Old Guys Who Skate

As I said in my last post, I’m following in Ryan’s footsteps when it comes to skateboarding milestones.  But that said, we’re BOTH super stoked about how well we’re riding the park these days.  Here’s some footy of me riding heelside and frontside in the Bonsor Flowpark.  I can’t tell you how freaky some of those frontside turns were – especially as I had some height going as I was learning!  Still, once I got over the head-freak, it all fell into place… awesome!

Here’s me rockin out on the park…  And yes – I KNOW my ending is weak …  :-p

More to come soon!

I’m not going to be anything but 100% honest here… While I may be able to get a little more height on the walls at the park and I might get a little more speed, Ryan has consistently done every single trick that we’ve both mastered, and done it before me. 

Now, it’s not a competition, it’s just the way it is… he’s better at pushing his envelope than I am.  BUT the cool thing for me, is there’s always something to shoot for.  So if you checked out our last videos, you’ll notice that Ryan and I could only really go heelside on our turns.  Turns out most of the reason for this is because they’re WAY less freaky than frontside – especially when you get up on those walls.  Anyway, these videos are a little old, but they’re great footage of us just getting our feet wet (so to speak) with some frontside turns.  SO check out Ryan as he tears it UP!

Ryan and I hit Bonsor skate park this morning… aahhhh now that’s better.  After not riding for a while, and then dealing with the crumbling decrepitude of New West, it sure feels good to ride a nice park. 

Interestingly, the park has been cleaned of all graffiti – well… almost all.  Some douchebag graffiti’d one of the steep walls of the park with “Trip”.  Now, I’m not against graffiti – especially if it’s done with a modicum of style and/or grace.  I do have to admit, though, that skating an essentially graffiti-free park today was cool.  However, the one thing I have in favor of graffit artists is that they generally produce some pretty cool art.  However, the douchebag that tagged the bowl with this “Trip” paint, was truly untalented.  It’s not that he did a poor job with the spraycan, rather, he painted it on with a freaking roller.  I just looked stupid.  Oh well – you can’t account for taste in some people…

Still, the ride today was EPIC!  Both Ryan and I were killin the flow.  I started to get to the point where my big problem was carying too much speed and trying not to pop out of the park.  It felt awesome!  I can’t wait to go back again and push the envelope.  Hmmm… I wonder what I’m doing tomorrow morning?! 

I’d post video – but I want to edit what I have and also take some new footy.  More to come.  

(ps – no, that’s not a current picture of Ryan about to hit the flow – but you can tell he’s about to tear it up!)

OK – so I haven’t taken the board out for a while to do anything more than ride my patio (and no matter how hard I’m tryin, I don’t seem to be having much success in getting my wife to buy into letting me build a half pipe in the yard…). 

So, I find myself having to go out to New Westminster for some familial obligations and I think to myself: “hmmm… isn’t there a skate park there??  I’d best bring the gear.”  Which is precisely what I did.

Now the funny thing is – I used to live about 2 blocks away from this park.  In fact, I even remember while I was living there, thinking that I should head down there and check it out.  But alas, it wasn’t until yesterday that I actually did.  And what I saw was a sorry state…

At first blush, the park looks like it’s going to be all flow – which is cool for me, because that’s currently my fave.  And then I drop in, only to be spat out like a bad dish at a two-bit restaurant.  Try as I might, the “flow” in this park comes from riding from one side to the other… I couldn’t find a decent line. 

Then – salvation – a group of locals shows up.  Two guys and a girl.  Much to my surprise, the girl (didn’t get any of their names), was awesome!  Getting air, carving the park, the whole 9 yards.  We started talking and then – low and behold – she skates the line.  At that point the park really opened up for me, but still, it was a bit of a pale comparison to Bonsor.  Well… at least in my humble opinion (maybe I’ll change my mind later), and here’s why. 

