Deadline is Approaching

As 2009 draws to a close I have been in the process of getting as much footage as I can in the worst weather conditions for my video part. This year has the least footage yet (my ankle kept me out for 2 months of the summer though) and therefore I need to get some more if I want to ensure my video will last at least 1 minute in length.

It's shaping up okay but for the first time I seem to be lacking a variety of flip tricks. That's what I do best and am the most innovative in so for me to have a video part without much is going to disappoint many people I am sure. I have a few ideas up my sleeve but with time running out they may just slip back in to 2010. Got to film at least one line too, I don't have any yet!

Stukeley Was Fun

Went to Stukeley with Rikki, Grant and Adam today and had a great skate. Got a few clips I'll use in my 2009 video part and also got some good footage of Rikki, his BS Crook down the small handrail really was sick and looks great on cam.

My ankle is holding out pretty well. I can do pretty much everything now that I want to on my skateboard (thank fuck) but everynow and then it gets bashed and aches for a few minutes when it shouldn't. I don't mind though because I know I need to just rest and then get back on it and the pain fades away.

Not much else to say apart from I'm quite chuffed with my skate today and can now see a possibility of actually managing to create a 2009 video which is longer than 60 seconds lol.

Finally I just watched X Games 15 Skateboard Men Vert Final about an hour ago, read my Facebook status to find out what I thought of it (below).

"Just saw X Games 15 Men Vert Skateboard Final for the first time since I saw it live back in August. I forgot how intense the action was, I'd love to be there in the crowd, atmosphere must be amazing."

Went to the Doctor's

Went to the doctor's in Little Paxton today to get my ankle checked out. There was no new news for me to hear, wasn't very helpful either really. I'm hoping to see a physio tomorrow who will give me exercises to do and give me a recommendation as to when I should go back in to skateboarding.

As for now my plan is to not skate until October and just pray it will fully heal.

Bad Dead Leg

I've been skating a lot this week, 4 times out of the possible 6 days which I'm quite happy about (especially considering there was a storm yesterday and it rained for time periods on tuesday). I would also be skating tomorrow and have skated longer today if it wasn't for a bad dead leg I got from trying to air the small spine. I bailed and went down thinking I'd be fine but having a mobile phone in your pocket means the impact of falling a few feet onto a hard ramp = quite a bit of pain.

I was unable to skate for the rest of the day and probably not for a few more days. A lot of the time I fall on my mobile and it aches my leg for a bit but then I'm fine, this time I seem to have a big bruise slowly appearing which I don't usually get.


Not much to talk about on the skating news. I uploaded a Nollie Bigflip and Fakie 540 Bigflip on my Youtube yesterday, I'm too lazy to link as no one will bother reading this so why should I bother? lol

Off To NASS I Go

Been waiting months for it, the chance to finally get to go to NASS is here as I leave in an hour and a halfs time on the 3 hour journey there. I so can't be bothered to write anything here so I'm leaving this really short, no one reads it anyway lol.

Smooth Nollie Laser Flip Off Small Ledge

I skated on Tuesday and filmed a smooth Nollie Laser Flip off the small ledge on the bowl corner. Watch it by clicking this.

I also went back to Huntingdon's new park yesterday and enjoyed my 5 hour skate session. It meant my body was too tired to skate today (on Go Skateboarding Day, how bad of me!) so I will probably go out for a skate tomorrow I think.

Filmed some stuff at the park yesterday, nothing great but I'll probably use one clip for my video. I could film a lot more stuff there though so will definitely be going back in the future to capture more of my skating.

Went to Huntingdon's New Park

Got down the ramps yesterday and was insisted by my friends to go with them to the new skate park in Huntingdon which has just about been finished being created. I thought it was a nice little park considering it was made by GBH who usually make crap parks (the one at St Neots being a rare exception. I had fun playing on the pyramid and their jumpbox is a little smaller than the one I'm used to which has it's benefits.

