Skate Reanimate

I had heard that you can dye skateboard wheels using a packet of Rit, so I gave it a shot on an old set of white wheels–yellowed with age:

1. Prep the wheels

   

   I sanded the remaining silkscreen off of the outer rim, washed the wheels, then gently sanded some of the darkened surface of the wheel. (I later determined this surface sanding is probably unnecessary)

2. Prep the dye bath

   I filled a medium sauce pan with water–just enough to cover the wheels–and set it simmering on the stove. I then emptied a full pack of Rit dye (I chose Royal Blue) and a quarter cup of salt into the pan. (I now wonder if less dye would result in a brighter or lighter color.)

3. Dunk the wheels

   

   I set the wheels in the simmering brew, and stirred them for about 20 minutes. (Again, I wonder if for a brighter or lighter color 5-10 minutes might work.)

4. Remove, Rinse, Dry

   

   Ta-da! (These are actually much darker in real life than they appear here, thanks to the camera flash.)

Product: Dr Scholl’s Massaging Gel Sports inserts

Results: Reinforce arches–but not too high. Cushioned heels. Predictably smooth Dr Sch feel throughout.

Conclusion: Tear out your insoles and pack these instead. For around 12 bucks, I can’t recommend them more!

When I was a kid I could get away with more spills and less repurcussions. Now a small spill can put an ankle or wrist or elbow out of commission for days. So while I’ve worn a wrist guard for a long time (I’m on the computer for 10hrs a day for work etc), I decided to pick up elbow and knee pads as well. I plan to wear the elbow guard on my bad right elbow whenever I choose to hit the skate parks, but don’t expect I’ll need the knee pads regularly–still, they’re nice to have.

And because I hope my 5-year-old son will want to pick up skating sometime in the future I got a helmet for the good example. I’ll wear it at parks any time he comes with me.

So a while ago I was riding an Almost Mullen “Uber” deck, which cracked at the nose about 30 days into use. After a couple of weeks I noticed the deck lost a significant amount of pop. I’m not being whiny, but my ollies were terrible unless I aimed and precisely snapped the tail at just the right position and angle.

After practicing ollie to manual off a little platform (no more than 12 inches) the nose just cracked and was suddenly useless. So I sent the deck back to Almost, and voila! They sent me a brand new one about 7 days later.

Because I hadn’t really expected them to replace it, I had immediately ordered a deck from Black Hole Boards as a replacement. But the shipment was delayed, and as the summer days sped past I found myself itching to skate. Our local shop was having a sale on decks that week, so on an impulse I picked up a Vallely Element deck for under 30 bucks with grippy. I mounted it up, thinking I would skate it for a couple months and have the extra BHB Element in case I needed it.

Surprise, surprise, the Vallely deck lasted all through the autumn, and though the BHB Element came, and the replacement Mullen came I saw no reason to change out.

So, yeah, I have 2 brand spankin’ new decks to dig into when the snow thaws. If it ever does. It feels really weird to have more decks than I need; in fact, it feels a bit constrictive, as I don’t have the anticipation or excitement of choosing a new one when the current wears out.

Oh well, at least I’ll be well-stocked and free from deck expenditures for 2008.

You can see me here on my new Vew-Do Balance Board. My kind parents bought this for me for Christmas. My folks have always been supportive of skating, going back to my offsetting the cost of my first board at age 11, through to letting my brother build a mini half-pipe in their back yard when he was 16. And though my mother was somewhat concerned that I would hurt myself when I announced I was getting back into skating at 31, both mom and dad thought taking it on would do me good.

But I guessed I might lose whatever skating edge I’d been re-sharpening over the summer if I just atrophied over the winter, and so when I heard about the Vew-Do I was intriguiged.

The Vew-Do apparently came out in 1990–right before I quit skating, it seems, and was marketed to both skaters and general sports-playing-jock-types. I think I remember seeing it way back when, but it looked dopey, and of course the price is akin to a complete board, so that, to a 15-year-old, was itself prohibitive. But not so now. The folks were looking to buy me something different for Christmas, and this fit the bill.

So here it is, the Vew-Do SK8 model in all it’s indoor fun-ness. As you can see from the photos, the board is just like a normal skate deck except instead of trucks/wheels it’s got a heavy-duty plastic beam on the bottom that fits into a groove on the “rock”–a large, wooden mono-wheel support. One balances one’s self by centering one’s weight above the “rock”, and then shifting weight from foot to foot to change the position of the board.

