Posted this a couple place. Might as well post it here too. Just me skating last night. Had fun.
Category: freestyle skateboarding
Some Freestyle
OK, it’s on.
Last night I got started on my official freestyle skateboarding practice regimen. I got some practice a week or two ago, and did alright, but couldn’t get my fingerflip (rolling, of course. No fun in doing them stationary). Frankly, I didn’t try that hard. I was just coming back from bronchitis, hadn’t done them in months, and just didn’t feel that good. So I made a few half ass attempts, mostly giving up as soon as I bent down to grab the nose.
I was tired as shit last night too, it being after work and all. But I’ve come to understand that even if I’m tired, if I just start skating, eventually I’ll loosen up. The trick is to not get frustrated early. It’s all about knowing yourself. O’Sensei, founder of Aikido, said “True victory is self victory”, and I’ve found this to be true.
So after I’d skated for about 45 minutes I started working on the fingerflip. The went for horrible attempts, to not quite so horrible attempts, to almost got my feet back on the board, to made a shitty one, to remembering how to do it right and making good ones.
I have my 360 shove-it at fast speed down. It’s good. I can throw them and catch them with ease, smoothness, and speed. 2-footed nose wheelies are good, fast, and solid. G-turn always solid. Kickflip solid. Footwork is good. Slide into Big Spin good. Need to work on my 180 caspers, rail flips, and some other things I’m tinkering with.
Overall a good practice session. It is nice to get there feeling a bit worn out and leave feeling energized. Skateboarding does that.
The Road to Europe #1: Mode Freestyle Board
Inspired by my friends Tommy Harward and Sean Burke, I am doing a series of posts about my preparations to go on a skateboarding trip to London this summer, to skate with my friend and podcasting partner Tony Gale for the first time, and road trip with a bunch of British freestylers to the Paderborn contest, in Germany.
My posts will not be as funny as Tommy and Sean’s videos. Sorry.
That being said, I’m practicing my various English accents like a madman in order to fit in. I’m using the word “lovely” a lot. And “bollocks”. I’ll get up to speed on inappropriate phrases in German soon.
Since buying my tickets, there has been exactly one day in which I have had good enough weather to get out and do a little freestyle practice.
Anyway, I decided to try out a slightly longer freestyle board than I normally ride. I say “normally” because sometimes over the last few years I’ve chosen to ride a standard 7.75″ wide newschool street board for freestyle from time to time. It has room for my feet, and the 14″ wheelbase seems to lend itself better to the way I ride. My friends mostly seem to think my skating has better flow on a board this size.
However, there are certain aspects of the newschool board that are not ideal. The nose and tail are really too long for freestyle. Not only do you not need them to be that long, but they get in the way.
Sooooo… I ordered the Mode Skateboards double kick, the board my friend Terry Synnott designed and rides. He’s refined this shape over the last 10 or 12 years, over various sponsors, until finally he started Mode Skateboards and produces this board. It’s the one on the right that says “Mode’ on it. Compared to my older Small School “Sarge” model, the wheelbase is a little longer, coming in at 13.75″. That may not look like much difference, but it is significant. The board is also a bit wider. The nose and tail are symmetrical, and 5.75″ long. This is a good length, as it provides sufficient leverage, but is short enough I can raise the nose/tail high during wheelies without scraping the ground too quickly. As you can see, the ends are blunt/square, which helps with a lot of freestyle tricks.
Also relating to leverage of the kicks; the kicks don’t start right after the truck bolts. There is a little distance between the bolts and where the bend of the tail/nose starts. Obviously this is because it is made on a newschool mold, but I have come to like this. It keeps the nose and tail from seeming excessively steep. I don’t think you want a really steep tail/nose for freestyle, and until we can get some custom molds going out there, this seems to be a good alternative. So, my point is that the nose and tail really work well, providing the right amount of kick and leverage without making your feet feel too locked into place.
