The Weather

Have you been wondering like I have if I am ever going to skate again or write about skating?? Well I have and I feel awful about it. Not really awful just kind of helpless because the weather is not agreeing with what I would consider near perfect. It has been raining a lot for one, for another the temperatures have  dropped down below what I would consider comfortable outside. The problem with the rain is the tarp. Yes, I have to keep this giant tarp covering the ramp to keep her dry. See, I covered the surface of the ramp with Masonite, not a particularly weather resistant surface. I do have weather proofing agents  covering the actual surface, but even then the Masonite could absorb moisture which would cause the surface to buckle or distort. Why I covered it is Masonite in beginning is starting to make me wonder why. I should have used some nice plywood. It would cost about the same but I  would not have the overly difficult process of keeping it tarped. The tarp is such a pain in the arse that I dont even want to untarp is and then have to turn around and retarp it. Then there are the leaves that have fallen, they are to many. Glady, they are just about to stop falling since there are no more on the tree next door.

So I will keep you posted, when I untarp it I will skate it.

It is built!! So What, Skate it??

Ok, I approached skating this ramp very much the same way I did the first time I ever skated a ramp period; with high hopes and dreams but with a  harsh reality of inability and fear. That is right, nothing comes easy. Yep, this has all gone down just like it did on the big Pink Ramp in Levy, AR where I learned to skate Vert. It was eighth grade and my friend Scott Watson had been telling us about going to this ramp in Levy. It was 10ft tall, 24 ft wide, 1 ft of vert,  a roll-in channel on one side and surfaced in pink fiber glass - it was sick. It had just appeared on the cover of Transword Skateboarding Magazine and been the site of a pro/am competition. Apparently Christian Hosoi came to town for the competiton and has an illegitimate child still running around Little Rock. This place was legendary for Little Rock.

That first day I thought I might drop in and do some grinds, maybe hit up the roll in channel and attempt an air or two, I thought maybe I would get lucky and pull off a Rock-n-Roll.  I thought I could pull off tricks I could do on my finger board riding my text book, like I did back in  history class every day. Hilarious!!! Right!!! Nope!!!

I remember having all these aspirations though when I got on that ramp, I could barely stand up as the board hit the earliest part of the transitions. I learned how to pump the very bottom portion of the ramp, that was about it my first day. I may have pulled off some back side kick turns along with pumping back and forth. So do some grinds, yeah right, not my first day. I remember being sort of crushed like a girl friend not kissing you good night. I did not give up, I went back to that ramp as often as I could and eventually started hitting some coping and doing some grinds after a dozen visits or so. Eventually after skating it a year Indy Airs above coping, stand up grinds, nose pickers and fakie ollies were my thing. Awe yes, a bag of tricks and many new ones to learn, it became the life but only after a rough start that was filled with discouragement and fear. Kind of like I feel now.

The ramp is finished for the most part, this was done over the past weekend where I finished screwing down the surface, painted the outer wood (not the surface) and caulked all the seams. Tonight I will finish rigging my tarp system. I could build some rails on the decks but I am not in a hurry for that. Other than that, it is open for a session. we'll see, maybe this weekend.

So what is my problem? O yeah, the skating part. Well, I pump back and forth on the ramp, do front side and back side kick turns. I attempted grinding and fakie rocks but have not pulled anything off yet. I have stood at the top of the ramp thinking of dropping in but have not. Pathetic I know but eventually I will drop in when I am ready. Dropping in is the key to a whole other bag of tricks, then grinds, 50/50's and rock and rolls. It is not coming back quick, oddly enough,  almost the same pace as when I learned. I will say that I am further along in the feel of the ramp than when I was younger, then again I don't have near the fearlessness either. It is like learning how to skate all over again in some ways. I know that in a week I can skate the ramp. maybe next week I can do a grind and drop in. I need courage is all, don't want to hurt myself, not to worry, I have all the pads. Ok guys, its almost 5, gotta go.

Look!!! There's a Mini Ramp in your Back Yard!!

