Safety first. To me when I’m walking through NYC I like that I can hear cars at intersections, or if someone is walking around me. I know that NYC is supposedly safer than Disney World these days, but being aware of one surroundings is important. If there is a danger, or a collision about to be made, having the sense of hearing can give one a heads up. I used to run on the streets with headphones, so that is all I will say about safety.

My main beef with headphones is that people think it gives them the right not to be bothered, and not to be approached.  A few years ago in Forest Hills, a more well to do part of Queens, I saw a sight that pissed me off.  This kind of attractive women in her twenties took off her headphones, got ugly, and said to an elderly immigrant woman, ‘Do you not see that I have headphones on? That means I’m don’t want to talk to anyone, *(&^%.”  I realized that this elderly woman was simply asking for directions. I thought the younger woman really reacted like a spoiled child, and anyone lost should be able to ask directions. Wearing headphones does not simply erase being decent to other people. The street map in Queens and the city can be confusing, and I’m glad that when I ask directions, people respond with an answer. The people I’ve asked for directions might give me the directions, think they know and give wrong directions, or say they don’t know.  But I’ve very rarely been chewed out for asking directions. And I’m not a meek old lady with an accent. So headphones or no headphones, that woman was out of line.

But I think a lot of people in this city wear headphones for that exact reason, so they can avoid conversations with strangers.  It’s kind of weird concept. That on your commute to your job, or from point A to B, you can close off encounters and background noise by just having your own soundtrack. I’m a fan of music, but either at home on my computer, or in a bar where the musical experience is shared with the people in the establishment. I like that I can be aware on my commutes. If someone asks me directions, and I can point them toward the right way, I feel good, not pressed upon.

Lastly, I’m not the first to point this off in the skate world. But if you’re skating with people I think it’s rude to wear headphones, it’s nulls the shared experience. On a larger scale of that, I think wearing headphones in any group situation or around people is rude.  I think memorable events for everyone involves a group of characters. To tell a good personal story, you need to remember what other people said, what the surroundings were, and the string of events. If people have their headphones on all the time, they are cutting of several perceptual senses, and therefore have less interesting things happen to them. That’s a stretch, but is an idea. I think to be part of something you need to be there, and not in a personal soundtrack la la land.

More than ten days have passed since I wrote up a blog entry.  Should one write about anything to keep a schedule or should one wait until they have something to write about? From my experience with blogging, it needs to be regular, which means at least once a week. Then you get views from the people you email the post, and those that see it on facebook, twitter, and other sites.  But the more your write on different subjects the more searches can get to your blog.  Because of that I think more is better, and it only takes one media person to link a post on a major site to get exposure. I really do not have much to talk about today, so I’m going to stoop low and talk about hair, facial hair that is.

For the past few winters I got the itch to grow a beard.  My facial hair is not the fullest, and is kind of straggly. To a certain point it looks good. One friend 3 or 4 years ago told me the trick is to shave your neck, and that gives some boundaries for the beard and makes it look better. I decided in early November to grow a beard so I would have one for my thanksgiving holiday. I had my beard until tonight, and other than shaving my neck every few days I did not trim it at all.

Over dinner on Sunday, my sister kind of looked at my beard and said, “It’s starting to look a little wild.”  With that statement she kind of had a smile or an expression to make me think it was getting out of control.  My sister is a very smart woman, and knows a lot about fashion. She told me years ago never to buy pleated slacks, but always get flat front slacks. And she is right.

Anyway, my beard was freshly on my mind. On Monday morning after a quick shower before work I headed out toward the bus stop. I put my hand on my beard and noticed it was still wet. We have had some super warm weather recently, but what happens when it does get really cold.  Would I have a frozen beard? When I eat pizza, does the grease stay on my beard and chin? If my nose starts running, would the snot stay on my mustache?  I’m not a neat freak, but maybe it’s called being ‘clean’ shaven because it’s more hygienic.

Today at work, my beard is still on my mind. I asked a few coworkers. Someone pointed out either trim it or shave it off.  A few customers made funny but nice comments on it, so I decided I would shave it off. Originally I planned to keep it until April, but I guess I’m a quitter.

On the bus ride home I saw a dude that had a thick beard. I could grow it until next thanksgiving, and mine would not look like a manly beard. So I came home and walked to my barber, but the barber closed at seven. So I got some food, came home, and started the long process of shaving. I started with a small pair of scissors I use to trim my nose hair. And then I found a disposable razor, and then I used the expensive razor. This felt like it took a long time.

One thing I was on the fence about shaving my beard was if I did that at the barber, I would have to get a hair cut too. But by shaving myself I can continue to let my hair grow.

I’m not trying to tell people not to grow beards with this blog entry, but encourage people to try different things and do what works. For me, I don’t think facial hair works, unless I spent time styling it, which I won’t do.

Winter was cold. My skating was solid up until January and then it was sporadic practically until April. My memory is kind of hazy of January through March 2011, but I guess nothing traumatic happened.

