I haven’t been writing much of recent. Hell, my last post was in late April. Here are some random updates / thoughts on a rainy afternoon.

Injury Status
I pulled a groin muscle (tendon?) in the middle of December 2022. I am just now finally getting over it and/or back to normal. It took six months to heal. Six months. Why did it take so long? Because I couldn’t stay off my board for more than 10 days at a time, at which point I would aggravate it again (or shortly thereafter). During that time, I wasn’t skating much, and what I did do, was pretty low-key.

Confidence Status
Now that I am fully back on the board, wow, am I rusty, and have lost a lot of tricks. What’s even worse, is that I have developed a mental block/fear of some tricks I used to do all the time [e.g. axle stall to fakie (on transition)]. My confidence with some really basic stuff is just gone right now. Will it come back once I get back to a regular skate schedule? Remains to be seen. For the moment, it’s pretty frustrating, esp. because I know most of it is mental limitation, and not a physical one.

Wheel Madness
I went on a little wheel “madness” bender over the last two weeks or so. Part of this stems from the lack of confidence issues (see above). I have ridden Spitfire Classics for a long, long, long, long time. Classics are the most “rounded” off shape Spitfire makes, and the ones with the smallest contact patch. Without getting too deep in the weeds, I’ve been toying with the more squared off Spitfire shapes, and bigger contact patches. Everything has trade-offs, but for right now I am really liking the enhanced “locked-in” feel that a more squared-off wheel is providing on grinds and stall tricks. I am not a fan of how they look on my board, but maybe that is just because I am not used to seeing them (on my board). I’ll spare a detailed list of the +/- of the different shapes. Suffice to say, I’m riding 53mm Conicals (not the Conical Fulls) right now, and mostly enjoying them.

It’s a rainy Sunday. I was just scrolling through some skate stuff on Instagram. So much of modern ledge tech, big gap, rail, etc. skating doesn’t resonate with me, at all. The opposite, actually. It repels.

For a long time I thought this was simply because I am now a washed-up old guy, who is out of touch with “The Kids these days.” But then I remembered that my good friend Felix and I used to complain about the same type of thing in 1989, when I was just 15-years-old, about some of the stuff in Speed Freaks and Hokus Pokus. So, clearly, it’s not just that I am now an old guy (but I know that certainly does not help).

It’s hard for me to define what types, forms, styles of skating really resonate with me, but I certainly know it when I see it. I think about the Small Arts concept a lot, and that, so far, is the closest I can come to comprehensive definition.

I’ll be writing more about this photo in the future, but for now, I’ll say that this one of the best skate photos I’ve ever seen. No pros. No fancy skate parks. No gnarly tricks. It captures something so pure. The ‘YEAH” face of the kid on the platform, for “just” a simple kickturn grind. In its most elemental form, this is the magic of skateboarding, that any skater can relate to and/or knew at one point in their life.

This clip is one example of how/why I have really grown to love knee pads, even for “simple” low-impact street skating.

youtu.be/Twygi0pRS…

This was a Half-Cab Boardslide to Fakie gone wrong. While it’s a very easy trick, nothing is fool-proof (and even the “easy” stuff gets more precarious as you approach 50-years-old). Here, I turned in to the boardslide too forcefully. The result was that my front toe-side wheel came around too far (because I rotated too hard), and it clipped the side of the slide bar. You can see in this screen grab how angled my board is—it almost looks like I am doing a Feeble grind. This is the moment my wheel clipped.

When my wheel clipped, the front of the board stopped sliding. Inertia caused the back end to start swinging around. Since I intend this trick to go to fakie, my body was torqued to bring the back end around, too. This exacerbated the problem. When the back swung all the way around, my rear toe came off the board and went into the slide bar, as can be seen in this screen grab.

