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10/31/04
I made a Halloween pilgrimage to Tribeca today because it was the last day the park will be open for the season. It won't reopen again until March of next year so I had to go. This skate spot has a lot of meaning to me. It's where I learned how to really carve for the first time and I met too many new friends there to even list. I remember spending hot summer mornings fearfully dropping in and slowly inching my way up the walls of the bowl. It is a sanctuary for skaters in New York City because it is free and located in a very beautiful location on the Hudson. For me it represents a place where my skating grew from nothing to something.
The skate gods must have known it was closing day because the weather was an unseasonable 68 degrees with sunny blue skies. It had rained the night before so when they opened the park at about 11 a.m. the anti-skate chain still dangled like a guardian over the mouth of the kidney shaped bowl. Seeing this, I asked the guard for a broom and in the spirit of Salba, I starting spreading out the puddles so the water would dry and I could skate on this most final of days.
I worked the puddles like a curling champion and just as the last few drops turned from dark to light, I heard "I told you it was wet, you always want to skate so early and I told you it needed to dry out first". It was Sam, cracking me up with his well timed entrance and smart ass remark. I said "You're lucky I got here first or none of us would be skating today!" I crawled out of the basin dragging the broom and I soon as pulled my feet out, a small kid named Dillion dropped in and just shredded, pulling Frontside Airs and carving with incredible speed. I think he was about 9 years old! Sam and I padded up and took a few runs. Armando, the first person I ever met at Tribeca, showed up as well. I was still sore from the day before so I was just sort of taking it easy and soaking in the gorgeous day.
I met a few more older skaters and a really nice dude named Darron was doing all kinds of crazy lip tricks. He was from visiting from Florida and often skates with Alan Gelfand also known as "Ollie" Gelfand, the inventor of the now staple trick that no young skater can live with out. We all had a great time just skating in the sun and exchanging stories. I looked around the small park and noticed the faces of many people I have met and skated with and thought to myself, "What a cool thing I have decided to do". I am out in the air exercising, having a great time, and embarking on a new journey - which is something that I thought I would never say at the age of 39...
See you next year Tribeca...
Darron doing a sweet coming in from Disaster...
10/30/04
Once again, a whole week has passed without skating - DRATZ! I had a bad skate jones that needed a fix so I rallied the troops. Most of the crew doesn't like to hit it as early as I do (usually 10.a.m.), but Dylan said he would be there. When I arrived at Autumn Bowl, Dylan was already shredding the place up with another guy named Paul. I decided to ride the mini-ramp for a while to work on my 50-50 Grinds that I have been neglecting. I have been trying to get them so my wheels are on top of the coping so I can scrape the elusive grind for a longer distance.
Dylan gave me some good advice while I tried a few 50-50's and I was able to get a few squirrelly ones. I really like the mini-ramp at Autumn because I can skate it at will unlike the crowded Tribeca mini, and the transition is very well made. But mini-ramps in general can be tough on a skater. There isn't a long way to fall, so the ground approaches very quickly when you slam. You are not usually able to prepare your body to fall correctly and you can get hurt pretty badly. It's like a Russian clown once told me: "Falling from 20 feet, it's no problem. Falling from 5 feet - much Vodka". I never knew the cryptic words of a Moscownian acrobat would have such profound meaning to me when I decided to return to skating.
I have a list of basic tricks I would like to complete in the next year and so far they are slow in coming. The 50-50's are getting close and I had Axle Stalls going for a while, but I really need more time. It's tough to watch sometimes as almost everyone I skate with can do all of the basic tricks, but I remain undiscouraged as my 39-year-old body presses on.
Dylan is a great skater and can pull a lot of cool mini-ramp tricks but like many skaters, he is very humble about his abilities. He was ripping my wish list of tricks and a few others like Frontside Ollies, which are totally foreign to me. We both tired on the mini and headed back to the bowl in the next room. A skater named James showed up and blazed over the birch plywood with amazing speed. Sam came by a few minutes after and was ripping as well, but while trying a Frontside Ollie fell right to his knees with a jarring smack. Sam seems to care little about pain and always goes for it as a skater. The previous session he sprained a finger, but no matter how hurt Sam gets, he always seems to be at the next session - That's just hardcore...
Dylan: Frontside Ollie an the mini-ramp...
10/23/04
I was so ecstatic to have finally skated 2 times with in a three-day period! I like to skate earlier in the day than most people. The Autumn Bowl is usually desolate well into the afternoon so I can skate a lot of back-to-back runs without the intimidation factor.