In late April I took a solo trip to Las Vegas. To say it was a spiritual journey would be a stretch. But it was important for me to travel by myself. I made my itinerary and did what I wanted. When you travel with people there is always a compromise, but by myself I was able to do things I wanted. I skated every day, saw nature sites, and had nights out. I’d like to travel more, but not in 2012, I need to get to where I can pay for my trips, and not charge them. Now I want to travel, whereas before my Vegas trip I thought I didn’t have an interest in going places. Here is my ridiculously long blog entry after the trip.  {Vegas blog entry }

In spring I skated quite a bit, but a lot of my focus was in my library work with advocacy against the budget cuts.  Aside from the yearly budget threat and a low materials budget work is going well. I’ve been at the same location, and have been able to concentrate on improving services. I get a lot out of work and feel that librarianship is the career for me. Here is an advocacy blog I wrote about this year’s read in. {24 hour read in }

In June I was suppose to go to Toledo for a full week of vacation. I planned to skate, read, write, and hang out. My parents changed that when they say they needed help cleaning out the farm in Virginia. So I flew into Detroit, and we drove down to Virginia. It’s beautiful down there, and I’m glad I went. Here’s my entry with a lot of good pictures. {Farm entry }

Over the summer it was beastly hot and affected my skating big time. I remember on some days only being out for an hour or less, being winded, and sweating profusely. I did not skate as much this summer as I planned too. In August I vacationed down in Florida with my whole immediate family, it was a great time. I try to read a lot on my vacation, and here is the blog entry I wrote about my Florida vacation. {Florida reading }

September, October, November, and December had lovely weather.  I think after a lull I’ve finally started to progress some at skating and I’m having fun. I’ve made a routine of skating Flushing Meadows, and I’ve blogged several entries on how I like my weekend skating routing.

This fall I also took a writing class that was beneficial. I think discussing writing for 3 hours on Sundays motivates me, and I think I want to seriously pursue writing. My goal is a short story a month. And after I have some bulk I’ll revise hopefully with more detachment.

During thanksgiving I went home and it was a nice visit with family. And I did get to skate a couple new parks in the Northwest Ohio area.

Overall 2011 was a good year for me, and I documented it well on my blog. I think that is one thing that I’ve been consistent at is writing of a blog every week or so.

2012 GOALS

1. I need to get back to the gym pronto. It’s amazing how easy it is to stop working out, and how difficult in can be to get back into the routine. I haven’t been to the gym since well before Thanksgiving. So I’ll be just as bad as all the other resolution people.
2. Live healthier. That means being moderate on nights out or abstaining altogether.  I need to at least check out a book on general nutrition, and make an effort to not eat junk food. I seem to have a sugar tooth, and like fried things, and grease. I’ll start small like stopping drinking soda, but I need to have a good all around diet and lifestyle.
3. Try to progress at skating, and other pursuits in my life.
4. Meet more people, listen better to others, and not focus on myself all the time.

READING HABITS

Lastly for this entry, here is my 2011 reading log. I read less than 2010, but maybe more variety. I learned I really like a good autobiography on rock n’ rollers. I enjoyed both the Keith Richards and Patti Smith memoirs greatly. I spent a great deal of time reading ‘Buddenbrooks’ by Thomas Mann and did not finish it. Since I didn’t finish it, I can’t put it on the list! Also with better selections for my work book club, I’m getting a lot of good reading from that too and really enjoy that part of my work.

2011 Book Log

1. The Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende. January
2. Giavonni’s Room by James Baldwin, January
3. Schizophrenia, a very short introduction by Christopher Firth. February
4. Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris. February
5. Angels of the Universe by Eina Margudmussen. March
6. The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent. March
7. Down and out in Paris and London. George Orwell. March
8. Shattered by Karen Robards. April
9. City of Thieves by David Bernioff. April
10.  Life by Keith Richards. April/May
11.  The Zookeepers Wife by Diane Ackerman. May
12.  Someone Knows my Name by Laurence Hill. June
13. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter Thompson. June
14.  Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. July
15. You Believers by Jane Bradley. July/August
16. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Neale Zora Hurston.  August.
17. Goodbye, Columbus by Phillip Roth. August
18.  Herzog by Saul Bellow. August
19.  Witches by Rould Dahl. August
20.  Every Last One. By Anne Quindlen. September
21. Light in August by William Faulkner. September/October
22.  Just Kids by Patti Smith. October
23.  Indfidel by Ayan Hirshi Ali. November
24.  Fatal Convictions by Randy Singer. November/December
25.  The assistant by Bernard Malamud. December
26. The marriage Plot by Jeffrey Euginides. December (almost finished)

I’m not sure if many people review magazines, but I think it’s worth giving a shot.  Out of my library I checked out the new Transworld Skateboarding magazine, January 2012, and I think I’ll return it, go to a store and buy a copy.

To celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Transworld they decided to highlight the 30 most influential skateboarders of all time. Thrasher also celebrated their 30^th anniversary recently, and it’s interesting they both started around the same time. What makes this issue of Transworld so unique is that they interview all of the 30 people listed, and about 6 additional people about their own careers and the history of skateboarding.  Also throughout the main article they have a timeline of important events in skateboarding.

