Was supposed to bring the kids skating with Zach and his son, but that didn’t work out. My kids still wanted to go though. As I stated in my last journal entry I was totally over the small board and wanted to try the opposite side of the spectrum. Hey, I’ll be the first to admin I’ve got OCD with my setup. Anyways, I found some old 8″ Indy’s that have been laying around since the Blame The Filmer days and setup an 8″ with some new 51mm wheels.When I first stood on the board I felt like I was riding a tank. After a 7.625 and 8″ feels huge. On top of the board feeling like a monster I had to get used to Indys. I’ve been on the Thunder program for years. Oh well. We had fun. Ollie ollied a 2×4. India did some bunny hops on her scooter. I flopped around. We had fun.Around 10pm Matt picked me up and we went to the shopping center near my house with no real spots in mind, just cruise around and hit whatever. I was feeling super tired and didn’t have the energy or the coordination for the wallride banks so we played a game of SKATE. I figured I’d get pink slipped since I was tired and flip tricks on a monster board didn’t seem that appetizing. Luckily I was surprised to find out that it flips decent. Kickflips felt the best they’ve felt in a long time. I lost, but landed more than I would have thought. We cruised around for awhile and I watched Matt ollie everything. That dude has so much pop. We ended up at a slappy curb for awhile that ended up being way funner that one would think. At one point I got a slappy to manual. Tried slappy to nose manny, but that would actually be good. We split out after another game of SKATE that Matt won, but I put down some tricks I wouldn’t have thought for the first day out on a bigger board.Didn’t really like how the board felt so big, but I did like how it ollied and kickflipped. Hopefully I start to get a better feel for it. Boring ass entry I’m sorry, but like the About page says, don’t read them if you don’t want to.

I can’t skate in the sun when it’s this hot.  I’ve been napping after work then skating later on.  By then it’s perfect.

Rating: STYLERating: COMFORTRating: BOARD FEELRating: DURABILITYRating: OVERALLI’m not sure exactly how many pairs of this shoe I’ve had, but it’s a good one, and I enjoy skating them.  I’m pretty picky with the tongue on shoes and this shoe easily has the best tongue of any shoe I’ve ever skated.  It’s thin, but responsive and protects the top of your foot.  Style wise this shoe is a hit obviously considering it’s basically a vulcanized version of the ever popular Accel.  As with most Sole Tech shoes the Square One is super comfy.  The sole packs out and feels like paper after a few weeks and the ollie area will sometimes blow out.  The ollie area can be shoe goo’d, but still, why not have the both layers of suede go all the way into the sole instead of ending where the layers meet.  Oh well, over all I think it’s one of the best shoes out there.eS Footwear

Rating: STYLERating: COMFORTRating: BOARD FEELRating: DURABILITYRating: OVERALLHere is the first of many shoe reviews I’m going to do on this site. I blow through shoes like crazy. Maybe it’s because you tear up shoes more when you never actually land tricks? Wow I never thought of that before. Anyways, the first shoe up for review is the Supra – Sport. Stylee shoe indeed although my photo of them makes them look like crap. Fake vulcanized sole, but some weird type of cupsole that feels close enough to a vulcanized to consider skating. The first day out on these shoes spelled the end of them. I blew through the ollie area in one game of SKATE causing my toes to stick out. It sucked!Supra Footwear

Went across the street with Ollie for about an hour. Ended up on the phone for awhile, but had a good time. Ollie was ripping. It’s so weird skating with your own kid. He used to be so scared going down the handicap ramp and now he pushes down it and ollies off the curb. He’s almost getting ollies up curbs pretty good, normally he kinda wallies up. He is six though, so I’ll let it slide, just like the fact that he pushes mongo. I think mongo is allowed until about 10 right? I’ve been trying to get him to push normal though. Anyways, I am starting to get really sick of the little board. I had that amazing first day on it, but its been downhill ever since. I did a couple tricks that kind of made me happy though; no comply 360 up a curb, sw back 180 up a curb, back 180 nosegrind 180 out (stall) and some other stuff.Then went and watched the City video at Petes and went skating on campus with Nate. I was pretty lazy and obsessed with having a bigger board. We skated this total dork mellow bank to ledge spot. It’s pretty fun, but way harder to skate than it should be due to a badly placed crack. Nate got the trick of the session with a rock to nose manual to the wall, then pushed back and switch manualed off. I came close to some front pivots shove out (bigspin maybe because it’s into a bank?). We tried to play a game of skate, but it just exposed how rarely we were landing tricks. A cop drove by and we headed out to the downhill manny pad. We ended up not making it and just kinda cruising to some spots and hitting them only once because Nate had to go. Pretty weird night for skating. I’m totally gonna set up an 8″ board and then shortly after that start obsessing about a smaller board. Ha, I suck.

The ‘Kids Are Crazy Good These Days’ category is for clips that blow me away by skaters I don’t know much about.  I don’t know what video this is from, but now I’m even more excited for Mind Field.

On my two week family vacation we stopped in Chicago to visit my uncle Frank and his lovely wife Dale. He’s been living off of his art for 12 years now which is super impressive. He’s also the frontman for the band Mental Insect which he’s been doing for years as well. I think their kind of on hold for now, but either way you should check out the video for Post Industrial Sex on youtube. Embedding this video has been disabled, but you can still watch it by clicking here. If you are interested in his art, give him an email and support a good cause.

I figure since I sit around at work all day and browse the web for skate clips, I’d start posting some of my favorites.  Dave Bachinsky is amazing and this part is sick as well.  I think the first trick should be the last trick and the music kinda blows, but whatevs, it’s sick.

I finally installed a youtube video plugin so naturally the first thing that went up is the Off The Couch teaser. This is going to be one fine video featuring full parts by several over 30 year old men who still ride skateboards. It’s gonna be a hoot. Basically it started when Brian Ball farted on me and I jumped off a couch all quick. Neil asked if I was ok and I said it kind of hurt. Somehow the name ‘Off The Couch’ got coined after that.The video will feature full parts from Brian Ball, Neil Thurman, Jeremy Frankovis, Rob Helmstetter, Jason Heidecker, Lazer Rubenstein (under 30 alert) and somehow me. Although I’m recruiting the help of the Null team to make my part at least somewhat interesting to watch. The goal is to have this video out around Thanksgiving this year. But who knows, there are no rules with this video.

Rob, Chad, me. Neil in the background checking his cell phone on his bike at a light.Jason up in this piece too. How did Chad make the same exact face twice?After cracking my deck it was time for a new one.’The crew was Lloyd, Brian, Rob, Jason, Neil, Chadman, Gabe, Fuzz and me. We started off at the steep bank/dirt spot. Decent warm up for most, but I was too tired from the night before. Chad got kinda gnarly though.Next we hit this fun foundation/manny pad spot. I would normally have loved it, but the heat was killing me. That and I slammed super hard and somehow avoided breaking my shoulder on a curb. Ugh. Skating sucks sometimes. Neil and Fuzz killed it.On to another bank spot I was still being pretty lazy. Fuzz killed it again.Lastly we went to the Evans & Lapan spot and I filmed a line for my old man part. Halfcab flip, little shove, front shove off the kicker. Yippe filming blows, but you gotta get Off The Couch.