This is a trick I’ve been working on. I guess it’s a trick. It’s more like series of little movements. The goal is to connect them with no hesitation between the little pivots. I’m getting closer. A few years ago I learned a similar series of moves I called the Magic Weasel, inspired by my friend Stefan Albert, in Germany who moves like a magic weasel. Smooth. So this is also inspired by him.
I like moves like this because they are useful in a freestyle contest run but are also fun on a street board. I practiced it today on my 9″ wide Mode pool board and my 8.25″ Mode pops. I’m going to try adding another 1/8th inch riser to the pops, and moving up to some 56mm wheels for better tail clearance during 360 spins.
As I’ve worked on this, I’ve come to understand a few things about it that make it good.
- It isn’t just a series of pivots. What I’m trying to do is a series of pivots while I move in a greater circle. Sometimes if I cut part of it too short, the circle becomes more of a spiral, which is fine. Or it can be fine. It all depends on…
- The transitions from one pivot to the next need to be smooth and instantaneous. I’m not quite there yet. Close, but not quite. In particular, after the first carving fakie 360, the transition to an endover pivot off the nose needs to be smoother, and to really keep it going it needs to project the motion a lot more behind the back.
- That same transition into that endover — I do endovers that way all the time but I have never tried to draw them out and use them to project the motion in a curve. I’m getting better at that, and I think it will pay off on some other tricks I’ve been contemplating. This has been the most challenging part of this sequence by far. I’ve thought of bank/ditch tricks using this motion, but have never done them because I didn’t have it down. Now I will.
Anyway, I worked on this for an hour today. They started sort clunky and got better. Back at it tomorrow. This is how I do things. I just do that same thing over and over and over until I’ve got it.
Mystic Weasel Practice from Bob Loftin on Vimeo.