They list Duane Peters, Tony Alva, and Steve Cabellero in the top 30. Duane Peters and Tony Alva are over 50 years old, and Steve Cabellero is approaching 50. All three continue to skate well. In the magazine Steve Cabellero states he now likes getting older because he can continue to push the boundaries and can see how long he can keep at it.

Also listed were several vert and street skaters from the 1980’s. Lance Mountain says some interesting things in his interview, and I also enjoyed Matt Hensley’s interview.

On the timeline for the year 2007 the magazine states this about the Lakai video, “Mike Carroll and Eric Koston prove the 90’s generation is still comfortably in the driver’s seat.” (page 129) I always felt it amazing that some of this guys were popular when I was in high school, and still are pro and testing the limits. Several skaters on this list are from my generation. I think skaters in their mid thirties now that skated through the late 1980’s to the mid 1990’s did see skating become dynamic. In the magazine it states that Rodney Mullen invented the 360 flip in 1987. That was right before I started to skate.  That trick must have caught on like wild fire, because by 1989 it was common. Also Blind’s Video Days came out in 1991, and The Questionable Video came out in 1992, and they had a much different image and trick variation with just a year between release dates.

Anyone that would think about the most influential skaters would agree that Rodney Mullen, Tony Hawk, and Mark Gonzales would place at the top of the list. Out of the 30 skaters though, I recognized almost all of them, and could think a few important skaters not on the list. It really shows that even though skateboarding is very individual, a lot of people contributed to the progression of the sport. I also enjoyed that this issue interviewed the skaters, and had a long interview with the rated most influential skater Mark Gonzales. A running theme of the skaters that made the list was longevity. Their impact was over a long span, and they still skate.

Anyway I’ll keep this short. If you skate or skated at some point, go get this issue of Transworld.

Here is one of Mark Gonzales’s famous clips:

Review of Nike’s Skateboard Chronicles Volume 1., 2011

I saw people giving this the thumbs up on facebook before it was released on Itunes on December 10, 2011. But you really had to search sites for free downloads, and to me getting a virus from a shifty site was a deterrent enough to wait. The other two videos I’m going to review had the full-length video on youtube, and were easily accessible. Maybe power house companies like Nike can make sure it’s not shared illegally while the smaller companies are losing the battle.

Film wise this is high quality, they use good angles, I got the HD version on Itunes, and the picture looks very good.  Music wise I believe it is uneven. In the year 2011 is Green Day really necessary in a skateboarding part? But for the last three riders: Lewis Marnell, Wieger Van Wageningen, and Grant Taylor the music is matched perfectly. Wieger Van Wageningen, a red haired giant from Holland, skates to David Bowie that gives it a mellow energy. Grant Taylor skates to Slayer and that matches his fast gnar insane skating style.

Skating wise this is impressive. Lewis Marnell is on Almost. Rodney Mullen and Daewon Song, two legendary skaters run Almost and don’t sponsor that many, but try to sponsor the best. This is the first footage of Lewis Marnell I’ve seen, and the guy is smooth and a tech skater. Wieger Van Wageningen I never saw or heard of before, but he has good tech while popping everything. The stand out part is Grant Taylor. Two years ago his part in Alien Workshop’s ‘Mindfield,’ was good, but the guy has progressed into one of the best. I believe he got Thrasher’s skater of the year.  He is going big and fast. This part has a lot of huge pools, drops to ditches, and rails. The ender trick is about a 14-stair rail that curves sharply outward at the end. He made it even though so many things could go wrong on a rail like that.

Nike labeled this video volume 1, and it highlighted about 6 skaters. They have an army of skaters and some of the biggest names in the game.  Paul Rodriguez, Eric Koston, Theotis Beasley, and Justin Brock are some of the top pros that might be in volume 2, volume 3, volume 4 etc.  I don’t think they published how many they plan, but I think the wheels are in motion, and I think these might come out a little more quickly than other company videos because they are probably dropping more money on them.

For a long time I passionately disliked Nike, and I still kind of do. But as skateboarding sustains it’s popularity, and becomes more and more accepted, money will need to be put into it, and the big corporate companies might have the framework for that. This video is good, and it was only 5.99 on Itunes. I’m not persuaded to purchase Nike shoes quite yet, but made me think perhaps they can contribute.

Review of Shake Junt’s ‘Chicken Bone Nowison.’ 2011

Baker, Death Wish, and Shake Junt are under the same company umbrella. They are the degenerate team from my perspective. They are partiers, but they skate with an abandon and are good.  Some of them like Andrew Reynolds did the 12 steps and have been sober for years, so clumping them all together might be stereotyping them. But the company image is very much promotes revolving your life around skating and partying.  As an adult skater I do kind of worry about the kids that look up to these guys, because that is a hard life to aspire to.   But then again, I watched the whole thing straight, and then I watched it again a few times.