Other than that I didn't do much else. Kept trying to BS 90 Heelflip Allyoop accross two flatbanks gap but couldn't quite nail it. Not too fussed though as no one was filming, will go back again in a couple of weeks and land it I hope.

Skating Bay 66 with the Etnies Team

I been waiting for this moment for a long time, the chance to get to meet Ryan Sheckler, the most hated guy in skateboarding. I needed to find out if he really was a twat that everyone claims him to be. The answer is no, he really isn't. The guy is chilled and relaxed, offering to give autographs and take pictures with everyone that asked, even staying behind when needing to go to try and make as many kids happy as possible. Rest of the team are cool too, Malto got a bit of attention and when I chatted to Bledsoe and Davis Torgeson they both seemed really nice guys.

The skating was pretty sick, Davis was by far the best performer and little Axel came back to Bay 66 to skate amazingly good. Sheckler and Malto skated well too and the rest of the team didn't catch my attention because they were either injured and not skating or on the other side of the park where I couldn't see.

I had fun skating the park before people came, landed a Nollie 270 Heelflip over the pyramid after 30 or so tries and came close to a Switch FS Heelflip, just couldn't get enough rotation. I was skating the pyramid with Mike who I had never met before and had only spoke to online, meeting on Sk8UK's forums. He was a nice guy and I only just managed to beat him in a game of skate, he's definitely a much better skater than I thought, improving in leaps and bounds everyday.

I got pissed off when I left the product toss to go put my camera in my bag quickly to find my bag was no longer there. After asking at the entrance and giving my details I went over to the guy with the microphone who gave an announcement to which a few kids came over with my bag saying they found it in the games room. Unfortunately for me my wallet was not there so I had the kids come back over and ask them if they knew why and they seemed honest enough to have not taken it even though I must admit looking back on it now I am slightly suspicious. Why? Because soon later I get a phone call from reception saying they found my wallet, when I get it back I see £20 is missing so the guy lead me out of the park to the woman who handed it in. I do still believe it was her or her kids that took the money as the woman got all defensive when I confronted her (guilty conscience I personally believe) and there story of finding the wallet behind a planter just doesn't seem believable. Makes me think that maybe the kids who gave me my bag back kept the wallet and then disposed of it when leaving the park but I'm not sure, don't want to try and think about it really because there's nothing I can do.

Afterwards the park closed and me and my mate Alex (who came with me) when street skating. We found a 7 set which I skated and..... not going to spoil what happened there. ;)

End of the day it was worth going, even though I did lose £20 and spent £32 getting there. Glad to have gotten my picture with Sheckler and Malto as well as getting to talk to the team. Good memories.

New Decks

Okay so It's been a while since I wrote a blog and it's because I've been waiting weeks for my girlfriend to upload the picture of my 2 new decks. But firstly I snapped the tail on my Almost deck in a weird way, in half on the side way. It's hard to explain but check out the picture I took below.



See what I mean? Therefore I went on Route One and took advantage of their price and match deal, 2 decks for £69. After spending £4 on postage and packaging the total came to £73, view the beauties below.



So I am currently skating the top deck, a Chocolate Marc Johnson 7.875 and it's pretty good. The Dyrdek Alien Workshop is 8 inch so that will come in handy in a month or two when summer kicks in and the vert sessions start again.

Fakie 360 Double Flips are Eaaaaasy

Well easy is an over exaggeration but they're not as hard as I was expecting, I landed 2 in 30 attempts or so. The problem isn't making the board flip, it's more about how I have my body positioned and ensuring I'm able to stay on the board when I land. I'm glad I can do them now though as it's a stab to the heart of the haters on Youtube that criticise my Nollie 360 Double Flips, saying they are Fakie.

Also I have gotten Nollie BS Kickflips back again. Not sure how long for as they are tricky but I am going to practise them everytime I skate now to hopefully keep them in my bag of tricks and maybe even get to set them in games of skate.

