Skate Reanimate

Last morning in the Bay Area for a while, so I rose early to ride the Pacifica park before leaving for a meeting in San Jose. I hoped that the park might be open early, otherwise I’d be out of luck. At exactly 8:30 am I found the doors open, which made me regret not coming earlier yesterday.

So I rode the shallow park area, working on roll-ins (freaky with these transitions) and speed on corners. I think this morning proved the theory that bowl riding is all about feeling the curves and letting them take you. Not fighting them, not pushing against them, but rolling with them, adapting to them, or, rather, letting the curves change your body. A very zen approach. “Be like water.”

I also rode the shallow bowl, you know, that awesome little bowl with pool coping. I thought I’d record myself trying to early grab the hip, and though I caught some footage it was pretty embarrassing: I grab probably half way up the hip, instead of really launching off of it like I know I can once I get some speed down:

Finally, I watched myself carve grinding the shallow end, and though it doesn’t look bad, I’m not really on top of it. I’d like to work on stalls on the pool coping so I can lock in those grinds however I want them.

To do: early grabs over the hip

My first meeting wasn’t until 10am, and it was a webinar, so I took advantage and skated a quick session at the Pacifica park, just like old times. I worked the whole park as well as I could, finding myself pretty out of practice, and my feet clumsy. I lacked mastery of speed to really take advantage of the park side coping, so I should work on that.

I returned to the park on my lunch break and spent a good hour working the shallow bowl, feeling out some early grabs on (but not over) the hip, grabbing the nose during my kick turns on the deep end in the hopes of making BS airs an inevitability sooner or later. Still pretty freaked out by true 50-50s on the pool coping, though carved 5-0s are feeling pretty decent, if short.

I felt pretty good ollieing on the new board, and managed stepping up the levels on the far west side of the park.
To do: Speed and control

I landed in San Jose for a couple days of business meetings in the Bay Area, but unfortunately I didn’t land early enough to hit Lake Cunningham, so I settled for Roosevelt skatepark, which is a bit closer to the airport.

This park is pretty sick. It was a perfect mini-ramp end of the bowl, and the bowl itself is a perfect mix of vert 8′ and pocketed 6′ walls with a big hump in the middle. I learned a lot watching the locals cruise around, and was able to make a few runs of it myself. I spent most of my time on the mini-ramp end with some of the locals, just working my very small and humble repertoire. Still need to get comfortable with more speed. I did find I can launch out of transitions better just by being a bit more aggressive and even just jumping as if the board were glued.

To do: Pick up speed on grinds, launch out of transitions

I had a chance to hit the Verdugo skate park in Glendale CA today after a full day of demos for work.

The Verdugo park is pretty small, but it’s extremely well designed. There’s a basic street set up that leads into a very interesting snake run. On either side is a bowl–a kidney pool (6′/11′) with vert tile all around and beautiful pool coping, and a clover bowl, probably the same dimensions, with lots of square corners.

I skated most of the carving lines, worked on carving the tile in the shallow of the kidney (and even kissing the lip on the bs), and developing some fast lines on the big clover without losing control.

I met Paul, a 48yo brother in arms, who was basically hitting the same runs as me, though he had far more lines and far more height on any of the walls. Paul said he plans to skate till he’s 65, which is reassuring to me. If I’m skating like Paul for the next 10 years, that’s a very, very good thing.

I drove South to Half Moon Bay and skated the masonite half pipes early this morning. They have nearly perfect transitions, and beefy coping. I’m learning to lean back on my 50-50s in order to maintain speed and control. I just need to manage that front foot better! I also learned that rock to fakies are really just as easy on 6′ as on 4′–its the fear that’s different.

I then hit a little 3′ half pipe that was just sitting in the sand off the beach north of Half Moon Bay on my way up to Pacifica for one more session. I’m learning to control my speed and pump at the optimum moment and position on the walls–it’s feeling good, and I know I’m going faster because I’m grinding that pool coping just a little farther, and can just barely air out on the shallow end.

I got to hang with Yong-Chi for a bit at Pacifica, squeezing as much life out of my old bones as I could, and talking about the good old days. He sent me off with some Solitary Arts stickers–very cool!

Just south of San Francisco is the lovely coastal town of Pacifica, where I’m staying for a few days, sandwiching some free time between the NETnet conference, and Usability Week. Pacifica is home to a great skate park, a nice blend of banks and street ledges, a perfectly transitioned set of round walls, and a long, wide, pipe-like bowl.

I’ve been skating this park in the mornings, for two hour sessions, and have been surprised at how friendly (and gnarly) the locals are. Especially cool has been Yong-Ki, a guy who’s flow and speed in the bowls telepath style from across the park. He rides like spring mountain run off, flowing easily over and around corners and angles.

Yong-Ki, I found out, is one of the guys behind Solitary Arts, a skate/design company that produces some awesome goods. I’m going to have to bite for some of the White Yolks wheels (54mm 100a) that I saw several of the bowl riders, including Yong-Ki, sporting.