what I want

 

I've always thought that people who rely on the new year for some kind of new start are really a bit dumb. A date ticks over and people hope it will bring some new thing. And then I'm sitting here now hoping for that. I thought it so stupid before so to be hoping for it I suppose shows to me how not content I am with things now.

 

I think if you can think about what you want and tick things off when you achieve them you can feel better about yourself. So some goals, I wont write them as definite because I never really can set things that I intend to go for for definite.

 

Next year I want

 

Some kind of job. I'd be a bit proud of myself then, I'd feel like somebody, more.

 

To make it to the vandem freeride

 

To have something other than skateboarding that makes me feel properly happy and like I'm making something happen.

 

To generally be happier. So many days I just have no motivation, when I'm away from college and skateboarding I really feel shit too much of the time. It's not good, and I don't want this. I suppose now I realise that I've spent a while like how I feel now, with too many shit days.

 

Thing is, I don't know the order of how to go about achieving these things. Would having a job make me feel like less of a shit person? How would I feel like going out and doing that if I feel as I do now? How do I get motivation when for too long now I've had so little?

 

I want to be happy, employed (however small), motivated and skating as much as I can.

 

I've got a cv, and theres a few in my bag. I printed one ages ago and it's taken so long to even think and put one in my bag. A lot of the time I just don't think, and then feel shit about whatever later. I suppose you could call that some kind of step, although to think of that as one makes me feel pretty useless.

 

I've had a policy recently of just trying to avoid writing on the internet when I feel shit, and I think this very post is a reason why I decided to do that.

I, Skateboarding person

A few days ago I realised the vague funny-ness of having got into "skateboarding" several years ago (because I looked at people skating in the skatepark and it dawned on me that I could buy a cheapo argos board for a fiver and get involved too) and then skating on my own a lot, hating it, finding people to skate with, skating hills with them, loving it, and then ending up skating a lot on my own again and really, really enjoying it.

The argos board that I bought probably funded some massive corporation. It gave them a fiver, the board was shit and I snapped a bit off the trucks standing on it in the living room, but it gave me skateboarding, and I have ended up giving money to the nice "skater" companies. That should probably just be "nice companies" actually, because the idea that skateboarding makes you immune from being a bellend is a false one based upon the skatery "everythings cool in skateboarding" thing.

So big companies and shit, cheap skateboards are not always a bad thing. Books and covers and skateboards.

 So anyway the skating I do now, on my own, is sort of freestyle. Although firstly a word with "free" in it that refers to doing one thing in a certain way isn't very accurate and secondly using the word "style" inside any sentence referring to me skateboarding is a bit dodgy.

So if you divide the skating i've done into thirds, you get- roughly, the bit where I skated parks and around here on my own and was a bit tired of it, the bit where I skated hills with people and loved it, and now, where I want to go and skate hills with good people but the opportunities are few, and I spend my time doing this, "freestyley thing".

 I think "free" is better. Free skateboarding. The buy in is any skateboard I like (but mostly a 13"WB sym double kick), the setting is anywhere I like (but mostly a quiet industrial estate with a killer sunset), and the feeling is good. Only once have I gone for a skate and felt a bit shit and not been able to really skate. The rest of the time I just muck around, enjoying the novelty of being a person that has evolved for a fair while to walk around and talk shit, not walking around and not talking shit but rolling around on a funny plank of wood with wheels and trucks and some octane and newtons stickers I cut up and merged and stuck under some clear griptape- that didn't look so good actually, but there might be a philosophical point there (unintentional, mostly).

In the first third of my skateboarding thing I couldn't ollie to save my life. I'd try bloody hard if it were to save my life but the additional pressure wouldn't help. In this third, I can, a bit. A little bit. A little bit moving as well. We're talking airs over ants here but I'm not so sure I care as long as it sounds like an ollie and I'm grinning like an idiot. And the thing is, it's different. It's because I've gone out, and just spent time on a skateboard. Not thought about it, just done stuff which lets you feel more comfortable on a board. You can't climb stairs if you can't walk, unless you are really good at dragging yourself with your hands.Actually thats a shit metaphor and it doesn't help.

But the point is there, and it's something I've thought of before.

You get fuck all for sitting and thinking about how much of a twat you are,

You do get something by doing stuff, any little things build more and more.

So doing skateboarding, enjoying it, mucking around, doing things that arn't "tricks" but I don't care, that is where progress came from and will continue to.

And then progress. That word. I don't know if I care as long as I'm having fun. Skateboarding is, for me, escapism.

I hope sometime in the near future I'm skating on a hill again with good people. But, in the meantime, I am still happy, doing my thing down a miserable looking estate on my tod.

I'm really looking forward to the future, and getting back on a hill, whenever, wherever, with whoever...

Will

Scrabble is war

Scrabble is war. Almost.

 

Scrabble is a series of battles, waged across a landscape, where pieces of a whole are manoeuvered into position. Various provocations can and will inevitably occur. Calculations have to be made as to how and when to escalate the conflict. To strike into the double word scores and deal a grievous blow upon the enemy, knowing full well such an action would demand-no, necessitate a response? To combine high value letter with triple word score in an almost grotesque show of contempt for any sense of fair play?

 

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There is a bit of a joy with playing music out loud in a room. I've only just discovered the full novelty of it. The funny thing is, the quality is worse than that of my regular Ipod Shuffle to headphones due to the medium of sound delivery (enthusiatic but poor quality television speakers), but somehow it doesn't matter. Selecting a disc, and immersing oneself in the music, of however questionable quality, is quite marvellous. The music becomes a part of the room, rather than as with headphones it seeming just a soundtrack to reality.

 

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I have not had a monday morning feeling since I can remember. Monday is like Tuesday, Tuesday like Wednesday, and Wednesday like all the rest. I cant decide whether overall, I prefer the week to the weekend. During the week, for the most part, I have a clear focus on doing something productive (college), and I am constantly reminded that I am doing something productive, because its in front of my face all day.

 

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When the eff did I start becoming a bit cack at saying stuff? When I'm writing, as here, thoughts formed are so much more easily communicated than with the whole "saying stuff" thing. Take the phrase "thoughts formed". I dont think I'd even be able to think of such a way of phrasing my sentence. I would say something along the lines of "fings that I fink of".

 

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As it happens, writing is a bloody good way of not thinking. Avoiding the tetris stack up of thoughts. Hence this post dragging on as it did with such sparse material. 

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will

The Epic skate video list

Done far too many heavy posts recently, and havent made it out to a hill for ages (and wont for a while longer). That and boredom means- heres a list i've compiled of the savagest skate videos I know of. These videos get me stoked to skate.

In no paticular order, a far from definitive list.

Dominik Kowalski

This video is simply titled with his name, but it should be called "skate all the things" or something similar. Dominik shreds it all, hills, cones, ramps. FREEride, not just soft wheel standup slides.

https://vimeo.com/21114579

I'll do a load from youtube so I can link them properly.

CULT KOP

Anyone that knows me would be able to tell it wouldn't be long before this turned up. Cult fucking Kop. Mr Connolly and Mr River, at warp speed +1. It's not often you watch a video with people skateboarding about doubly as fast as you have ever been. I'd shit myself, cry AND fall off my skateboard at the first roller.

