I got a summer cold, so now I’m sniffling and coughing like an orphan in one of those black and white crime movies in the 30’s. I ought to be wearing a torn sweater and one of those skally kaps. I’ve been doing zero skating since Sunday, and mostly reading about skating, and watching some clips on YouTube. I’m also downloading some old clips from the 80’s and 90’s, so that should be fun to watch.
1 comment June 28th, 2007
so I went out and rode twice today. the early show was at 2:3opm or so, and I about died of heat and humidity after 45 minutes. I drank an entire 32 oz Gatorade and still felt loopy. The good news is that I am less weary of rolling ollies. I’m not saying I’m a superstar, just that I can pull them in a rolling motion more often. I am still pulling them behind me, and I am taking Dan’s advice and trying to concentrate on kicking that tail straight down, but sometimes I think my front foot is leading it off. Either way I had some time to see what is what and get plenty of shin dings.
The good news is- I got some shin guards. Soccer shin guards. These things are a life saver. I got a really killer knee ding in my first session today so I went to Target and got some child shin guards on sale, and then cover the knee! It’s lik freedom from pain! It’s incredible.
Let me post some bruises:
ok so those are old and here’s one from today:
so whatever, the nice thing about today was that it was ultra humid and hot and got to skate a little bit and had some fun.
also - I tried doing some rock and roll board stalls on this parking block. whoopty-dooooo!
whatever. I’m really glad that my hip-flexor thing is going away and I can not die every time I try to ollie over a crack.
somebody with a dry pool, let me know, cuz I want to surf around and not jump all the time. 
1 comment June 24th, 2007
today is Go Skateboarding Day http://www.goskateboardingday.org/
so go skateboard! I know I am!
***
ok, here is something that has been bothering me for a few weeks now: what is the deal with skaters and tight pants?
in my day, the mid-90’s, skaters wore big pants, like, huge. my skater buddies wore pants with waists 20 inches too big. now-a-days I see skaters in skin-tight jeans. How can you jump in those things?
I was talking this over with a friend of mine this week, he said that skinny jeans are probably just skaters backlash against big jeans. taking it to the extreme on that pendulum swing. I *hope* this goes even further to the point where Van Halen style lycra pants come back. Seriously. I would love to see skaters in glam-band gear. It seems like the current trends are flirting with that territory anyway, why not go full-on and do it?
Frankly, skinny jeans are ok- I understand the whole style going on with that - but how in the world can you skate like that? Seems like everytime you’d jump, your ass would hang out. And what about your junk? I need freedom for my boys! Someone please tell me what is going on!
8 comments June 21st, 2007
It’s Saturday, and a beautiful one at that. I got up around 8:30 intent on getting out to skate before it got too hot, however, I didn’t get out until about a quarter to 11 and it was getting toasty. I watched the Skateboarding Explained DVD on Ollies, and took some mental notes about looking at the front of the board and in front of the board when rolling.
I drove over to the stadium again and got myself psyched. I rode around a little bit and kicked some gravel off the parking lot, practiced some turns and then decided it was about time to start practicing my ollie. The first time I tried to ollie I thought I had busted my left hip, it hurt so bad. I guess that it was not fully recovered from the strain I gave it last time I went out! I tried stretching it out and rubbing it, and in a little while I was able to ride a bit and ollie without too much pain. Here’s a pretty nice non-rolling ollie:
Despite walking off it, I could tell it was a nice even pop, and got level at the top, probably about a foot off the ground! If I can just get that wired I will be a pretty happy guy!
I was getting kinda bored of the slow, rough concrete, so I started riding over on this other part of the parking lot, with much smoother concrete, and not as many rocks. Here are some practice ollies:
And rolling:
And here is a pretty lame attempt at a manual. I had a few that were a lot better than this, but didn’t get video. Whoops!
I tightened my trucks today, and I think that gave me a much better sense of balance and control. I am nOne thing that I notice is that alot of times the nose of the board turns slightly behind me when I ollie. I am not 100% sure if that is because my front foot is dragging it to the right, or whether my back foot is pushing it forward when I jump. It makes the board turn up to about 10 degrees. It is something I am going to try to diagnose once my hip can take a lot more pounding.
http://www.sportsmed.buffalo.edu/info/hipflexor.html
I am going to be doing the exercises listed here:
http://www.sportsmed.buffalo.edu/info/hipflexor2.html
3 comments June 16th, 2007
I actually feel pretty good today, no crippling pains, just achey hips, quads, and shoulders. My bruises are subsiding as well, though they are darker than Monday. Had I known that I’d still be hurting today, I might not have pushed myself so hard on Sunday, but I wanted to ollie, and I did (kinda), and I feel OK about that.
