skate journal: Solo QUIK inspired campus awesomeness (June 25, 2012)
Had the early shift at work and it was 100 when I got out. So I went to sleep for awhile, woke up, got some null/four stuff done, ate dinner then watched Austyn Gillette slay the streets of LA yet again. I’ve probably watched that part 20 times now. I wanted to skate to campus, but a couple things held me back. First, I had to bring a board box to FedEx. Second, it was still 93 so I wanted to have water nearby. It didn’t matter though, I got to campus and started pushing. I had put my headphones on and went straight to gold, You’re Living All Over Me. I ended up at the Library and did a fun little line of ollie a sketchy 3 stair, push down the hill, ollie a metal grate going fast (okay I was going fast enough that it was terrifying for me so I barely tapped the tail but since I was actually moving kinda fast I would clear it) then keep going and ollie into another little hill and push down it. Got to the end of the hill that normally has a sidewalk, but due to construction I ended up almost dieing as the sidewalk turned to gravel. Ended up by the rec center and got a fun line of f/s shove out of the kicker, ollie a median, manual the median then bail a nose manual. The f/s shove took a bit, but was fun. Next up I saw some new jersey barriers near a long manny pad. I started out doing a little slash on this curb thing, try for manual then a wallride on a barrier. Never put all 3 together, but got the wallride everytime. So that would mean I couldn’t get it when I started trying a harder line; Fast ollie up a sidewalk, f/s 180 off (which was scary the first few times), halfcab flip on flat, manual, wallride. Never got the wallride. It bummed me out a bit, but I liked the line anyway. It seemed like everytime I actually landed the manual I had to weave through cars or bikers. On the way back I had fun trying nollie tres and was getting super close. Also tried kickflip up the curb, kickflip off, kickflip a manhole but ate shit when I got to the manhole. It was one of those “wow I’m skating really hard and slamming feels good” slams. I went and got some water, lurked at the new area for a bit, cracked my board on a boardslide on a bench (not bad enough to stop skating) then went and skated flatground at the art building. It started off horrible, but I got one of the best flatground lines I’ve ever done. Heelflip, treflip, b/s flip, fakie flip, f/s halfcab flip and almost a nollie tre. I guess that would be the PJ inspired part of the session. I tried a bunch of nollie tres, but never got one. Half the time I wouldn’t even snap the nose. I did get quite a few treflips though. I felt like trying some more stuff, but after kind of just looking around I headed home stoked that my body/mind felt great and I skated as hard/good as I did. Skateboarding rules. So does Dinosaur Jr, I think they get partial credit for the evening being so amazing as I went through YLAOM, Bug and Where You Been. 3 of the finest albums ever made.