Faltown-No Contribution

I would say it's the music, but it's not just that. I would say it's the flip tricks by the sea, but it's not just that. I would say it's people killing it, everywhere, on everything but... oh it is that actually. Turn it up, and look out for the run at 3.13.

 

 

 

Gravity Skateboards - All Terrains, No Limits

 

More people skating "all the things". Theres a theme going here. Fantastic terrain, cool music, cool filming. Wish you were there?

 



 

Gravity Skateboards- Sergio Yuppie's part in "Flow"

Another from Gravity, this time one man. Sergio Yuppie. The energy and speed of his sliding is mind blowing. His rotations are snappy, his laybacks go on for ever. And through fire. Watch it and want to go and buy some hard wheels.

 

The Matt Pearce, Nick Channon slide videos

These dudes know how to slide. Speedy rotations, nosey stuff, laybacks and much more. Some of the U.K's best technical sliding is below, with two very different, equally sick styles. Music and editing puts it all together nicely, although it could have been filmed with a calculator and uploaded with a paperclip and it would still kick ass.

 

 

Thanet Dogtown - Greenwich Park

People going to a hill in England and having a laugh. The video captures it perfectly, a brand of stoke that is like no other. Yet again the music completes this video. Highlights include Gavgnars beastly run on the classics and Jamie's bosh, bosh BOSH style of hard wheel killing.

 

 

River going fast.

 

I wanted to get into skating hills from watching amongst others, this dude. My first speedboard was an old Spooky I bought from him on the now deceased Lush Forums. Here is The peyragudes run, with most excellent commentary and most excellent (and fast) skateboarding. You should have seen it by now, and if you havent, watch it.

 

John Cardiel

I'd vaguely heard of this person. And then one day, I stumbled upon this video. "Oh my", thought I, as I watched the dude FLY.

Broadway Bomb 2011 Tech Slide Jam 

The bomb will "never be the same again". Apparently. Therefore, enjoy this celebration of going sideways on skateboards. Loads of people killing it, all in their own way.

SEBASTIAN HERTLER

This man came to Bopeep, and shredded it. Nobody does that. Lots of people can make it down, some can make it down fast, a few very fast. But nobody properly shreds it, apart from Seb Hertler. Watch as he effortlessly slices his way down a very long, very fast hill. He knows what he's doing, he saves pushing it to the max for a closed hill. But him "not pushing it too much" is most peoples idea of what they dream they could skate like.

Will Edgecombe-Scrumping

Killer music. Killer skating. Tech, hugeness, speed, style. This video came out, and everybody fell off their chairs.

So yeah, theres some of my favourites. Helps me not to implode whilst away from hills. Like I said, by NO MEANS a definitive list. Just some cool things to watch in the middle of the week.

Skate erryyfing.

Will

Racing skateboards (or not)

I like writing about skateboarding, but not as much as I like actually skateboarding.

So why do some of us not care about going racing on skateboards? Erm well...

So to try and explain, lets murder fun down in a really cold manner into an equation.

Fun on a skateboard= Time spent having fun on a skateboard * How fun it actually is

Ish. There are so many other things that weigh in but that sums most of it up.

And then racing. I've done some racing at Hog Hill up in london. It can be quite cool being in a pack and trying to overtake people, I get it. But it's the extras that come with racing that, certainly for me, puts me off the idea.

Such as you don't magic into your heats. Somebody has to be super organised and sort people out. Even if they are really good, it still means everybody who isn't racing at that time gets to sit around and watch. To me, sitting around and watching skateboarding is for when you hurt yourself at a session, or when it's the middle of the week and somebody has released a cool edit.

Also, the IGSA racing system is not for me. Not being fast enough is NOT reason to have to sit around doing nothing because you dont make the qualy cut, or get rinsed in a heat, or whatever. Moving forward, with the IDF or whoever, racing inevitably means that eventually, you have to sit around and let the faster people skate the hill. I want to be skating the hill as much as possible, as much as everybody else. You dont buy a book and have it slam shut halfway through because somebody else grasps the concepts of it better. If you buy a day of freeride, you get a day of freeride. If you buy a day of racing, you might get a day of racing, if you are fast.

For me, racing goes against how I like to skate. I like to get as many runs as I can. Thats why even though I get out to a hill so little due to various factors, when I do, I get as many runs as I can manage. When you die you want to be able to say you lived, when I'm done skating I want to say that I skated as much as I could and got maximum fun from it.

But then it comes back to that really crude equation I made right?

Fun on a skateboard= Time spent having fun on a skateboard * How fun it actually is

For some people that race, they get more fun from racing than not racing. So the less time spent having fun is offset by having more fun with the time they get.

A long while ago now, I spoke to a very fast dude who likes his racing. Whilst conveying how much fun a race heat is for him, he explained that the qualifying is also fun for him, because even though there is time sitting around before and after your go, you have the hill to yourself, and you can just go for it and push things.

At the moment I don't get the fun from the same things, but I respect the pursuit of fun in downhill skateboarding that we share.

And I suppose theres a bit of a conclusion. We're all able to respect each others different approaches to fun on a skateboard, right? Being able to say "I have a different opinion to you", before hooning down a hill with somebody and laughing the same when you get to the bottom and crashing the same when you mess up and sharing the same amazing, absurd, ridiculous moments of life spent travelling fast (or slow, or sideways, or on your face), down hills, on skateboards.

Cheers for reading.


Will

..

I wonder whether I am indeed too honest with how I'm feeling when I write about it here but since nobody will be reading this anyway heres some more.

I'm impatient for good things to happen and yet I don't possess the initiative and drive to make them happen. These things include getting a small job and supporting my skateboarding. If I got a job, any job, I could get to more hills and events, and I would almost certainly be happier. If I woke up tomorrow and had a job I would, surely, be fine with it and do ok. But the bit where you have to go out and make things happen is what I do not have. I've written a CV, and printed it. Thats it. Printing it took ages. Should I be happy for doing that? It's an achievement for me.

It's about setting goals but I don't really know what to set. I definately need more than college life and skateboarding.

I put things in the way to stop myself thinking. Maybe thats the skateboarding. Only a few times have I gone out and not been able to skate because of not feeling very pleased with that moment, or me. When I'm not skating, or at college, it's a lot more difficult, so I listen to music or read loads of pointless articles on the internet. I've recently started deciding to watch some things on TV rather than just looking over and seeing something on. But all of it is just stuff to put in front of my face so I don't stop and think. When I do accidently stop and think about my life in general it never results in me feeling positive.

Another day has passed where I've done barely anything useful. I havent done any work, or got a job, or created anything. I went cycling and that was quite good, but then I was home, and now I am home, and I spend far too much time here on my own, feeling like this. Going to bed loses the feeling, once I fall asleep, but it's 4pm now. Better go for a skate. I wonder if i'll regret bothering to write this.

IDF, IGSA, Skateboarding

 

IDF has been launched, and this is the International Downhill Federation.

Ye olde IGSA is still going, and that is the International Gravity Sports Association.

 

The main point of concern with the IDF is the lack of letters for making amusing acronyms out of, but we're a creative bunch and we'll think of something.