I guess spending a couple of hours using muscles you don’t normally use in an explosive/athletic way is going to burn you later! The good news is, even though I can’t lift my legs high enough to put on socks, and getting up from a sitting position is quiet agony, the next time I ride I will be stronger.
I’d also like to say thanks to everyone who has been giving me encouragement. It’s really nice to hear your comments and advice! A few people have said my blog was “inspiring” - which I take as high praise! I’ll take it with me as encouragement when I go skate!
Add comment June 13th, 2007
Over the weekend I spent some time thinking about the physical act of ollie-ing, looking at video, the Skateboarding Explained DVD, checking out “how to ollie” websites and the like. Then yesterday I spent a couple of hours practicing.
I went out at about noon to this minor league baseball stadium not far from my house. There is a giant parking lot without too much gravel, and it’s pretty rough, so you don’t have to worry about gaining any unwanted speed. I rode around a bit and practiced my turns, then did some pre-ollie stretching, then turned on the camera to capture my first ever attempt to ollie:
Great! I didn’t have the camera battery charged up, so I was not able to capture the perfect 2 foot high ollie I landed. Yeah right! I did, however, start feeling good about it after a little while and was popping some ollies that maybe came up a few inches. I only lasted about an hour due to the heat, so I decided to go out later when it got cooler.
After dinner I went over to this parking lot by my house. It was recently black-topped, so it is super smooth and very easy to ride on. I set up the camera and got this excelent shot of a true ollie. I don’t bring the tail up but I do get off the ground.
And here’s a nice shot of a couple more attempts and, if you look real close at the end of the clip, as I am walking toward the camera, you can see the shin dings and bruises I aquired through the day. I am thinking about buying some shin guards, but I don’t want to look weird. I suppose that’s why skaters wear jeans, right? To hide the shin guards?
OK so that was nice. I was just standing around trying to get the tail to come up when a guy rode up on a board. He introduced himself as Mark and seemed like a nice guy. He said he’d quit skating for about 6 years and now he is getting back into it. He was good too, good ollies, nice kickflip. Nice guy.
After a while a drunken Indian fellow came by and started telling me to do a 360 and challenging me to “don’t be affraid, just try it.” Good advice, really. Then he asked me if I lift alot of weights and told me I should come over there and prove how strong I was. Creepy. Mark encouraged me to skate around more to get away from the guy. Good advice too!
So I was skating around more, feeling pretty comfortable, and doing rolling ollies. I think I got a few good ones, maybe one out of every hundred was a good one. Not bad! I was doing this little “run” where I would start out switch, do a fakie backside 180 kickturn and then ollie, and it was feeling good. I was having fun! I was even landing a few ollies that sounded good! Then I turned on the camera and got camera shy and shot this turd:
Well, over-all I think it was a successful day. Writing this on Monday morning I can safely say that my legs are a little achey, particularly my left hip, which feels like I’ve been kickstarting a motorcycle all day, and my shoulders, which reminds me that throwing your arms up in the air a few hundred times will cause soreness.
4 comments June 11th, 2007
Well - I feel pretty good on the skateboard. I feel comfortable riding and turning and all those basic things you’d think a person should do. I am OK with riding switch, as long as I concentrate and go slowly. The more I ride the better it feels.
I will be concentrating on learning to Ollie this weekend. I intend to learn tomorrow, weather permitting. I’ll take some video too so I have something to put on the site. Hopefully I will capture some video of my first ollie! How fascinating?!
For more information on learning to Ollie - check out these informative links:
http://www.switchmagazine.com/skateboarding_tips/how_to_ollie.html
http://skateboard.about.com/od/tricktips/ss/HowToOllie_8.htm
http://www.exploratorium.edu/skateboarding/trick02.html
http://www.exo.net/~pauld/Skateboard/ollie_physics.html
Add comment June 8th, 2007
sheesh! it seems like every time I plan to go out, it starts to rain! yesterday it was nice all day long while I was at work, and as soon as I got home (planning to skate at this nice newly asphalted parking lot) it began to rain in monsoon-like fashion. It even had some small hail for a while!
anyway, I reviewed the DVD for a little while and even watched the instruction on a few of the more advanced tricks for fun.
I also watched the basics stuff on the ramp section, because I talked to this vert skater the other day who said that riding on a ramp is the best way to get used to riding backwards, since you are almost forced to every time you go back and forth. So that gave me food for thought. I have begun looking for a ramp to ride. It looks as though Lincoln only has one, and it’s clear across town! Even a mini-ramp would suffice. I heard a rumor of one near 14th and South… any help?
4 comments June 5th, 2007
we’ve been moving for a few days and it’s been rainy too, so I haven’t been able to get out and skate at all. I just got the DVD player hooked up again last night. I need to pop my Skateboarding Explained video in and refresh my brains on what to do! that makes me all the more excited that the weekend is here! I hope it doesn’t rain!
Add comment June 1st, 2007