Old Guys Who Skate

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…

OK – so last week I thought I’d be skating up a storm.  The circumstances were perfect and I was (essentially) healed from a couple of bails I took at the skate park.  And when I say “essentially”, I mean that the scrapes healed up – I think I may have bruised a bone in my elbow, but it’s essentially inconsequential.  The funny thing is, most of my scrapes are as a result of the pad slipping on contact with me wiping out.  So the pad itself is causing the scrape – I’ll have to find something to change that…. I digress…

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…

Yeah – so as you know, Ryan and I have been riding the Bonsor Flow Park.  So far it’s been an awesome experience.  The learning curve has been pretty steep – and the worst part seems to be mental.  What I mean is – we have the game to ride it, but there’s something that tweaks in the brain when you’re horizontal on a wall and staring down into a concrete trough.  Granted, we’re only talking about 6 feet at the high point – but 6 feet is still a pretty good fall.  And as Andrew said one day:  “At this age, I really don’t have a lot of pain left in me”. 

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… 

So now that it’s been a couple of times riding the Flow Park section at Bonsor, I thought it was time to take smoe video.  So here’s one of me finally getting a good ride in! 

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.

OK – so the last thing I was gonna mention about my board was the wheels. 

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!!