Recent Skate Activity

The new Gonz deck is still holding up. One thing about riding on a larger, heavier deck for a while (the kind of deck that, amazingly, everyone rode back in the 80's) is that, when you switch back to a slimmer, lighter, modern deck, it feels much more responsive and easy to manipulate. It's like running or playing B-ball with those strap-on weights; when you take them off, you feel extra light and "fit".

So, Matt Z and I went to Beasley Park and then to Turner Park on the mountain last week for a tour. It was nice having someone to skate with, especially at Turner, where the proliferation of younger kids, and local hot-shots out to prove something, can make an older skater feel even more like a dinosaur than usual. Matt and I skated around for a while, and then a window opened up where we had the empty swimming pool all to ourselves for a good fifteen minutes (usually, there is a whole "snake session" going on, with kids competing with each other to get a run in). I really like carving the bowl, even though I'm not all that good at it. It uses a whole different set of muscles than street skating and is, actually, the type of non-ramp skating that preceded the flatground streetstyle that I learned as a kid.

I also went out last Friday night to meet my friend Oldschool at the Beaze. He's pushing forty, and can skate Beasley park like nobody else, doing big layback grinds to revert on the quarter pipe, and all kinds of old bonelesses and fast-plants, as well as his signature nose-wheelie that he can almost sustain to the very edge of the path through the soccer field. There were just three or four of us at the park that night, and I had a good session: didn't fall that much, got a few good lines in, and had a good talk with Oldschool about computers and video games.

The next night, I decided to tempt fate and go out a second time. I reasoned that the only way to get back into shape was to apply myself a little. This time, there was the regular Beaze Crew cutting up the park. Given that it was a long weekend, I was unhappy to find that the city has not yet come through with the Jersey Barrier and curb that we ordered about a month ago, when Oldschool and I met with the parks & rec. people. They had sent a crew to fill in the dangerous gaps and cracks that had developed in the concrete over the winter--this is in their own best interests as the city would be liable if some kid broke a bone due to the perilous chasms that had been littered throughout the park. But, given that the city manages to deliver Jersey barriers and curbs on a regular basis (and in far greater quantities) to roadwork cites, why is it so difficult to get them to drop off a couple of these utilitarian fixtures at the Beaze? Just one or two curbs would provide so much enjoyment to dozens of skaters, but the city doesn't prioritize fulfilling this promise.

At any rate, at least the concrete was "smoothish" again. It was such a hot day that everyone was staying in the shade. The guys were doing tricks over the "nipple", because it was out of the sun. I tried to land a few tricks, but bailed alot instead. A combination of the heat and the sugar-filled slushy I had consumed made it difficult to focus. Mike, an older skater whom I hadn't seen for a while, was there. He spent about an hour trying to land complicated tricks out of the bowl. He never seemed to land anything, but one time I saw him almost land a trick--the board making a delicate flip in the air and just about catching back up with his feet--and I could see the poetry in his head that he was struggling to actualize.

So, this second time out wasn't the best session, but it was good to see everyone, and to sit in the shade sipping my slushy while the guys exchanged crude jokes. Paco found a way to wear a Food Basics shopping bag as if it were a "wife beater" t-shirt, and I made a joke about being inspired for a whole new summer wardrobe. He then ripped the thin plastic off his chest in an Incredible Hulk impersonation that was quite funny. It's sad that, since the new park on the mountain opened, Beasley Park does not enjoy the raging sessions that it once did. But it's also kind of nice that the same core group of downtown skaters still utilize the area and, have, if anything, less crowds to contend with.