When did I start this project, something like three weeks ago. The first weekend I ran into Cody and collected a large sum of wood by dismantling and moving his ramp to my house. The second weekend I spent the entire weekend building the flat bottom and leveling the where the ramps home would be settled. Then third weekend I made my building supply purchase and build the transitions. Finally this past weekend I finished out building the platforms, installed coping and surfaced the ramp. So that is four weeks not three, dam and I am still not fully finished. I still have to put on another coat of Olympic Weather Proofing, get some lights, finish platforms and clean the place up. I am also working on a system to easily cover the thing with tarps. The work is never finished and did I even mention skating it?? I have skated it just a little to get a feel for how all the little cracks in some of the seams and the screw heads would feel when skating. Turns out I hardly noticed the imperfections really, maybe I will change my mind after I have skated it for a while. Ok, so here is a picture time line of each stage:

This where I started, at Cody's house. This is the state of the ramp I was about to dismantle screw by screw. It only took me a few hours to dismantle and move the whole thing. I have to send out special thanks to my next door neighbors, Mike and JB, for helping me move this lumber.

Here is my first attempt at the flat bottom. I originally was going to over lap onto my patio but you can see in later photos that I moved the it all into the yard. Notice  all the contact points that the ramp sits on are concrete blocks. I spent a lot of time making sure all the blocks are level to each other. It took me all weekend.

The third weekend I get a ride to the store and pick up the rest of the lumber. Mike, my neighbor, again comes through with the ride. He even loans me tools so I don't have to buy any extra. I later find out he does this so he can give me a hard time about it later, but no worries, it is just all fun and games to him. Once I get my lumber and screws I start building out the transitions. I build out four separate sections and then put them all together. 

I spent a good part of a day just figuring out how to build the first section. I had to first cut the transitions (the curved plywood pieces that make up the sides) then the joists and finally put them together. I also decided to save on wood and use the old transitions. I should have just spent the extra $35 dollars because working with used and weathered wood is a hassle. It is mostly warped and falling apart but I made it work in the end. My idea was to no waste any material, that is recycle everything. I used new wood yes, but I used old pieces mixed together.

I got all the four sections to fit fairly nicely but there were imperfections all over the place. I was an 8th off here and 1/4 off there,  how pieces of sections lined up were a little uneven in one part or another. It was all very close so I just went with it. Again, if I had used all new wood I think the sections would be closer to flawless, being thrifty can be more labor endusive especially when you have no idea what you are doing. By the way, I am building this ramp and I   have no idea what i am doing. I have been studying ramp plans and have some general carpentry skills, other than that I am on my own. No one has helped me other than some hauling. I finished the frame work of the ramp by the close of Sunday dusk and spent every night after work building out the decks.

This past Friday I took the day off. My morning started out going downtown to 201 Poplar, the city jail and court house, where I had to appear for a stop sign violation. That ended at 9:30 a.m, much earlier than I had originally planned. I thought I would be down there until almost noon. Then after some lunch I would go to Greenlaw and skate the mini ramp there. Instead, because it was so early  I headed home, finished the platforms, installed the coping and started installing the first  of three layers of my ramp surface.

I finished installing the first layer by Saturday morning. It took me almost all  of that after noon to install and figure out how to surface with 1/2 inch 4X8 sheets of plywood. My first idea was not going to work so I went to plan B which did work. Once I figured out plan B it was almost dark.

Woke up early Sunday and finished the second layer. It is not perfect but it did skate decent and the ramp started to look official some how. I guess it is like having clothes on or something.

That afternoon I was determined to get the third Masonite layer on and I did.

There it is with all the surface on but not finished screwing down. I used liquid nails on the cross seams and screwed down the edges best I could. See, because I did not plan the surface to joists out that well, not all the edges of the surface have a joist to screw into, so I had to improvise. If you have ever built a ramp you know what I mean. Man I have learned a lot.

There it is, looks splotchy because I put a coat of Olympic Clear weather proofing on the surface. It needs a second coat but the stuff works. I tested it after it dried before I slathered the whole ramp, seems fine, the treated surface was still smooth and slick. There are cracks where the seems don't meet up,  I skated it and hardly noticed. I have a few more things to do to the ramp, it is fully functional for now.

