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.

While waiting for Jason, Neil and Rob to show up at my house I rolled around trying some flip tricks. I finally landed some weird new trick I got from Rob. Fakie bigspin flip no comply. Don’t worry, it’s dumber than it sounds.Then we hit the manny pad area for a bit which is always fun. I didn’t skate it all that well, but it was fun. I cracked my board on a 360 flip. Doh.Next up was the rainbow ledge. After landing one 5-0 I decided to try filming a line which pretty much guaranteed the fun would end. And it did. I got the first two tricks – front 5-0 then ollie up the rock gap, but was never able to put down the boneless 180 over the bigger gap. And by ‘bigger gap’ it’s a gap that no one under 30 would ever consider calling a gap. I gave up after awhile using my cracked board as an excuse to not get the ollie up anymore.

Ollie was bummed when I said I was gonna go skating so we hit up Creekside (school across the street from my house) for about 30 minutes. Ollie was doing his name up curbs, wallieing half the time. Pretty rad to watch and it gets me hyped up. I was just kinda messing around trying random tricks like no comply grabs to front tail, 270 front tails and some other tricks I’ve never tried before and didn’t land.Then went out to Valmont with Nate and Rob and tried to break my record for number of falls in a night. Not sure if I made it, but my neck is super sore regardless. Rob is fun to skate with because he has lots of old man tricks and his style is super on point. Nate is always rad to skate with as well. He’ll always pull out some young kid trick that surprises me. I basically didn’t land anything all night, but somehow had fun. I attempted a few no comply pole jam things off the loading dock, never committed though.All three of us played a game of SKATE up a curb. Well, Nate and Rob played, I got schooled. I knew it would go downhill as soon as I bailed the first trick – back 180. Ugh. Lost the game on a no comply up. That should be a staple for a 35 year old. Nope. I think it has to do with how much drinking Josh and I did while he was here. I just can’t handle that much anymore.

Skated solo for awhile totally sucking. Jason showed up after awhile and it got a little better, but I was still sucking. Being tired and old blows. But we skated the curb for quite awhile and that was fun. I got a front tail shove out and tried some weird back 180 nosegrinds that didn’t work out. Party time.