Skate Reanimate

As I start to skate more ramps and bowls I’ve realized the need for good knee pads, and heard that 187 Pro knee pads are about the best. My brother has sworn by Boneless knee pads for almost 2 decades, but they are near impossible to get a hold of (he’s wearing the more expensive Paincheaters knee pads now).

Having read in a number of reviews that the 187s run large I bought a size small, and they fit nice and snug on my skinny legs (I’m 5′10” & 140lbs). The 187s have surprisingly less strappage than the Pro-Tecs that these replace, but that doesn’t mean they lack in security; in fact, they feel more secure, and seem to offer a good range of motion.

As for the cushioning, well I haven’t ridden them in a bowl yet but just walking around the house and randomly dropping to my knees is a surprising comfortable experience. The most I feel is a little left-right motion on my caps, which I expect will diminish as they mold to my shape. And what is that on the inside? Cushy fleece? Nice!

I picked these up at Social Skateboarding.com, a site I haven’t used before but seems to have a lot of killer deals–these were about $16 less than any online competitor.

I’ll report more on how these work out once I’ve recovered a little from last night’s skating.

Skated at the Heber skatepark tonight with David and his friends Dylan and Logan. I worked on:

fs 180s over the hip
5-0s on the little vert wall
carving the little pool wall
ollies down transitions
fs 180 disasters on the bank
50-50s on the bowl
boneless ones
helipops

During the session I took many spills–more spills in one night, in fact, than I think I’ve taken all year, including one pretty painful one as I tried to ollie down some steps onto a bank. I hit hard enough to see stars even with my helmet, but besides some neck pain my head was fine (though I had some annoying shakiness and nauseousnes for the rest of the night).

So the moral is, of course, Kids, wear a helmet. Just wear the damn thing.

I gotta log that the pain didn’t stop there: I also torqued a couple fingers, jammed my weak ankle, cranked my bad shoulder, slammed my one unpadded elbow, and smacked my lower back. For the first time in a long time the repetitive pain depleted most of the fun from tonight’s session. Even more demoralizing was that I pushed myself to a point at which I couldn’t seem to get into any utterly basic trick at all. I knew then that I had had too much for the night.

And yet now, with some ibuprofen and naproxen in me, I’m starting to feel alright again, and smiling at least at the fact that I can still walk into the kitchen for hot cup of tea. Well, it's going to be a long Memorial day weekend, and I'm going to have to fight the urge to go out in favor of just resting up…

I’m really digging Zander Ritchie’s “Scottish 5 Tricks” video series that he’s pumping out over on mpora.com–and not just because I’m 1/4 Scot! As the title suggests, this series spotlights Scottish locals showing off 5 tricks.

So far:
Scottish 5 Tricks with Stu Graham at Edinburgh skatepark
Keith Allan & Dave Lane do back to back 5 tricks each.
Scottish 5 tricks with Daniel Nicholas

Skated for about an hour in a local elementary school parking lot. Worked on:

• fs 180s
• bs 180s
• kickflips
• half cabs
• boneless 180s

I set a goal of landing 20 kickflips, even if they were stationary. I managed this, though sketchy, out of about 60 attempts. I have a hard time getting my big front foot out of the way, but found that setting my front foot further back helped a lot. The ollies aren’t as high, but I get a faster flip, which is really what I need at this stage.

I did, however, strain my weaker back ankle doing this, and probably will have to sit it out a few days.

Dodged rain clouds to run the Orem skatepark for half an hour where these old bones worked on

• fs 180 disasters
• boneless ones and boneless 180s
• half cabs

Took half an hour at lunch to skate the Orem skatepark. I began this session all beat up from a week of over-doing it, and so I had neither the energy nor the patience to work on much more than:

• fs 180 disasters
• ollies off the box

David and I skated for about an hour at the Springville skatepark just before dark. The park was empty, and we kept to the half-pipe, working on:

• fs 180 disasters
• fakie disasters
• 50-50s
• slow pivots and 5-0s

I crashed and burned too many times, and left swearing off skating at least through the weekend.

David called me up just after 8pm to set up a trip over the mountains to Heber, and the fabled Heber skatepark with it’s steep transitions, huge bowls, and crazy obstacles. Worked on:

• ollies out of the bowl
• 50-50s
• frontside ollie 180s on the hip
• kickturns and pivots on the vert pool bit

I jammed my thumb hard on the coping while working on 50-50s, but that didn’t stop me from eventually pushing down some grinds above the twin bowl’s transition:

Skated for about 30 minutes on my lunch break at the Orem skatepark. The park was loaded with bikers looping from obstacle to obstacle, and so I was a bit on-edge and wary as I attempted:

• 50-50s on the mini ramp
• frontside 180 disasters on the mini ramp (weak!)
• ollie to manual on the box

David and I hit the Springville metal prefab village on Sunday after a big meal with almost the whole of my fam. We spent over an hour on the mini half-pipe. I worked on:

• 50-50s
• pivots
• fakie disasters
• frontside ollie 180s on the transition

I gotta be braver on those fakie disasters, and pop & hop it further onto the deck.