skate journal: Hawaii! schools on a beautiful day (feb 19, 2018)
After a lazy/hangover/rainy/surf day off we got back to it on Presidents day where schools were off. We started at this spot. It’s so beautiful. This palm tree lined sidewalk, a nice bench that wasn’t too tall then a two stair. There were some other things at the school, but this was where we spent most of our time. To my surprise Jake front 50’d the ledge before I had even ollied up the two stair. Guess he was feeling better! He went on to rip. Front 50, front tail, a line of front 180 up the two stair then fakie nosegrind the ledge then nollie bigspin on flat. Paul was shredding. Super fast front 50s and back 50d the awkward 2 stair ledge, manuals from the two stair. Neil was in shred mode too. Noseslide up the two, crooks shove the bench, lots of shoves, another line with front shove, switch boardslide, shove the two and hung in with me to film a line since I take forever. I had another shaky start, but eventually was ollieing up the 2 easy, front board jib down it, got a couple 50s and crooks on the bench. Then spent a long time trying a line of no comply 180, fakie flip, switch noseslide, back 50 the ledge. I eventually scrapped the no comply as it wasn’t working, but I’m still happy with the fakie flip along the palm trees. The back 50 came out of nowhere. This spot forces you to come in at a right angle so I guess it worked for me. I was really hyped.
Then we went to this school. On the 15 minute car ride there my body got so stiff. I never really recovered, but I did stubbornly skate through it. The spot had so much to offer. Trick into bank, crazy ledge, wallrides, stairs, more ledges and even more ledges. Paul started with a couple tricks into the bank, but nailed some crazy back 50s threading the needle through a pole. He backed it up with a high speed kickflip and some ollies down the 4 – 5. Neil did a sick line and I filmed him. At first he did 100 shove it’s into the bank to get started, but then he did kickflip in and that line was the one. Kickflip, powerslide, wallride, powerslide, crooks shove, shove on flat, hill bomb. Man, so epic. Jake and I took awhile to get tricks into the bank. I had done a bunch of switch front 180s and a couple halfcab flips, but when it came time to filming I just settled with switch front 180 in. It was a cool feeling line even though I look slow and the filming was from a mile behind me. Switch 180, powerslide, wallride nollie, cali grind, noseslide. I was hyped on how it felt. Jake had tried a bunch of f/s flips and 360 flips in, but came up empty handed. I started skating the lower triangle ledge with Neil and Paul while Jake tried f/s flips to start out a switch hill bomb the whole hill. Gnarly! I filmed Neil get a sick line of nose manual, no comply 360 then front tail on the far ledge. He did it so good. I took awhile to get the hang of the downhill approach, but had some fun front 50s, accidental front 5-0s and front 50 shove. I had some visions of a line to the other ledge and had some fun nollie back 180s and halfcab flips, but I couldn’t seem to land anything on it. The whole trip my bushings felt like jello. I guess that makes sense considering how much the freeze up in cold weather. Anyways, I got a couple halfcab noseslides on the far ledge, tried fakie nosegrind. I could have skated it longer, but everyone was done and I was probably too sore to be skating anyway. I loved these spots and it makes me want to skate ledges more. Thanks for bringing us to these spots Neil!
(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)