Thursday, February 6, 2025

The Magic is Real

Winter has been hitting hard the last few weeks. Snow. Sleet. Rain. On many of the “dry” days, it’s been really cold with abnormally high winds (20mph sustained, and 50mph gusts). Cold + wind is a nightmare.

 

It is snowing as I type this. We are only supposed to get 1” – 2” today. A larger storm is predicted for this weekend (3” – 6”). My only two real options for skating right now are the mini ramp we shoveled out (see previous post…which is about to get buried again, too), and parking garages. Since I work in the evenings, and parking garages are an “after hours” spot, my chances to hit them are very limited.

 

In the absence of real skating, I’ve been consuming a lot of skate content on the internet the last few weeks. During that time, I came across two photos that shook me to my core.

 


 

 

Why did these grab me so hard? I am not sure. I think that with age, I am getting better at being a kid. Or rather that with experience, I am better at seeing purity. I’ve always maintained that the simple is the most profound. Sometimes you have to be "ready" to see simple things. Maybe these photos shook me so hard because I was finally "ready" to see. Purity, simplicity, and the profound are frequently inextricable from each other.

 

And wow, wow, are these photos both simple and profound. Despite what I said s few sentences back, I have no desire to be a kid again. That said, there is a…feeling…an energy…that accompanies youth that I greatly desire to tap. It’s the energy of simplicity, purity, and, well, the magic that can be found in every-day life. 

 

You can’t relive childhood. But you can access the magic of the simple, and the profound. Or rather, the simple and the profound are doorways to that magic. Skateboarding has always been on of those doorways for me. Always. It is a thread that ties 50-year-old me directly back to 10-year-old me. To that end, these are not just photos of two kids, in 1965, on early skateboards…they are portals to an experience which words have not yet found. 

 

The magic is real.  

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Dealing With Snow & Winter Skating

Ah yes, winter is here. We got a bit of snow two days. Skating in the winter is always a challenge, and one I actually like. Snow makes things a bit more problematic than it just being cold. When the snow comes, you have two options. First, is to find somewhere indoor/covered to skate. Second, is to start shoveling.

WHERE TO SKATE


Indoors is not much of an option for me. There are no indoor skate parks anywhere near me (and I usually hare indoor parks, too. Often very cramped, very dusty/very slippery, and very busy when the cold and snow hits. The other indoor option is parking garages. I work in the evenings, and most parking garages are in-use/a bust during my free time (e.g. mid-day and afternoons). The decent ones around here are also not all that close to me.

That leaves shoveling. The best effort-to-reward ratio of shoveling is a mini ramp. To clear out something like a curb, a bank, and ledge, etc. takes an enormous amount of space (that you need to shovel out) for sufficient run-up, the trick itself, and then roll-away space. Even if you just clear out a small section of curb for just stall tricks, you still need a decent area. Worse, since these are usually at ground level, melting snow will often cause the area you just cleared to start getting wet. There may also be salt/sand on the pavement that you also have to deal with (if not clearing a section at a skate park). Bowls suck to clear out because they are usually on the large side, and you have to get the snow OUT of them...you can’t just push it off to the side.

That brings us to mini ramps. The transition helps slide snow down to the flat. Just clear out the flat bottom (which usually isn’t that big of an area…certainly much smaller than space you’d need for a curb, ledge, bank, etc.), push the snow off the platforms, and you now have access to endless fun. The effort-to-reward ratio simply cannot be beat. Proper mini ramps are not really around as much as they used to be, and are often no longer found/made in modern skateparks. Fortunately, I have two good mini within a 25 min drive.

Yesterday I cleared this ramp out.        


THE SNOW SET-UP


But clearing snow is only part of the complications. The next issue, is your set-up. When you skate, you bail tricks. When you bail, your board often goes flying off to God-knows-where. When you bail on a ramp, your board frequently falls, or launches, off the side of the ramp. If the surrounding area is covered with snow, that means you board is going to get snowy and wet. And we all know a wet board is a bad situation. In late fall I decommission a deck that still has some life left in it. This deck becomes part of my “snow board,” which I am not worried about getting water-logged. I also put a set of lesser bearings in my wheels, which I am not too concerned about getting wet. It also helps to bring a towel (to dry board off in/when it becomes snow bound), and second pair of shoes or boots (to put on if you have walk out into the snow to get retrieve your board). Fortunately, my local park also has some movable grind bars, that I place along the bottom of the ramp to help stop runaway boards.