Learnt Switch FS Bigspins

Can you believe it's the person I haven't skated with in years that teaches me the technique to a trick I've never really gotten close to doing before? Adam Reid don't skate anymore but when he came out and was trying Switch FS Bigspins I decided to join in and found them impossible. It was only after he showed me the placement of his back foot did I realise what the key to it all was, it's the scoop the back foot is able to give. We have our toes pointing in the opposite direction of where we are travelling (well an angle) which looks weird but my god does it help as I landed one in just a few tries. It works for normal as well, least I think it does (got close but no land).

Filming Dan

So yesterday when I saw Dan was doing his FS Smith Kickflips out I asked him if he wouldn't mind filming, of course being the nice guy he is he didn't mind. I whipped out my camera and although it took him a while he got it. Afterwards he went into overdrive mode with me capturing footage of tricks like FS 270 Lipslides and Kickflip BS Lipslides. I have all the footage, just need to upload it at some point and put together a video.

Still need to get my vids sorted though so I'm probably going to be lazy and take ages to do this, we will have to see.

Finally if you read my previous blog you'll see I uploaded a teaser vid of me trying to Switch Triple Heelflip, here is the end product.

Can I Switch Triple Heelflip?

Is the question I ask you. Don't know what I mean? Then watch the video I uploaded to Youtube yesterday.

Switch Triple Heelflip Attempt

So do you think I can do it? I have more videos coming your way soon, one of them may well be a Switch Triple Heel!

Nollie FS 180 Double Heelflips Learnt

The trick names I learn keep getting longer and longer! The latest addition to my trick book is a unique one I've never seen be done by anyone before, that is a Nollie FS 180 Double Heelflip.

You may recall a couple of months ago that I had learnt these trick with a single heelflip consistant. I did for that day but have lost the high consistancy since, still managing to do the odd smooth one but landing and then falling off of the majority. Today I got a brainwave, "why not try it with a Double Heel?". So as you might be able to guess, I did! I've been skating long enough now to know when it's going to be possible for me to land a trick and sure enough after 5 minutes I had gotten one. So I called over Recardo and got him to film me for a bit. Here are the clips, 3 of them uploaded into 1 on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohz8kqGTFzU

Was also able to film a trick which I'll use for my 2009 video part. It's nothing amazing but I don't want to say as it'll be a cool suprise when you do see.

Etnies Team Coming To UK!

I'm really stoked, the Etnies team are heading to The Works in Leeds, Rollersnakes shop in Derby for a signing and Bay66 in London for a demo. The biggest reason why I'm excited isn't because it's Etnies, it's because Ryan Sheckler is. He gets a lot of stick from skaters and I know why, I just hope when I see him he skates his heart out and does some sick stuff.

Not sure where I'm going to go, depends on what my mates want to do. It's most likely going to be Bay66 in London as it's more easier but will cost £20 travelling instead of car to Leeds so I just don't know.

Also close to buying a ticket to NASS, it looks good this year!

Little Skate Today

Went down ramps to meet Dan for a minute to buy some shoes and then decided to stay for a bit and have a skate. After an hour or so I had landed most of the grinds I am able to do and just haven't done in months due to the bad weather so I was happy.

Wes was trying FS 5-0's and had a few good attempts but still has a a way to go. He doing his BS Crooks much faster and smoother though, great to see him landing them!

This weekend will hopefully bring more game of skate matches. Ellis is having difficulties with him computer and therefore no matches have been edited yet. A shame but I can wait.

Game of Skate Started

Okay so me and Ellis planned a Game of Skate tournament for the locals of St Neots during the week and it started off yesterday. 16 of us and hopefully £1 per entrance will give us a prize fund of £10 or so for the winner (some people won't pay I can gurentee).

2 games started yesterday and that was Ellis beating Wiggy and me beating Marcus who took the place of Skiddy as he resigned.

I can't be bothered to post more now but my dad got a scanner the other day so I can scan in the sheets I recorded the games on and show them on here at a later date. Ellis has the 2 videos of the games too so when he uploads them I'll be sure to post a link here so you can see.

