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
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
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
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.
Park Slappy Morning I‘m going to go out on a limb and say that the frontside carve grind that I‘m more confident with now also helped unlocking frontside slappies. A few other things I‘ve paid attention to today, that helped me to finally land a slappy grind: * Shoulder position and
Park Back tail scratch 40 min session this morning, and I'm not sure how many backside pivots I've done, but the most important thing is that towards the end, the tail was scratching a few times on the coping. Not pretty, but I'll take it. Pivot, pivot, pivot.
Park Backside pivot To be honest, I was going for a backside tail stall, but all I could muster today were some sloppy backside pivots. Sloppy backside pivot (plus a lousy tail stall attempt)I guess what I'm seeing is that I need to turn earlier and faster, with more commitment
Park Frontside tail stall Went out to the pumptrack for a little bit this afternoon and tried a few tiny frontside tail stalls on a smallish noping quarter/wave type-of-thing. Trying to get timing and balance right. Not sure if the truck or wheel should go over the coping/edge or not. Frontside tail
Park Lunch break no comply A nice spring day and a little time to venture out over lunch to the small local park. Practicing no complies in the bank, and also some slappies on a slippery steel-edged taco shell. Need to work on getting no complies quicker, so that I actually catch the board before
Park Frontside standup grind Finally, after more practicing, I've got the frontside standup grind motion down on the small 2ft practicing quarter. I managed to get onto the coping, grinding a little bit, and dropping back in. It's not fast or long, but that's the best I can
Park Game of skate: round 11 The frontside axle stall: I manage to stand up on the coping, but then loose the momentum to get back in. Just leaning and turning back into the transition feels too sketchy. Scooching over into a tail stall, and then dropping in is the way to go for now. I
Park 2 steps Ventured out to a playground nearby with some skate features. It only has 2 ledges, a small round rail and a small table down this little set of 2 steps. First time I've ollied down stairs again since over 25 years I guess. Not my favorite thing, I
Park Ride-on grind A classic old-skater trick, on my favorite obstacle in that small neighborhood park: ride-on grind along the taco shell. So easy on the joints, but so satisfying to grind all over that little thing! Wake up grind
Park No comply 180 Short evening session on the blacktop of our neighborhood school. I'm trying to get no comply 180 more consistently and above all faster, so that I catch the board in the air. Slow and steady we're getting there, but it looks like it's still
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,
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
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