 

People are well excited for the IDF, I'm stoked for people being stoked on something new, even if this doesn't really affect me much... at all. I don't think I need racing at the moment, but I might do and then I suppose things will matter.

 

Anyway, the funny thing I find is skateboarders obsession with nobody making a profit. I mean, skaters go out to work, to make a profit, so they can go skateboarding (well most do ;)), skater owned shops have to make a profit to you know, exist. But when it comes to the conductors of making shit happen, people think they are being out of order if they make something. If an association was launched tomorrow, saying heres some sick races, we're going to be making a profit, it would be unfairly torpedoed by the skating community.

 

Money is awesome! Wouldn't it be ideal if race organisers and associations could make it their full time job? Skaters would love to make skating their full time job. The organisers could dedicate so much time and energy to making the community better. If organisers and associations are working together to do good work, objecting to them making a profit out of it isnt fair.

 

So in summary

 

Yeah IDF! Yeah a future where people can make a living out of this amazing skateboarding down hills thing.

 

 

This year of skateboarding down hills

Seems a bit weird reviewing the year before its even over but having not been on a hill for 2 weeks (and not having a proper run because the conditions were god awful) for what... 4 weeks? Well I have nothing better to do at the present time. So what stuff has happened to me this year?

 

In January I wrote about the year before (my first year of skating hills.) That year was immense. Sessions were skating Peep with a close family a hell of a lot. Everything was a novelty and that was a cool feeling. This year the skating is a lot more diverse and theres a lot more people. I have got to know some absolute shredders and seen some crazy things done on a skateboard. Theres less novelty to skating hills now but I suppose thats just something that happens. I still love downhill as much as when I first stepped on a board at Peep, but not everything is new anymore.

 

I was really psyched on the year a little after february. I was gonna have it.

 

Ah April, April was an interesting one. The Mark Short All Around Skate interview came out that I'd been very excited for. I can't remember if it was announced beforehand or if I just knew it was going to come out eventually, but I dived into it. And it made me feel a bit sad and I wrote about it HERE. The thing was, I wasn't trying to lay into Mark Short.

 

In that interview, Mark talks about getting into downhill and watching Sergio Yuppie's video parts over and over again. Well I got into downhill watching Mark Short's video parts over and over again. Everybody has role models in their skating and when a big inspiration seems to be so not stoked on the scene that you are in, it's not a great feeling. I was clear that the only thing I was judging was the words in that interview, and I maintain that. He absolutely shreds and to be able to slide anything like that is a dream for me.

 

What else happened? Oh yeah, I went to Houyet.

 

Or more accurately- I WENT TO HOUYET WITH THE VANDEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I will freely admit that I am just a big kid, and I can still feel the stupid smiles that would rock up on my face every time I remembered that I was travelling in convoy with the Vandem dudes and the metal was turned up to 11. The weather was awful, the company was immense. The ferry was nasty but the Vandem was... well, there are no words to describe it's majestic beauty. I didn't skate so well due to limited dry runs but one of those was the most stoked i've ever been on a skateboard. And then it was over. I wanted more but I know how lucky I was to have got that opportunity. Cheers dudes.

 

In May I reviewed my Sabre trucks that I'm still skating. Cool to have people from various corners of the world enjoying something I wrote. I really bloody like these things!

 

And then Crash and Burn.... ah... so... I don't use this word very often at all, but it seems appropriate.

 

At Crash and Burn weekend, I was a bit of a cunt. I realise that now. I mean the weekend went badly for me but there was a lot that I could have done to have made things better. An example? I missed the day where ALL of the runs happened. I missed it because I hadn't gone out and got a proper sleeping bag and manned up and camped. There were some silly crashes also, I really don't like having crashes with people. The inliner was my fault for not being able to stand up and footbrake into the corner to avoid him (still don't know who it was.) Adam Persson was just one of those things. I didn't know he was there, he didn't have time to let me know because of the speed difference and we crashed on a narrow road coming out of a horrendous corner. Thats it.

 

After that I really started enjoying my techsliding. Hard wheels are amazing fun. Currently trying to decide whether to downsize on my slide board or start combining a longboard with hard wheels. The future will be fun in any case.

 

THE BLOODY CATS!

 

Oh, when did that even start!?!?! I can't remember. But when I'm bored I will quite often find wherever my cat is, take a picture of him and photoshop some Cult Goodness around/on him. Risch helmets, boards and gloves also now. I don't think anybody minds. And some people have liked the stuff im doing! I don't know why but if the stuff I make when I'm trying to avoid feeling a bit down ends up making somebody laugh, well thats really cool.

 

Myself, I am not that happy with things at the moment with regards to life and skating. But things can only get better, and i'm determined to get to a place where I can get out to hills a lot more and am happy when not skating. Most of this involves learning how to do things for myself.

 

On it.

 

I've learnt a lot this year, and I know how to make next year the best yet.

Will

Longboardism and jumping to conclusions

This cropped up http://longboardism.com/2012/10/igsa-bonelli-chance-gaul.html

At some race, some dudes crashed, some dude called Chance in the heat took the opportunity to give em both the finger.

The Longboardism article is a bit sad.

You can only comment on what you know. Seeing a picture is not always "worth a thousand words" as the article states. Those pictures that get shared around on facebook, with messages on them. Yeah, you know the ones. People seize on them without looking into the details because it suits their opinions on something. You often find out theres more to the picture than is immediately obvious.

A picture you could completely judge would be something like a dude kicking a child off a skateboard. Any person would know that there could be no reasonable justification for that action. Case closed. But what about this picture of Chance? Heres just some justifications for his actions.

• He's having FUN and enjoying himself.
• He may know the dudes crashing really well.
• The crash may not have been that fast.
• It may have been worthy of a little bit of mocking if it was paticularly "failsome"
• The dudes may have been out of order to him before (not suggesting they were)

See, that took such a small space of time to create loads of things that should prevent you reaching a judgement on the photo. Unless you have the answers, jumping to a conclusion is wrong. Jumping to a conclusion that suits your agenda, and then publishing it on the internet and potentially damaging somebodies reputation is not cool.

But then, you can bet on some of the responses to the article being as shit as the article itself. The people who are scared of words like "serious" and "professional" and "organised".

What is needed is for people who are more on the side of seriousness to respect those who arn't, and for those who are more on the side of not being serious to respect those who are. 

To simplify things.

GO SKATEBOARDING HOW YOU WANT (UNLESS YOU ARE BEING A TWAT)

LET OTHERS SKATEBOARD HOW THEY WANT (UNLESS THEY ARE BEING TWATS)

Easy.

Will

The Skeptics and the pub shaped Rabbit Hole

 



Yeah, I went to visit The Skeptics. I only saw one truly impressive beard. But the evening was great. Weirdly enough whilst you could easily tell who the Skeptics were, they are strangely like us. If you met one you might not even realise until you reached a conclusion based on an assumption based on a preconceived mindset. At that point you'd better have an escape route planned or a copy of What Doctors Dont Tell You to distract them but still, meeting them can result in enlightenment as well as death by knowledge.

If you think critically about it, I am typing this, therefore I didn't (quite) die. Although for quantifying the state of death I imagine their agents will be on the way.