Met Adamregskater

So it's been years but I finally managed to meet Adamregskater who I originally met on Sk8Uk. I don't go on Sk8Uk anymore but I became friends with Adam anyway and have played PS3 with him and chat on MSN. Was cool for him to come to St Neots park as it's built for him, one of those skaters that will be destroyed in a game of skate but will tear up any type of terrain thrown at him. He had some nice big sweet airs and Blunt Fakie's we lush, I do envy his ramp skills.

As for my skating I had some good Games of Skate against his mate, one time setting the smoothest Nollie Double Kickflip I have ever done as well as staying on a Nollie 360 Double Flip.

Not sure when I will next skate, probably at the weekend as skiddy wants me to film him ride again.

Just About Recovered

So last Saturday I tried to Nollie Kickflip the "Bowl to Flat" gap down the ramps and got pretty worked up from trying it, worked up meaning killing myself. It's been a good few days now but my muscles seem to have gone back to normal and I'll be able to skate again at the weekend. Unfortunately my wrist is playing up bad as I must have slammed on it hard or something. I'm wearing my support which helps a lot, it's slowing healing, I think.....

Nollie FS Heels Oh Yeah

So I skated on Thursday on my own for an hour or so, really needed to get out the house. I finally got the technique down for Nollis FS 180 Heelflips and I am not going to lose them this time! It's an awkward trick to learn which is the reason why many can't do them however now that I can I've added another deadly trick to my arsenal in games of skate.

Other news I plan on skating for a bit to day and filming me do one into steep flatbank. I hope...

On With My Almost Deck

It's been two weeks but I finally managed to skate yesterday as the snow has now been and gone and rain was minimal. A new deck is always nice as I feel like I can pop my Nollie Heelflips to the moon but it was mini ramp that I focused on yesterday. I was glad to see I could do Blunt to Fakie everytime and smooth so I wanted to move on and get a bit technical. I tried to FS 180 out of some but that feels so hard so I then decided to try a BS Shove It out. It was working right but I couldn't get my feet back on, was just to much of a scaredy cat. End of the day I practised some grinds and was glad I landed a nice FS Smith in a few tries. The rail wasn't waxed well though so my BS Feeble and BS Crooks were suffering.

Might skate today but my muscles ache a bit and I do have work I should do. Time will tell whether I do or don't.

I Won't Be Skating Today

So snow has come and been now I think but the remains has been left. Still the everywhere is going to be slushy and there is no hope of me being able to go out and skate this Saturday unless we go to an indoor park.

Will most likely spend the day inside on my PC, might finally bother to make some skate vids (especially my 2008 bails one) and upload to Youtube.

Lame Skate

Yesterday was bad. I tried to hype myself up to go skate a big ledge or something whilst I skated my dying Flip deck for the last time but the coldness and wind got the better of my mates who were unmotivated to skate all day.

This leads me into wanting to go skate again today but I have college stuff to do so I really shouldn't. :(

Skated Ellis's Mini

He has a mini in his garden and it's pretty steep. After about 10 drop ins I finally got used to how it needs to be rode and I went ahead trying to Blunt Fakie it. Got it eventually on film and it's my smoothest one captured so far. After that I went ramps and spent ages working on Switch 360 Flips landing just the one, trick kills me.

Planning to go to Boardroom Park in Leicester soon, hiring it out for £50 a load of us. Looking forward to that.

Picture Update

So a couple weeks ago now I got 4 new pairs of shoes and a new set up for my brother. I took pictures but my girlfriend only just bothered to upload them. Check out the 2 pics I saved below.



So I took the deck off of that set up and kept it for myself, gave my brother the rest and put his Karma deck on. Now the shoes that lie in those boxes...



2 Pair of eS, 1 being Justin Eldridge pro model and the black and white being Accels. Supra Ryders and Emerica Heretic being the other pairs, setting me back £85 or so (Justin's pair came free with the order). I'm wearing the Supra's for casual dress at the moment, the rest haven't been touched.