With my toe hitting, all sliding came to a dead stop. Inertia, however, kept my upper body going. I stumbled forward, planted a foot, and went into a controlled fall/knee slide. I got up, totally unscathed, and kept skating as if nothing had happened. Without knee pads, I would have been forced into one of those common rolling/tumbling falls (onto my shoulder/elbow/hip/side). Those kind of bails can still leave you a bit banged-up—hipper, elbow abrasion/swelbow (without elbow pad), chewed-up hands/wrist injury, etc. If possible, those are all things I want to avoid at this point in my skating/life. Knee (and elbow) pads put the odds way more in my favor, as they clearly did in this situation. And for that, I have become a huge fan of them, even for “simple” low-impact street skating. At this stage of the game, I’ll take whatever advantages/comforts I can. I don’t wear pads every time I skate, but can honestly say I’ve never once worn them and thought, “Man, I really shouldn’t have done that.” The opposite, however…

It’s time for something drastic.

I’ve been dealing with a pulled groin muscle since the middle of December 2022. That is now over three months. The reason (I hope) that I’m still dealing with it? Despite my claims to do otherwise, I have not been able to stay off the board for more than 10 days since it happened. So, it’s never fully healed-up. Once I start skating again, it regresses a bit. I stop skating for 5 to 7 days, it gets somewhat better, then I go skating again (“I’ll just have a mellow session”), it gets worse, and the pattern starts all over again.* Yesterday was actually the most vigorous session I’ve had since this mess started, and things don’t feel that much worse today, but they are worse. I’ll state the obvious: I have no self-discipline when it comes to staying off my skateboard. So, it’s time for drastic measures.

I disassembled my two boards. I put all my wheels and hangers into a small plastic bin. On Monday, I am dropping that bin off at a non-skater friend’s house…who lives an hour away. I told him to not give it back to me, until he sees me run/sprint for at least one block. This should keep me off the board until I’m fully healed-up. Because of this lingering injury, I haven’t skated on my regular basis (3x a week) since December. That sucks. I want to make sure I am good to go by the time the weather starts to get nice (prolly another 3-4 weeks), so now is the time to act.

I have done things like this before. I am old enough, and experienced enough, to “know” that the fastest way to skate again, when injured, is to rest/stay off the board. That said, it’s really, really, really hard to do sometimes when (a) it’s only a “small” injury, and (b) skating is a major stress relief for me, (c) I always need to doing something active, and (d) it’s just the most fun thing in the world.

*A similar pattern happens with shinners and shin guards. I can’t count the number of times I’ve publicly stated, “I’m never skating again without shin guards.”

But most importantly, and this goes back to Mark Gonzales and Julien Stranger, we wanted to show that skateboarding is fun. That was the main thing. Fun, creative and loose. Not too overthought. Not too heavy on making it all the best skateboarding known to mankind. Just a fun and creative project.

-Jason Lee

All the warnings of the 1980’s have come true. Out of control consumerism. Addiction to mindless screen viewing. Politicians pandering to the lowest common denominator. Corporations owning everything while brainwashing everyone.

Compare today’s media messages vs. those of the 1980s. Free Guy. Cute movie. The end message is to sit in front of your screen and watch AI live virtual lives. Then there is Running Man (Arnold Schwarzenegger).

All the art of the 80’s (and 90’s) has been turned upside down, and co-opted by “the Man”. Punk is mainstream. Graffiti is fashion. Skateboarding is run by “jocks”. Selling Out is actually now the goal.

Let’s face it; we lost.

-Shane Reilly

Retired this today. Cracked it on a nose blunt to disaster over a spine. This was a special deck for me. I normally ride an 8.25/14.38, but I’ve occasionally dabbled with bigger decks (and usually not liked them). This one, however, is a standout from the “Madness” episodes awhile back. The deck is an 8.75/14.62. I’ve had a few of these before, but this time around…I really, really liked this thing. This specific deck made me realize I always want to have one of these set-up* in addition to my standard 8.25 (and that is a really bold statement coming from me). In retrospect, I really wish I had this in the Texas ditches when I was there last October. Next year. This deck is going up on the wall. Good memories/fun times with it.