So, some things.

I don't call myself an atheist.

Not because I disagree with it, but because it doesn't operate in a realm in which I think. I just don't need a banner to stand under in terms of belief. I dont follow any religion, I do think about the universe.

Sometimes you won't agree.

I noticed some people go into a debate expecting to change the other persons mindset and reach some kind of amazing agreement. I think once you get to a certain point and you don't "agree to disagree", you end up just making noise at each other. Also if you are not ready to have your own thoughts challenged, why should somebody let you challenge theirs? Not wanting to "lose" is wrong. Having your mind changed a bit is a win in the same way as changing somebody elses mind a bit, because one or both of you take something from it. Even if it doesn't immediately dawn on you.


Agree with everything, some, or none of what I have written here.

These brains are made for thinking, and thats just what they'll do...

Will

This skateboarding thing

Hmm, so this is gonna be a rambling one.

Lately i've been thinking about this skateboarding down hills thing, and I think it's changed somehow. I've known it for coming up to or around 2 years now, and it's a bit different now to how it was then. Going for a skate then was going to Peep, and it was skating with a crew of usual suspects. It was before the whole "facebook gear talking shit longest standy bitchathon" era, just about. It was cool. It's cool now, but it's different.

I remember when you'd hear about some bit of gear or see it at a skate and there wasn't a massive discussion on facebook about it.

Suppose it's natural that you get more into the scene and the sort of mystery and novelty goes away. It's a jarring thing when you finally realise that somebody can be a downhill skateboarder and a bit of a knob at the same time. It's a jarring thing when you realise that people care so much for the thoughts of everybody else on what they are doing.

On that-I've always tried to do my own thing, and I care very little about what most people might think about something I'm doing. If something needs to be said here I will say it, if I can be arsed. I'll skate how I want and approach things however I want. That might be how I'm feeling at a certain time, right now I'm enjoying cycling a lot and trying to build some fitness to get more runs in at each skate, and improve from there.

I, personally do not go to a skate for much but the skating and the people. Some people need the drink or the social or the whole "yeah we're here for the party, we're so not serious, observe our lack of seriousness" thing. And thats fine. But I percieve some lack of respect for anybody not following the crowd. If I go now and post somewhere discussing, for instance, how you might go about training outside of skateboarding for something inside of skateboarding, the responses would be pretty funny. People are scared of seriousness and words like "training" and "practice", because most downhillers are the half arsed anarchist type. I identify a bit with these words. Who's scared of a word?

A good way to be is if you don't like something in skateboarding, let it be, and do your own thing. Don't like the IGSA? Don't take part. I don't like any soup apart from tomato. I don't have chicken soup and bitch on the internet about it. Unless perhaps you can improve something for the benefit of yourself and others, be constructive. The requirements of building a sandcastle are a lot more than those needed to kick it down.

What stuff has changed then? Well, in a couple years the number of sponsored riders has shot up. I didn't understand before how the skill level could suddenly rocket in such a manner but I think I've got my head around it now. I thought that the sport was in a place where people were leaving and coming in at the same kind of rate, maintaining some kind of balance. Having thought about it more I realise we haven't got there yet, and things are going to be pushed a lot more before the skill on show levels out. We are enjoying the boom. Also the number of people getting hold of so much sponsor gear shows how healthy the companies around are, that they can throw so much produce into supporting riders. Its nice that those that do all the right things- shred, have a laugh, try and be good people, get pushed by the companies and the scene.

Cool boards are coming out now. I remember a time when the range of boards at a company would have some highlights. Now the designs are going so far that even a board which I would never buy still interests me with it's coolness. This is another facet of the boom.

So yeah, stuffs changed, but it's still downhill. We're going skating this weekend. The scene has changed, but the road feels the same when you hit it and the excitement is still the same in the morning before you skate and you still make those funny little calculations before you dive into a run and see what happens. The urethane sounds the same and the banter is still there but we're all going faster now. I still love it.


Will

Opinions are bloody irritating

Opinions are bloody irritating arn't they? You can have an opinion, and it doesn't have to be set to the tune of stuff like facts and figures and studies and real stuff like that. You can have one of these opinions, based on the rest of your opinions, based on the rest of your opinions, which are based on your personality and mindset. And you can shout it out loud. And thats fine. But your opinion, potentially based in a world where what is real doesn't matter, can affect other peoples opinions.

I would at this point talk about what has just been brought to my attention, the new "health" magazine What Doctors Dont Tell You. It appear to be a massive load of scaremongering, badly intentioned, horrendous shite. But I haven't read it, and couldn't be bothered to read through their site after spying a headline "fluoride lowers kids IQ", so in an effort to be all fair and mature I wont use it as an example. I will not criticise that stupid, god awful, pathetic excuse for a waste of paper and ink.

Oh. Whoops.

Anyway, back to objectivity (or as close as I can get to it, I dont tend to like being objective and reasoned because I normally contradict myself and mess up my own arguments in a way in which any accomplished thinker would mockingly laugh at whilst stroking the beard that they should definately have to signify their level of thinking.)

Skateboard stuff! This is what I have observed.

There will be a new bit of skate gear that comes out. Say a new truck. Most people will offer an opinion on it, and shout it on the internet. How many of these people have enough experience of skating a range of trucks, or the relevant engineering experience, or knowledge of the production of this paticular type of gear to comment on it? I would suggest very few, and certainly not I.

And where do these opinions come from? Some people want to sound like gear nerds. Some people just like to see their own opinions in writing to satisfy their ego. Some people want to show everyone that they skate in this way, and form opinions to provide evidence for them skating in this way. That last example was a bit of a tricky one to explain, so a really simple example would be- "Yeah high angle trucks are better"- because they want everyone to think they ride in a cool, sketchy manner, with gear that is on the limit of chucking them off.

I should at this point say that skateboarders, paticularly of the downhilling type, are not inherently carefree. Many care a lot about what people think of them, whilst professing how they "really don't take things seriously." Hah.

But yeah, opinions- opinions irritate the hell out of me sometimes. To base your thoughts on what you want things to be like, regardless of the facts is a highly annoying thing to do. But we all do it to some extent. I would like people to take a minute though, and think about how their opinions could influence others before shouting them out. Perhaps think harder still if you are about to publish a magazine that could scare people away from medicine and cost real people their health. Oh, I wasn't suppose to use that. Whoops again.

Will

"Freeride" videos

A lamentation.



So little tim, you wanna make a downhill skateboarding video? heres what you gotta do

Learn no comply slides. At no point should you EVER put a hand down.

Skinny jeans are not optional. You must not under any circumstances wear kneepads, although whichever soft padding is fashionable at the time can be worn, as long as it's what the cool kids are rocking.

Include plenty of shots of trees, insects, badgers, cows and various other nature related things that have nothing to do with skateboarding. People dont watch these videos to see skateboarding you know. Make sure you come across as really eco friendly.

Include lots of shots of you sliding through piles of leaves. Get a friend to help if you cant find enough.

Find a wall and skate past it, sliding your glove over it. This will make your video really, really unique and thought provoking, raising lots of interesting points of debate about life. Possibly combine this shot with the piles of leaves.