Nelson drove over from Jersey to pick me up and we got to Autumn about 10 a.m. Dylan was already there tearing it up with a couple of other early risers. I decided to hit the mini-ramp for a little while to try and land some tricks I have been neglecting since I have been addicted to carving bowls. I tried some 50-50's, Rock to Fakies, Axles Stalls, and some Frontside Kickturns. I can sort of do the 50-50's, and my Frontside Kickturns are greatly improved, but I have still yet to do a Frontside Grind even on a mini-ramp. Just have to stay at it...
By the time Kevin and Sam showed up I was pretty tired but somehow I got energized when the session started to heat up. I have also been bringing some stomach fuel (bologna sandwiches) to keep my blood sugar up. It has been working thankfully - trust me, you don't want to talk to me when I have low blood sugar, I am downright nasty.
Sam got a new Alva board and quickly put some serious grinds in his N.O.S. old school GullWing Trucks. He had to drill the Alva to accommodate the new school bolt pattern. Why did skate companies ever decide to change the standard truck bolt pattern? Seems really odd...Anyway, Sam helps me skate as much as Kevin does. I can just barely nick the coping and you would have thought I had done a McTwist! Sam always raises the level of the session just by his attitude. Nelson let me borrow his Koping Killer Pool Shark board and I immediately fell in love with it. It has a wider tail like older boards but still has a double kick. I always liked my Buddy Carr but my back foot always felt out of place on the rounded tail. It never seemed big enough for my wide clodhopper, but when I rode the Koping Killer it fit like a glove. I was able to carve higher and feel more in control. It's basically the same size and wheelbase as a Buddy Carr Model and even built by the same board maker, Kelly Bellmar. Totally awesome!
After awhile I started begging Nelson to let me trade him something for the Koping Killer. He finally caved, not because he wanted to trade, but because he is a nice guy and probably saw the Cheshire Cat grin on my face when I was riding the board. Nelson is just starting to skate again like me, so it's cool to hang with him. He also a very generous person, driving me from skate spot to skate spot and never taking gas money.
The session was so much fun that I decided to launch right into party mode and walked down to the corner bodega to get a couple of Fosters Oil Cans. I was okay while drinking the first can, but halfway through the second one I was getting slightly impaired. I skated a run and pushed hard for the pool coping in the deep end that had eluded me all morning and then - WHAP! I fell right from the top! It was one of those slams where people watching don't laugh, they go "Whoooooooaaaaaaa!!!" and wait to see if you to get up like a gladiator. I was okay, I guess the beer relaxed me. Not to be discouraged I dropped in again. This time my board shot out and I landed right on my tailbone. Coccydynia here I come! Once agin I rose like a phoenix from the ashes a bit crumpled but nothing broken. I am lucky I didn't do worse and decided to call it a day. I have concocted a new formula for drinking beer and skating stated as such: [x(Fosters Oil Cans)>1= PAIN].
Sam on his new Alva - Backside 50-50 in the deep end...
10/21/04
I really have had a great time skating lately even if I only get to hit it once or twice a week. I have been lucky to meet some really cool and creative people. There seems to be a very high ratio of creative people that skate. Almost everyone I meet is involved with music, writing, art, film, or design. I have yet to meet a social worker or accountant skater in my travels, but I am sure they are out there...
I went for an after work session at the Autumn Bowl and saw 2 dudes that I skated with before but hadn't really talked to that much, Rudy and Ben - both artists! I am trying to figure out why so many creative types skate but the answer is blatantly obvious - skateboarding is a form of expression. I am sure there are other factors at work, like that it can be very nonconformist and that you can also do it by yourself.
The session was great! Rudy was grinding the beejeezus out of everything and even was trying crazy pop shuvits over bump in the bowl, that many of us now refer to affectionately as "the turtle". Ben was killing it too, ripping some nice frontside airs and other old schools tricks like slides and sweepers. Kevin (a.k.a. The Brown Recluse) showed up shortly after and had the audacity to bring only one beer. He apologized for the deficiency and let me have a few sips - a true friend!
I was skating slightly more comfortably, but I still feel really squirrelly. Kevin is a great help and can somehow inspire me with constructive criticism. I often wonder how I would have turned out if I had a coach like Kevin when I was a kid. You see it in Little League, adults belittling and flying off the handle at kids who are just trying to learn. Whoa! I guess I have some scars there... Anyway, Kevin is so cool because he genuinely loves skateboarding and wants others to enjoy it, so that's why he takes the time and tries to help me out.
The session turned into a photo shoot when I busted out my camera. Rudy gave me a great tip to focus by pushing the shutter button half way down, focus on where the action will be, and then when the skater comes into frame, snap the picture. I was having trouble before this tip getting action shots because I am obviously no photographic genius.
For some reason the camera makes people skate better. You have to do the trick you are attempting to capture several times to get a good shot, so you can be immortalized doing something really cool on a digital memory card. I was able to hit some OK backside grinds and had to do several before Rudy got a good one on the camera. It was so funny because he would keep saying "Oh man, just one more". It's hard to focus on making this film because I am having a great time skating and I don't want to hold the camera!