WHAT TO WEAR


Boston is actually the windiest major city in America. Add low temps to that, and the “real feel” can get really, really gnarly. The key to skating in Boston winters is (a) layers, and (b) a windbreaker. I usually wear a base-layer of Under Armor cold gear, and then thermal/waffle long underwear over that. Add a long sleeve t-shirt, a hoodie, and windbreaker and that is usually enough to keep my upper body warm. You also need something to keep your ears from freezing-up. I wear a helmet when I skate ramps, so I wear a toque over my ears (under my helmet), or a full-face mask/balaclava if it’s really cold/windy (e.g. a windbreaker for your cheeks/nose).  Once you get skating/moving, all of this often quite warm. If the wind isn’t too bad, and sun is out, I often have to lose a layer once I am warmed-up. It’s actually amazing how warm the low 30s can feel with the Sun and no wind. Oh, gloves/mittens! Mittens are the best, because they keep your hands much warmer than gloves. Here is me, decked out in cold gear. I think the coldest I'll skate in is upper teens, but I have to be really wanting it at that point. Lower 20s I'm fine with, but below that, things start to get bit more dicey, esp. if there is a strong wind.


In any event, today is January 21st. Hopefully we only have about 8 more weeks of the really cold/bad stuff. By the end of March, things usually start warming up. Here’s to an early Spring.   

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

My 2025 Set-Ups

Over the last year or so, I've tinkered a lot with my set-ups. At this point in my 40-year skate "career" I've tried pretty much every dimension of deck, truck, and wheel that is out there. With all said and done, I have two main set-ups. Both are "all-purpose" completes, but one leans more towards agility, and the other towards stability. I decided to post about these now, at the very start of the year, so I can see how my set-ups evolve, if at all, over the next twelve months. Will I still be riding these two set-ups in Jan 2026? Most likely. Anyway, the two set-ups are:

DLX 8.25/14.38
Indy 144 Forged Hollows
Spitfire Classics 53mm/99a*
 
Black Label 8.75/14.5
Indy 159 Forged Hollows
Spitfire Conicals 53/99a* 

*Since I ride the same size wheel on both set-ups, I can swap wheel shapes out on these, as the mood/terrain sees fit. I also have a set on 53mm 93a Spitfire Classics than I can use when super-crusty spots mandate. I think you can get Spitfire Radials and Conical Fulls in 93a. It might be worth looking into those, as wider riding surfaces can help mitigate the "crust" of really crusty spots. That said, the Radial and the Conical Full are both pretty big/wide wheels, and I'm not really a fan of snow tires. We'll see.  

It also just occurred to me...it might be interesting to track how many decks, trucks, and sets of wheels I go through in a year...but I also may not want to see how much $$$ that adds up to!

 


 

Monday, January 6, 2025

First Session of 2025

Today was my first session of 2025. This year marks 40 years on a skateboard for me. Temps today were in the upper 20s, but there was no wind, which was great. I've had the flu for the last week, and before that was some snow, then rain. This is to say I've not really been on the board in over 2.5 weeks. I'm still feeling a bit under the weather, so I expected today's session to be really "meh" and rusty. it wasn't. It was actually a lot of fun. 

Many people hate winter skating. I really like it, esp. in the later afternoons as the Sun is going down. The grey, darkening skies, the bare tress, the stark landscape, dead leaves scutterting across the park, no one else around, the layer of clothes...I find these settings to be somewhat magical, and very, well, New England. 

I skated today from about 3:30pm til dusk (around 4:30ish), and enjoyed every moment of it.  The next two days look even colder, but I am going to Philly this weekend (non-skate related trip), and I've got a lot to do beforehand. So, I think today might be my last session until next week some time. It seems I never get to skate all that much every January, and this one is starting out no different.

Here is a screen grab from today. Nose stall f/s revert, one of my favorite tricks.



Friday, January 3, 2025

The Magic of a Mundane Moment

 This guy Jeff I follow on IG posted this pic the other day (more comments below photo).

So, I love pre-drop in photos, which you don't see many of.  Why do I love them? Well, this right here, the moment right before dropping-in, is one of my favorite moments in all of skateboarding…because you’re are at the cusp of potential and anticipation of a run that’s about to happen…you are literally about to step off a cliff into the abstract world/state-of-being of what-is-about-to-become. Right before you drop-in, the apex of potentiality consumes all of your being. It's a great thing to experience.

And we all do it with hope and excitement for some positive outcome, be in Mitchie Brusco going for the first 1260 on a mega ramp, a kid dropping-in to mini ramp for the first time, or someone just dropping-in for a fun, mellow cruise down a ditch. And if we bail during the run, we just get-up, and "step off the cliff" again, with the same hopeful sentiments.

