Time to ride again!

Anyway, when I bought my board last year, one of the things I noticed was that it kinda sucked being a 30-something dude and walking into a skate shop trying to get help.  Most of the places I went to just had some kid behind the counter that didn’t have a firm grasp of how clothes should fit, and an attitude that basically tried to intimidate me.  However, being the savy consumer that I am, I didn’t let it dissuade me - instead I started asking questions.  Lo-and-behold, I quickly discovered their attitude and semi-surly behavior was largely due to a complete lack of knowledge about their products (beyond - of course - the basic name brands… which I could clearly see for myself!)

So when I finally DID find someone who DID know something beyond what the label on the box said, it was a breath of fresh air.  I found out interesting things like, wide boards are better for bigger guys (ie - adults).  For the most part, trucks are a personal preference based (largely) on aesthetics.  BUT once you get “good” you can feel the difference in the urethane they use.  Wheels and bearings actually DO make a difference, based on hardness/softness of the wheels and speed of the bearings.  Soft wheels are great for street, and harder wheels are great for parks/bowls.  Don’t want to go too fast?  get slower bearings.  Looking for a little more speed?  drop a few extra bucks on some better quality ones.

Above all - it came down to a little bit of trial and error.  Which isn’t totally unexpected…  I worked in the high-end mountain bike industry for a couple of years and - crazy as it may seem - there are a lot of similarities:  fit is fit - but it all comes down to personal preference.  Which means - you gotta buy something and try it out.  Or try out a buddy’s rig and see how you like it.

And with that in mind - skateboarding is a helluva lot cheaper than most sports while you figure out this “trial and error” of fit and feel.  Decent board = $200 (or so), decent mountain bike = $1,000 - $2,000 and up…

But still - even with a super-low barrier to entry - nobody wants to throw their money down the drain.  Which is why when I saw that 360skate.com (the self proclaimed “World’s Largest Skateboard Shop”) was having a 20% off sale on all pre-assembled boards, I thought I’d pass the good news along.  So go ahead - try out a new rig.  Stop using your kid’s board and get your own.  Or - if you’re like me from last year - see how different the new technology is from the stuff we had when we were kids!

Anyway, the weather’s starting to clear up - which means I’m gonna hit the road and/or bowl/park REALLY soon! Maybe even later this week (work allowing… DAMN this work gets in the way! :-p )

EA Skate - What I do when it rains... which is often...

But until then, I’ve been firing up EA Skate on the ole xbox 360 and having a BLAST playing it. And - while I notice that I’m able to dish out unseemly amounts of damage to my online dude, he always gets back up and lets me throw him off the building again and again.

So while I’m glad I’m personally not dealing with the scars and broken bones of my virtual self - at least he can do an ollie!

Remember kids - broken bones heal and chicks dig scars!**

Or if you’re an old guy like me: explaining that the reason why your arms/knees/whatev are all chewed up is because of skateboarding AND you’re over 30… well… it’s tough.

**Note: this is NOT an endorsement to do stupid things - use your head and wear pads. Missing the summer of skating because you want to look “cool” is for losers!

Considering ALL I seemed to do last summer was scrape and ding myself up - while Ryan sat buy relatively unscathed - it’s somewhat shocking to announce that Ryan broke the CRAP out of his wrist about a week ago.

Broken Bones Heal & Chicks Dig Scars

Now obviously, the wrist isn’t a crap-producing area of the body - so suffice it to say, nobody’s more surprised than him to break the crap out of it!

But here’s the freaky part - it was what we used to call in the mountain bike biz, a “JRA” or “Just Riding Along”… He wasn’t even doing anything crazy! Ain’t that always the way!

From the sounds of it, Ryan was just cruising a local hill, was weaving from side to side and was JUST about to run it off when he hit a patch of sand in the street. The board pretty much shot out from underneath, and luckily Ryan had the sense of mind to protect his head - by sacrificing his wrist (which apparently now sports a plate and a screw or two… YOWCH!).

Anyway - he’s on the mend, but isn’t sure he’s gonna skate again. And, while my gut says, “get RIGHT back on that horse”, I think he’s actually approaching this from a perspective of responsibility… Damned responsibilities!! ALWAYS getting in the way!

Anyway - we’ll keep you updated as to how things progress. Until then, I’m gonna look for some sand-free streets!

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…