Make sure whoever's filming you pans the camera from the floor towards you, or focuses it from a flower or a tree or a pigeon or something onto you. This lets your audience know you are At One With Nature.

Include shots of you smiling, laughing and mucking about with friends. This will show everyone how much of a good person you are.

You can select whatever music you like, as long as it is dubstep/is an unpopular remix of some popular song/ is really, really old school. The last approach shows you have a great depth of personality.

Make sure not to go too fast, or your video might transition from mild downhill to fair/moderate downhill and then serious downhill. Make sure you know exactly what category of skateboarding you are doing, and then skate to a paticular set of rules and regulations so you dont get confused. The "free" in freeride is not a licence to do whatever you want you know.

have fun

Will

so

so, what I am doing now is sitting, fairly contented, listening to some music I've never heard before. This is very different to sitting, not contented, and listening to some music (whether i've heard it before or not.)

But is contented really the right word? Perhaps just dumbly happy is better. Because if you, as I all too often find myself, sit and think about the various things in life, you do tend to encounter in your mind all the little shitty details which, in a similar way to how cars on a motorway jam up when theres too much weight of traffic, clog together and slow everything down. And then you feel shit. But perhaps feeling shit should be reserved for those special occasions when something shit has happened. I mean why sit and feel shit due to small details just because you thought about them all in one go? Better to reserve the feeling for when something properly shit has happened.

So dumbly happy it is then. Because im not spending time weighing up various things, or thinking about what I could have done differently in a given scenario, or the many other routes to finally falling asleep at whatever hour of the morning. During the long summer break, I was usually not asleep before 2, because of the massive long time that I didnt really fill with much apart from some really good skateboarding and a most excellent trip to Cornwall resulting in much time spent thinking in a not very useful way.

A useful way to think is one which ends up with you doing something, and recently i've been putting a lot of effort into my art, and then that is paying off. I worked hard to make painting fun, and then I finally managed to start painting things I liked a bit. And then i've spent the same time on drawing (pastilles, pencils, biro), and thats started to be fun and a good process. Sitting and listening to music at the dining room table in a zone where all you have in front of you is a nice space for putting your thoughts directly into some kind of form in some kind of media.

Music i've just found is Maybeshewill http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EkS_JotL-4
and i'm quite pleased to have found it because it's bloody excellent.

The new muse album is not for me (I dont know who it's for actually).

But yeah, thinking, thinking can be pointless and a waste of time, energy and life but thinking and then doing something useful is very good indeed. Not always very good, or even good, but at least productive. Doing stuff in the world is good. You get fuck all for sitting and thinking about how much of a twat you are, so i've realised, after much deliberation. You do not get much out of thinking how you could have done something differently, not done something, done something, not said something, said something better or not said something at all. You can go and do stuff, and maybe have some kind of positive impact on somebody elses day in the present. You can make stuff, create stuff and enjoy stuff.

Im sure by tomorrow i'll have lost whatever these thoughts are now and im sitting here listening to whatever thinking over things in a pointless way. I distinctly remember three evenings in a row I was chilling in a happy manner, and I noted this fact at the time but i've forgotten when they were. So yeah, the secret to being dumbly happy is not thinking about things in a way in which just wastes you, but doing stuff in the world, in the present that is creative and productive and useful.

Anyway, thats enough. Time to read through and see if i've made any sense even to myself.

.

Read through. I think it makes sense.

.

bla

Saw a pigeon explode on the front of a van today.

£85 to a sequel. Thats going to be £150 ish gripped and posted. Must sell things.

Im excited about skateboarding down hills. Currently its one weekend on, one weekend off due to the twattishness I havent shaken yet affecting my ability to make it to skates, but the whole thing can only get better, and when I get hold of that bledy sequel, very good things will happen.

I want to go back to houyet.

Triple 8 are making humourous half shells.

I want to go bomb a hill.

I like using the custom leather colour selector on some custom leather peoples site. Helps imagining the future or something.

Photoshopping my cat on another skateboard.

The sequel has a standing platform that is sick as eff for my lanky bastard frame, and will make toeside slides feel much less cramped up. I am going to go effing fast on that thing. Stupid fast.

Techsliding is a fun distraction for me, but for proper "gofast" type shenanigans, the list is

Heelside slide and cornering
Toeside slide and cornering
Tuck
Push
Footbrake

and thats all I really want to do. The whole soft wheel standup thing doesnt really interest me much.

Good things are imminent. If I could bottle the feeling whilst im skating I could probably go and get a job, only want a few hours, and have money, make it to every skate.

more houyet

So this morning I watched the Southend crew's edit from the spring houyet event. Dunno what it was but such a lengthy edit of the event brought back a load of stuff that I remembered.

 

Gaffer tape leather "decoration", done just before I left...

 

 

Things I remember, may have covered some already.

So the weather that weekend was awful. Truly horrendous, and unpredictable too. One minute it could be lashing down with rain, the next bright sunshine. And there was this little bit of tarmac just a few metres away from the "Vandem arrangement of sinister tents and vehicles", and that bit of tarmac would always accurately reflect the condition of the hill. It was like an Oracle in tarmac form. Amazing.

There was a point when we were travelling out, after we'd got the ferry to mainland europe. Me and Pete had just driven off the ferry, made it onto the roads of france, and the metal was cranked up loud. And I just had this stupid smile that kept coming back, I remembered something said to me before I left "people would give their right arm to be doing what you're doing." And I took in where I was, what I was doing, where I was going, who I was going with, and couldn't help but sit and smile and be so happy at my life at that exact moment in time.

Oh, none of this is in any order, just how things have came into my head today.

The surface in some of the corners. The surface on the left hand side of the road about three quarters of the way to the first corner. The noise of the road I recognise from the edit I watched. When it was wet I just couldn't turn in. Also at the time I couldnt slide toeside, or barely corner that way, so i'd go into anything going right, leant out all awkward. If it was wet I was fucked. In the dry I was still fucked. Watching me must have been hilarious.

"Good luck?! Get in the bus motherfucker!"

The questions posed by Don and Giovanni in the vandem... shall say no more.

Following said legendary idiots over the fence to get into the campsite.

Surprisingly recieving a wise few words from one of them as to why we were wandering around the whole campsite saying hello to every one of the european riders. Something like "Everybody comes out to these skates and doesnt come and meet the people".

Not learning the track, so always forgetting where I was on it and being surprised by one of the corners. And not remembering much about where the spray painted warnings on the track were, so getting surprised by some super sketchy road every now and then.

The pizza from the pizza place. It was incredible. So, so, so good. I'd almost travel out there just to have a pizza at the houyet pizza place. Right by the campsite, right by the track. Can almost taste how good that pizza was.

We stopped off at some service station in france or belgium (I dont know where we were), and the few seconds of peace were such a contrast from being in the back of the vandem for that stage of the journey. Another time when I realised what I was doing and was so happy about it.

When Rich rolled us into houyet, and the cheer and celebration. Without a map as well. I'd of made it all the way to Germany before I realised something was wrong.

Bohemian Rhapsody, LOUD in the vandem. That will always stand out for me, that was one of those amazing moments that i'll remember when other stuff fades.