My Muscles Ache

I been hyped to go skate all week as I been watching epicly later'd, the lakai fully flared ones. Thought about clips I want to film down the ramps (Nollie FS Heel and Fakie 270 into steep flatbank) but it was wet yesterday so went street skating instead. Got 2 crappy clips of me Heelflipping a 4, they're so yucky. Also spent ages trying to Heelflip Manual a pad, was frustrating.

But yeah, I didn't stretch so my body is feeling the impact today. Probably won't skate until next weekend again, it sucks. :(

Yesterday was Cold

I like the cold but yesterday it took me even longer to warm up and get ready to skate as my fingers and face were frozen. I did a crappy lil Switch Heelflip to Switch Manual which should be on Ellis's shitty saturdays whenever he bothered to upload it to youtube. Also would like to mention I ollied up and over the manual pad when it was stacked up against the bowl corner ledge as well as Switch Heelflipping down it, that made my day.

It Snowed

Thanks to snow nobody went out so skate (at least I think?) so I didn't bother going to the ramps for a skate and get my memory card of Ellis. That means I have to wait until tomorrow at the earliest to get it, will send him a text in a min and hope he brings it into school.

Watched the first Powell Peralta video last night, bloody funny to see Lance Mountain doing lame ass boneless handplant craps and cool it street skating. Mullen was ace on flatground and I could see Tony Hawk was a ripper. Was funny to see the directors delibretly film old grannys with faces like this :O as they witness Tony skate lol. Will watch the next video now as I continue to do my blogging.

Last bit of news for today is me on my Tech Deck. Nearly got Nollie Kickflips, wooo!

Sicko Sundays

So Ellis and the kids decided they would steal what The Berrics have going on and create an event for each day of the week. Today is Sunday and Sicko Sundays was born. The clips are supposed to be "sicko", they are far from it but still it's a bit of fun hey?

Check out today's Sicko Sunday

Just a lame Nollie Heel off the bowl corner and Switch Heel up from me. Also did a Inward Heel to Fakie and Nollie Double Heel to fakie on the small flatbank but the filmer missed them. Nothing special from me there but as I said, just a bit of fun right?

Other news is I got a step closer to learning FS Bigspins (so hard!) and I did 2 Switch 360's that were fully rotated and looked nice. Finally Ellis has edited together my 2008 video for me, I will hopefully recieve it tomorrow and upload the video to Youtube tomorrow.

Finished Mullen's Book

So I haven't posted for a few days, that's mainly because I haven't skated. Been busy with new year and going to MK and stuff but shall skate today hopefully. I have managed to finish reading Rodney Mullen's book (The Mutt, How To Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself) which was a fantastic read. I now have a much better understanding of skateboarding's past and how Rodney would spend 2 hours every weekday on his skateboard, splitting the time up into sections for learning new tricks and practising contest runs.

I could blab about the book all day but I'm in a rush right now so I need to hurry up and get this finished. I'm going skating soon so will hopefully post back tonight with an update.

Unleashing the Passion

As stated in my previous 2 blogs I am maintaining a new year's resolution rule that I made for myself, keep up a blog for a year. Skateboarding is the biggest passion in my life and my love for it is undenyable. This blog is going to be my most exciting one for me, where I'll get to re-cap my day and share with my Youtube subscribers what skating I got done in the day. Filmed a new trick or learnt a new one, I'll share it all in this blog.

Can't say much yet as it was new years day and didn't think anybody would be out to go skate. Instead I spent the whole day trying to make my 2008 video ready for upload, unfortunately it's not..... Had so many problems (which I explained in my general life blog) with programs not working and me being unable to convert files correctly leaving me with a day wasted and no end product. Will probably get Ellis to make the video for me in the end.

Won't be skating tomorrow as I am going Milton Keynes with my girlfriend for a shopping trip. Will make a post soon though, probably when my order from Rollersnakes comes. Too da loo.