A few other skaters showed up, Pat, Bob, and a girl named Whitney. It was a good vibe and a great session...
Ben: Frontside Air, Rudy Backside 50-50 Grind, Kevin: Cess Slide, Me: Backside Grind
10/16/04
Life in NYC always seems to be so busy. There is always a deadline to meet and rarely do people have an opportunity to forget about their jobs because of the criminal rents that they have to pay. This was one of those days that I did forget about work and had one of the most hilarious skate sessions to date. Some of the guys from the BDS Forum and some of my local skate crew joined forces for a big crazy session at the Autumn Bowl. There were many different personality types but we all share a common bond - a love for riding around on a little piece of wood with four wheels bolted to the bottom. It sounds ludicrous that this off shoot of a child's scooter could cause so much human interaction, but there we were, at least 8 of us hooting each others runs and having more fun than 30 year olds should be allowed.
Kevin, Sam, Dylan and Vincas were all there mixed in with the BDS Forum dudes, Armando, JD, Nelson, and Eric who was visiting from California for CMJ. Eric posted on the Skull & Bones site that he was looking to skate in NYC so some of the BDS guys picked him up and brought him along to the session. The web really shrinks the world down to a tiny place...
Autumn is such a great resource as I have said before. There is no feeling of overriding authority. You don't have to wear pads and no one to tells you when to start or stop skating. I don't like to generalize about people but most skaters seem to have a problem being told what to do, so this makes Autumn a pure 24/7 skate paradise. We were the misfits in school that listened to punk rock and now we have this safe haven where we can skate and listen to those same punk tunes even in our advanced age.
We arrived at Autumn at 12pm and skated a few hours. The session was a total positive experience. Everyone seemed to skate better because of the camaraderie. Sam was hooting smacking his board against the coping so loudly that I just couldn't stop laughing! Truly one of those days you try to remember when you are feeling down in the dumps.
After the Autumn session, most of us decided to venture over to Tribeca to show Eric some of the other spots. There were also some younger skaters from the BDS forum that were in town from Connecticut - Ian and Roy. We showed up at Tribeca and many skaters looked at us like a motorcycle gang. We were all rowdy from the Autumn session and ready to skate. We each took a few runs but then the skies opened up and dumped buckets of Satan's anti-skate piss on us. The guards whistled that they were going to close up the park. Bummer...
JD, Ian, and Roy all went their separate ways but the rest of us decided to prolong the fun. We stopped at the Tribeca Tavern for some pool, beers, and pizza. I tried to intimidate the others on the pool table by flashing my tattoo of an 8 ball, but my effort to win was quickly thwarted by sinking the 8 ball prematurely - automatic loss. We continued to eat, drink and be merry, blabbing endlessly about the killer moves of the day, skate history, music, and whatever. As the beers took their toll I even announced that I was the new manager of the Joe Popp Skate Team and that everyone present must be a member. It was a day for the books - a day that I can look back on when life gets glum...
Front: Eric
Back: Kevin, J.D., Vincas, Armando, Sam, and Nelson...
Ian and Roy killing the Tribeca Bowl! Young dudes with Old School credibility...
10/11/04
It was a beautiful cool Columbus Day in NYC and I sensed the coming of the end of the outdoor skate season. I had the day off from work so I decided I would hit Tribeca for one of the last times this year and take advantage of the weather. I look back at my 6 months of skating and examine all of the changes that have happened to me since I embarked on this crazy pilgrimage. I have met a lot of amazing people, I lost a few pounds, I have drastically changed my diet for the better, and most of all I have a mellower laid back look on life. I still have the occasional stress and anxiety attacks but skating has reduced these to a rare few. I would like to skate more than I do, but I accept that it is a great luxury and cherish the time I am on a board - somehow skating makes everything seem a little bit more o.k. - corny as it sounds...
I arrived at Tribeca at 3pm right when they opened and my knee had that all too familiar cement sting from the day before, but I was ready to skate. The park attendant looked like a fisherman who was hauling in his catch as I watched him pull the chains that drape the bowl to keep nighttime fence hoppers from having moonlight sessions. Being in the bowl all alone I started out somewhat lethargic, but as other skaters started to arrive my energy picked up. It's hard to explain this phenomenon because it isn't about showing off or even competing. I associate it more to a harmonic tone, a vibration of energy that occurs when people skate together. I am at a loss for words to describe it because I haven't experienced it in any other sport. For a better understanding, go buy a skateboard...
