Surf Labor day at the beach Not quite as as successful as Friday, I think my expectations were too high. The waves were a little bit choppier again, and it was overall harder to catch one and stand up. But I think I'm getting the hang of it, slow and steady...
Setup New wood I love the shape of my Andy Anderson deck. But one thing that bothers me is the rattling of the flight deck. It's harder and stiffer than regular 7-plys, holds longer, etc. but the rattling is something I have a hard time getting used to. I'm
Surf Pre labor day session More success this time: the waves were still small and managable for my skills, and most importantly, they came in more predictable than the first time I went out. It was a good session and I think I caught a few really nice runs!
Street Campground cruisin’ You can't really travel this year, but we had to do something over the summer - get out of the house, the yard, the city. But you can't, or shouldn't, be around and close to other people. That's a problem. So we
Surf A choppy first I couldn't wait to get out. Weather wasn't perfect this weekend, but there were a few >1m waves on the forecast. It was windy, and the first beach I tried closed down because there appearantly was an incident were a surfer or paddle boarder hit
Setup Black Lives Matter Snatched a special edition Toy Machine deck. Artwork by the talented Mr Ed Templeton.
Surf Bucket list This is the year! I finally managed to start surfing, completing the Holy Trinity of board sports, which is a long bucket list item of mine. East coast is mostly flat during summer, like a big lake, and in the past years timing to take some basic lessons has never
Setup Cleaning bearings I've been getting a little bit obsessed with cleaning out all the old bearings I have in old wheels. Taking bearings apart, cleaning and back together again has even some medidative aspect: it's repetitive but not boring; you have to focus but your mind can wander.
Setup Craft projects Pro-tip: grip tape art lends itself to being a great craft project with kids. Making the setup of a small 7.5 Nora Vasconcellos deck a fun afternoon activity. Everybody wins!
Setup Grip tape art I've never been super happy with the grip tape job the shop did on my Eerie cruiser setup. The grip tape wasn't wide enough and there was this small ungripped sliver on the left side of the deck. It does sound OCD when I says this
Park Game of skate: round 10 No comply over the parking block. One of the first ones I actually manage to somewhat land. Sure, timing is all off and you should catch the board in the air for a decent no comply, but again, I take it. Timing and speed is somthing practice is for. No
Park The red curb Red curbs are not necessarily native to Massachussetts, but they are too much fun to pass on, so they added them to some skate parks around here. Landing a slappy is so high on my list. It's such a fun and extendable trick. Good for old skaters too,
Setup Wheels upgrade I've gotten a little bit old of the wheels that I have. It's mostly the duromenter: 104A doesn't lend itself to go on other surfaces than smooth concrete park. And in combination with a super stiff flight deck I find it rattles a lot
Park Game of skate: round 9 Slappy grind, pretty sloppy, but I take it. I guess lifting up the nose all the way is not how this is supposed to work, but at least I got onto the parking block. Will work on riding up on it, but the thing is also pretty short and requires
Setup The shoe is through The end of one of my favorite sneakers ever has come, the sole is through. The New Balance Numeric 346 is a minimalistic mid skate shoe. I had it for a little less than 2 years, with more time on the board the last 3 months. Maybe all that no-comply
Park Game of skate: round 7 A very sad backside 180. The first time in my life that I've landed those. When I was younger, this was my achilles heel, I could not do them. There something on this trick that just doesn't click with. It's terrible, because it'
Park Game of skate: round 6 Backside axle stall on a small wavy noping quarter. I have those down meanwhile. Backside axle stall
Park Game of skate: round 5 Backside pop shove-it, that was hard and I totally struggled getting one on video. My main problem with pop shove-its is that I start rotating my shoulder out, don't pop hard enough and often land sideways, the board rotation stopped at an 90 degree angle instead of 180.
Park Game of skate: round 4 Frontside 180, a go-to trick on and off everything when I was young, and now I had to re-learn and practice before I even got one on video. Fronstside 180
Park Game of skate: round 3 Spicying things up with an ollie over a tipped over traffic cone. Gnarly! Ollie over traffic cone
Park Game of skate: round 1 With an old friend I started a little remote game of skate: calling a trick, recording it and sending it back and forth. I started simple: backside 180 power slide. A sad backside 180 powerslide
Park Pumptrack cruisin‘ Talking to another older skater at the big bowl the other day, workout options came up. In particular, workouts that improve you stamina and strength for carving bowls. He mentioned the newish pumptrack in Allston, along the lines of > „Your core will explode, with Testosteron levels through the roof“
Snow Steep and icy Back at the Mount Washington Backcountry Ski festival. After last year's beginner clinic, I tried an advanced Splitboarding clinic this year. The problem for the festival was that there wasn't too much snow to begin with, and then, the Friday before everything started, it rained pretty