To my surprise, shortly after it was released I searched it on youtube and the entire video was there.  The video is over an hour, and I didn’t even know that videos that long could be on there. Also most of the individual skater’s part went up quickly too. One night I watched the thing. In the intro they have pot smoking, drinking, and even nudity.  This is somewhat like the Jack Ass stuff from a few years ago, but this company does emphasize the skating a lot more that those MTV guys. Neen Williams has the first part, and he’s had quite a bit of coverage lately. The guy is smooth, and they have a funny seventies soul song to it. A lot of the magazines mentioned his heelflips, and seeing it on film, they are very unique. He does them off of massive drops for one, but he does a shifty with it, and that tweaks his front foot forward, and makes it look super cool. But I wonder why they don’t call it heelflip shifties.  Dustin Dollin skates like a maniac, and looks drunk or hungover in every clip. And he takes some bone crushing slams. Bryan Herman and Andrew Reynolds, two of the superstars in the video, have a dual part that is smooth.

They are a lot of other individual parts, but then towards the end it’s more of a montage of random footage. One skater who had a good part, did not have his name attached to his part, but they named him ‘Sinner.’ The humor is kind of lost on me, and I simply do not know the name of that skater.  A very popular skater called ‘Lizard King’ only had a few tricks in it. According to a youtube comment, Lizard King, and others were saving footage for the upcoming Death Wish video. Overall the video was enjoyable, but perhaps a tad too long, and I’m glad it was free.

On youtube after 5 or 6 days the full-length video had over 50,000 views. To me that seems like a huge amount, and shows that there is an interest in this video. After about the 6^th day that link was taken off.  Checking again today a newer post of the full-length video was at 25,000 views. So I have no idea if the company is trying to monitor it at all or not.

Review of SK8MAFIA’s full video, 2011

This video starts out with a memoriam of one of the skaters on this team, Tommy Cantrell, who died this year. I was not familiar with this skater, but the footage shows that he was really good. It’s sad to hear about people dying too young, and too many skate videos start out this way.

Some parts of the soundtrack is old seventies stuff and smooth.  Jimmy Cao’s part has ‘Soul Man’ and another classic track. Then it has some early hiphop and gangster rap tracks that do fit the style of the riders.  But the music does seem all over the place in this. But I don’t think there was any Green Day in it, so they have one point against Nike.

For me, the video was a little long, and I should give it another viewing. I checked today and the full video is still on youtube, so I’ll get another chance to watch it. From what I saw, it does seem to be a throw back to the 1990’s of trying to get the tricks, spots, on film. It doesn’t seem to be a high quality picture, the angles don’t seem to be thought much of, and it is light on the slow motion. I watched Jimmy Cao’s part individually several times. On his part and some of the other parts, there are a lot of lines. Lines are when skaters do multiple tricks in a row. In the high budget skate videos, there are less lines, because they try to get the angle filming perfect, and the skater does the trick flawless. In this SK8MAFIA video I really liked that they did lines of up to ten (or at least a lot) of tricks. If a skater sketched out a little bit, they still let him finish the line. Hopefully this will be a trend, to go back to showing lines, and more genuine skating.

In all fairness, these companies are different, and the only reason I review them in the same blog is that their videos came out at the same time. And I happened to see them while they are brand new.

Thankfully I get to skate tomorrow.

More than a week has past since my last blog post, but I’ve been busy. My understanding is like everything the more consistent and regularly a blog posts are the better. Since it’s late, and I don’t want to spend too much time typing I’ll go with my bread and butter. And that is simply recapping my weekend. Yes, sometimes my blog is just a diary log.

Friday night I read. For work I have a book club on Monday, and I read a good portion of it on Friday.  Between chapters I would watch youtube music videos, skate videos, and checked facebook about thirty times. As winter approaches I’ll do this more, just have a nice lazy night in the comfort of my apartment.

Saturday I slept in and skated Flushing Meadows. I told my friend I’d meet him at the unisphere at 2:30.  I got there a little early and felt I couldn’t warm up.  Somehow a hoodie with only a t-shirt underneath felt drafty. There were a few whippersnapper teenage skaters filming. There were good, but cursed every time they missed a trick, and one kid focused (broke his board in half) for really no reason at all. I felt glad that I’m not a teenager anymore, but worried that my session would not be that great.  Before Saturday I did not skate for a full two weeks. When I don’t skate for a little bit my imagination becomes deluded of my skill level. I think I’m a lot better than I actually am. So when I do get skate reality sets in, and I feel I can’t do anything. It can take me up to a half hour for me to warm up. Warming up consists of rolling around, and not really trying much of anything. It takes me several minutes to even try kickflips, something I can do fairly consistently.

My friend came and quickly I started to enjoy my session. We stayed in the unishpere, and we both practiced nose slides.  For me the ledge is high, so I’m glad I can do them decently.  I sized up the grate, and there is no way I could noseslide across that whole thing. It’s like 15 feet across.  The speed needed to make that is ridiculous for me. I think the noseslides I was doing on other parts of the ledge were 3 to 4 feet tops. But I’m happy with that.  My friend and I played a game of s.k.a.t.e. that loosened me up to were I felt comfortable.