I saw an actor named Pat that I met a few sessions before and he said he couldn't get it going as he pulled foot-high Frontside Ollies over the hip. Man, I wish I "couldn't get it going" like that! How some skaters can be so humble is truly incredible. I met a younger NYU student named Eby who after several tries landed an Ollie to Tail over the hip. Really awesome. After nailing that trick he moved on to trying Frontside 50-50 Grinds which are grisly trick because if you fall, you are plummeting backwards and can't see where you are falling. Eby sports a full set of dreads and skated with a helmet that appeared to be banged onto his head. The helmet kept sliding back because of the massiveness of his hair. I said to him "Man, you need to get a special helmet for your dreads!" He smiled and pried the protective lid from his head and showed me the inside. He had scooped all of the padding out like pulp from a cantaloupe! I laughed so hard! That is what I love so much about skateboarding - the individualistic blatant disregard for convention. He only wore the eggshell thin dome to comply with the rules and when you want to skate like Eby does, you will go to any length to be comfortable within those rules that authority imposes upon you. Eby added, "It's not like I am going to get hurt if I fall on my head!", referring to the thick padding of hair that could break just about any fall. I laughed hard once again at his sharp wit. At that point I was finished skating for the day and I pulled off my own helmet. I am sure Eby noticed that I was bald as a cue ball and probably though he could donate his unused padding to the cause of filling the gaps in mine left by a hairless head...
Eby killing a Frontside 50-50 - notice the helmet!
10/10/04
In an effort to try and skate more, I am using a skateboard as a mode of transportation. A lot of short trips I take are actually faster by skateboard than they are by train or bus. I have a really cool Bulldog Skates Flat Pig that they sent me for support of my film and it is outfitted with big soft (87a durometer) Bulldog Skates Purple Haze Dub Con Wheels. They are great for soaking up the bumps on the ridiculously harsh New York streets. I skated down 9th Avenue to my friend Tylor's house to watch some Jets football and while skating back my front wheels fell prey to the gaping jaws of a 4-inch sidewalk chasm. My board stopped dead and my padless body flew forward to the unforgiving concrete I tore my pants, scraped up my left knee, and scuffed my palms up pretty good. I was on the ground a little jarred when this nice kid asked me if I was all right.
Two on looking adults giggled as I smacked the road and strolled right by my crumpled body. What causes this desensitization to injury? I call it the Bob Saget effect. Bob Saget is that painfully unfunny guy on America's Funniest Home Videos - the show that has trained the American TV audience like Pavlov dogs to laugh at people getting injured on videotape. Of course I only got a small laugh because my minute sidewalk mishap wasn't the zenith of all filmed bodily injuries - a severe blow to the groin.
Small but painful knee bonker...
10/6/04
It has been a while since I skated so I called up my friend and skate coach Kevin. We decided to meet at the Autumn Bowl for a session. I had to work all day and decided I would pick up a Foster's Oil Can of beer to take the edge off. I got there before Kev and skated a few runs and hit the Oil Can a little bit. After Kevin showed up he wanted a few pulls off of the Oil Can. Upon draining the Fosters he decided he would run out and get more beers. I have been trying to curb the drinking but I just got back from vacation and wanted to keep the vacation spirit alive. Kevin returned with two big Heinekens. Well, needless to say we started drinking those and my skating got progressively worse! The funny thing is that Kevin's skating seemed to improve and he was going faster by the sip. He pulled an Ollie Air over the hip and even did some Frontside Airs too. I am not worrying about progressing so much with skateboarding anymore. I am just trying to carve, have fun, and learn what I can at my own pace. I am still trying but not putting any deadlines on myself. It was a great session even if I was wobbling around because of the beer. I probably won't drink and skate again - no that's a lie, I probably will...
This is what Kev's Ollie Air looks like after a few beers...
10/2/04
Wow! Talk about firsts. Today was the first time I have been on a surf board in over 20 years! My friend Tylor had a wedding in Vilano Beach, Florida. One of his dear old friends, Jamie, couldn't make it, so as gesture he had three long boards sent over from a local surf shop. The wedding was right on the beach and after the ceremony I started drinking a few brews. After a while the sight of the boards sticking in the sand unridden became too much. I grabbed one, threw the leash around my ankle, and jumped into the surf. The waves were terrible! Just little tiny things breaking up on the beach. I floated around helplessly for about 20 minutes and didn't even come close to catching any waves. I did get a surprise hit by a small wave that managed to wash one of my new contact lenses out of my head. I have really bad vision so after beaching my self like a whale, I headed back to my hotel room, put on my glasses, and washed off the the coquina that was seemingly glued to my skin. I hope to get some pictures of this surf experience from some of the wedding party which I will post here. Until then here is a picture from the Alligator Farm that a few of us visited.
Here is a pic from the Alligator Farm, I call him Chompy...