Back on the Board

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There is a hidden joke in this post. If you get it, you are a nerd.

This past Sunday afternoon it was only 90 F, and it was a nice day, so I finally got back out to skate. Simple stuff on a big board. I’m rusty, but the bigger problem is that after a summer of no skating due to the infernal heat I’m in bad condition. However, I know that a few sessions and my legs will feel strong again and everything will be fine.  I mean, I’ll still be a little too fat, but it will take a while to correct that.

It felt good to be back on the board. I think I had a certain amount of anxiety about it. I always do when I’ve not skated for a long time. As I skated I could feel the summer isolation depression melting away. This winter I’m going to have to start going to a skatepark at least one evening during the week just to have a lighted place to ride. Not crazy about that, but that’s how it is.

When I watch this clip on full-screen it’s not as horrifying as I thought. The song is Elephant Talk, by King Crimson, from their album Discipline. I like it!

Back on the board from Bob Loftin on Vimeo.

Reading n stuff

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Finished reading my 15th novel of the year today at lunch.

I know I keep harping on this, but it feels good. It feels like an accomplishment. While I do have a 20-book goal for the year, I’m not just trying to race through these novels. There is no point in that. I’m reading at an enjoyable, casual speed and really immersing myself in them. It is the consistency of ready at least 5% of a novel every day this is creating the success because it is becoming 1) something I look forward to and 2) a habit.

Tonight I’m starting a novel by SF author Robert Silverberg. I’ve read a number of his novels and they have been enjoyable. While I knew of him already, a few years ago I read his short story The Iron Star in this anthology of space opera and military SF. I was kinda blown away by the emotional and ethical impact of this story and it made me a fan. Silverberg, like many of his generation of authors, really started writing in the SF magazines and went through a formative period in which he wrote a hell of a lot of stuff. The material I’ve read is from his “mature author” era. His work from this period can be a bit more cerebral than some of the adventure space opera stuff I’ve been reading a lot of lately. It will be a good shift for me.

That’s the way to do it

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This past weekend the London Calling skateboarding event happened in, you guessed it, London. A lot of big shots from the English and U.S. skate scenes were there. It’s kind of an old school event.

Alva was there.

I saw some shots on his Instagram page of him skating South Bank. That spot is no joke. My dear friend Tony Gale took me there in 2015 and it is gnarly. Even the flat is gnarly.

Alva posted this image on his Instagram page. It is everything I love in skateboarding, in one image. What a fantastic shot.

Tony Alva doing a nose wheelie on a skateboard