As you can see, I don’t use a front skid. This board is symmetrical, but I still prefer to have a nose and a tail, with the trucks adjusted a little differently on each. I don’t like the feel of a tail skid when I do fingerflips, so I just sacrifice the nose to get the feel I like. This also allows me to lift the tail higher on nose wheelies and g-turns without scraping the ground. It is a trade-off.
I’m using some old Destructo Hi trucks. Looking at the Destructo website, I don’t see that they even make the Hi models anymore. Tony Gale has been preaching the superiority of “high” setups to me, and this feels pretty good. My first inclination is to go low, but I think I do that more out of desire to skate like Terry than out of a realistic view of how I actually skate. I’m using the hard purple Khiro insert bushings. I like them. They’re hard. Depending on some lines I work out and how these break in, I may go to the next softer one down. Trying to balance the stability of a hard bushing with the fact that I like to turn and carve, even in freestyle.
The wheels on the Mode are the Seismic Focus 97a freestyle wheels. I’d like to thank Dan Gesmer for making these wheels. I really like these wheels. They look really big and wide, but the slide and break free for shove-its really nicely, while retaining appropriate traction at other times. I got the wheels and bushings from Decomposed. Witter has excellent fast service.
That’s about it for my current setup. I don’t do any weird modifications – though I do cut the “freestyle hole” in the middle of the grip to help with footwork. Of course I have a little grip tape in the casper spots.
OK, so I took the Mode out for my first serious freestyle session in quite a while, and immediately tried a 360 shove-it, and immediately made it. So that’s good. After a couple of hours, I determined that I am not totally sucking, and with some practice I should be able to give a good accounting of myself at Paderborn. I have some ideas for a unique approach to my runs that I will work on over the next few months. If it ever stops raining.
Here’s one of those first 360 shove-its. Pretty much perfect. I just need to make it a 540.
Long or Short?
If I’m going to go back to the Philly Freestyle contest in 2014, I guess now is the time to start thinking about my plan. Will I ride the longboard again? Will I go back to a shortboard? Will I do one run on each?
The truth is that I could probably go back to a normal freestyle board and do pretty well. I have enough reasonably good tricks to place well, and that would be very cool. On the other hand, I really like riding the longboard. It is challenging, and it is different. Even if other longboarders enter, it is unlikely they will skate in the same way I do.
I had a good time this year without placing. A number of people approached me after the contest to tell me they enjoyed my runs. That made me feel real good — I’d kind of rather be appreciated by a select few that dug by the many. Unless the many are all giving me money in appreciation of my skillz. Then the many would be really cool.
Now, when I eventually see the video of myself at this event, if I am just horrified by what I see I may change my mind, but as of right now I think I’m gonna stick with the longboard. I think there are enough good tricks I can adapt to the longboard that I can make it continue to work for me.
This past weekend in Philly was the most I’ve ever ridden the Small School 41″ Mega Freestyle deck before. It took a while, but I really started getting used to it. Took a while to find the wheelie sweet spot on the nose, as well as the right foot positioning for 360s and Space Walks on the tail. Once I figured that stuff out, it really became fun.
Besides the obvious difference of figuring out how to do tricks on a longer, heavier board, one thing I didn’t really consider is how much space it takes to do the moves. There were a few times I really had to rush. For instance, I had to rush getting my feet into position for a two-footed nose wheel, and as a result the wheelie wasn’t really that good. That’s a trick I can typically just lock in, and carve a nice smooth curve. So I need to remember that even with the relatively short 1-minute runs to not rush anything. I’d rather do 6 tricks well than 8 tricks crappily.
In the two days since I started writing this post, I’ve been thinking of and noting lots of ideas for tricks and footwork sequences on the longboard. While you can’t do the footwork as fast on the longboard, the extra wheelbase actually allows some footwork to be done better, as it give you a lot more room to move your feet.
So in the coming weeks I’ll start working on both my tricks and tweaking my setup a bit. Not much to be done with the setup, but I want to experiment with different wheels. I like the Bones STF — they are great and provide the perfect amount of slide for the board, but I am thinking about going to a slightly larger diameter. The taller wheels provide a little more consistent roll for doing wheelies. I’m not talking about a big difference – just going from 51mm to 54mm.