I am buying out door lighting and another tarp after work, not sure what I am going to do tonight. Part of me wants to skate so I might.  Late.

I changed my mind!! about a lot of things

I have decided to move the ramp approximately 22 inches to the left. This means off the patio and fully into the yard. It occurred to me that if I have the ramp propped up on the patio then you will have a hard time fitting a wall ride against the house. If you take the ramp down into the yard and make the skate surface even and level to the patio then you can skate from the patio to the flat bottom and the ramp and vice verses. Then later down the line if I want to build skate-able structures else where; the flat bottom of the ramp extending the patio area is more advantageous to my endeavors. This all occurred to me as I watched a episode of Built to Shred with Jeff King. He was having concrete blown into many skate-able structures in his back yard and I was like "hey, a wall ride in the back yard would be cool." A wall ride in the back yard means moving the ramp 22 inches to the left, ha!!

That means I need some help moving that flat bottom frame out of the way. Then I can level some concrete blocks then move the flat bottom back to its spot where it should stay. This whole process of building, making mistakes, learning and patience is a good time. It is frustrating as well, you can hear deathly screams of agony coming from my back yard as I run into issues through out a day. I cant wait to session back there, it will be so rad!! I know I am going to suck at it for a while though, hope fully progress, learn my old tricks and some new ones.

YOU ARE 38 YRS OLD!! WHY ARE YOUR BUILDING A RAMP NOW??

It never dawned on me before because I did not have a place to build one. I moved into my house 2 and half years ago and thought about it then. To skate right out the back door onto a ramp, such a cool idea, but I was not currently favoring my old past time, or was not in touch with what is good about the world - Skateboarding and Board sports in general.

That poses another question to myself. Why this back and forth motion with your interest in skateboarding. I skated from 7th grade up to 11th grade hardcore, laid off for 9 months and then skated again in 12th grade a little. Went to college and did not touch a board for two years until I was in Steamboat Springs and skated a mini ramp out there, I was over whelmed how hard it was to skate a ramp when just a few years ago I was easily bombing a vert ramp every day. Came back, moved to Memphis, street skated a little bit. Years went by, no skate, then SPOM was built. I skated a 6ft mini ramp/bowl there periodically, I accomplished nothing really special. Was able to drop in and do front and back side grinds, grab the nose on the grinds a little. Skating was load of fun but not very accessible. What I did figure out at SPOM's bowl was  that I loved to skate transitions more than anything. At the time I was into racing road bicycles, finding a job, not having to spend money and go out of my way to skate.

My latest rage into this discipline came out of me when I was on Aspen this summer. I went for a stroll through a park in the downtown area and then happened on a skate park. It was a concrete park that has all kinds of magnificent bowls to skate. How cool I thought would it be to come back next summer and skate the park?? That means you got to get skate ready which takes a lot of practice.

The only way in my mind to do this is build a nice little mini ramp in your back yard so you can skate it any time you want. Take that and then apply that to skating the Greenlaw ramp and other local stuff. Take my skate on the road when I travel for work and find skate spots there. Skating a miniramp is a work out, let me tell you after pumping the Greenlaw transitions back and forth a few times I was  winded. Going back and forth is not just rolling, it takes leg strength, core strength, upper body strength and endurance. Then there is the falling, all skaters fall, it is part of the sport. You may only see skaters in videos landing tricks but it usually takes a bunch of falling on their ass before they land it. So having a miniramp in the back yard is like having a gymnasium. 