We walked to the skate park. The park was super crowded. I wanted to try a wall ride on the steep bank by the 3 step. On my second try I did it, and that was enough of the skate park. I didn’t even take off my jacket. Near the unisphere there is a little bank to ledge. To describe it to people that don’t skate is difficult but I’ll try.  It starts with a curb, but it’s lower that a curb, then there is a slope maybe at a 30 degree angle, and a small curb, edge on top.  It goes in maybe a foot and a half and might be a little over a foot high. You can approach it straight, ride up it, do something on the top, and roll down.  With this approach I did an ollie 180 to disaster, and revert out. I did a nosepicker on it.  After many tries I did a switch ollie 180 to rail, to revert out. My friend can skate transition, and did a lot of combos. For some reason, I like this spot, and feel confident on it. Approaching it like a normal ledge I did 50-50’s on it with decent speed. Instead of popping out of the 50-50, with the ledge you could roll out of it. Rolling out of a grind was fast and fun.

After that we skated in one of the rectangle fountains that is the size of a football field.  In another game of s.k.a.t.e the sun started to set. I took one picture here, because the stature with the unisphere in the background looked good. We could see the lights at the unishpere, and we walked over, and it was perfect. Bright lights flooded the entire famous spot. We skated in the lights for about 40 minutes. Someone put a focused board in a crack pointing straight up. My friend quickly rode up the board deck with a little pop. Quickly he did a 180 out of it. I never did anything like that, but he told me it was easy. I did a few of them, and even did a sloppy 180 off of it.  Saturday was a great skate day, to be out for 3 to 4 hours felt great. I went home and read the stories for my writing class Sunday.

On Sunday my story was work shopped in my writing class. The class did give some very positive encouragement while also giving me pointers too. A class has a lot of value, because as a writer you think of one way for a story. When several people read it, there are multiple scenarios for most stories. Also another student’s story work shopped was a revision. This revision was a complete rewriting of the original based on the structure, language suggestions from the first workshop.  This gave me a valuable lesson. My idea of revision is cleaning up the typos, fixing a sentence here and there. But revision looking at the whole story can be a complete change or rewrite.  I think I’m going to sign up for a class in winter. This class has inspired my writing. I had two completed drafts of fiction, when I haven’t written fiction in years.   I need to keep the momentum, and my goal is one story a month.

After class I took the E to downtown and went to the Tribeca skate park.  This is a small park and gets crowded easily. The level of some of these kids is amazing. They have rails and big ledges going down.  But I had few conversations and some of them were nice and seemed happy to be there.  For a little bit I watched, after a near collision, I decided to wait a bit.  It did clear out some. The obstacles in this park are not scary like the Chelsea Park, but they are big enough were I don’t try much new tricks.  On the euro gap I can ollie it okay, but last May almost fell on my face when I tried a frontside 180 over it. So I’m careful on that.  As the day progressed I warmed up, and simply practiced backside 180’s from the slope to flat. I’m not good at backside 180’s, but felt I got a few ones with decent height. On flat I barely have any height to them.  I also did a little noseslide to shove-it out.  Tribeca forces me to practice the basics.  Once in awhile that might be a good thing.  If you do the basics better, than everything will improve. One can only hope.

After that I read in a café for a little bit and then had great noodles with my sister for dinner.   My sister can really put things in perspective, and I’m happy I get to see her and my little nephew once a week. After that I came home. I finished The Assistant by Bernard Malamud for my work book club, and it should be a good discussion. Overall my weekend was good. I had two active days and reflective easy nights.

One of the beautiful things about facebook is that people post links on there from other parts of the Internet.  From my library friends I get a lot of career related articles to read through people posting links on facebook. And my skateboard friends from Baltimore, Ohio, and now New York City post interesting clips on there too. This gem of a recent interview of Rodney Mullen someone I knew in my teenage years posted a few days ago, and I’ve watched it several times since then. Now I’ll blog about it and hopefully embed it correctly onto my entry.

First I’ll sum up Rodney Mullen as being the most influential person to the progression of skateboarding. Ollies on flatland, kickflips, 360 flips, impossibles, and perhaps a hundred variations were first done or created by Rodney Mullen. He learned these tricks as a freestyler skateboarder throughout the 1980’s. In the late 1980’s and to present day he continued to innovate street skateboarding. So in the 1980’s with a smaller freestyle board he invented the standard tricks, and then in the 1990’s took on trick progression on obstacles and street skating. In 2005 he wrote his autobiography called, “The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself.” I read that book, and he details his life experience of skateboard tours, and it ends with him being financially successful from the sale of World Industries in 1998, an infamous and famous company that he co-owned.

About a year ago Tony Hawk interviewed Rodney Mullen, and that I also viewed that because a friend posted it on facebook. I should try to find that interview too. This interview that I saw this week, shows that Rodney Mullen still has the drive to innovate, which is amazing to me.  He looks young but is in his mid forties I believe, and already has done so much for the sport. To me it shows that skating on that level has creativity that maybe other sports do not. Writers can write into old age, and I think skaters could probably imagine variations of tricks forever, but the question is how long can the body continue skating as one gets older. I think Rodney Mullen and people a little bit younger are the first generation of street skaters, so I don’t think people know. You look at a lot of the top pros and they are a lot of them well over thirty, so it is not simply athleticism. This interview also shows that there is very much a thought process to thinking up new tricks.

