skate journal: all day skate marathon campus / red hawk / brian’s ramp (may 26, 2018)
Joe, Chad and I started off heading to campus. We went right to the best spot on campus, this rock to narrow pathway. Well, we had to move it as it has been pushed down the hill for some reason. Ollieing was not happening for me. Chad started with front nose jib to fakie, then 270 out. Joe did front pivot to fakie. I did nose jibs to forward and fakie and a front tail to fakie. Kevin joined and was into our “spot” so we kept skating it. He went for front blunt and got close, but I don’t think actually rode away. I added a bean plant to tail. Other tricks were done, we were having fun.
Then we went to the 4 stair ride off grind which made for more fun too. Me and Joe took awhile to commit, but got our grinds. Kevin made it look easy. Chad played around with the combo.
We were waiting for others to show and we had totally shut down the 4 stair so we skated this ledge to grass. Kevin and I kickflipped while Joe front shoved.
Fuzz, Rob, Neil showed and we moved on to the nearby old manual pad/bank spot. That spot has seen better days. Not an easy warm up for those that showed up either. But we ended up being there awhile and it was pretty fun. I got a no comply bigspin, no comply shove to fakie and a beanplant. Kevin did a kickflip rock transfer, but couldnt’ get the fast feet hard kickflip to fakie. Rob was going for b/s flip for awhile too and couldn’t quite get it. That spot is so hard to do kickflips on. Joe almost got front shove to rock ‘n roll. Rob did bean plant out of it. Neil might have shoved out of it as well as doing the front shove, no comply to tail and a bunch of bailed drop ins. Chad chilled. Fuzz chilled for awhile then got up and threw down the spinner and maybe a Sal flip.
Next we ended up at this tiny ledge which entertained us for quite a while. Basics were done right away and everyone kind of tried something new. For me that would be a nosegrind which seems to always elude me there. I would eventually get one (Kevin said I didn’t bonk, but I think the tail hit) and line it out with a kickflip and a little ollie down the 3 stair. Rob went in on back 50 body varial out. He was charging for awhile and got a sketchy one then a few tries later totally bolts. Fuzz had some creative lines like back 50 transfer up to push off the fence to front tail, back 180 fakie 50s then was trying them with switch front 180 out, but got spooked. Joe did a bunch of Joe tricks including the new one which was nollie front 50 to front board. Neil was struggling after a failed bike rack pole jam. I don’t think it helped that you couldn’t really line out to the ledge without messing with everyone waiting to hit the ledge. I’m not remembering what Chad did. Doh. Kevin was going for the Asta vibe and nearly put down first try switch flip switch front 5-0. So crazy. He never went on to ride away, but he sure got close. After this we went to the stadium bank to fence, but there was a moving truck parked in front of it. Doh.
After food, drinks we ended up at Red Hawk adding Saul and Damon to the mix. At first I sat thinking there is no way my legs would work. Fuzz was chilling too. I went around to the back of the school to look at the tiny little hubbas and there was another skate crew just chilling. It was kind of funny, just being some random dude skating by saying hi. After a nice slam on a stop rock I was back out front and the body started working. Saul was killing the slappys. The ledges were getting skated like crazy. Chad did a line pretty early on with a ledge trick I’m not remembering then ollie on the stage and ollie over the rock. Damon was rolling through his unique tricks. Joe filmed for awhile then working on a line of front 5-0, no comply 180, switch boardslide up to front 50. I had some fun crooks then tried back 180 up, halfcab flip, something on the ledge for a long time, but kept not landing halfcab flips. It was frustrating and started to remind me how I don’t like the 8″ Venture highs. Neil got it going. Shoves up the curb, cabs on flat, manuals on the rock, lipslides, 50s. Rob did like a million no comply shoves up the curb perfectly and lined out with manual on the rock, wallie, crooks, boardslide. Fuzz had some liquid courage going and went in to full destruction mode. He had fakie flips up the curb going super fast, halfcab flips up, his front 180s off the rock were so good, 100mph switch noseslide or boardslides, front tails. It was great seeing it. The session lasted a couple hours. We were all in disbelief we hadn’t gotten the boot yet. Near the end I was trying to lean no comply shove up the curb like Rob and got a couple sloppy ones.
Then we skated Brian’s next. Yes. More skating. Well, not all of us. Saul, me, Chad, Damon, Joe. It was really fun. I haven’t skated a miniramp in so long and I really like that one. I got a lot of the tricks in my bag and it was fun. Saul was the only one to get the parking blocks to grind. Damon has crazy fakie f/s bigspins to pivot and should have died multiple times, but somehow gets out of it. Chad ripped. Joe did the Joe Hamilton. Then Brian joined for one run and a friend of his learned to drop in. It was scary to watch, but he survived and can say he dropped in on a ramp. After this we hung out for quite awhile and it was really fun.
(setup 8.25 null monico deck, venture v-hollow 5.25 high trucks, bones medium bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf v1 wheels, es accel slim shoes all black size 11.5, footprint gamechanger low profile orthotic insoles)