And you’d think that in an area like Vancouver (just north of Seattle for those of you wondering) – an area that’s famous for rain mixed in with even-more-rain – that there would be a TON of places where you could skate indoors, or at least under cover.  Yet – the only places I’ve been able to find, are either “imaginary” or have closed down… DANG!

Anyway – it’s been a long winter.  We had TONS of snow – which is completely unusual for Vancouver… and *just* as we were starting to realistically hope for spring – it snowed… here… today… in April!  WTF?!?  At MOST, we generally get two snowfalls a year here – and in general, it snows in the morning, and it’s rained away by the afternoon.  And these shenanigans are inevitably done by early February… So snow in April is just plain crazy here…

So suffice it to say, I’m looking forward to some dry weather to start rollin again (we did try riding in the rain… but THAT’s a painful experiment…)

… If anyone has some fun winter skating  tales – lemme know!

Lookin forward to getting back into riding again this year!!

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

More to come soon!

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!

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!)

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…

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…

Anyway, I went out for a ride around the neighbourhood with my buddy Ryan last night.  He took out his Arbor with super-wide trucks, and I took out my longboard.  I think it may be the 2nd or maybe 3rd time I’ve ever ridden my longboard – even though I’ve had it for years.  It’s like I just figured out that my ‘hood is just right for riding this board! 

Now I’ve got the taste again, I’m looking forward to riding Bonsor.  And to get myself stoked, I found this video on Bonsor on YouTube.  The funny thing is – it was filmed just after the park opened, so there’s no graffiti in the video.  And when I’m riding, I actually use the graffiti as a marker – something to aim for – so it’s kinda funny for me to watch this.  …And no – I don’t go in the big bowl yet… yet…

Well – it turns out – neither do I.  But apparently I have enough pain left in me to do this to my elbows.  Funnily enough, after the smaller looking injury, I broke down and bought elbow pads – the larger one happend WHILE WEARING them!  Although I think it was more of a burn from the long sleeved T-Shirt I was wearing at the time…

Anyway – just in case you thought I was making it throgh this process unscathed… 

There’s something that’s super-cool about riding this park.  Now – of obvious note, I’m wearing more pads than RoboCop, and I’m only making heelside turns… but there’s more on the way.  The funny thing is, now that I’m kinda used to the heelside turns, the frontside turns are hard as hell… aint that always the way…

And since I’m in a video-tastic mood – here’s a similar clip of Ryan.  Only notice he’s starting to do some front-side turns as well.  Ryan’s been kickin ass at Bonsor.  I keep trying to go faster so I can keep the flow, but Ryan’s got the pump down – seems like he can go forever!  Check it:

And yeah – I know the vid’s are kinda amateur – I just haven’t had time to edit them and put music in the background.  I just wanted to load these bad boys up for today.

Well, actually, the wheels and bearings.  I picked up these sweet Spitfire wheels that (I think) look pretty damned cool.  They’re 54′s and I have no idea how hard they are (I have to admit – I bought them because I thought they looked cool…).  Anyway, it’s a WHOLE new ballgame from the old Powell Peralta mush-wheels on the ole T&C.  I finished it off with some Black Panther bearings – so smooth they’re smooove.  I was gonna go for the Bones Swiss bearings – but I thought, maybe I could use a little less speed.  …maybe that was a mistake!

Overall though, I’m LOVIN the new board.  The trucks are WAY looser than I was expecting, but I’m getting used to the ride and now I’m pretty much over the initial learning curve.  All in all – it’s a sweet rig.

OK – now that I’ve finished telling you about the board, let’s move on to the riding!!