This winter has been very strange. Not so much that there’s been almost no snow, but I wish there was. The whole month of January was unseasonably warm. It rained a lot, then would freeze, ensuring there was always a fresh rock salt littering everywhere. I have been trying to get it in as much garage skating as I can this winter. We don’t even have enough room to park a car in the garage to give an idea how much space is available. Mostly rail tricks – railwhips, railflip to rail, varial rail flip, reintges flips; some footwork – all the same stuff but trying new combos; and manuals, particularly nose Manny’s. Really haven’t been doing too many ollies and flips. Oddly enough, I think I may have come a little closer to those pesky tree flips and ollie impossibles, we will have to see. My back and sciatic nerve pain finally bothered me enough to go to the doctor and I’m currently in physical therapy to strengthen my core. I can tell I’m getting stronger, but the pain in my ass cheek still persists. Is the P.I.A. from skating? Naaaaa.
I did manage to get a long flatground season in. It was a really wierd warm fifty degree mid-January day, I stopped at my son’s middle school on a Saturday afternoon after doing my Dad’s weekly shopping / shower visit. As I started skating, a crazy thick fog rolled in. I honestly didn’t expect to skate well, so I did not bother to try to film anything. However, it was a great session. The new Open Source hybrid board is working out good so far. I’m adjusting to it well. The flexibility to be able to go from flatground freestyle and rail tricks to manny pads to curb session to stairs and a couple grinds on a ledge, all on the same board is pretty cool. I was rusty, but not as bad as expected, most of the basics are still intact. The deck is a little heavier than most boards. I want to transfer the rails from my old Welcome board, but not sure if I want to add more weight. However, there’s probably more weight added from all the stickers than the difference rails would make. I could replace the current Indy 129s with hollows, but I already have a pretty large collection of trucks piling up – Destructo 7.5s, Tracker 110s, Indy 109, Indy 129, Indy 139 and 139 hollows. I guess I should sell some stuff.
Anyway,I skated at my oldest son’s middle school, which was my middle school. My son just turned 13 years old and is in 7th grade now. Ironically, I was in 7th grade when my first obsession with skateboarding started. I really like that spot, it is relatively secluded (which is why I like it most), the tennis courts provide my flatland for freestyle, there’s a manny pad in the parking lot and a small 2 stair that is fun to ollie up on, the only bad thing is the rough ashpalt in the lot. Oh yeah – there this one other thing, sometime skating there stirs up those thoughts wondering why I do this. If I’m having some sort Eriksonian crisis of identity vs role confusion. Trying to relive my lost youth. However, that feeling, that freedom, that sense of accomplishment I get from pushing around some stupid piece of ply quickly makes my answer to that rhetorical question a simple “because I do”. I’m still a good father, husband, nurse and person in general; I go to work everyday (well, almost), I contribute to society, pay my taxes, I’m kind to children, animals and old people – Why should it matter if I still skate? Although I may be a touch immature and enjoy ecaping reality, I still remain responsible.
The day after my skate session the temperature dropped and a week later the ground was cold enough for a couple inches of snow to stick. So I did what any other responsible adult would do: I called off work to go snowskating. I’ve been looking out for spots for a month, but haven’t really found too much immediately around me. Never really noticed what a lack of topography there is around here. I thought for the first snowskate sessions the little local skateparks will probably be all I can do for a while. Snowskating is tough. I snowskated for an hour and half then spent about another 45 minutes looking for spots , on foot. According to my fitbit, between the run-ups and walking around I covered over six miles. It took a little practice to get comfortable just riding on it. By the time I would gain my balance, get my feet placed for a trick, I would run out of momentum and stop. Ollies aren’t great but I could get on the 4 inch ledge and ride off, more like dribbled off. Eventually, I was able to sloppily get on top of the foot high pad. By the end of the day I was able to cleanly land some pop shoves, but everything else was real sketchy.
Ollies lacking pop, actually having problems getting lift on them, as well as kickflips.
A lot of the time my front foot kept sliding off the nose on ollies, like my foot didn’t catch the grip until the end. I think I may break down and buy another strip of Xtreme grip for the center of the board, but it ain’t cheap – $15 + shipping for a 2″x24″ piece. When I originally put the extreme grip on, I was inclined to cut it into smaller pieces to spread it out more. It seemed obvious that the lack of grip on the middle of the board would reduce the amount of friction when dragging the front foot, therefore reducing lift. Yet, I figured whoever designed the way the Ambition Xtreme Pack was laid out had been doing this much longer than I and knew better.
Only kickflip I actually landed. Although the picture looks cool, the board barely completed a complete rotation.
I also rode down the ramps a bunch, but didn’t get enough speed to do much. Forgot to mention the shoes – I can’t stand to be cold, and I knew my usual skate shoes would leave me with cold wet feet, while boots would allow absolutely no feel whatsoever. I couldn’t help but buy a new pair of Vans MTEs. Coupled with some Smartwool socks, my feet were warm and dry throughout the sesh.
While walking through the county park that the skatepark is in, I came across this stairset. It will take a little work to build an adequate runway and I need to improve my Snowskate ollies, but I might be brave enough to try to gap these one day. It took three or four tries but, I was able to just ride down them. Then I thought I might be able to do caveman boardslide on the little ledge. Didn’t work out so well. The concrete was extremely gnarly and the little bit of snow that was on top didn’t slick it up at all. I stuck and tore up the board pretty good, already had to repair the underside. First scraped the lightly roughened plastic with a razor scraper and then fixed a couple gouges by melting the plastic with my dab torch.
It’s not the same as skating, but it’s still a ton of fun. I’m really looking forward to going again, thinking maybe this weekend. Definitely has changed the way I look at snow!
not2old2sk8's Blog 