Skate Reanimate

I spent about 40 minutes at the Springville park for the first time in weeks. It was fairly abandoned, and I was able to work on the mini ramp and the whole park run. Nothing new, but I did feel much better about rocks after some failings yesterday.

Friday’s apparently adult night at the Springville skatepark–there were lots of 25+ skaters on the mini ramp, which meant good times and a laid back vibe. With the encouragement of some of my peers I worked on fs disasters, bs disasters, fs 50-50s. Limited success, but fun stuff nonetheless. Those bs disasters will take some serious work to get solid on the landings and pop the board anywhere off the coping.

Spent an hour relieving stress and skating the Springville park after work. Lots of little kids today who didn’t know how to take turns or look first. A couple of close calls…

Worked on tail slides and fs 5-0s on the mini ramp with mixed results.

First skate session back in the States was at Springville, where I felt great riding on all the terrain.

Skated local Springville park for about an hour, working on steadying out my crouch on 50-50s on the mini ramp, and trying to learn the Old Man Army S-K-A-T-E transition trick, which is some kind of 360 slide. I should have watched the other guys’ videos before going out on my own, because mine came after about a dozen tries, and still looked pretty lame:

From the other guys’ vids it’s clear that I need to do this like a nose 360 in one clean turn. Think freestyle.

I had planned on nursing my ankle all week, in case I got a chance to skate the great bowl at Heber, but I couldn’t resist the cool evening air, and so I rode the hell out of our local prefab skate park. Or at least as much hell as I could scare out with my big wheels.

No injuries and some half-decent fakie disasters on the mini ramp if I do say so myself. That’s a trick I can only do when I have some serious energy.

Oh, and here’s the lousy vid my cell phone shot to fulfill the fs grind for OMA’s Transition S-K-A-T-E. Not fancy, but it should be enough to stay in the game.

Spent another short session at the school parking lot, easing my way back toward kickflips. I’ve been riding parks almost all summer, and have forgotten how great it feels to just cruise around, ollieing up and down curbs and things.

Spent just 20 minutes in a local school parking lot, getting back to a little street, and working the lungs.

Skated our local prefab park last night for about 30 minutes, alternating sessions on the mini ramp with Johnny Depp’s doppleganger, a guy probably half my age who was landing 360 flip disasters over and over and, what the hell! over again. Made my newly minted smith grinds seem pretty weak in comparison, but I kept it up, despite feeling exhausted from work.

I wholeheartedly believe that the primary factor that separates a good session from a poor one is energy.

I spent a good hour at Springville tonight, again risking the ankle. But it was a great session–well worth the risk. I felt strong, smooth, and confident. I actually felt strong on fs 50-50s, and wanted more and more speed for my roll-ins. Also worked on rock-n-rolls, 180 disasters, and 50-50 spine transfers.