Old Guys Who Skate

OK – So I know I said my next post was going to be about my wheels and stuff – that’ll have to come tomorrow (or some time next week).  Why? 

Well – HERE’S why:

This is the flow park at Bonsor Park in Burnaby.  It is AWESOME!

The dude who helped me buy my board at Pacific Border (damn – I have to get his name! – English guy… anyway), recommended that we try this section of the park.  … Yeah - I said “section”.  Bonsor has three sections to it: the flow section up that I have up above, a HUGE bowl with full pipe section, and then a big street section. 

Ryan and I went and hit the flow section today and had a blast.  We started off just trying to ride across from one side to the other.  The smallest “drop in” is about 3 feet and the largest is about 6 feet.  None of it is terribly steep with the exception of one 3 foot side wall (where I happened to drop in first… doh!).  Anyway, while we were ‘getting our feet wet’ so to speak, we were joined by two other people.  One was a younger dude who’s name I totally forget, and the other was a cool guy (also in his mid-to-late 30s) named Andrew. 

Andrew was awesome.  He was riding a pretty sweet deck (forgot to get the name), but he could make that thing GO!  He took the time to show us some cool lines, and how we could pump the park and keep on riding around.  To say the least, he took our riding to the next level – actually probably a few levels above that even!  He even took some video of us, and said he’d try to get us a copy.  If we can connect the dots, I’ll post it here.

By the end of the session, Ryan and I had learned enough from Andrew to complete at least one circuit of the flow park.  Now it’s all down to working on our technique and pumping it a little harder to keep going. 

HUGE thanks to Andrew!!  We’re heading back Monday for sure (rain notwithstanding)!

Oh, and in case you’re interested, I found a great site about Bonsor Skate Park here.  Thanks to northwestskater.com for the pics!

Check these trucks – they’re Thunder Trucks, and you can see them mounted on the Kitsch board and lookin good. 

I have to say, I’m certain that there are a lot of things that separate one set of trucks from another – the good from the bad and the ugly – but I’ll be damned if I know the difference now! 

SO – what did I do?  I went purely on aesthetic. 

My mellon was telling me to go with the raw steel look… but nahhh – that’s what my old Indy trucks on the T&C had – I wanted something more … well more.  And if I EVER get to the point where I’m grinding the hell out of them and the paint scratches off.. oh well – they’re not THAT expensive! 

So yeah – I went on aesthetic and was lured by the Budwieser feel of them.  “King of Trucks.”  Nice.  What I wasn’t prepared for, was the ride.  The one thing I remember back in ’83 – ’84 with my Indy trucks was this: new trucks are stiff as hell and need to be loosened up.  These Thunders came out of the box loosey-and-goosey!  I immediately had to tighten them up … and, I’m not gonna lie to ya – it didn’t seem to make all that much difference.  So my gameplan?  get used to it!  yup – gotta learn somehow!

Tomorrow – I’ll bring you up to speed with the wheels and bearings and we’ll finish up with the complete board.

… and yeah  – these pics were taken when the board was BRAND new – only… I just HAD to ride it from the store to the car

WOAH – what happened to the weekend?!?  It’s already Thursday and it seems like it was yesterday that I was in one of my local skate shops picking up a board.

I gotta say – as an older guy in that shop, it felt weird walking up to the skate desk (I’ve been there lots for snowboard gear tho).  But I have to say – the guy that helped me out… was awesome!  Totally took his time and treated me like a valued customer.  I went in with Ryan and we were both asking a bunch of questions about size of board, trucks, wheels, bearings, where to ride, how to make the learning curve easier – all that…  And this guy made it all VERY accessable to us.  Damn – shoulda got his name!  Next time…

Anyway – I’ll cut to the chase and talk about the deck – personally, I think it’s awesome!  Here’s what I ended up getting: a Kitsch.

Kitsch is a local Vancouver company and the deck came highly rated by the guy at the shop.  I went with an 8 inch deck based on two things – I’m tall and have relatively big feet, and two, the wider deck offers a little more stability. 

Now that said, I knew what specs I was looking for in a deck, and then it all came down to aesthetic and – I have to admit – I liked that they’re a local company.

Anyway – it was a kick-ass experience, and the ride is SWEET.  I’ll tell you about the trucks and wheels tomorrow!

OK - so it’s about time that I upgraded the ole T&C deck.  As you can see, it’s certainly got that… how can we call it… “80s flair”.  Yup.. neon orange, blue shadowed triangles, and no shortage of crazy stickers.

Also, note the (previously neon green) wheels.  Those babies are plush.  I mean it, they’re soft and silent and roll for ever.  The Indy trucks served me well also – they’re pretty much in mint condition. 

And that’s the other thing, considering the board is nearing 25 years old – it runs perfectly.  Everything is tight and smooth.  And you can tell the deck is near mint as well.  Well – that’s largely to do with two things.  First off, I was never all that ‘hard core’ with my riding – never did any grinds or anything like that.  BUT, even if I did, it wouldn’t have mattered.  Why?  Because the entire deck was protected with various plastic guards.  Truck guards, Schmidtt Stix rail guards, a tail guard, even rail guards that protected the tail – I mean, I really went overboard.  But, at the time, it just seemed like a cool way to protect my board (especially since they were so darned expensive). 

LOL – damn!  I even had a Garfield sticker on there!  … but I think it goes well with the Skull Skates sticker right beside it (obviously, a must have!)  … time to retire this deck methinks…

OK – so I’ll get right back into the skating in a few minutes (’cause I got a LOT to share!), but I just wanted to take a second  to talk about RSSHugger.com for a minute. 

Ultimately – if you’re not on board with RSS – it’s time you gave it a go.  You can even RSS this blog using the RSS link in the right hand column there.  But if you’re not familiar with what RSS is, lemme give you a quick tutorial.

Chances are, at some point in the day, you look at a page like Yahoo! or iGoogle.  And if you do, you’re probably aware that you can customize all the content you see on those pages – well, that content is all the result of RSS, or “Real Simple Syndication”.  The cool part is, you can choose RSS feeds from pretty much anywhere.  And if you’re looking for a great directory of RSS feeds and information, check out RSSHugger.com.  It’s one of my favorite spots!