kickflips by the middle of Febrary, but they were old 80s style, not conducive to grow upon. (Side and downkicking the front foot). I had them up to about a 75% make rate before I realized I had to start over with a brand new foot action. At the end of February I was down again to a 0% make rate. Hundreds and hundreds of attempts. Varial flips, weeks of zero makes, hundreds of attempts. Then there would be one landing of one of the tricks. And then not again for a couple of weeks. Just hundreds of non-makes while seriously trying.

I wish to put the same amount of patience and persistence into my struggle with tre flips, and to learn how to incorporate all these tricks into curb tricks, grinds and slides, and eventually get them up onto ledges. After I round out my catalogue of all these flips tricks, I have a life ahead of me to get them smooth, with cool combinations. But first, get that tre!

The Practice
Last night was my first night staying back up in Los Feliz. It was an unexpected return to an old ‘hood where I skated nightly over the summer. I knew exactly where to go: Rite Aid. Smooth lot. Well lit, nobody cares. I’ve been putting in very full days working on our business, so it was a no brainer reward for me to go skating.

Duration: 80 minutes.

Pros: Great skate spot. Plus I’d watched an awesome tre support video, and it gave me some encouragement to examine tres with a different perspective.Cons: No cons. Well, I’d have loved a manual pad, but I could skate for a decade on flat ground and not get bored.

Drills
I managed to practice a Complete Drill Set 2.0. Everything was super smooth, and it went down in record time: 30 minutes. Took 10 tries to get my first heelflip, but then I got 3 makes consecutively, each one high and tight. Got the 180 backside flips and half cab kickflips with only a few extra attempts each. The nollies and frontside 360 ollies took the longest, but they are progressing. Also goofed around with nose manuals.

In an earlier post I actually made a chart of my varial flip progress! How geeky and encouraging for tres!

Practice Sets
These are developing and changing. Eventually they’ll get incorporated into a different Drill set. It would be so long I’d have to only do 2 makes of everything. I can’t believe how much I just kept banging out sets of 3 of so much super fun skating. The only thing I didn’t do was 360 non complies. I tried for about 5 minutes at the end, but I ran out of time. I was honing back in on it after not really doing those since the late spring.

Below, in some cases I just did 3 makes instead of tracking it based on percent. Just like with drills. The sets of 25 are for my weakest links.

Tre Flips
25 attempts, 1 make. Make rate: 4%

180 Frontside kickflips
25 attempts, 1 make. Make rate: 4%

No Comply Impossible
3 makes

180 Frontside No comply
3 makes

Fakie 180 Frontside No comply
3 makes

Fakie 360 Frontside Ollies
3 (Some were 270+ rotation, with a revert. Still learning).

Fakie Varial Flips
3 makes

Fakie Tre Flips
10 attempts. Zero makes. After I felt like I had a breakthrough with the technical side of tre flips, I thought I would just see what it felt like fake. To my great surprise, it was super feasible! 3 out of 10 made the complete rotation and spin and ended up exactly where it needed to be. I just wasn’t high enough in the air to catch them, I didn’t expect them to even be there! A few other attempts where in the right neighborhood. I don’t know if I’ll commit to learning these until after I get tres down rolling forward. However, it will be fun to play with them from time to time.

Notes
1. Was super stoked to land that one tre flip. It’s the first one I’ve landed since the end of August. Now that I’m getting heelflips down, and now that my living and working situation is getting into a better routine, I can focus again on tres. I want to give super credit to the skate support video I saw on YouTube, by slowmomike. The part of this video that helped me the most was where he says to scoop and kind of kick the board with the back foot, to go almost straight up! Yeah he showed it going around in the backside direction, but he made it seem as though he was trying to kick it under toward where the nose was at the beginning of the trick. Meanwhile the nose rises almost to a vertical position while the front foot gives it a full slide. Good video. I had quite a few attempts that came close because of it. Super helpful tre flip video.

First time landing a Frontside 180 kickflip and a Fakie varial flip!

Plan A (Manual pad) had cars around it. Plan B, Bank Parking lot nearby.

