skate journal: research center with Ollie for awhile then solo flatground/ledge valmont action (Aug 22, 2013)
After another afternoon rain storm Ollie and I set out to skate after his first day of school. It looked like it would rain any second so we stayed close. I somewhat randomly chose the newish research center as it has quite a variety. We messed around nearby on a curb for awhile and did some 180’s off it and stuff. Then we went up to the area above. It’s not as good as it looks, although we really should wax those stairs up, they would grind really good. I ollied the four stair a few times. Then had a where I started on the 3rd stair by the handrail where Ollie was coming from in the photo and ollied up one stair, then went around the corner and front shoved the 2 stair, then manualled the little section of ledge on the front left of the photo. Pretty fun run actually. Took longer then it should because I’m not used to the thickness of my new DCs. Ollie had fun. He ollied twos and three and pushed mongo going along stairs. That kid is close to kickflips! And fakie bigspins. Can’t wait to see him land a kickflip. Then we went to the front and rolled down the long two stairs next to Max’s gnar. But someone was studying up there so we moved on. I took a few tries and crooked the ledge and then many more tries to manual the long manual pad. If I didn’t do the manual I would do the little quick gap. Ollie slammed a couple times trying to ollie up that curb with speed. Poor kid. He’s finally coming around on them ollies though. It’s rad. The Thursday Night Bikeride came by and Ollie hid behind some pushes and yelled at them. That was pretty funny. Then we headed home because Ollie wanted to be rested for day 2 of school. What a good kid. Then he told me I should go skate some more. Great kid!
Then I went to the old trusty spot. I mostly just wanted to skate flatground because I knew it would help me get used to these new thick shoes the best. I did wax the ledge though so when I did skate it it grinded better. I only did a few basics on it. Some faster then normal front 50s though. Flatground didn’t go so good. I wanted to get at least one rare trick, but between varial heel, front heel (never done it), fakie hardflip, nollie tre (probably shouldn’t count it as rare) and fakie f/s heel I had nothing. Doh. I did have quite a few treflips though. I put a box after the little kicker (by the grate) and tried a run of manual next to the wall, treflip on flat then come around and ollie the box. Never did them all together, but I did ollie the box on it’s own which was high for me. Then I got tired and went home.