In this interview and the one with Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen talks of ‘having no stance.’ There are two basic stances in skateboarding. Regular is with the left foot in front, and Goofy is with the right foot in front.  Over thanksgiving on a family walk I bought my skateboard with me.  My oldest nephew is 12, my niece is 9 and my younger nephew is 5. All of them had fun learning to ride on a board for our hour or so long walk. I told them to stand the way they felt more comfortable. My two nephews gravitated to regular stance, and my niece chose goofy stance.  My niece is left-handed so that might have something to do with it. In general people are more comfortable with one stance as opposed to the other when starting to skate. As people progress they start to do things ‘switch’ is simply in the stance they don’t usually ride. So good skaters ride both ways, but still have a dominate stance.

By the time I was in my prime of skating, at like age 17, in 1993, I was good at switch and tech tricks. As an adult unfortunately I’ve been off an on with skating. Every time I start back up I can ollie relatively quickly, then I get my kickflip back, and few other tricks.  But even though I want to be good switch and tech tricks, it takes a long time for me to get comfortable with switch when I’m relearning.  Sometimes I can switch ollie a couple of stacked boards and sometimes I’m not even close. So regular stance is by far my preferred stance, and what I’m comfortable with.

I think everyone is more at ease with one stance as compared to the other. In this interview Rodney Mullen talks of breaking down the stance so there is no stance. That seems like a weird thing to think about, but what he is trying to say is what if skating was a continue flow with no limitations of tricks from stance or anything else. He also says a draw to skating is the idea of learning things new and the feeling from figuring nuances of new tricks out.

I do think that Rodney Mullen is forward thinking to the future of skating, and I’m glad he’s not simply resting on what he already has done.  There are still major skate videos were the riders do not do much switch tricks, and concentrate of going big. The future is more fluidity of tricks from all stances, including fakie and nollie tricks. It already has gotten to the point that it’s hard to tell with some skaters what their stance is in videos, that’s a good thing.

My past two blog entries were on actual topics. Those entries were geek out skate entries, but searchable online. My views did go up in the past week from writing on topics that people search for. In the future I’ll do more of this review or article type writing. But on this entry I’m going to digress back into the diary type blogging. Mostly I’m going to talk about my lack of focus and figure out why I’m procrastinating with my writing, gym, and skate goals.

A few weeks ago I was talking to my good friend about my writing goals. She said she did not have writing or any other goals for that matter. Her life was work and having fun. My roommate also said at some points he concentrates on work while not setting a lot of other goals for success. I wish I could be happy with simply work and living my life. Somehow I’m always plotting on ways to become a good writer, a better skater, or get in better shape. I’m always future oriented, if I work enough at something I may be able to succeed. Working full time while trying to be a good writer, and my other ambitions take solid time management.

About two weeks ago my use of time went haywire when I stopped going to the gym. I think I missed a few days, and thought maybe I should take a break until after the Thanksgiving holiday, at that point almost three weeks into the future. My mind wrapped around the idea that I could write my short story for my class, and skate more on weekends.  A true blue consistent person would not even consider taking that amount of time off unless injured.  I had a flimsy justification to stop exercising. Over night my schedule allowed me more time and I ended up going out more. An exercise routine is important, and necessary for people like me.

I did have a book to read for the work book club, which took up a lot of my days last week because I started it late. I’m happy I had a few solid blog entries, but I am disappointed that I did not start my story that I was suppose to turn in today. My writing class is great, it’s a good group, and every week afterwards I feel inspired. But I missed last week’s class, and should be practicing more what I learn in there. I asked today at the end of the class if the teacher recommends writing as a routine, or when a idea comes to you. He recommended twice a week, but definitely a routine as opposed to once in awhile. So perhaps a good goal would be the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And I would write fiction on Tuesday and Thursday nights. On weekends I could skate and write a blog entry. I’m wondering to get better if I should structure my off time to that extent, day by day.

However, I’ve had a lot of fun the past two weeks, I enjoy going out.  Maybe I should lighten up, be more spontaneous, and not be hard on myself.  Making it as a writer is such a lofty goal, I could practice every night for the next 30 years and success may not happen. I’m 34, and probably won’t progress too much at skateboarding, and will always be intermediate level, not a ripper. Getting in good shape is possible, but I learned from my running days that looking good is not life changing for me.

I’m glad I have people to hang out with, and want to keep my friendships. I think I can balance my schedule with going out some, but still focus on my ambitions. My ambitions are not negative pursuits they are simply to be good at writing and skating.  I remember someone saying to me, ‘if you’re not hard on yourself, who will be?’ I think that phrase makes sense as self-motivation. People have to push themselves to have any attempt at success.

I know my goals and what I want to do. I just need to not get sidelined, and practice enough that I progress at my endeavors, instead of them being a daydream fantasy of unrealistic success.

Watch any full length skate video produced in the past 3 years, and go to any skate park in America and you’ll see the Nike swooshes on so many people’s feet. Nike, Adidas, and Converse effectively pushed through to profit from the skate industry. They all sponsor some of the best skaters in the world, and maybe no one cares anymore. For the sake of argument I’m going to explain the skate shoe history to the best of my ability, and show it’s a shame that the big companies probably will dominate the shoe industry in a few years. Perhaps I’m a hypocrite because I’ll eat at McDonalds and shop for clothes at Kohls, but I think there was something good about skate only brands.