Philly Trip, Day 3 – Contest Day
This post is being written the week after the contest, as I was too tired when I got back after the contest to even think about writing this.
Saturday, September 14 was contest day. The event was supposed to start at 11am, and of course being a skate event I knew it would be at least an hour late. Skaters sleep late. However, I didn’t know how the parking would be, so I got up early, payed way too much for the hotel buffet breakfast but got a nice big breakfast and lots of coffee, finished “the morning ritual”, and got to the contest site about 10am.
I started rolling around, thinking about a couple of good lines for my runs, as people slowly started to arrive. It was quickly very clear that in my division, “the Masters” (over 40), we would have some really good skating. Due to its nature, freestyle is a kind of skating that people can do it really well up to pretty advanced ages and still be really good.
AJ Kohn, contest organizer, had already been there for a while, setting up the “tent”, the sound system, chairs, and just generally getting things ready. He handled sign-in too. More about AJ later. For now I’ll just say he rules.
So, this venue is called Rizzo Rink. It is actually a public basketball court sitting under I95, just a block or two west of the Delaware River. The actual “rink” is a public ice skating rink. The city uses the space under the elevated freeway for parking, basketball, etc. So the place is covered. It is pretty damned cool.
Skaters continued to arrive and start practicing. The schedule was to be…
- Novice (groms)
- Amateur
- Masters
- Pro
- 360 Spin-Off
- Highest Ollie
- Launch Ramp
- Game of Skate
Unlike traditional freestyle contests of the past, in which each skater got two 2-minute runs, there is recent trend of doing 1-minute runs instead. This trend was continued in Philly. Everyone got two 1-minute runs, and pros got three runs. I think there is room in freestyle for both ways. There are some advantages to doing 1-minute runs. It keeps things moving well. It is more interesting to watch. It encourages more people to enter, since one minute is much less intimidating than two minutes. I think it is true that the more limited time doesn’t permit more accomplished skaters put together a whole artistic presentation, so for some that is a big issue. Each contest has its own vibe and goals. For this event, AJ certainly made the right choice. It was a fun, fast moving contest with lots of participants.
I’ve been involved with freestyle for a long time, but this is the first time I’ve ever been to a contest in about 25 years. It was great to finally meet people face to face whom I’ve been collaborating with/communicating with for over ten years. I felt like I already knew these guys. It was very cool. I saw Keith Renna over at the judges stand, so I snuck up on him, put him in a very sloppy rear-naked choke (Keith is an MMA practitioner) and he had no problem guessing who it was. Frank Lavallee was there with Keith, and it was great to meet him too! Others on the list of longtime “hey I know you” people were Jesse Whalen, obviously Terry and Jenna Synnott, and of course AJ Kohn.
OK, I will give an overview of the divisions. Please forgive me if I leave out any names — these are just my recollections and impressions.
Groms: it’s always cool to see the little people (children) out there ripping at a contest. I didn’t know any of these kids, but clearly most if not all of them had participated in AJ’s events before. There were some solid flip tricks in this group — a few that were more solid than most of the adults/teens could do. A kid named Tyler Thomas won the Novice division, but really all of ’em skated hard!
Amateurs: This was the biggest group (20 riders), consisting of “the young dudes”. This is where you find the younger skaters who are all about freestyle, and the competition for the top 3 places was pretty serious. Pete Betti, of New Jersey, won this division, followed closely by El Paso’s Jacob Whitt in the #2 spot and Sweden’s Felix Jonsson in 3rd. I think all three of these guys are planning to move up to Pro in the next contest. My friend and co-cooperative at Small School, John Sargent, showed up with very little if any practice and nailed down 4th place with solid and impressive skating. Philly’s own Tyrone Williams finished out the top five with some killer runs.
One really fun thing about the Am division was the participation of a number of all-around skaters. Guys that don’t specialize in flatland. Modern street skating has enough flip tricks that with the 1-minute format these guys can enter and really put on a good show. It is nice to see their participation. It was also great to see El Paso’s Garrett Danger Morrison on a longboard. Garrett ended up in 9th place, and showed a different way of attacking freestyle. Hats off, young sir.
