skate journal: LES Skatepark for hours! (july 27, 2015 day 202)
Woke up early, went to Manhattan to finally skate LES. I arrived to an almost empty park with two people skating. Both left shortly after I arrived (not because of me ha), but others showed. For about 3 hours the park was just 2 or 3 people. The last hour there was maybe 10 people there, but for that park 10 people isn’t much at all. I skated for four hours non-stop and was a sweaty mess. There is a drinking fountain at the park thankfully. I started on the transition stuff, it was funner then I thought it would be, maybe because it’s all small. I had actually taken a day off skating so my legs felt good. You have to push a lot at that park, things are spaced out, it’s kind of awesome. I got front 5-0 and front 50 shove on one of the ledges. Very low wallride on the bank to fence. Took awhile to crooks the ledge. I thought east coast ledges were supposed to be slicker? I also did a few back lips (kind of) on the little manny pad. Got manual, nose manual and a first try kickflip manual. This was when I began realizing that I was skating exceptional for me. I was doing a lot of tricks first try and cruising the park surprising myself. It ruled. I did spend some time trying to get a b/s flip over the hip. It took a bit, but when I landed it it felt incredible. This would mark the first time I’ve ever done the same trick on the same spot as PJ. Yes, I am a nerd, but man I was hyped. I went on to do halfcab flip and fakie bigflip over the hip pretty quick. Tried varial heels coming the other way, but couldn’t get the flip. I tried a front tail on the bank to curb above one of the ledges for awhile. It was really hard, but the approach was so fun. Roll in, go over the pump bump and a big push. I would eventually land one. Tried to do nosestall or boardslide on the bank to ledge for awhile, but couldn’t get that. Did some more cruising around. Ollies over the hip, kickflips over the b/s hip, front smiths on the qp. Had a fun line where I rode up the bank of a tall ledge, dropped onto another, then down again, then cali grind off the kicker, front tail the bank, kickflip the hip. Manualled the long manny pad. Tried to kickflip pivot the bank to pool coping, but never got close. I was getting pretty tired and wanted to cross f/s halfcab flip off my list too. But rather then just do it I kept lining out further and further. But oh was it worth it when I finally got my line. Front smith on the quarterpipe, front 50 the metal ledge, slash to fakie the qp (or whatever you want to call the weak thing I do), then f/s halfcab flip over the hip (it wasn’t popped, but I was so beat). One of the funnest times I’ve had at a skatepark.
(setup 8.1 null venture lights thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# stratford 533 pj cream)