Breaking new ground

      When kids at the park ask me what I am trying to learn, I always half joke that I am not trying to learn anything, I am just working on keeping old tricks. Sadly, this has more truthful than humorous. Truth be told, I say good riddance to some of my old tricks. For example, the heelflip. I could pop a pretty decent heelflip a few years back, but I don't even miss them. I mean, if you have to exhale when you pop, then that is too much effort in  my book. Besides, I definitely don't miss all the primos that come along with flip tricks. Don't get me wrong, I love watching people do 360 flips Yeah, that's right I don't call them 3flips or tre-flips, that's the grumpy old guy in me who doesn't want to see skateboarding make the irredeemable turn into rollerblading lingo. The last thing I want to hear when I see someone pop their board onto a rail is "wow, that was a nice 'ice cream sandwich with a dragon harp out.'" I guess I'm just traditional or something. That tre-flip jargon is a slippery slope straight  to fishbrains though.
      Nevertheless, this week I actually pushed myself to work on a new trick.  After declaring the pool/bowl at the park here dead on arrival, I have been reconsidering its vitality lately. Although I still find myself getting lost in "pocket of despair" as I like to call it, I am starting to find some lines in it.

      That has also made me realize that the deep end is perfect for skating like a vert ramp since its so  open. So I've started working on early grabs and ollies in the transition. To my surprise, early grabs aren't that bad. Even more impressive, I am finally starting to get comfortable enough in the transition to pop small ollie to fakies.

On a side note, this kid knocked himself out cold for several minutes. He also chipped one of his bicuspids.

I broke my skateboard trying to ollie over the stolen brown bench.

 

 

In some Karma like way, my new board and I broke the bench the next time I skated it. 

 My new Ishod board is awesome, super mellow and a way to show support for one of my favorite young skaters.