Recently in the news, I learned the cofounder of Vans, James Van Doren, died at the age of 72.  He and his brother started the shoe company in 1966, and with the emergence of skateboarding in southern California in the 1970’s Vans was the skate shoe of choice. If you watch the documentary Dogtown and Z-boys and the later movie, The Lords of Dogtown you’ll see that Vans along with the invention of the urethane wheel set the sport in motion. Vans is a huge skate shoe company to this day, has many good riders, and has had some of the best selling skate shoes including the Half Cab. The Half Cab shoe was introduced in around 1991 or 1992 and still sells well today. To me Vans does not produce skate videos, something that the other brands do, and a reason for me not to be into them.

Instead of researching for this blog entry on the real history of skate shoes I’ll fast forward to my time as a skater. When I started in 1988 or so there were four skate shoe companies: Vans, Airwalk, Vision Streetware, and Etnies.  The shoes were bulky high tops. Perhaps my ability was not good compared to later, but these shoes lasted awhile for me. Looking back it was not a stylish era at all. Vision Streetware was extremely popular but looked like Chuck Taylor with an ugly stitched label on it. I gave no thought on if these companies were good for skateboarding or not. With the exception of Etnies these shoe companies were owned and operated by businessmen and not skateboarders. Perhaps it is unfair to expect today’s kids to care at all about the shoes they ware, who owns them, and things like that.

In the early nineties the companies were still few, but the styles changed. Baggy clothes were in and the bulky low top skate design was created. Eventually this shoe style became popular with non-skaters as well. Somewhere around 1992 it became popular to skate in shoes not designed specifically for skateboarding.  A model of Adidas shoes, and a model of Puma became popular to wear. People would search for different colors in these shoes. I believe these shoes were popular in the hip hop crowd and skaters picked up on that trend.

Around 1994 to 1998 was an important time in skate shoe history.  DC, Adio, DVS, Es, Globe, Emerica and other skate shoe companies came on the scene. Skateboarding became popular again and some pros in the skate industry took advantage and started companies. Danny Way and Colin McCay started the huge company DC. Adio was Tony Hawk’s company after he broke off a long sponsorship with Airwalk. DVS, Es, and Emerica I assume are skater owned, but I’m not sure. So in a short time, the skateboard consumer had a lot of choices, but a lot of them were legit choices.  Everything one could buy in a skate shop was made and promoted by skateboarders for their own companies.

According to Wikipedia (my librarian colleagues are shaking their heads if they bother to read this) Nike tried to start to sell skate shoes in 1997 but failed to break into the ‘specialty’ shop market. In 2002 they started their brand Nike SB, so that is almost nine years by now. In the late nineties to the 2000’s a couple of other skate shoe brands came out, mainly Lakai and Fallen.  Lakai is owned by the same pro skaters that own Girl Skateboards, mainly Mike Carroll and Rick Howard. Fallen is owned by the pro skater Jamie Thomas. In 2007 Lakai put out a very acclaimed skate video called Fully Flared which made them very popular for awhile. Since 2007 at least three of their riders left for competitive companies. Eric Koston, who is a very influential skater, left for Nike. Luis Puig left for Adidas. And Alex Olson left for Vans.  So even though that 2007 skate video was one of the best of all time, these riders found more lucrative deals with the larger more mainstream companies.

In the past month it was announced that Es is going out of business, when around the year 2000 it was the biggest name in skate shoes. One of my favorite skate shoe companies, DVS, seems to be in less of the skate shops in NYC.  I like DVS because their shoes are comfortable, and the skate videos they produce are fun but progressive as well. I also see less skaters wearing Lakai shoes at skate parks these days.

A few years ago a friend who owns a skate shop in Ohio told me how Nike runs their business. They used to make local skate shops buy the full line of skate shoes Nike offers in every size.  The stores can’t return any of the shoes for credit, owe for the whole amount, and have to sell the majority of the stock to make a profit. My friend pointed this out when I said that I see a lot of skate stores in NYC with not many decks for sale. He said there is a good chance if they have Nike, they might owe Nike a substantial amount of debt. And because of that debt to Nike they can’t stock skate decks. My friend is a good source, but I hope that practice has changed in the last few years. I liked the ideology of a about a decade ago of skater owned local skate shops and skater owned companies. In that world the people that love skating can profit from it too.

All of this said, maybe I’m getting old, and shouldn’t judge anyone for the shoes they wear.  A few days ago I was watching a video and pointed out a pair of Nikes to my roommate. He made the observation that you can’t blame these sponsored skaters.  Skating everyday to get to that level means sacrifices like not working full time. So perhaps the big corporate companies are making it possible for this generation of promising skaters.  Also on the skate industry radar, Nike has an anticipated skate video to come out soon. They do have a stacked team, and maybe I’ll buy the video, but I won’t wear the shoes. I prefer a simple plain shoe without swooshes, stripes or other nonsense designs.

