On the Subject of Skate & Create

At least at Landsdowne. It was a beautiful day today, so Chloe and I went for a father-daughter outing at the skate park. Surprisingly, we had the place to ourselves.

Here’s a video from my board.

I pulled over to take the shot below, which I swear that I did not do. Even if I think it’s brilliant and a good idea and something that maybe I wish I’d done.

Happy skating Sunday.

I visited the Lansdowne skate park in Baltimore for the first time with some Kung Fu buddies this afternoon – completely awesome.   Today was a perfect fall day – bright, crisp, cool. I can’t wait to go back.

This morning was fabulous! I’m a car down, so I rode my longboard, shown at the right, to the train station (the bike lockers are still obstructed). It’s about 3.74 miles away. I walked down the steeper hills because I was confined to the sidewalk and I have yet to find a graceful way to stop myself on this thing. And, even so, I had a few Mr. Bean moments for the other commuters.

It’s strangely warm for October, and I was good and soaked when I finally boarded my train. But, I know now that I can do this safely and in relatively decent time and…it was TOTALLY fun. Completely worth it. I’ve wanted to do this for months and months.

When I was in high school, I used to accidentally oversleep on purpose. Since Mom worked a hour away in the opposite direction of my school, she had no choice but to write a note for me with an excuse. I would then spend a leisurely morning skating to school, where I’d arrive in time for the last two periods (music and art classes). The frequency with which I “overslept” increased considerably the spring I was accepted into college. I thought a lot about the routes I used to take, and how much fun in was to cruise the sidewalks – it was relatively flat, and the main sidewalks were wide and in good shape.

The second board shown here is the one I rode back then – a G&S “Proline 500.” It’s a really solid deck, and thankfully I still have it. I was thinking about how my friends used to pull me behind their cars with a rope. Lucky for me, I never had a bad mishap. I have a lime green tail bone to match the side rails – just need to reattach it.

I am looking forward to cooler days, just ahead. I also figured out that I’ll make better time on a smaller board because I’ll be able to take the steeper hills with more confidence.

I hope you had a great morning, too.

[Additional Note: 10.12.2007] – I rode my Flip Crest deck to work today. As predicted, the hills were more manageable and I made great time. It looks like the bike lockers are ready for action once again, too. Life is good.

I recently attended An Event Apart in Seattle. I took the time to investigate any local skateboard shops that I could find. Element’s national “Ride a Skateboard Day” was that week, and I marveled at all of folks on longboards that I continually encountered all over the city.

Happily, I stumbled on two Flip Lance Mountain decks, and due to a rather strange (yet legal) accounting process, I procured them for almost nothing. It was almost like being sponsored!

The bigger deck is extremely comfortable, and I outfitted it with Independent trucks, bones reds bearings, mini-logo risers + grip tape and Powell-Peralta Bones wheels. It’s really fun to ride.

I took the hardware off an older mini-logo and put it on the Mod series deck.

The conference was great, too. I was amazed at how approachable the presenters were. I recommend it. Highly.