*with 159 Indy Forged Hollow, and 54mm F4 Spitfire Classics (or Radials).

Sometimes you just need a change of pace, or scenery. That happened to me about three weeks ago. I’ve been wearing Vans more or less since I started skating in 1985. The last few years I have been wearing the exact same two models. The old-school blue colored SK8-HIs, and the low-top Old Schools, in black/gum.

Well, I got kind of sick of looking down at my feet, and always seeing the same thing. To that end, I decided to try a different brand of shoe altogether. So, I gave the Adidas Busenitz Vulc II a shot. I had tried the original version of these some years back. I don’t remember hating them. They were upgraded (whatever that means) with the new version. I was also curious to try one of the BIG companies with deep pockets, to see how much their R&D and “technology” differed from Vans. I would never wear Nike, so that left New Balance and Adidas. Denis Busenitz, from what I can tell, is a good dude, so I liked the idea of supporting him, too.

Anyway, I was quickly reminded why I always skate Vans shoes. The Adidas felt really tight/narrow on my feet. I’ve heard many, many people (non skaters, too) cite a trend in recent years to produce “narrow” shoes for some reason. I’ve never had problems with shoe width, until now. The Busenitz have just felt really tight over the top and side of my feet, to the point of being uncomfortable after a few hours of wear. I’ve never had this issue with Vans. The Adidas also seem to have a thinner sole, with less cushioning, and somehow less board-feel, than my Vans, too. I’ll continue wearing the Busenitz for a while, but at this point, I don’t expect any substantive change to come along with them.

I saw a post on the SLAP fourms that sent me down an intorspective rabbit hole: What are (skate-related) things you were too cool for as a kid, that you now appreciate and/or love?

A few of mine: Tony Hawk. Skating transition. Watching vert. Side rails. Pads. “Basic” tricks. Non-traditional forms of skating. Shitty ramps. The joy of just rolling.

The irony here, is those are all things I really liked/loved as a very young kid, and then “lost interest” in as I got a bit older. Now that I am much older, I realize how much the very young version of me actually knew. Everything is a circle, and I’m grateful for that.

My pulled groin muscle is not 100% healed, but it is doing better. Against better judgment, I went skating today for a bit. Just a bit. And it was glorious.

I kept it pretty mellow. No ollies. Just did some casual transition skating, and some roll-on boardslides on a slider bar, but mostly kept it to transition. I haven’t really skated much since mid-December (weather, Covid, and injury). I’ve also not been in the best of moods over the last month—there is direct correlation between my disposition, and my ability to do outdoor physical activity. Ten minutes into the session, and I was already feeling better/more alive than I have all month. Skateboarding isn’t just something “fun” that I like to do. It (like any physical exercise) is also key component to my overall well-being and mental health. Life without it is, well, not something I really like.

I ended the session early (e.g. before I actually wanted to stop). I knew if I kept going too long, it would increase the risk of aggravating my (healing) injury. Hopefully I didn’t make things much worse. A quick session also left me really “wanting more,” and IMHO, that it always a good thing—potentiality to be actualized is an integral element of a purposeful life.

A few random things…

The Vast January Desert
In my phone I keep short-hand notes of things going on in my life during a given month. At the end of the year, I can look back at what happened during the past 12 months. After the year is over, I save all in the info into a word doc. I’ve been doing this since 2015. It’s a very quick/easy way to look back at my life, and see what was going on during any given period. One trend has clearly emerged: I don’t skate much during the month of January. It is usually a result of weather, injury, and illness (I also seem to get some kind of bad cold, or covid (2021, 2022, 2023), or some combination of all three. That pattern is certainly repeating in this year. I think I have skated….3 times this month (I usually skate at least 3x a week). I had a bad case of covid the first week of Jan 2023. I also pulled my groin muscle, which is keeping me off the board. Thankfully, that is “easier” to do right now, because it has been very, very wet over the last two weeks (snow and rain). Hopefully February will be better. The muscle pull is making (slow) progress. If all goes well, it will be fully resolved by next week.