Having Don and Giovanni's tent pitched DIRECTLY in front of my door. Was awoken with a start by hurried unzipping of that tent, shuffling of feet, and a quiet chunder dangerously close to my tent. Went back to sleep.

On the first day I woke up and walked around our half of the campsite about 10 times, thinking and taking everything in. Was 5 or 6 in the morning, the area was stunning, like a small valley with a river and endless trees.

Relating my last run with Oli to the dudes in the vandem after saturdays skating. In must have sounded like such a kid, but I was psyched.

“I was just fucking dalua tucking at the end man, I got the henchest bump draft into the first corner, and was like...”

 

One run I overtook somebody. One run I didnt get overtaken by anybody. Cool moments. Oh and I overtook this drift trike, it was so surreal, I hadnt seen one before and was like "what the eff is THAT" whilst waving and tucking past.

 

When we were waiting for the ferry home, John was endlessly trying some trick on Pete's park board on this concrete thing. I thought any moment the tail of that proto was going to hell, and john with it.

 

The ferries smelled cheap. Like horrible, cheap, strange places to be. It added to the intrigue.

 

When we were on the return journey, some of us were on deck, and found this notice about dumping stuff at sea. When you're a certain distance out it's cool to dump crockery overboard.

 

When goodbyes had been said, driving away from the ferry, into the night in england and waving goodbye to the vandem. And then when me and Pete rocked up to meet my dad at some road somewhere, I got my stuff to the car, and then it was like over. That was that. I got home at some hour and didnt sleep, just sat there on my own wondering if anything had happened at all and I hadnt just imagined it like some amazing euro freeride dream. But it had happened, and I'd gone all the way to belgium and skated houyet, something i'd only heard about and seen before, with the vandem crew and the rest of the dudes. And I might not have shown just how happy and excited and pleased with my life in that moment I was.

 

And it's a bit sad that crash and burn didnt work out for me, and I skated badly and had stupid crashes with people. Before that event, I was so looking forward to it, I thought that was my moment, but I messed it up, I ruined it and thats why it sticks with me.

 

Must flog belly racer, must buy sequel, must go fast.

ha

So I dont know what I last posted on here but it was probably a rant about something. This isnt a rant.

No, whilst i've had a monumental sulk about not being able to go and skate hills recently, i've got into something else. Terms in skateboarding are a bit shit so what this is is something like "going out skateboarding and attempting to have a laugh with a little board and funny wheels and a bit of tarmac." And thats what i've been doing. Riding an inherently fun setup (Death 8.5, Rubbishy little trucks risered up and almost cored cult classics) means even the sensation of riding around is fun. Just really, really amusing for some reason. And then i've been going to a place that is just a pretty much flat bit of tarmac, and seeing what can be done. Just silly little things that build board control. And then putting these things into a line. Which currently is popping the board over, so it's upside down on my feet, flicking it over as I jump onto it, pivoting 180 to start down the little incline that is there, heelside 180 standup slide, pivoted backside 180, another standup slide, then pivot back 180 frontside. That took a bit of time.

All of this is silly little stuff that isnt really tricks, but this isnt about tricks, this is about trying to have a laugh with what i've got, which is a bit of tarmac.

So i've been doing this for several days now, sometimes going out 4 times a day because I get home and think of some other fun little thing to try.

And then today, I chuck some new shoes on that actually have grip left on them, and start popping some little stationary ollies. This is the funny bit. Way back when I first got into skateboarding, I'd try and try to ollie every now and then. Like decide "oh today im on it" and go to somewhere and flounder around for however long and go home again feeling tired and bored. And now just from having all these little things i've learnt to do, theres now fun there. From the silly little tricks, some kind of board control has developed, and thats where the ollies are coming from. I dont feel quite at home on a double kick board yet, but its getting there.

A few weeks ago, I never thought I would have any fun on a skateboard away from a hill. How wrong I was.

Skateboard Gear

So, skateboarding gear, specifically stuff for going down hills is a funny business. Sabre 38's have just dropped and are more expensive than I anticipated, so I suppose they arnt intended to be "regular rkp market" or "CNC precision rkp market" but something like "regular rkp market+1" which is interesting, and certainly adds something to the whole picture. A bit more of an investment than regular truck gear (indeed on the Vandem web store a single complete truck with the 38 plate is £60). Do they skate that bit nicer? Difficult to know. To be blunt, this is because nobody has bought any yet and offered an opinion, although the opinion of somebody else arguably isnt that useful to anybody but the person themself, and even then are any of us qualified to make an assessment of an item of skate gear beyond "seems fun skating this" or "this feels a bit ming"?

And that, is the purpose of this post; exploring the idea of opinions on hill shredding gear.

A case is my slightly coned green cult zillas. These are 83a (probably), started off 72mm, and by most accounts are really, really nice. Cult race wheels are famed by most to offer substantial levels of grip with a "predictable slide". Now this wasnt the case for me for most of my time skating them, and I now know this was due to poor weight distribution in a slide, that would have made any race wheel feel very choppy in a slide and cause similar issues with keeping feet in place on the board. However, some things have happened since that are quite interesting, starting with a paticular run, the one I made on the morning of Crash and Burn (and sit around and feel sad) race day.

So this run, this run was atrocious. Like, by taking part in it, I was insulting downhill skateboarding, it was that comprehensively shamefully shit. Starting at the top of Bopeep, I had been getting on with these wheels fairly well so far during the weekend. I had some issues with staying with the board during high speed slides due to my back knee rising slightly, this due to my inability to concentrate on what im supposed to be doing when skating a hill. Anyway, I could coleman them fine under 30. No issues there. Until this run.

I push off, I go for my "test slide" (something I got into that weekend to warm up before then hooning all the way to carnage corner, a single slide put in just a little way after pushing off, and some way before the initial right hander.) Well, this plainly doesnt work. I go into the slide, and my board just stops, I lose my feet and feel a bit sad. I imagine this must have been due to having my back knee up in a slide and shrug it off. I go for another slide (having decided to slide all the way down), and really pay attention to what im doing. I make sure my back knee is where it should be, and the same thing happens. This is a bit odd. Try again, same thing. Go down to the corner, just manage to keep my feet from falling off, and have to adjust them afterwards. The rest of the run didnt really transpire because I stopped to have tea and biscuits and a discussion about the pro's and con's of the alterative voting system with Adam Persson (without biscuits or tea or the pro's and con's of the alterative voting system).

But anyway, this was a bit sad, I felt like a twat due to being unable to coleman (all I do, when I think about it, that and harass Skippy in various forms over the internet). And I think to myself, do I want to be skating this setup? Is it the wheels, or the rest of the setup, or what, that means that sometimes, it just isnt going to work for me? I surely cannot be completely happy with this if due to nothing in paticular I can randomly utterly lose it.

So on the topic of the wheels, I skated them at a spot down in eastbourne, and the board didnt feel so good. These "predictable" wheels initiate into a slide ok, and when I pay attention I can keep my feet on the board, but they feel, well, not so cool. The slide is a honking great DERRPPPPP to a stop, that feels uncomfortable and well, I dont know how to describe it. Not nice.