Last night
I was so exhausted from the early morning and long day, I almost didn’t skate. I had to remind myself that I always get a second wind on my skate, no matter how heavy my legs are and how sluggish my brain.
Duration: One hour, from 11pm to midnight.
Location: A high school parking lot, manual pad and flat ground.
The session: Didn’t even think I’d practice any drills, I was feeling so rusty and mellow, but after 15 minutes of playing with manuals, my legs woke up and my mind sharpened up. I embraced the challenge.
For the first time I repeatedly ollied onto a manual pad with fakie backside 180s (half cabs). Timing fakie ollies and flip tricks, on or off of curbs and pads is a weakness. A few times last winter I made it up onto a few sidewalks doing kickflips. Then I was injured trying Casper flips. Not since. I’ve never flipped into a stall or grind. So this small step – even though it was just a fakie 180 backside – shows growth!
Drills: Managed a Complete Drill Set 2.0 minus the 180 backside kickflips, halfcab kickflips and the 360 frontside ollies. No time!
Practice sets: I attempted 10 Tre flips, did some things right but didn’t land any. I attempted about 15 frontside 180 kickflips, didn’t land any. And some no comply impossibles. Zero percents.

Tonight
Similar to last night, I was feeling sluggish and exhausted. I’d already taken a long difficult yoga class at the crack of dawn and worked all day. However, it proved to be an early night of work for me and I started skating at 7pm. Unheard of lately. There was a function at the high school, nixing the manual pad as an option. I hit a long standing backup plan: Bank of America on Melrose and Fairfax. Not the same BOA as the one I frequent in the blog, up on Vermont near Santa Monica.

Store on Melrose. Side of building. Perfect layout for no comply wall rides.

Duration: 95 minutes!
The session: Started super slow and clumsy, by the end it was graceful and with really good board control. Even though tons of attempts weren’t makes, they were all quite light and lofty. Kind of slow motion.
Drills: Managed a Complete Drill Set 2.0! Not easy in general, the flip stuff at the end takes awhile sometimes. Heelflips came much easier tonight. Took about 5 minutes instead of the usual fifteen to land the 3. Landed 4 actually.
Practice Sets:
25 tre flip attempts, zero makes. A few close ones. Not super close, but they showed I was doing something correct. I used to land these, back in February (stationary) anf August (rolling). When I has to stop (injury and busy-ness), both times I immediately lost it. At least in theory I know where to put my feet and to my thing.
25 frontside 180 kickflip attempts. Many close ones, 1 make. Make rate: 4%. This was my first make of this trick, third session trying. It is much like the backside 180 kf, but it is easier to get the board higher and so it is easier to get it further out of control as well. Had to learn to pop it and spin it a bit before flipping it. The hardest part still is remembering to give it a light flick of the front foot to get the flip going off the nose with an upward and outward motion. Otherwise, I have a habit left over from the late 80s version of kickflips, wherein the foot goes down more, and off the side by the truck bolts more. In frontside 180 kickflips this makes it hard to keep the front foot up in the air long enough to catch the lofty landing. Hence, many of my “almosts” resembled frontside 180 no comply kickflips. Which gives me the idea to learn how to do those too.
10 no comply impossible attempts. Zero makes, a couple close.
Fakie varial flips: It occured to me how similar this is to a half-cab kickflip so I thought I’d try. Didn’t count the attempts. Took about 10 minutes, with many almosts on the way. Feels amazing. First make ever! My analysis of it is that it is exactly like varial flips. Yeah I’m going backwards but it is completely mental to not do anything different otherwise. Can’t wait to learn these going off of something.
Fakie 180 frontside no comply practice. 10 attempts, 2 makes.
Fakie frontside 360 ollies: 10 attempts, lots of good almosts, and that I rolled away from after going about 300 degrees and then pivoting the rest.
Fakie frontside 180 kickflips practice: Once I landed that first regular forward rolling frontside 180 kickflip, I thought it would probably be pretty easy to land it fakie. I tried it maybe 20 times. Didn’t land one, but I came very close a number of times. Hard part for me is not jumping the gun on the front foot timing, and keeping the front foot going up and out. And keeping the back foot up in the air long enough and high enough to catch the board.

Super fun practice. Very playful but focused.

Gotta go!

Same store as above, on Melrose. Front view. 2 waxed ledges.