Jake Phelps
News broke this week about how Jake Phelps died. I think we all had a pretty accurate guess as to what happened (which was confirmed by the news). Jake had a drug problem. He overdosed and/or took something that was laced with fentanyl. I’m not really sure what to say here. I was never really a fan of the guy, and what direction he took Thrasher. Suffice to say, the manner of his passing was not really a surprise. My friend Brian commented:

“Talk about a complicated legacy. On one hand Phelps, at a certain time, may have saved skateboarding. After that, he just went out of his way to keep it a fiefdom. He pushed and cajoled and influenced a generation to hit the self-destruct button because he was self-destructing as well. The drowning man will always take you down with him.

I use Phelps as a study on how to age gracefully. Do the opposite of what he did and you will probably live a long and healthy life. I don’t judge him on his addictions or personality flaws. I never met him. I can, however, judge him for his influence.”

I’ll add to this, with a quote from The Replacements, “Kids Don’t Follow.” They never have. They never will. That’s what makes them kids. That’s why youth is wasted on the young. Skateboarding is mostly a “youth culture” thing. So, you do the math as to what’s going to happen. That said, it is well document how Phelps threw gasoline on an innate proclivity to reckless and self-destructive behavior (from skating vert w/o pads to booze/drugs/party zone). Should he/Thrasher have been an icon of public safety? Hell no. However, Brian said it best, “He pushed and cajoled and influenced a generation to hit the self-destruct button because he was self-destructing as well. The drowning man will always take you down with him.” Much of it IMHO, just wasn’t necessary, needed, or productive.

So, what’s the take-a-way (for me, and for skateboarding)? For me, that is easy. I’ve long held the belief that one should “embody/be the Stoke they want to see in the world.” It’s sad to see what happened to Jake, and sad to see those who have been washed away in the wake of his influence. All of this just further solidifies, and illuminates, the path I was already on. I will keep following, and trying to embody, the version of Stoke that resonates with me (and that is basically the opposite of Jake). If that influences others, great. If not, that’s great, too. What is the take-a-way for skateboarding? I think that is for others to decide…

If you are lucky, you will have one teacher in life who changes everything, and you end-up carrying their influences with you until your last days. I was lucky enough to have two. One was Mary Donovan, my high school English teacher. The other was Prof. Kerry Dugan at Northeastern. He died on January 12, 2023.

I was a philosophy major in college, and Prof. Dugan was one of my philosophy professors. He introduced me to Plato, Heidegger, Camus, Kierkegaard, Neichze, Laozi/Tao Teh Ching, Alan Watts, and countless others. He changed the way I viewed the world and myself (and how those two interact with each other). He opened doors I continue to walk through. Without question, he was one of the biggest influences in my life. I would not be the person I am today without him. While I am quite sad, I am forever grateful that our paths crossed. I owe so much to him, and his impact will be with me (and countless others) until I pass from this world.

Godspeed, Prof. Dugan…and thank you.

Yesterday I had the first session on the Nuke Baby deck (see previous posts). It was raining out, so I took my grind bar to a parking garage. I have a lingering pulled groin muscle, so I kept it pretty mellow. The first 10 min or so, the board was feeling a little awkward, but then I got used to it…and started to have a lot of fun.

The squared-off tail was really nice for tail slides (lots of board to get on there with). The bigger width, and longer wheelbase, felt really stable for 50/50s and boardslides. Feeble grinds on it felt really good, but I was oddly having some trouble with Smith grinds…just couldn’t get them as solid, and I had to struggle with them a bit. Here are a few quick clips from that session: youtu.be/MG7cSF52Y…

I have certainly grown accustomed to having two “tails” (e.g. the popsicle decks), and some things felt really odd, because what was going on with the front foot (nose) was very different than what was going on the back foot (tail). Of course, this was also part of the fun. Despite being a bigger, clunkier, set-up, I managed kickflips on it w/o any real issue—and that surprised me.

