My brother used to live in Jacksonville, FL and the highlight of visiting him was always going to Kona. Everything there is gnarlier than it looks and the concrete is rough. It’s one of the funnest parks I’ve been to and everything in this clip is beyond insane.
After playing SKATE 3 with Ollie for about two hours straight we agreed we should probably actually skate. We went out to Rampy where Ollie did his typical marathon runs of rock fakies, tail stall, body varials and fakie ollies. He did rock ‘n rolls both ways and little slash’s both ways and decided that was enough for him. I worked on a dorky trick for awhile that was in my head to try. Front 50 to front D to back smith (technically it looks like a back smith but it sure doesn’t feel like one so i don’t really know what to call it) to fakie. I got a couple to forward. Had a funny fall where my shoe flew off. Cranked up a Nirvana song. Then got the trick. It felt pretty groovy. I headed back inside after that. My tendonitis knee feels a little weird.
First full on Rampy session this winter. The reason for the delay is obvious if you read this blog. I’ve been unable to skate. But it’s on (for now at least) and a really fun crew assembled on a cold night. I put the photo above just to show the crew. Most of the crew at least. It was one of my favorite Rampy sessions. I felt great out of the gate and skated a long time. Ric was the first one to arrive and it was looking like a little romantic session between the two of us, but Fuzz, Connor and Kyle showed up. Dean, Max, Jack and Carleigh shortly after that. Watching Ric skate is completely awesome. He skates it fast and stays inside like a bowl. Kyle was new to Rampy. He didn’t struggle for long though. His big tricks were front 5-0 to tail revert the hard way and an ollie shoot out that almost killed Dean.
Carleigh rock fakie. She hung up on this once and slammed so hard. Ouch! She had a lot of front d’s and came somewhat close to getting the line she wants to get on Rampy.
Connor killed it. He makes hard tricks look really easy. Back smith grinds back to back, lien to tail (above), sugarcanes, a ton more tricks done first try with ease and was kind enough to not do a first try hurricane in front of me.
Fuzz killed it. The 270 nosepick thing above was ridiculous. I waited to long to write this journal so I don’t remember everything, but I think he got the front noseblunt too. Big ollies to front d. Sugarcanes. Lots of tricks.
Man I had fun. It feels so amazing to be skating without my knees and ankles full of arthritis. I got most of my tricks including the hurricane above which took lots and lots of tries. My favorite trick was the front feeble where I actually grinded even though the landing was less than pretty.
Max killed it too. His blunts to fakie are popped so hard and as an added bonus he normally follows it up with a switch one. He did the silly nosestall to fakie after Dean and Fuzz were talking about some KOTR trick they saw in Thrasher.
Jack and Dean had just hung out and took photos in between going outside to induce cancer into their bodies. After the heavy vert shredding was done and helmets were removed (Ric’s at least) the kids (Connor, Max and Jack) played SKATE and took flip trick requests. Basically Max and Jack just fell over and over and it was good quality entertainment. Super fun night. So hyped on the crew, the attitude, the session, everything. Man it feels good to skate again.
My acupuncturist gave me the green light to skate lightly every other day or so. I guess after seeing that my knee wasn’t destroyed from the last session and my mental well being was infinitely better after skating she saw the light. So Rampy sessions will start! And what night would be better then a snowy cold night that is also Brian’s 40th birthday! We started out pretty mellow and having fun. It’s still a little weird for me skating again and wearing a big knee brace. But the best part is the arthritis really is going away. For the first time since October I can actually feel my board like normal and my knees don’t swell up with the weird arthritis tingle. It’s amazing. I’m really hoping that the tendonitis goes away too and I can make a run at being half as cool as Brian at 40. We pulled out the camera early on and Brian did 40 tough guys in a row. He’ll post that sometime in the future. Then Brian called out nosestalls and we played with those for a bit. We all did them to fakie and backside. Brian and I added frontside versions too. Man that trick feels funny on tranny. Brian did some crazy rock to feeble to fakie variations as well as fakie rock to smith. Carleigh did her first front rock on tranny. I did a rare fakie rock to smith and a fakie pivot fakie. At the end Brian and then Carleigh did “Berard dropins”. So awesome. Brian rode away from one of them. I don’t think he’s actually 40 years old. Super fun session. I think I have two more weeks of Rampy only, maybe a few weeks of tranny only after that and then who knows what. Maybe I’ll be able to ollie again. I hope so! Happy Brithday Brian!
I’ve been in such a horrible mood the last few days. Everything has been frustrating. I couldn’t take it anymore and decided I needed to skate to release some of that frustration. I put on an old knee brace I had from ACL surgery rehab 15 years ago, cranked up some tunes and hit Rampy for about 30 minutes. After a few kickturns to feel things out I felt like I could try some basics. I got a few more than I thought I would and the front smith was one of the funnest and last ones before I went back inside with a smile on my face that Liz said she had not seen in a long time. I don’t think I did anything to prolong the tendonitis recovery. The main thing is no jumping and I stayed away from ollies. Man it was fun. Rampy rules.
Lucas Puig can stack footage!
Jordan Sanchez. Quick feet, lots of up/down curb tricks which are my favorite, good style ….
My knee is feeling better. My arthritis isn’t so much. It’s been 3 weeks of no jumping with 1 – 3 more. I can’t wait to skate again. Hopefully I remember some tricks. I had a dream I grabbed someones board, did a perfect treflip and handed it back. Felt so good in my dream. Ha. Ollie just bought EA SKATE 3 for the PS3 so hopefully that will help tide me over.
Had a really fun Sunday with the Null crew and Jason. Thanks dudes (and dudette)!
Wow. So hyped I finally uploaded this. Null has been nothing but a blessing to me. I’ve met so many awesome people and had so many good times. This teaser takes me back to when it all started and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. So fun. So hyped to see Jason’s front noseslide and all the old guys in this. Thanks to everyone that has supported Null.
Since I’m on a possible two month break from skateboarding while tendonitis heals I gotta find new ways to occupy my time. Last night I went for a long walk. I don’t really care for walking around neighborhoods at night. It’s just creepy. So I went to campus and roamed around looking for new spots, but mostly just saw spots I already knew about. Spots I’ve had fun at. I stared at pieces of concrete in ways that no one except skaters can relate to. That made me feel pretty good. But then the reality of why I was walking around campus instead of skating set it. I felt like an old man looking back at his youth. It was really depressing. I know I’m supposed to be 100% at some point, but I don’t know that. I really don’t. My arthritis has been pretty bad the last couple days. It’s supposed to go away, but it keeps returning. So even if I didn’t also have tendonitis I wouldn’t be able to skate right now. I’m trying to stay optimistic, but it’s not easy.
Sorry for the downer. Getting old sucks. I know that even if I can never skate again I still have a pretty great life ahead of me. It’s just tough to not be able to do something that has been a huge part of me for most of my life.
It’s been one week on the no skating/jumping/squating tip. It’s really hard to not skate because everything feels better. I think they were right when they said that being too active is keeping the arthritis around. Anyways, yeah, one week and I feel decent. The pain in my left knee is still around, but less painful. Here’s a couple mini ramp clips that make me want and go skate Rampy right now! Argh! Dave Bachinsky rules. One of my all time favorites.
This clip is sick too. What can I say, I like tech skating.