But then, I bosh on my converters, wheels that are really, really cool, and at this spot, they chatter towards when you hook up the slide. Now that was weird, because when I have skated them elsewhere, they do not do this.

So how the eff do you assess skate gear then? How do I say whether I do like Zillas when they are supposed to be nice and can be nice for me, and then can feel cack at one hill, or cack for one weird run from hell. And is it even the wheels, or the setup in general?

On the subject of my overall setup, I am thinking things. One aspect of skating is footbraking, and at any kind of speed I cannot do this on my setup. Im running my trucks fairly turny, and its a short wheelbase, high topmount, so its not tricky to deduce why. I am gradually coming round to the decision of buying something like a sequel (31" WB, drop through), something that will be confidence inspiring and low, and perhaps more suitable for my gangly frame. I mean, I am fairly tall, and im skating a small topmount just because it fits a short tuck that I find nice at the moment and lets me get away with a cornering technique that is, to be honest, gay as fuck. I should just get a hencher board and learn to corner properly and switch up my tuck a bit. And get the benefits including being able to footbrake, easier slides, and not having to pay so much bloody attention.

Yeah I should do that.

Time to look at big drop throughs, and not really discuss it, because it all goes back to one thing.

A JOB.

And that is something I have no idea about. I cant brave the job world.

Oh yeah, theres no real conclusions to anything mentioned here, apologies.

Will

Aint gotta be organised, just gotta be fun.

Hello Mr Cameron.



 "I want to use the example of competitive sport at the Olympics to lead a revival of competitive sport in primary schools.
"We need to end the 'all must have prizes' culture and get children playing and enjoying competitive sports from a young age, linking them up with sports clubs so they can pursue their dreams.
"That's why the new national curriculum in the autumn will include a requirement for primary schools to provide competitive sport."

OH DEARY ME

So my last blog post was a bit of a rant, this is intended to be more objective but probably wont be. Anyway, olympics fever is in full swing, and now there is a scramble from politicians and public figures to insist that we need to "capitalise" on our "olympic legacy." And other such nice terms for the papers. I dont want to post something like "wiafheklhfhkasef" so I shall say this.

why the eff is there this obsession that competitive sport should be the only kind that should be pushed? Yes, it is nice to see the olympic success stories, but I would be equally as pleased if we didnt have an olympic squad at all. Because those people would be having fun doing other stuff. If this were the case, the media would be shocked and appalled, instead of accepting that there are more ways of having fun through sport/activities than the narrow scope of official, organised stuff.

There is so much money being talked about being put into getting organised sport pushed in schools. Heres an idea, what about setting some money aside, and then saying, hey children, society of the present and future, what do you actually want to do? What do you think will be cool to try?

Because for me, personally, downhill skateboarding is my thing, and I didnt find that through having to do the rugby or cricket or whatever that was on the school sports agenda at the time. If you ask people what they want to do, instead of insisting on what society wants people to do (i.e visible things for the sake of visibility and winning medals and international competitions), people can try stuff. Try stuff they might enjoy, instead of having to do things they might not being enjoying. Maybe one dude wants to sit and play the piano, guitar, whatever, because thats his thing. Maybe some other kid wants to read a book, or do some bloody hard maths problem, or go and climb a hill. And there will be some people who do want rules and organisation and winning medals. And thats cool too.

Society has got to encourage expression and people finding what they want to do in life. That might be something organsed and official. That might be playing skateboards. That might be something that cant at all be classified as a sport. Art, media, music, mucking around, having fun.

People do not have to conform. But they can if they want, obviously.


Will

.

Downhill skateboarding is a fucking stupid thing to enjoy. How incredibly silly that the major thing that I enjoy is skateboarding down hills, whilst living here.

We have found tescos cack hill, which contrary to the name is not a hill. It is a slope. It is cack. If you push like FUCK you can get enough speed to just about pendy a slide back. If you are on classics. I found a hill vaguely nearby but it is a bit shit looking really. It's just far enough away that I cant skate to it, it needs a spotter and its just a little bomb down to a slide on a screwed up surface. Skating a hill that needs a spotter on your larry is not going to be fun/any good.

And then, I'm constantly hearing stuff from the olympics coverage, such as (to paraphrase)

"So yeah I loved this sport so I just kept on doing it"

Such phrases provoke reactions from me that can be described as despair, irritation, annoyance and other such unfortunate things. I cant go skate a hill whenever I want. I get to skate a hill every two weeks (ish). This is utterly sickening. I cant find the same enjoyment from other stuff, as much as i've tried, I'm here to skate hills.

You get to skate hills whenever if you live in bristol, london, on the coast, down in cornwall, in wales, east, everywhere where I know there are scenes. Except here. The unfairness of this is something I just cannot get over. Why can I not go skate a hill whenever I want? I'd be there all the time. I want to be getting on it, like everybody else is. And I cant.

Fuck it.

stuff i've made

so heres some stuff.

and heres some boards I made

some stuff what happened on my skateboard

I have declared a lunchbreak after an unproductive however long its been trying to get into the current art project im struggling with, partly in order to indulge in a snickers bar (the first of only 5 from our tescos order), and partly to write things here, on this blog, which you are reading.

I've been skateboarding a few times and it's lifted me out of my monumental post-crash and burn sulk. And in that time i've mostly been playing around on hard wheels and a little board, and it seems to have endless novelty value. And from the novelty and fun and energy has come some progress, which is the correct kind of order of things. Oh Crash and Burn, why were you not in this order for me?

 The other day I was at a skate, and a dude said "Hey whos is that Earthwing over there?" and I said "uh dunno, maybe connors?"

That was my board. You know you've majorly lost something when you cant even recognise the skateboard that took you to belgium with the lush crew, or let you grip bopeep corner faster and faster until it got stupid, or loads of other cool stuff i've done in the "going fast" subcategory of this thing. I've lost it like hell, like an absolute chump and it really, really sucks.

I think it came from a feeling that something good was going to happen at Bopeep. I fully believed it was time for eveything to come together in some immense way, and when it didnt, when it was so not fun and not immense and I skated so, so stupidly, it caught me out. It was like running for a bus and not just not being fast enough to catch it, but getting run over on the way. I had this sense that I had missed out and messed up.

But I want to get back on it, at last.

Anyway back to art projects for the moment...

will

WE DONE SOME SKATEBOARDING

right so... we done some skateboarding.... and it was bloody superb, and then its suddenly dawned on me just how superb it was. I think that was the best skateboarding i've done anywhere, anytime.
It was everything I enjoy about this life (it's more than a hobby). Great crowd, great hill, progressing and having a laugh. The hard wheels were whacked out pretty quickly. And I've been reminded of how immense they are. You can work on stuff, like for me just simple 180's, and then half way down a run you can go "oh I wonder what would happen if I tried that" and try some silly grab in a coleman, or over rotating it a little bit, or tweaking something or other a bit. Hard wheel sliding distills skateboarding down to its childish, fun nature. I have no fun doing it at Bopeep, its narrow, steep and a funny surface, but on a hill suitable- its incredible. When you're going down a hill and you've done a few slides, you get this funny feeling:

your feet are in the pockets of the board, you're locked in
your mind is above everything in your life
you gain some feeling from the wheels where you dont really feel they exist as wheels, but little points of contact with the hill that allow you to do whatever you want

It's humbling as well, when you can see what some people can do with techsliding it doesnt allow you to have an ego. Mine is dead when im doing this. Theres just as many runs as you want, the only constraint on anything is yourself and your skill and passion. Tomorrow doesnt exist and yesterday doesnt matter. Theres just this moment, right now, being alive and playing skateboards...

on hard wheels, in the sun.

