skate journal: spots near my house (Oct 24, 2013)

up up down

I’ve wanted to skate the post office by my house for about 10 years now and I decided this night was the night to make it happen. Rather then start right at the post office though I cruised across the street for a bit to get warmed up. I was feeling pretty rusty and ended up at this odd configuration of stairs. Going up them was really hard for me. There is not much runway and a slight uphill between the 2 and 1. I finally started getting up the two with enough speed to get up the one as well and first try got front 180 down a 3 stair in the background of the photo. It’s actually a pretty good 3 so a pretty fun run. I was breathing like crazy from jumping so much, but wanted to also do back 180 down the stairs. I got close, but ended up giving up.

usps

Then I went back to the post office. It was quite a bit harder then I figured it would be. The goal was to do a trick into the handicap ramp then a trick on the bench. Well the ramp was way narrower then I thought and the bench comes up real quick with a nasty crack right in front of it. I did eventually get a couple kickflips into the bank with jibby front boards on the end of the bench. No front 50s like I wanted, but I think it would just stick anyway. I also had a line of switch front 180 into the ramp, ollie a little curb gap then a horrible ollie on this weird little hip. My legs were feeling weird. They had energy, but they were heavy. I think it’s pretty clear that the gluten free diet is having a positive effect on my arthritis/muscle pains. Hopefully it will keep getting even better. My board was finally starting to really bum me out. 8.25s are not the size for me. I added pop shove, nollie and halfcab into the ramp before moving on to skate flat in the lot next to the post office.

8.25s SUCK

I tried a front lip on a parking block first though and crack! I was happier then a pig in mud! Going back to 8 inch!