On November 11, 2011 or 11.11.11 something happened in the skateboarding world.  Element skateboards, a huge company, dropped a full part from the prominent skater Nyjah Huston straight to Itunes.  Nyjah Huston is 16 years old now but grew up in the skateboarding limelight.  His parents were skateboarding rastafarian vegans in California, and raised him to skate. A few years ago he left Element skateboards to start his own company with his father.  After that failed he went back to Element last year. He won 3 out of 4 street league tournaments this year televised on ESPN, chopped off his dreadlocks, had a full interview with Transworld, and has been the talk of the industry.   So his part has been anticipated and well received by fans. To me the whole Itunes format raises questions on how the industry will handle new footage.

First of all, I purchased the part called Rise and Shine. It runs about 8 minutes and cost 2.99. There were two options, regular for 1.99 and HD for 2.99.  And another choice was explicit versus censured.  Of course I chose explicit and without much knowledge on the difference I chose the HD version. In one way, the tricks he does on big handrails, makes this part phenomenal.  A few tricks I haven’t seen before like a backside 270 to noseblunt side, and a backside bigspin to hurricane.  It’s amazing to have variations of new tricks introduced on 8 stair rails.  Nyjah Huston takes some serious falls on here and it shows him getting back up and then getting the trick.  His determination to push the limits and boundaries are apparent in this part.  The skating is ground breaking, but I would have liked more variety. There were only a few short lines and never more than three tricks in a row.  Using the slow Lil Wayne song forced this part to go too crazy with the slow motion.  In my opinion the less slow motion in a skate part the better. So that is my evaluation of Nyjah Huston’s part and now I’ll go on to the bigger questions.

One of the bigger questions I have is why the insistence on a Nyjah Huston part and not release an entire Element Video.  Element is stacked with a lot of skaters including Evan Smith and Mark Appleyard. Ten years ago there would be a push with that collective of skaters on the same team to put out a video.  I’ve read in some of the magazines that big production videos are not as lucrative as they once were. To fly a team around the world, pay for hotels, film and other things is a challenge. The recession definitely affected the industry, and the online medium distributes this stuff for free. There is probably more filming going on because skating is popular, but less people pay for DVD’s.  One thing I noticed this year I think contests the notion that video releases do not make the companies money. In spring, Real released Since Day One, a full length acclaimed and popular film. At the skate parks in NYC this spring and summer I saw so many people riding Real decks than before. So I’m convinced they sold the DVD and Itunes well while getting more people to buy their skateboards.  Skateboarding has always worked like that, a good video would make the company more known.

Nyjah Huston is not the only skater to drop a solo part on Itunes.  Last winter or spring, Pual Rodriguez and his company Plan B dropped an Itunes part. I think at one time I watched this online on a Chinese website, and then that disappeared. These companies once on Itunes do seem to control the distribution on other sites, at least youtube. After I purchased Njyah Huston’s part and started to think of the Itunes question I decided to purchase Paul Rodriguez’s part too. This part is phenomenal because he pushes the tech skating and has a smooth style. Last year I saw Paul Rodriguez twice in New York City, at Maloof 2010 and at a Plan B demo at the LES skate park.  He is one of my favorite skaters. To me this was also worth the 2.99 Itunes charge. Individual parts are probably cheaper than full company videos.  I do wonder how much Paul Rodriguez and Nyjah Huston’s parts will bring to their perspective companies.  If there are 13 million skaters in the United States and these are anticipated parts would they sell 100,000 downloads? That’s a nice chunk of change. But then how much goes to Lil Wayne and Kanye West for using their songs? If it’s on Itunes the music artists get paid too. And how much of a cut does Itunes take? My point is that maybe it can be profitable for skate companies to sell on Itunes.

Thrasher on it’s website is dishing out skate parts for free. On July 4^th Torey Pudwell, also on the Plan B team, had a skate part debut on Thrasher. This was a good part and showed his technical versatility. This was as good or better than the average part in any video.  He skated well and showed that he was having fun in the process.  Torey Pudwell and Paul Rodriguez could be considered among the best, and they are on the same company Plan B. Ryan Sheckler, PJ Ladd, Danny Way, and Colin Mckay are all very well respected and part of this Plan B team. In 2009 they ran some teasers online of an upcoming video to be released in 2010.  Now 2011 is almost over and I’m still waiting for the Plan B video. They had some riders quit or some team changes, but this company needs to put out a video. Watching a brand new full-length video is so much better than the individual parts. I think this company could put out the best video ever, and I hope that is still on their agenda.

Thrasher also recently released free on their website a 20 minute company video. The company is Foundation and they have been in the business for 20 years. I felt the video a fun watch especially with the music collection. Foundation is a popular company, but not the most popular, and I wonder why they made the decision not to try to sell it on Itunes or in DVD format.  Could the video in association with Thrasher free to all generate more buzz and peripheral sales for the company than if they tried to sold it? I don’t know, but I hope that videos can get these companies some profit.  Es shoes used to be a staple brand in the skate industry, and this year it is going out of business.  Skate shoes are a whole other topic in these changing times, but I mention them because if videos do not generate money for the companies it does not help them at all.

I think as long as people are fascinated with skating it will be documented through film. But I do not like the shift to focus on the individual skaters as much, and I hope films that feature a plethora of riders will continue, whether they ride for the same company or are grouped together in some other way.