I set this up with Indy 149s and 54mm Radial wheels. The deck is 9.25” wide at the front trucks, and 8.5” wide at the back trucks. 149s have an 8.5” axle length. So, with 149s on this, there is serious “magic carpet” going on up front. At the rear, the outside edge of the wheels sit just inside the edge of the deck. 159s are 8.75” wide, so even with those there would be “magic carpet” up front. In the rear, 159s would put the edge of the wheels flush with the edge of the deck. I brought a set of 159 hangers (and 54mm Classic wheels) to the session. My intention was to swap some of this stuff out, to see what made for the “best” set-up with this deck. I still intend to do that, but it never happened at this first session. Why? Because the 149s and Radials seemed to be riding great, and I had no inclination to think, “This set-up would be better with bigger trucks, etc.” The wheels did feel a little…clunky…at times compared to Classics, but it was by no means a deal-breaker. Next session will be at a skatepark, so I’ll get to try it out on some transition.

Overall, it was a fun board to ride. It certainly won’t be my daily rider, but it’s also a welcome addition.

I mentioned the Blind Danny Way reissue I was setting-up a few posts ago. Below are two photos of the fresh set-up. I went a little “old school” with the griptape, too.

Trucks: Currently has Indy 149s. Might bump up to 159s. Have to skate it a bit first, and see how the 149s are feel. What’s weird about tapered-shaped decks is that you either have (a) serious “magic carpet” up front, or (b) wheels sticking out in the back.

Wheels: 99a 54mm Spitfire F4 Radials. I usually ride Classics, but I thought a slightly larger riding surface, and slightly more squared-off profile, might work better on this.

Well, there are two other residual “gear madness” things kicking off 2023…but I don’t really put these in the same category as the “acute madness” I wrote about in later 2022. What’s “different” about these? Well, let’s just jump in and you’ll see. The two items are:

(1) An “old school” set up (circa 1990)
(2) Killer 187 Fly Knee Pads

187 Fly Knee Pads
Let’s start with the Fly knee pads. These are a “lower end” Killer 187 product. I’ve actually had these before—and I got rid of them for better knee pads. So, why am I revisiting them now? When I previously had them, I was mostly wearing knee pads when skating transition. I upgraded to 187 Pros, because the Fly version wasn’t padded enough for some of the harder (and higher) falls on mini ramps.

Well, a few things have changed since then. Namely, I now wear pads a lot more, and often even when “street” skating. My existing 187 Pro knee pads are great—I love them. But I am curious to see if there is anything a little less bulky for street skating, and that’s where the 187 Fly knee pads come (back) in. They should be arriving tomorrow. We’ll see how these work-out. They may be great. I may hate them. Time will tell. More updates as the situation develops.

1990 Blind Danny Way “Nuke Baby” Reissue
Second, is an “old school” set-up. I have 1986-ish Tommy Guerrero (flaming dagger) complete that sits in the corner of my bedroom. It’s more for decoration than anything else. I take it out for a ride, about once a year, for 5 minutes, to remind myself how much I hate riding old-school decks (or at least mid-‘80s decks). I also have a Dogtown Eric Dressen “Hands” deck that I occasionally set-up, for the same reason as the Tommy G. The “Hands” deck came out in 1987, and is only slightly more “functional” (I use that word loosely) than the Tommy G. deck. Neither of these decks are very “fun” for me to ride, at all.