Masters: This was my division. 8 skaters. It was clear pretty early that Bill Robertson, from El Paso, was the man to beat. Bill is an accomplished demo skater who had a pro model on Walker in the 1980s, and he’s really an all-around skater and good dude. So yeah – Bill won this with very ripping and I think perfect runs. If he made any mistakes they were minimal. Glad to have him in Texas! 2nd place went to veteran FSer Mike Kinney, who skated with great precision and style. Great to meet him and see him skate. 3rd went to Rodney “Ancient” Watkins – a Philly local and longtime skate advocate and mentor. He seems to be one of those guys who can just skate everything, adapting and enjoying any terrain or event. Alan Benson got 4th. Alan is a cool guy, and he does the slowest 360s I’ve ever seen! And I mean that in a nice way. Just total control. Kind of amazing.
Pros: There were 7 skaters entered in the pro event. Each of these guys offered a very different bag of tricks and riding style.
1st place – Terry Synnott. Yeah, I was pretty much rooting for him, not because the other guys aren’t great, but Terry is just the best. He is still inventing new footwork tricks, and at over 40 years of age could have decimated the Masters division, but keeps it real in the Pro.
2nd: AJ Kohn. AJ stepped away from the MC microphone long enough to skate, hammering away with his very hybrid style of freestyle.
3rd: Jesse Whalen. Jesse is one of my favorite skaters. His ability to throw multiple 540 shove-it variations into a 1-minute run is just fantastic. He also has the craziest and cool footwork style.
4th: Bert Mathieson. This was my first real look at Bert. Dude is a doctor — you know – a physician. At over 50 years old, he is in phenomenal shape, and is absolutely rewriting the book on handstand variations in skateboarding. It is something to see. Got to spend some time with him later at dinner, and he’s a good guy.
5th: Kyle Hamilton. OK, this guy is one solid muscle. He skated in a full Indiana basketball uniform. Seriously. Including red headband and white tube socks. He has a solid pro-level trick arsenal, including a very killer 360 fingerflip.
6th: Dave Vey. Dave came in with Terry. I was totally unaware of him. Real cool guy, and some serious pop. Dave does some really hard ollie tricks, as well as good footwork and all-around freestyle. Very impressed.
7th: Steven Vera: Steven skates for Bustin Boards, a longboard company. He entered on a total downhill style longboard — dropped platform, drop-through trucks, tiny nose and tail kicks. I loved watching this guy’s runs. He did his own thing and did it well. Absolutely the best G-Turns of anyone there, spiraling them until finishing with a shove-it out. I’m not sure that 7th really properly represents the quality of his skating — I think that the FS judging model just isn’t really geared-up to deal with this style of freestyle.
360s Spin-Off: Bill Robertson won this even with 22.5 spins. Closest competitor was Terry Synnott with 14.
Game of Skate: Don’t mess with Jesse Whalen. Just don’t do it.
Jump Ramp: Joey Uva
High Ollie: Official: Arjun Shah (6 Decks)
Un Official: John Jones (7 Decks)
Oh yeah, I ended up getting 6 out of 8 riding my longboard in the Masters Division. I was pretty happy with it. I did what I wanted to do. The guy just below me, Jason Thoel, probably maybe should have been in 6th. He did some good solid freestyle, and it was fun meeting and skating with him.
OK, a few words on AJ Kohn.
AJ organized this contest and essentially put it all together. He does this once a year, plus lots of other events. It is one thing to go skate and be a good skater, but another thing entirely to make things happen. AJ makes things happen. He is great on the microphone, keeping the contest moving, the crowd engaged, and is especially good at encouraging the little kids and brings out the best in them. He even does this all legally! Yep. He had a permit from the city for this contest at this location. So you don’t even have to worry about the event getting busted!
So he really deserves a lot of thanks, and in my book he has it.
I’ll be going back.