Christian Spanring

Park

Project Nose Stall Revert

There's a new trick on my list: a nose stall revert in transition. First step was to actually get into a nose stall. Dropping back in fakie or switch was a little bit more out of my comfort zone than I thought it would be. It took me

Park

Easy, and oddly satisfying

I kind of want to get another board, for no particular reason, there's plenty of life in my current one. It's just that itch of having a new toy. But my current board's nose is still pretty much pristine, just a few scratches on

Setup

Shoe update

7 months in and the sneakers are done again. The sole has a hole all the way through the insole and I'm ready for a new pair. They held up for about 7 months, with 2 skate sessions per week on average I would say. I'm

Park

Practicing the basics

A quick morning session before heat and humidity roll in and make skating a dire outdoor activity. I decided to hit the mellow bank a few times and practice some basics: Ollie, Nollie, Frontside and Backside 180ies and Pop Shove-Its. Getting all of them consistently, and in an acceptable form,

Surf

A cold 4th

A cold and rainy 4th of July weekend this year has trapped us inside for most of the time. But, on the bright side, the cold weather system also produced some waves along the New England coast this weekend. Just the right size for me, about 1m high, according to

Park

Morning session in Ithaca

Sneaked out this morning to check out the local skatepark and get a quick skate session in while we are on a short New England vacation. The park is a little bit crusty and doesn't really have a lot of flow to it. At least I couldn'

Park

Mellower

This morning I went over to the small park next to the pumptrack. I usually go for the slightly steeper bank and the curvy mellow quarters there. If the cruiser board is around, I certainly do enjoy a few laps in the pumptrack, gotta get that endurance up! The mellower

Bowl

Curvy

That radius is really hard to get right. Before work this morning, and while temperatures are bearable during this heatwave, I tried my luck on improving standup backside 50/50 grinds in the small bowl. While it's easier now to get up to the coping, the next challenge

Surf

Heatwave bumps

We have a couple of days where temperarures are climbing up way past 30C (~90F), water is still freezing though, around 14C. There were only sme small chin-high bumps today, but I took the board out anyways. My intention was to at least paddle around a little bit, build up

Setup

Going soft

A while ago I switched the bushings in my cruiser setup to after market Indy hards (the black ones). The intention was to limit speed wobbles when going faster down some of the hills around our neighborhood. The downside of the harder bushings is obviously that the board doesn'

Bowl

Medium bowl progression #1

Got a little further today in the medium bowl. It’s about 5 to 6 1/2 feet deep, with a slightly different transition and much faster concrete surface than the other bowl I usually go to. It took me a few minutes to adjust and warm up. After half

Bowl

Small bowl progression #2

Nothing big, just feeling a little bit more progress and more continuity in the small bowl. A week ago or so I tried fly-outs for the first time. As long as I get up to the coping with enough speed, they're fine and work pretty consistent. The roll-in

Surf

First dip of the season

I wasn't quite sure about the water temperatures (13-14C), my 3/2mm wetsuit and the fact that I don't wear boots or gloves. There were some managable waves given my skillset, in the smaller than 1m range, and it looked tempting. It was a sunny day

Bowl

Small bowl progression #1

I'm getting more consitent in maintaining my speed in the small bowl, frontside and backside. The backside carve in the shallow section has been a problem, I always lost all my speed there. That problem got solved by using the hip more when coming out of the frontside

Surf

Ready for beach season

Removed the old wax from last season and put on a fresh sticky layer. In a more strategic pattern this time, compared to just randomly smudging it on. There's a lot of surface to cover on that 9'6'' stick. Waxing a surfboard is almost

Park

Pre Vaxx #2 Session

Got my 2nd COVID shot this morning. Before the appointment I ventured out to the skate park I usually don't get to easily for a short session again, like I did the other day [https://ride.christianspanring.com/pre-vaxx-session/]. My intention was to take advantage of the nice

Park

Backside 180 progress

Things are getting better in the backside 180 department. They're not great, but I can feel some progress being made. I was trying different approaches, following different advice I saw. One thing that did absolutely not work for me was the "Ollie and then rotate or pivot&

Park

Back tail progress report

Getting slightly better an tapping the tail on the coping. Still on the tiny quarter, with tiny taps, but excited about every squeek the wheels make. I think I need to turn much quicker. I'm taking my time to rolling up and turning around, which mostly results on

Street

Mayday at the parking lot

Instead of heading to the skate park I decided to ride over to that empty parking lot this morning. It's part of an office building that seems to be completely empty on weekends. It's nice. The parking lot turns into a multi-functional space. Kids learning to

Park

Backside 180, the nemesis

I could never do those when I was younger. Something just doesn't click with me when trying to ollie and turn backside at the same time. Weirdly, that's my favorite thing on a snowboard: going fast and then doing a long, slowly turned backside 180. Maybe

Street

Crusty slappy

Took the girls on a bike ride today, and had my skateboard on my backpack, no hidden agenda there :) There's this loading dock that I discovered a couple months ago. It has this small bank-shaped curb. Back then I thought whenever I figure out slappies, I'm

Park

Pre Vaxx Session

I got my first COVID-19 shot today. Needless to say the proximity to a skatepark played a role in which vaccination station I selected. I found one and managed to get an hour long session in before my appointment. It's a skatepark a usually don't get

Park

All broken in

It took about an hour or so to break the new Ace 55 AF1 trucks in, the bushings to be more specific. The first few turns were super soft and carvy, and after a while the bushings seemed to harden up a little bit more. Now the trucks feel awesome.

Bowl

More tiles

Sunday morning bowl session, getting better and more conistently up to the tiles on the medium or lower ends of the bowls. The deep end of the big bowl still seems so far away though. Worst is, that I loose speed after the first round in the big bowl. So,

Setup

Ace AF1 hype

Yes, I got sucked into the Hype about the release of the new Ace AF1 trucks. The moment they became available I grabbed a pair from Orchard, our local shop around here. The golden ones obviously. If they make golden trucks, then you just have to get the golden trucks.