Im gonna do this for ever.



Will

the setup wobble of faith!

Usually my titles are somewhat shoddy but THE SETUP WOBBLE OF FAITH seems quite a good one. This is on the subject of when you skate like a twat, and begin to doubt your board. Like I have been doing a little lately.

So I get one run in before the racing at peep. I like to take a bit of time to get into the hill and the whole being on a skateboard thing. I put a coleman in near the top. My board doesnt really slide and I come off. I try again with the same result. Im trying to get my back knee down as much as I can but it doesnt seem to help and I mess up a couple more times. I just about keep my feet on the board into Carnage Corner. Im skating like a wanker, and its very, very annoying not getting a chance to go for it when I know im not going to have a chance to skate much that day. I need to know that i'll be able to slide in order to start bombing a bit.

F-F-F-FAILLLLLLLLLLLL

So yeah after that for the past few days, i've been turning various things over in my head.

1.)  Maybe it was my board being so high?
2.) Maybe these racey cults are just not my thing?
3.) Maybe a topmount board doesnt suit me?

But all of this is kind of bollocks, because at the end of the day most of my skating is down to er... me. Sure a lower, friendlier board might be worth trying some time, and it might turn out to suit my skating a bit better. But much underated is the ability to man up and just go skate what you have. Once I get back into it, the fun will come back.

Crash and Burn weekend...

crash and burn weekend is concluded...

I HAD  A FUCKING MARE

and I shall elaborate on my absolute fucking mare of a time shortly but first there is the much more important need to express how stoked I am for a couple of riders.

First up, Mr Toby Newman. You have been getting more and more "on it" every skate. I feel like we've been pushing our skating for what is it, a year and a half now of bopeepin? and then now you have jumped into an entirely higher league of beastly skating. congratulations dude. it was rad to see you tanking around the final corner at C+B and a 4th place in a very tough junior division is superb.

Secondly, Mr Harry Phelps. You are a machine. Downhilling, bowls, ramps, techsliding, killing everything and enjoying it properly. And to get hooked up with Vandem is well deserved. Keep shredding and smiling dude! More good things are surely on the way.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok so now im gonna elaborate on what I think im going to officially term as like... "wills massive great fucking mare" or "wills failtacular". So yeah... crash and burn.... signed up to freeride, heres what went down.

Rock up on saturday. To be honest, I just want to get on the hill and do the first drop, get a first slide in, because I know after that I can start having fun. And then theres so much waiting for stuff. Getting registered, tech inspection, aimless sitting around... I just want to go and skate.

Later on, I get in an uplift van because the "freeride morning" is starting. Some more standing, this time at the top of the hill. Eventually the crowd thins to my kind of level so I start off down the hill, put my first slide in and a couple more on the way down. All ok so far. Then going into carnage corner, I get overtaken by an inline dude. Im on the outside of him with little room, I have to slide for the corner, and I clip the guy. Takes him right out. I remember looking up for a second as I was sprawled out and just thinking if I were a better rider I could have avoided that with a footbrake. So that was a bit shit.

Cant really remember my second run, think it was fairly crap. Third run im pleased to only slide into the top corner and then just airbrake down to the second corner. my slide into the second is a pile of shit. But I get to the bottom and im fairly stoked on that. Fourth run my slide into the second corner I fuck up. Feel shit and then its lunch and race stuff afterwards. If I stick around I'll get one, maybe two runs in, the parents are getting twitchy from sitting around all day so we go off to eastbourne town.

Now I had one more lift down to peep. I look at the schedule. Im aware that freeriders get to freeride in any available room in the schedule, and looking at it, there is fek all room on sunday, so I elect to give that day a miss.

Im sitting in my house on sunday and it becomes clear there was a last minute change to the schedule and they done freerides ALL DAY. I can't recall a day when i've felt so shit. Sitting there, knowing I've missed out, all down to the luck that I dont seem to have with anything.

So went along to peep today, im able to get in on the first practice run. going down the hill, no matter what I do, I mess up every time I go to slide. Its my first run, so I just want to be able to slide, and I fuck up, every time. On the floor 3 or 4 times. I dont know what im doing wrong. And then almost at carnage corner, I suddenly get overtaken at like 40+ by some of the fast europe dudes. I was second last down, so im confused as hell by this. they were not at the top, where did they come from? And then after carnage corner, I hear something behind me, and in the end one of them mowed right into the back of me. I get up and ask if he's alright (haha) and for a while he was pissed off because I think he thought I was just some random dude on the hill not to do with the event, because I was attired in a hoody and jeans. He apologises later but its all good, I dont blame him for being pissed off when at the time in his mind there was something to be pissed off about.

But yeah anyway I get to the bottom more than a little battered in body and soul. Spend the rest of the day watching stuff. Hertler was cool to see skate, very fast and a funny personality. Juniors was also very cool. Nice to see people having fun, even if im miserable. Manage to not be too much of a wanker and try and be smiley and talkative. It works a little bit. As soon as everything is over I go.

Im not going to hide that I had a shit weekend, due to various kinds of things. But everybody else seemed stoked, and im glad for that.

Sorry to be a dick. Right now I need to sort myself out and start having fun skating again. Then I can keep pushing myself, because thats what I love doing.

Skate somewhere, soon...

(oh I think I might want a low skateboard thats easier to skate, but I dunno)

laters......

Art and skateboarding

So this is about Art, or more specifically the BTEC subject im doing.

I like Art itself. I can sit there and draw something or try and paint something, it's something that distracts me. And then doing it as a subject, and at the minute i've got 4 or 5 projects to work on and try and improve and I just have so little motivation. Mainly because I can do the bit where you just have to chat shit (chatting and writing shit is my speciality in life), but I cant do the bit where you actually have to produce artwork. I have never produced a piece of art I have been proud of. Nothing turns out as intended. The canvas I painted for one project is at a "pass" standard. Is it so bad to see pretty much everybody produce great work with ease and want to do some too?

Being able to paint well would be awesome. In a lesson I dont recall ever being taught some painting skills, so I suppose like everything else in the subject you've just got to try and pick it up. If, like me you havent got the talent then what can you do? I am screwed.

And then, theres skateboarding down hills. I've been handed this amazing waste of time. I can grab any board and go skate anything, and nobody cares. Recognition doesnt matter. And if I go and focus on just having it and having fun, I end up pushing my limits. And then you just have faster fun. Nobody gives a fuck anyway. You dont need to be shown how to do anything, have a laugh and it all works out. It's too amazing to put into words, the people, the hills, the stupid stuff that happens, the crashing and being on the edge of messing yourself right up, going so fast you scare yourself...

If Art as a subject, if that and everything was like skateboarding, things would be great.

But its not.