I found the park iteself in generally poor condition (BOO to New Westminster parks and rec for not taking better care of this!).  Chunks of cement were missing, and you could hear the concrete crackle and break as you rode it.  Now admitedly, I’m not the lightest guy in the world, but hey, I don’t think I have the power to crack concrete on my board – at least not yet.  I also found the shape of the park to be a little strange.  It wasn’t deep enough to really get a good flow all the way around, and it was too long and too narrow to make use of the deeper areas.  The spine in the middle was “interesting” and would gladly kick you up if you didn’t respect it.  The graffiti was there in large amounts – which is fine – but it made for a slick ride since paint seems to lack the grip of pure cement.  There was also coping around most of the edges of the park – which is fine, but I couldn’t figure out why you’d put coping on a bowl that lacked anything resembling a steep wall.  Hmmm maybe I’m missing something there…

Now for the positive – outside of the “flow” area, there’s a bowl.  The bowl is pretty much a larger version of the bathtub at China Creek.  Larger – as in bigger and deeper with a little kink on one of the sides.  It was fun to ride around in and do some turns.  The excessive paint made it a little sketchy at times – although, I could also have been sketchy due to my lack of recent skating (fair enough).  There was also coping around almost the whole bowl, so I decided to try a drop in – figuring it would be easier not having to drop in on a vertical.  Well… let’s just say, I’m not 100% ready for it yet.  I didn’t kill myself – but I didn’t succeed either.  And my desire to walk away from the park unscarred and unbloodied, meant that I didn’t really put my heart into it.

All told, I think I’d give it another shot.  Let’s face it, it’s a different flavor, and I did have fun.  Besides, maybe I can use it as a testing ground to learn the drop in…

So the other thing I like to do with my free time is play xbox 360 (not surprisingly, I’ve done not much of either recently!).  And I just picked up EA’s skate game.  I’ve been a huge fan of the Tony Hawk franchise over the years, and to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from skate. 

Boy was I wrong. 

The control system they’re using makes use of the right analog joystick.  So to pop an ollie, you actually have to pop your right joystick up and down.  The controls are pretty much intuitive once you get the hang of it.  I’ve had a couple of friends over to try it out, and they’ve picked it up in minutes – even if they’re neither a skater nor a video game player. 

From a gaming perspective, the career mode is pretty good.  It’s fresh, keeps you challenged and pushes you to try new things.  As you may be able to tell, in the ‘real world’, I’m a child of the 80s’, so I’m not as keen on the street-style skating as I am with the ramps and bowls.  And while that’s the same in the video game world, I’m having so much fun with the street style skating, that I’m quickly becoming more intrigued by learning how to ollie, etc. 

The one thing about this game though, is the “reality”.  Now let me explain what I mean by this.  The game is unreal with its realism.  Obviously, you can do a few things that are just not possible in the real world (or rather, perhaps they are ‘possible’ but there are VERY few people who would put their health on the line to try it out!).  You can jump bigger, go faster and spin longer than anyone probably has a right to.  That said, trying to crank out a 900 is a VERY tough job.  The game get’s very real when you miss a trick and wipe out.  The physics engine is amazing in its ability to turn your self-generated skater into a rag-doll.  And when you do a particularly good job at becoming one with the pavement, stairs, or other obstacle, you’re shown a picture of your skeleton and how much damage you’ve done to it.  Real world injuries and wipe-outs with none of the pain.  And – luckily – the wipeouts don’t cost you anything in game terms.  Just an illustration of what you’ve done to yourself.

The maps are great, and there are pedestrians, cars and other skaters everywhere – meaning that it’s never a clear run for you, even in a competition.  Again, this sets up for some fun wipeouts (sorry Granny!).  The music in the game is varied, everything from some old-school hip-hop and rap, so some heavier guitar laden tracks.  And in true EA fashion, you can customize the soundtrack to make it suit your style or vibe of the day. 

Bottom line, if you like these kinds of games, check it out (you can download a free demo on XBOX Live to get a feel for it).  For me – it was money well spent.  I highly recommend it for those days when you just don’t want to blow stuff up.  Check out the trailer…