Shredding’s been sparse but amazing

So life has been a bit busy lately.  Between work, visiting friends, being a good husband and re-installing my carburetors I haven’t been able to find much time to skate.  It’s been killing me.  It’s one of those times where all I want to do is hop on my board and roll around.  Kick a few pop shov-its, maybe bomb some stairs, but the time she ain’t there.  So I find myself squeezing in some gym time to make up for it, but obviously that’s just not as much fun.  So tonight I’ve decided no matter how tired I am, I’m throwing my board down and popping a few ollies… whether I’m awake or not.

Been a while…

I know, I know, it’s been a while.  Not a whole lot to report.  Been rolling infrequently as I’ve been ill, travelling and amongst the rained on.  But this week, my wheels will hit concrete.  So should yours.

In other news, had drinks with three oldschool DSP members while visiting Fall River.  Ian Ross, Tim Gastall and Kevin Grant brought it to the Battleship Brewhouse.  Miss those guys.  It was a good trip.  Even had a nice treat running into Paul Albergeria at the Highland Spa.  Thanks for lunch!

Crampin’ it up oldschool

Been a while since I’ve written.  Had a lot of writing to do and not a lot of time for skating.  I went out to Burbank yesterday to roll around and boy have my legs gone south.  I don’t know if it was dehydration or fatigue, but man, I was cramin’ up something fierce.  Only rolled for like an hour and a half, then had to take off before I couldn’t walk.  Gonna drink a hella lot more today.  Saw lil’ Daniel at the park yesterday.  This kid’s 12 and rips better than most twenty-somethings.  He was throwin’ down 360s in the bowl and just flying over everything.  Hilariously, he had a fake tattoo on his back, lookin’ all tough.  Nice enough kid, though.  Maybe he’ll be the first to be sponsored by DSP.

Burbank post sniffles

Had one heck of a virus the last week or so.  Thought I shook it last Sunday by sweating it out at the park, but it robbed me of energy all week and finally felt up to par today so went out for a morning session at good ole Valley Park.  At first it was just me and another dude, but before I even got my pads on six rats came in and started training all over the place.  Nothing worse than trying to find a line through a park that has unpredictable chillins flying left and right.  Thankfully there’s always the ice cream man to save the day.  So some good skating was had, got a good sweat on and hopefully got rid of what was left of the sniffles.

Zeke and Luther

If you’re a shredder and don’t normally tune in to Disney XD (Disney’s “boy-centric” channel) you should.   Why?  No not for the countless re-runs of robot warriors or Japanime, but for their new show for Disney XD called “Zeke & Luther.”  It’s about two kids who dream of becoming professional skateboarders.

Now, I know what you’re thinking and at first I was a bit worried worried as well.  We all know every time people try and do a skateboarding anything for the mainstream, it sucks.  For example, “Gleaming The Cube”, “Skate”, and who could forget the summertime skate-abortion titled “Grind.”  But the show’s creators were smart and they created a show that’d work with or without skateboarding thus making the skateboarding just an added bonus.  Zeke and Luther are both hella funny characters and their world employs even wackier oddballs who provide constant hilarity and lots of conflict for the boys.  All good things you want in a show, right?

Now that isn’t to say it doesn’t have its moments that make you go “uh-oh.”  Like they call a fakey ollie a “reverse ollie.”  But we’ll write that up to them trying to help the non-skate audience to understand.  On the positive side they also play with skate lingo in fun ways by first using the proper lingo like “krooked grind” and then calling it a “Krook Monster.”  Kinda like how some people call it a “boneless,” others a “boneless one.”  Or “360 flip” to some, to others “tre-flip” or “three flip.  So points there for creativity.  Last week they had me rolling with “nollie corn grab” which of course is when you nollie and mid-flight steal someone’s corn on the cob.  Hilarious.

And points on the guest cast.  They really have some good ones.  Like the rollerblader who wears midriff showing muscle shirts and short shorts.  Or the ever angry ex-astronaut across the street who hates them kids!  We all had one of them in our neighborhood growing up.  Heck, I remember a guy who’d call the cops on us any time we skated on his street.  Apparently the sounds of ollie’s being popped and rails being slid were too much for him, but he had no problem with the basketball bouncing his own kids were doing in their driveway. I’ll get back at you one of these days Mr. Pimental!

Back to the show.  Check it out fools!  Watch it with your kids, watch it by yourself, watch it while putting together a new board and scratching your dog’s tummy.  Cuz for once there’s a decent scripted show on TV with skateboarding in it and by the way it’s going, it’ll be back for season two.  No sense falling behind.

Skate or die!

Last Minute DSP session in Burbank

Well, the SoCal heat brought out a meeting of the old crew.  Ben and Rob called me randomly with news of a new mini-ramp find.  After a short trip cross town, along with a brief stop to pick up Ben’s dry cleaning, we ended up at Fountain by Gower.  Turns out a school there has a lil’ four footer built out back for some reason.  Unfortunatly we didn’t get to skate it since it was locked down tight with chains.  And not just any chains, but straight up heavy guage, hold down a battleship anchor chain.  So, we decided to cut our losses and head over to Burbank for a Friday night session and wouldn’t you know it, ole Mikey was already there strappin’ on his pads.  So the old man crew rolled in to scared looks from a dozen youngins.  It was a good session with Mike throwin’ down his signature airs, buttery lip tricks and foot plants, I threw down some hard frontside 5-0s to tail, laybacks every which way but loose, disasters, back boards and what have you, and Ben and Rob took to carvin’ and rockin’ the shit outta every inch of tranny.  Good times with a hell of a lot of sweat.  Session finished with an old man vs. youngin Bert slide-off.  I knocked out the 540 and frontside, Mike went hands free across the bank and Ben barked it up 180, 360 and back again like the tick tock clock of skate maneuvering he is.  Good session, good times, mad respect from the chillins.  Hopefully the old crew will meet up again soon.  I skipped today since it hit 108 in Burbank.  Ugh.  Winter anyone?

Rage and create

Ah, yes, it is true.  DSP is now blogging.  Today’s topic, using skateboarding to deal with rage issues.  I suppose that’s why many of us skate whether we realize it or not.  Maybe it’s just in skaters post puberty, I’m not sure.  I can’t see some eight year old throwing down smith grinds instead of beating up his little sister.  But for me, I skate best when I’m pissed.  Since losing my job last August I’ve been on an unemployment bender of hard slashing, shin bashing, little kid leg breaking, rage fest of skating.  I’ve learned more in the last eleven months in skating than I ever did as a teen.  Maybe I needed to put down the grass and the vagina and skate more back then.  Either way, the rage is the worst thing in the world for friendships, marriage, writing… hell even trying to sit through a god damn movie, but for skating, it’s the shit!  So if you’re pissed, go get your ya-yas out as Mr. Finn would say.  Skate or die! (or smack a fool)