That said, something in me still wants to have some kind of an old-ish, shaped, directional board for “fun” (well, all skateboarding is “fun,” so that is kind of an evasive reason). I guess I want it for a little variety, and for something out-side my standard popsicle comfort zone, and causes me to skate a bit differently. However, it has to be a deck that is more functional than the stuff produced in the mid to late 1980s (e.g. the Tommy G. and the Dressen). By 1992, decks were in that football shape/proto-popsicle stage. I hate those shapes, and they are too close to popsicles to be different enough to fulfill what I am looking for here. So, I decided to go something around 1990-1991. I found basically what I am looking for with the Blind Danny Way “Nuke Baby” reissue. This deck, I have also had before (both the OG and a reissue). It was absolutely better/more functional than the Tommy G. or Dressen, but of course, not as functional as my popsicles. I can’t remember the circumstances under which I got rid of the last (reissue) one I had. In any event, I’ve been missing the occasional cruise-around on that deck, so I ordered another one last week. That, also, should be here tomorrow.

I’m setting this up with 99a Spitfire 54mm Radial wheels. The radials are good half-way point between the Spitfire Classic shape, and the more clunky-squared-off Conical shape. I think the Radials will be a good compliment to this deck. I’ll also be putting Indys on it. And if I recall, you can set this deck up with 149s or 159s. I have a set of both, so I can play around with it a bit. I might try a small riser 1/8” riser, but that’s down the road for now. I certainly don’t see riding this set-up on the regular, but it will absolutely be fun to toy around with from time to time.

Last, I would be lying if I said there was not also a touch (just a touch) of nostalgia going on here, too. As much of a turboclown as D. Way has been over the years, he was a favorite skater during that period, and if you’ve read my other blog, you’ll know that in some ways, for better or worse, I am mystically bound to him. Hints of nostalgia aside, this deck checks off all the other boxes I was lookoing for, too. So, it’s a “two birds with one stone” situation, and I am totally fine with a shade of nostalgia creeping in.

Random, disjointed thoughts, ideas, and projects going into 2023

The Sicks:
I start 2023 off with a bad case of Covid. Historically, I always get some kind of nasty-sick every January. At least I am consistent.

Resolutions:
I made four “resolutions” for the year.

(1) No Booze: I don’t drink all that much, so this shouldn’t be a hard one. Why, then, am I making this a “resolution”? I’m not sure. It just seemed like a thing to do/try, so I’m doing it.

(2) No Candy: I do, however, eat a lot of candy. That one is going to be…less easy. Why am I doing this one? My diet should be better, and eliminating candy is the obvious place to start.

(3) Get better at German: My study of the German language has fallen off. I want to be more proficient at it.

(4) Stretch: Stretching/flexibility is really important, esp. with age. I need to get back into a regular routine of stretching.

Skateboarding:
I don’t have any “goals” in skateboarding anymore—just have fun, that’s it. Enjoy the session for whatever it is, and whatever it brings.

Yeah, there are some new tricks I want to do, but that has been part of the process since the first day I stepped on a skateboard. I don’t even consider those “goals” anymore, it’s like asking if “breathing is a goal.” Well, maybe I’d like visit a few more skate parks this year, even though I generally hate skate parks. Oh, I just thought of goal for the year—get through an entire year without any real sense of “Gear Madness” taking hold (e.g. previous pots). The stretching thing is clearly skate-related, so I guess that counts as one, too.

The two other skate thing I’m doing for 2023 is keeping exact track of (a) what equipment I go through, (b) what injuries I get from skating that prevent me from skating for any period of time. I’m actually surprised I’ve never done either of these before. How many decks, wheels, shoes, etc. do I go through in a year? I have a guess, but I’m not certain. I’m going to find out. How often do I get really jacked from skating? I’ll find that out, too. (I know it’s far less since I started wearing pads more often…funny how that works).

The Being of Be(com)ing
There is a quote from Heidegger that I often cite. “We are what we have always been becoming.” Life is the process of that always becoming. Each moment of every day. We are always becoming, even if entails doing the exact same things over and over. I always try to “become-ing” with intentionality and passion…especially passion, because that it what fuels the entire thing.

I’ll end on this note—if you conceive of happiness as something “outstanding,” or somewhere else, it will never be where you are. Never.