WHAT ABOUT THE MID-LIFE CRISIS?. You know, if this is part of a mid-life crisis then so be it. Some  guys go out and buy sports cars or sail boats, divorce their wives, change careers (that might be a good idea), they just do crazy junky crap that gets them no where but jail or further depression. Hopefully I will loose weight, have fun and gain some new friends, not jail or further depression.  Two out of three things have already happened, the weight part has not happened yet but I am still hoping. The boarding culture is where I feel like I belong and have been evading it all these years. It is when I sit down and hang out with my 16 year old cousin (who is a sick sick skater) and we know no separation of age. It never occurs to him that I am 22 years older than him because we talk skate or there is some kind of bond that we have that is rooted in skateboarding. I mean yes, I am much older but you wouldn't know it,  the way we sit around and cackle like kids. That doesn't just Happen with Devon, but it happens with many of other the skaters I meet.Skateboards are in my blood. Maybe I am reinventing myself, who knows. I am building a miniramp in my back yard and I am going to skate it. Also, how many good years do I have left in me to skate a ramp?? Better start now before I get feeble!!! Hey, I tried playing soccer again as well. Played a bunch of pick up games in the park - that sucked for me!! Maybe I will revisit that one after I loose the weight and get my fitness under raps. For now it is time to skate!!! late!

Have a nice day!!

Started the build!!

Last weekend I collected a good amount of wood to build from, though as I got into cutting the wood down and sizing up the transitions I discovered that there were issues with the wood it self. As I started to cross cut the many 2X6's that I will frame in the transitions with it was apparent that many of them were not long enough to be cut into the sizes I need. So I have a lot of pieces that I cannot use because they are an inch of less to short. I could just  resize my ramp width to fit but all I need is 9 10ft 2X4's to finish the framing part, so no biggie.

I decided to build the ramp in a slightly different spot than my original conception. As you can see from the picture I am building it just off the patio.

What  you are looking at is the flat bottom of the ramp that is 8ft long and 10ft wide. I had use concrete blocks to level it. I did not finish the flat until two in the after noon and then spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get it level. I could probably work a lot faster if I had a helper, but that is ok, it just takes a bit of ingenuity. That flat bottom frame is so freaking heavy. I put it on skate boards this morning to move it out of the way so I could relevel the flat bottom this morning. I also had to finish the framing. After building the framework and leveling it the first time I revisited the plans and noticed I had not used enough pieces of wood to frame with, Uhgggg!!!! I fixed it as you can see above, but here is it before. 

At the moment I am in the process of leveling the sections of the ramp where the transitions will sit. I probably should clean my house and wash clothes but I dont seem to care about much else other than getting this ramp build. The only reason I am writing at the moment is because it is raining outside. I need to make a trip to the Lowes and buy plywood and a few 2X4's so I can build four of these:

Ok, so that is it, I would be outside leveling and finding a ride to the store but we are in a rain delay. Maybe I will go take a shower and go see Jackass 3D, clean house and wash clothes.

Later!! 

Rufus comes into some luck!!

Awe yes, Friday and my day off after driving back from St Louis last night. I wake up around 8:30 thinking my co-workers are just settling into a second cup of coffee by now where am  I about to make some fresh ground coffee and have a nice bowl of cereal, booyah! I have a leisure morning, unpack from my four day trip, lounge around the house watching some tube and read up on the latest happenings with Liverpool football club, good stuff. Around 12ish I make my way downtown to the Greenlaw Community center to skate their 3ft mini ramp that is indoors. I show up in the parking lot and there is one car there (a Honda S2000 with a Andrea the Giant Obey sticker) and the center's metal gates are down. It is suppose to be open but no dice, it is closed. So I pull up to the Honda that is obviously a skater. Yep, the dude in the car is named Cody, 19 yrs old and a Freshman at southwest college, it is his day off and now we both wait. As we talk I find out that Cody has a mini ramp in his GF's back yard that is 5ft tall and 10ft wide by 30ft long that he has skated twice, it is unfinished. Hmm.... and he has no plans of finishing and the GF's parents are tired of looking at it..... Hmmmm.... so what are you going to do with it?? Well.... how about let me take it?? Ok dude, it is yours for $100!!! That is, it is mine for $100 and I have to take it away.

