Skate Reanimate

This trailer for the upcoming movie Machotaildrop gave me chills (think Brazil + Willy Wonka + Animal Chin):

A number of skaters have been talking about the passion and skills demonstrated by the Uganda Skateboard Union, but you have to see it to believe it:

USU Pt 1

USU Pt 2

These guys push equipment and terrain to the limits! You can donate to the Uganda Skateboard Union and help keep that fire alive.

There’s still too much snow on the ground to get outside and skate, but after some desperate searching I heard about the Crossroads Skate Park in Ogden, Utah from a guy at Milo Sport in Orem. Crossroads may be Utah’s last indoor public skate park (if I’m wrong, let me know). Entry is 5 bucks for 2 hours.

Crossroads is a small park, but has packed in the fun with a mini (micro?) spine half-pipe, a 5′ half pipe, and a number of quarter pipes leading to streetstyle obstacles. The ramps are made of masonite, the surface of which is coated with the carbon/bearing grime of a thousand skateboards. And I thought concrete parks were slick!

With all that slickness the street style obstacles were a little too much for me (or maybe it was the more able skaters zooming constantly from one to another), but the half-pipes were a lot of fun. We were there midday on a Saturday, and the park was pretty crowded–mostly little rippers under the age of 14, I’d guess. There were enough little kids skating the 5′ pipe that I had to wait for 2 or 3 runs in between my own. And when you suck at half pipes as much as I do, that turns out to being a little too often to learn anything new!

I had heard that you can dye skateboard wheels using a packet of Rit, so I gave it a shot on an old set of white wheels–yellowed with age:

1. Prep the wheels

   

   I sanded the remaining silkscreen off of the outer rim, washed the wheels, then gently sanded some of the darkened surface of the wheel. (I later determined this surface sanding is probably unnecessary)

2. Prep the dye bath

   I filled a medium sauce pan with water–just enough to cover the wheels–and set it simmering on the stove. I then emptied a full pack of Rit dye (I chose Royal Blue) and a quarter cup of salt into the pan. (I now wonder if less dye would result in a brighter or lighter color.)

3. Dunk the wheels

   

   I set the wheels in the simmering brew, and stirred them for about 20 minutes. (Again, I wonder if for a brighter or lighter color 5-10 minutes might work.)

4. Remove, Rinse, Dry

   

   Ta-da! (These are actually much darker in real life than they appear here, thanks to the camera flash.)

Those of you who know me personally probably know I’m into education and instructional technology. The following 4 minute video highlights some efforts to bring skateboarding into K-12 physical education, and even using skating as a gateway to learning about physics and construction. Au-then-tic!

• Watch Video: Skateboarding in Education

My brother sent me this vid on how to kickflip, since he knows I still can’t land one moving, and only randomly land them stationary:

How to Kickflip

Ugly guitar riffs aside, this was probably the best how-to-kickflip video I’ve seen, since it covers positioning of both feet, and mentions that you shouldn’t flick until after you’re well into the ollie (I do that sometimes).

Call it a novelty, a gimmick, but I’ve always been fascinated by the old school freestylers who had mastered the 360 spin. Russ Howell currently holds the world record at 163 360s.

In that context it seems almost asinine that I found it remarkable to pull off 3 spins last night, breaking my previous record of 2. I found that I had to counterintuitively think about moving my upper body before my lower body, otherwise keeping my back aligned and untwisted. The untwisted part seems important to maintain momentum without losing the center.

Motivated by that little step forward, I decided to search online for more tips. I discovered that the champ himself has written extensive instructions on spinning 360s. Here are a few of his many insights:

• feet should be wide apart for balance and power
• don’t bend or twist at the waist
• outstretch your arms, then bring them in
• your arms control your body lean

If the rain lets up today I’ll go out and try again. In the meantime, here’s some video of Russ, in 60s, skating:

Product: Dr Scholl’s Massaging Gel Sports inserts

Results: Reinforce arches–but not too high. Cushioned heels. Predictably smooth Dr Sch feel throughout.

Conclusion: Tear out your insoles and pack these instead. For around 12 bucks, I can’t recommend them more!

I watched “Almost Round Three” tonight courtesy of Netflix. Rather, I gaped, with my mouth hanging open, eyes bulging occasionally, small grunts and whoops emitting from my throat. Aside from a few short clips on YouTube, Round Three was the first skate video I’ve seen since, oh, probably 1993. Things have changed quite a bit.

As with the Jason Adams video I linked to earlier, the Almost team impressed me most by skating anything, anywhere, and constructed crazy stunts around found objects.

My 7 year old son, who hasn’t been interested in skateboarding yet, is suddenly amazed.

I failed to find myself a classic “HAVE YOU SEEN HIM” t-shirt online, so I thought about making my own. Now I could have just taken the Animal Chin newsprint-like photo and ran it through a half-tone filter on Photoshop, but I thought I would try to make a vector version with 1 and 3 colors that would be easy to silk screen. Here’s what I came out with:

animalchin2.ai

animalchin1.ai

They feel a bit “sharp”, and still have some noise that I could work out, but it’s not bad for half an hour in Illustrator.