The old cliche "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" finds root here, too.  Every run begins with that single step on to the board. That pre-drop-in moment is one of the most magical, and metaphorical, moments in skateboarding. As mentioned above, I love seeing photos of this moment, which are actually quite rare, because it’s something that is otherwise a mundane moment, one that really is not all that exciting or interesting to capture on film. Anyway, I really, really liked this photo of Jeff---and it motivated me to put a few thoughts (emotions, actually) into words. Thanks, Jeff!

Oh, by the way, this photo? It was taken at Jeff's 70th Birthday skate jam. 



Monday, December 30, 2024

Milestones

2025 will mark a significant milestone in my life. 

40 years of skateboarding.

At this stage, I’m not getting any better, but I’m still getting stoked (maybe more so than ever, actually).

I plan to celebrate all year long with, well, a lot of skateboarding. I also imagine this year to be full of much reflection about, well, all of it. 

Last night as I was laying awake in bed (insomnia), I was think a bit about this very blog--how I want to use it, do I have even anything left that's worth saying any more, etc.? I used to write much more frequently about various aspects of life and skateboarding, but that practice has waned in more recent times. I'm not totally sure why. I guess I just haven't felt...moved...or compelled to peck-out something on my keyboard. 

It did occur to me, in the wee hours of the morning, as I lay in my bed feeling some what like Gregor Samsa, that good use of this blog would be to just chronicle or journal about the various experiences [thoughts, feelings, perceptions, reflections (ah, we come full circle) etc.] I have from any given session. Sort of like a long-form Haiku or something. To that end, I've always posited that any meaningful sense of Truth, salvation, emancipation, etc. that can not be found in daily life, can not be found anywhere. It's always at your finger tips, under your feet, etc. Which of course, is just another way of saying that if I make an effort to write about the daily experiences of skateboarding, all that other meta stuff will find its way in, too. I find the two inseparable--daily life and the untouchable worlds.  Rod Serling said it best...a world between shadow and substance.

Look at me here...it's funny...I am reflection on the act of reflecting.

Anyway, 2025, and 40 years on the skateboard, here we come...

Me, standing on a ramp in late December 2024...reflecting on/about something...


Thursday, November 14, 2024

Four to Five Flavours of Ick

I am conflicted this afternoon.

One of my favorite skate companies is apparently now doing a collaboration with Nike. Why is this an issue, or at least, an issue for me? There are few reasons.

 

First, ever since I was a teenager, I am always balked at big corporations. Or rather, I have always balked at openly representing them (I realize it is hard, if not impossible, to fully escape them). I have never owned a single product made by Nike. As a kid, teenager, and young adult, the Nike swoosh was always the “gang symbol” of the people who tried to do me physical and mental harm. It was always seen associated with those big team sports I hated. It was seen on “normal” people who I always tried to distance myself from. Maybe I should just let-go of old notions, and “grow-up”…but that’s just not who I am, or who I’ve ever been. I just can’t bring myself to “advertise” for big corporations. Like, I own a North Face windbreaker. It’s great, I love it. But the second I got home with it, I put a band patch over the North Face logo to obscure/erase the “corporate presence.” To this end, when a skate company aligns with Big Corporation X (let alone Nike), it bums me out.

 

Second, the skate company in question had a long history of openly mocking and satirizing big corporations (inc. Nike). The owner even once said, “Please let’s not let skateboarding become just another selfish capitalism cheerleader product etc.…It isn’t. It’s a bastion of skepticism and stoke. For us, by Us. Believe and defend that.” Thinking of those words, as we see assorted Nike/Anti-Hero branded swag paraded around is rather, well…disquieting. I never thought I’d see an a "product line" with those two logos together…but here we are.  

 

I’ve always subscribed to the idea of “vote with your dollar.” And I’ve always been a fan of Anti-Hero because they frequently ridiculed vapid consumer culture. So much for actual counter-culture ethics. So, now what? Is this “discretion” so acute that I now cast a different “vote” with my dollar? Part of me says yes. And another part of me is under no illusions---what I am writing about here has absolutely ZERO impact on skating a curb by myself, or a ditch in Texas with 40 friends. This is to say it has NO impact on my actual day-to-day skateboarding. This is a "problem" of theory, and not so much one of "reality." So, what am I getting all flustered and fussy about then? Principle, I suppose.

 

Where do I go from here? 

Unknown.  

What is known?

This pic is just four to five flavors of icky. 

 


 

The Magic is Real

Winter has been hitting hard the last few weeks. Snow. Sleet. Rain. On many of the “dry” days, it’s been really cold with abnormally high wi...