Ok, so the guy who is running the center shows up around 115 or something close and we finally make it to the ramp. This is a new day for me, I have not skated a ramp in like 7 years. I start skating it and easy pumps up one side and then up the other side, nothing glamorous. I do some front side kick turns and back side turns. Then during one of my pumping and turning sessions I bite it and hit the ramp, everything ok but it did not feel great. I could probably manage the pumping and turning better if I lost 40 lbs, I think the extra weight is throwing my balance a bit. I finally get to where my turns are coping high and I can start  to move my foot positions around a bit, well I get a bit to comfortable and I bite it hard. I smack the ramp and go light headed, my wrist and both elbows are crying out. I have hurt my wrist for sure, i kept skating but as i type this thing is sore. I dont think it is broke for it is not swollen and it does move, just very stiff. My left elbow is bruised as well, but I will keep going back to the ramp in hopes to drop in and grind. Next time i will have a full set of pads and a helmet for sures. It was like skating a ramp for the first time, I  did not expect to pull off rock-n-rolls or hurricanes but maybe a grind or two. I got close to grinding but was chicken, could have, but I need some pads so I have a bit of confidence. I will get there, loose some weight and work on my fat man balance. Also, it takes fitness that I dont have at the moment. all kinds of things to work on. Here, look at my fat ass and cody on the right:

So we get tired of skating and I am like lets go look at the ramp. I meet him out east and look at the ramp. I am satisfied and go home. I line up some trucks to pick it up, that part is done and then secure a electric drill, go to Habor freight hardware supple for some drill bits and back out to the ramp location. check it:

I did not get it totally torn down but i made some major head way:

And here is where I left it, about 2 hrs left and a pick up and haul it to my house:

So there it is, I want to thank Cody very much, he is a very cool guy and a fellow skater, what else is there. I will cart this stuff back to my house and work on a new plan. I am going to build it a bit different than what he was trying to accomplish but 5ft and 10ft wide will be the same. Will even use the same transitions but in four sections instead of just two, it will be awesome. 

I skated today, got started on my mini ramp and made a new friend, a great day all in all. Peace out people!!

Mud island Skate Demo

I got a invite through Facebook from one of the local guys, Aaron Shafer, to attend a skate demo at the Mud Island River Park. A park that is located on an Island in the Mississippi river. There are plans to build a skateboard park here (this event has nothing to do with skate park), the project has been approved by the city government but the when and how long have not been finalized, so who knows. The skate demo is part of a community get together for some foundation, I did not pay attention to some details, not sure of the name.

I got there right at 1pm expecting  some skate action, paid my $5 to get through the gates and proceeded to an empty parking lot that had various skate obstacles: grind boxes, launch ramp, grind rails and a wall ride.   There were a couple of basketball goals on the adjacent area (out of the way) set up with games going as I walked through the lot but no skaters any where I could see. This was the spot, the notice I got on FB said 1pm but no skaters here. Even so, the pavement was awful for skating, no wonder no one was here. It was a cheaply done parking lot surface that was rough and had tiny tar pebbles scattered all over the surface. This surface does not make for smooth rolling, a skaters peeve. So I kept walking.

As i walked past the area I heard the clatter of boards and concrete, there they were set up in an area that had a couple set of stairs and smother concrete and brick surface. They had a wedge ramp set up on the stairs and were riding up the ramp doing flip tricks up and down the ramp. There was one Caucasian man and  a few teenage African American boys skating the site.  The white guy is named Mark, he works at the GreenLaw community center and manages a skateboard miniramp built there this year. Mark is from the UK, London area and hates football, haha.

I find out that the demo is now going to happen at 3pm, not 1pm, so I decide to just wait and hang out. Other people started show up, another white guy named Darren, then Chris, Shannon from Cordova Skate shop, and  Michelle Shafer. Then you had this 18 year old kid, Ace, from Greenlaw attempting Laser Flips down the steps. We sat and cheered on Ace as it took him a good hour to land one successfully, congrats Ace.

3pm rolled around and the skaters went over to the badly surfaced skate area setup for the demo but again, no demo happened. It was just several skaters hitting the grind box here and there, no one seemed to be motivated and the people throwing the event made no effort to show case any type of spot light. Mark and company decided to pack it up and many of the skaters said they were headed across the bridge to Marion and session there. This was not the skaters fault by any means but the organizers of the event, who seem to be clueless when it comes to skateboarding.