It’s both more challenging and enlivening than I thought it would be, and I find myself hopping on it two or three times a day just to give it another go. Each time I do I find that my balance is a little more sure, and the experience of riding the Vew-Do is yet more enjoyable.

Next up: tricks on the Vew-Do. Apparently one can do ollies, kickflips, shuvits, and more. Best thing about it is now I can rationalize making a post here during the winter months (one that’s not along the lines of, “It sucks that I can’t skate.”)

My new deck finally arrived yesterday (I swear UPS is slower than USPS) and I laid on the grippy, changed out my bearings, replaced my trucks’ kingpins, and put it all together.

Before

After

I took it out skating last night, and was immediately impressed by how high this thing pops. It’s like spaceman ollies!

The concave feels very deep, which I’m not quite used to. In fact, I fell a couple of times because my feet were so “glued” in place by it.

As advertised, it does seem to flip faster, and though I’m still having a hard time with kickflips in general, heelflips seem to be easier to initiate (though harder to control, as the board flips at least another half-flip from the same amount of effort).

I’m currently riding some older Grind King trucks. This model is very light, and has what I thought at first was a very ingenious kingpin that has a hex bolt inserted the “wrong” way through the truck. But the problem for me is that I like my trucks very tight. I even bought some new Bones Hardcore bushings, which–though very cool indeed!–didn’t prevent the problem I’d been having: when I tighten that kingpin on down, the kingpin bolt pushes into my deck, making a nasty little indentation/pit.

Even though I haven’t seen it cause a crack on my current deck, I know this could compromise the integrity of my deck. And while my current deck’s pretty well out of life, but I don’t want this to cause issues with my new deck, so I’m thinking of either swapping out the kingpin or buying some new trucks. I could try getting some rises on there to increase the gap between the deck and the kingpin, but that seems lame.

I’d been having problem with my right ankle while skating. I kept spraining it in–usually pretty minor injuries, but the fact that I kept using it and kept doing it didn’t help.

So one of my co-workers, who does a lot of martial arts, suggested I get a little ankle brace.

I picked one up at Target for $12, and it fits like a glove. It does make my shoe fit a little tighter, but what’s most important is that it has significantly reduced my ankle strain.

I highly recommend ankle braces for your pushing foot to all skaters over 30.

Back in the day I worked in a skateshop. It didn’t pay much, but I got a great discount on equipment, which makes it hard getting back into the sport and having to pay full price for everything!

The good news is that retail price for skateboarding equipment hasn’t changed much at all in the last 15 years. A complete skateboard is still around $120 US, kneepads are still around $30, and good shoes still go for around $50. Even better, I’ve begun to discover that all the equipment and gear is way better than what we had in the early 90s. Boards are light, symmetrical, and beautifully concave. Pads are lighter but seem better-padded than before. And from reading some reviews it sounds like shoes have come light years.

I’ll probably make several posts on gear in the coming weeks, but I’m going to start by listing what I’ve got right now and what I think of it all:

Board

I had bought a new board about 7 years ago hoping to get into skating then, but didn’t really put much wear on it. So my deck, an Alien Workshop Rob Dyrdeck from 2000, is a bit old, but not in bad condition. Alien Workshop was a great up-and-coming brand when I was getting out of skating, and so I had to try it. I like the pop on this board, and it just feels good under my feet.

The deck’s pretty narrow, but I chose that on purpose because I used to freestyle a lot, and am used to a tiny board.

Trucks are equally old (or older) Grind Kings, which I like, except for the squeak.

Wheels. Does this matter? Correct me if I’m wrong, but so long as you have medium-size, medium-hardness wheels there’s not much to say about wheels. I remember springing for the good Swiss bearings, but I didn’t obsess over hardness and size like I did when I was a kid (soft for street and hard for vert, isn’t it?)

Pads

The only pads I own are a pair of older Pro-Tec wrist guards. I never wore pads except for wrist guards and shin guards on street, and only ever wore knee pads and a helmet on ramps. Right now I’m fine with just the wrist guards, but when I venture back into a skate park I’ll need some new kneepads and a helmet, so I’ll be looking for reviews and recommendations.

Shoes

Man, I’m wearing Chuck Taylor All-Stars, just the classic black high-tops. I’ve owned a pair of Chucks perpetually since Middle School, and I still love ‘em, especially for lounging around. What I’m finding, though, is that they’re no good for street skating. So I think the first thing I go shopping for will be some new shoes.