I ended up going to Highpoint for a visit to the Greenline grand opening party and home.

And i have not skated this week at all due to tendentious in the left ankle, maybe next weekend. And no, I have not built a mini ramp yet, I have the details mostly worked out, going to start working on the fence maybe today or next weekend, moving the fence is step one. will post details as I have them.

Later folks

Tendentious and Local Skate Spots

So no, I have not landed any tricks yet and have not built the ramp, that is not why I am writing, but you can count on it once I do. So much so, when I can land one consistently I will even post video. In fact, before I do anymore boarding I might want to let this tendentious clear up in my left ankle which I think was caused from not stretching  and then going out and pushing my board hardcore. So old guys, stretch before you do any major boarding. Actually, I get tendentious every time I go diving off the diving board at a swimming pool, been getting this since my twenties (so thinking this is not old man syndrome). Hopefully this will clear up soon, does not matter, I will probably practice a couple of tricks in the back yard and just grin and bear it this afternoon anyway.

My main excitement for the day is informational but factual at this point. Remember that I told you about skating a bowl at the Skate Park of Memphis (SPOM) back in 2002 I think it was. Well I had heard rumors that bowl was scooped up by some lucky local guy but I have not heard about it since until today. My good friend Don told me today that he needs to take me over to this house and skate this bowl. Just happens to be the same bowl that from SPOM and not only that, the lucky guy whose back yard it is in only lives with in walking distance from my house. How in the crap did that happen?? What luck, and Don says that he lets people skate it two days a week, they have cook outs and just fun times.

Ok, that is it, back to work people!

Landing Tricks and Mini Ramp Philosophy

Riding a skateboard after many years of not skating at my age of 37 is like never skating at all, ever, but that is for the first ten minutes or so, then you begin to remember little things like turns back and front side and how to pump down the street. Just pushing  the board forward while one foot on the board and one pushes the street is challenging at first. I think the long board skate (designed to go down hills and around corners) I have helps that basic aspects of skating like turning, pumping and pushing because the shear size of the board makes it harder to handle than my smaller board. Then I started to try some small tricks on the longboard (shove-it's and no-comply's) which did not work out to well.

The board has a lot of velocity because of its size and weight which makes it very hard to land stuff or get the board to move around.  That is why Rodney Mullen's smallish trick board is now the industry standard along with the skate style he represents. Which if you have followed his career then you know that Mullen was a free style skater in the 80's and then revolutionized the sport by switching to street skating inventing a whole new style in the 90's to present. You can find out more about Mullen by visiting him here.  So before Mullen reinvented things there were wide boards doing various sloppy tricks that I can do, well, not me at the moment. But wait, what does that have to do with me now. I learned to do tricks on a board that is somewhere in between the longboard and the small Popsicle-stick that Mullen invented but with kind of a wacky shape Like here. My favorite board from that era was the Santa Monica Airlines -  Natas Kuapas. I skated several other boards back then at different times but out of all of them the Kaupas boards were my favorite.

After I decided to get an additional board that I could do tricks with I had to decide on a board. I looked at many different models of boards and have actually through the years owned many different variations on the pop sickle stick. I did find a board or two, look at the EVO or the Bennet models, specifically the board dimensions Here and go to products. But the price is ridiculous, $60 for a board that might break because I am such a fat ass. Then finally I am rummaging around Paige Hern's warehouse in Little Rock (where he manufacturers skate decks of all kinds) and he had the Pool Boy laying around, so I picked one up with a few blanks and now I am in business. I copied the pool boy shape and if I need another I just cut out a new one. The blanks cost $13.00 and take about 40 minutes to an hour to cut out, sand, drill holes and seal. Here it is on the right. Looks like a pop sickle but is around the size of the old school boards, has Indy 169's and some Powell wheels, very nice!!

Ok, so I have had my fully build up trick board for five days now and I have not really landed anything notable. except maybe a shove-it or two. I am working on doing a trick and  landing back on the board with out it zipping away from under my feet, which would hurt after I hit the ground. So you might see my apprehension in landing just yet. It will just take practice, some balls and maybe some pads.

What do I love most about skating?? Transitions!!! or you might know them as half-pipes, maybe you have heard of a mini-ramp, of course you do. My all time favorite thing I wished for as a kid growing up in Little Rock (16 yrs old) was a skate ramp in my back yard and a girl to make out with under it, which I had neither. So now that you are 37 you could at least have a skate ramp in your back yard, sweet!!! About a week and a half ago I started to research ramp building a little. I figured out that on my 10 X18 ft. back patio slab I could extend one end to 26.5 feet in length by changing the fence and spreading some gravel. These dimensions allow for a 3.5 ft X 24 ft mini ramp to be built.  The idea really hit me when I was watching Steve Caballero in a recent skate contest which he competed in the masters and won. After the contest he was being interviewed and talked about how he had to practice by skating late into the night, burn the mid night oil (Steve is 46 BTW). That got me thinking, to skate something like a mini-ramp well then you need access to one at your own disposal to burn the mid night oil. Why not, it is your child hood dream and you know that Steve Caballero has probably five ramps in his back yard.

The cost is around $600 clams, I know how to build the ramp after studying three different plans and deciding on my own variation. The first order of business is changing the fence to accommodate the new dimensions of the patio. My Neighbor said I could use his tools. I just need capital, time and materials!!! There you go....

Skate Boarding Again @ 37

When I returned from Aspen this summer I had a renewed sense of self and things I wanted to accomplish. Being in the mountains and surrounded by snow boarders, skiers, skaters and surfers renewed my interest in board sports all together. As soon as I got back to Memphis I ordered a long board skate and began to skate it on the street in front of my house. After skating a week in the very flat streets of my neighborhood I decided that I would invest in board that I could do tricks on. At the same time I decided on another skate, it also sparked the idea to build a mini half pipe in my back yard. So I have been working on building plans and material cost in the mean time. BTW - I think the few people who know think I am nuts for entertaining the idea of any of this.

The last time I skated I was 29. I would go to the Skate Park of Memphis (closed) and skate the 6ft bowl exclusively on Sunday Nights,  it was old man night and the admission was only $5. I had to work my way into it but after one night of skating I was dropping in and doing front and back side grinds. I would go back and relearn 50 grinds, fakies and nose grabs, small stuff but quickly learned. Not bad considering the  last time I skated transitions was when I was 18 or 19. Between the ages of 14 and 16 I skated a vert ramp all the time, was a decent vert skater who could do different small airs and many lip tricks. If I had stuck with it who knows but I went to boarding school when I was 17 instead where there was no place to skate ramp and very little street skating. When I got to boarding school I immediately picked soccer back up (literally my first day there) and went on to captain the team as a star left back for two years. I only visited my beloved board sport a few more times in my life time until lately. I have done other things. I spent most of my latter 20's racing road bicycles and running trails. My 30's were a disappointment, maybe I will get to writing that one day but I did try many different hobbies in there.

So here I am today riding my road bike like 7-8 hrs a week, hike anywhere and now I have a skate board interest. A skate board interest, that is all I will call it at the moment since I have not  made any  significant accomplishment with the board to date. I have had the long board in my grasps for several weeks now which I rode around my street for a week and a half then got bored with it a bit. Which I think is in part to the lack of any elevation change in my area. So I purchased a uncut blank from Paige Hern and cut my own shape, mounted trucks and wheels along with grip tape. So far I have skated it twice and have not landed any successful tricks as of yet. I did make my own home-made Indo or Balance board and have been practicing my balance indoors.

And let me admit: I tried to pick up skating maybe 4 years or so ago, I skated half dozen times and ended up giving my board to my little brother who skates. But my approach is different this time. I come at it with inspiration and aspirations to do something. I want to go back to that skate park in Aspen and be able to skate it, not just stare at it in admiration. I want to learn how to surf and snowboard now. Since I have been into the longboard I have met several people in the skating community, which finding there is a community of skaters out there is eye opening. There are even old guys like me who skate. Well, I have a lot of work to do......