I finally got out and skated Sunday. I’m fat. I don’t really care. I’m rusty. I do care about that, but I’ll get it taken care of. This is my first real session of the year.
Category: skateboarding
A video
I can’t remember if I have posted this here before. I have posted it a number of places. I just keep watching it over and over, not because I just love my own skating, but because of how the music just fits the video, and the sky. It makes me feel good.
Parking Lot Antics
After a pretty rough week — busy at work and losing our cat, Casper — I got out to skate a bit today. I was pretty worn out, but Pandemic Parking Lot is always fun. Didn’t really “work” on anything today. Just rolled around and enjoyed skating. I streamed it live on Facebook, and these are clips from there, thus the shitty quality. I need to take my push broom out there. There are a lot of acorns, twigs, and random junk up by the curb, under the trees.
It’s fun to stream sessions on Facebook. I like to check and see who is watching and talk to them.
Rock n Roll
This is one of my favorite skate images I’ve ever taken.
I know here are problems with composition. I’m not a “real” photographer. I took this with a Canon Powershot Digital ELPH, a great, dependable, old, battered point n shoot camera I keep in my pocket a lot of times when I go out skating. A little manipulation with the Pixelmator app on my MacBook. I think it looks cool. The tweaking brings out the grunginess and gqarlyness of the spot. To me this is skateboarding.
New board
Well, my Mode Pool board has reached the end of it’s useful life and so it has been retired. I have one remaining, but I’m saving it. To my knowledge it is now one of a kind.
I pulled the trucks and wheels from it and put them on this Super-8 deck that I’ve had for a while. It was part of my equipment hoarding during the early days of the pandemic. 8.5 wide”, 14.5″ wheelbase. The Indy 159s fit it perfectly. 54mm Bones STF 99a. The setup feels really good. 1/4″ may not seem that much larger than my 8.25″ Mode pops to a non-skater, but a quarter of an inch is a significant width difference.
I’m back
I was in Austin and San Antonio for a couple of days of skating. Had a good time. Here’s a pic of an awesome ditch we skated.
Boards
Well, here are the boards. Yay.
MarsEdit Test
I’m testing the MarsEdit application for MacOS, for posting to various blog systems like WordPress and micro.blog.
Video fun
Went out to skate last night. Got a few clips, and decided to have a little fun with them.
Warming up the cadaver
It’s been a while, but I finally got out to skate today. This is a line I do to make sure I can still skate. Not the smoothest or best I’ve ever done it, but at least I was rolling. Was nice to be out there. Came up with a new trick that I’m working on. A flowy sequence.
Old Parking Lot
I was looking through footage from the first year of the pandemic the other day, and was struck by the beautiful North Texas Fall sky. I love it that time of the year. Hoody weather. Been listening to a lot of Pink Floyd lately. Thought it fit. I think all of these were from a couple of streaming sessions I did. Fall 2020.
the Small Arts
Before Covid messed everything up my friend Dale and I were working on a skate project called The Small Arts. It was to focus on banks, ditches, curbs, and flat. We’ll likely get back to it eventually. It’s been a hard 2 years. Anyway, I found this footage we shot while out skating.
The Small Arts: Video Jan 10, 2019? from Bob Loftin on Vimeo.
Hawk
As any skateboarder with an internet connection now knows, Tony Hawk broke his femur last week. Really nasty break. He was in Austin a few days later, on crutches, with hardware in his leg, for the first showing of the new documentary about his life in skating at South by Southwest.
This morning on his Hawk vs Wolf video/podcast he and Jason Ellis talk about it.
It is really something to see Hawk talk about this injury. Clearly it was horrible, and he has the look of a man who already understood the effects of aging on his skating, and now understands it even more. But what is really moving is hearing him essentially say that (besides just wanting to walk normally again) he just wants to skate. That desire just to skate, regardless the so-called level of his skating. Obviously if Tony is skating at about 10% his peak, that is about 1000% for everyone else, but the point is the same. All of us just want to skate. It is very humanizing to see this legendary skater really not knowing what the future of his skating looks like, but just wanting to skate.
First session of 2022
First session of the year, since the weather turned to crap in November 2021. The first session of the new year is always rough, as it take about 1 or maybe 2 sessions to get my feet back under me. Legs are always a little weaker after winter, and I’m just a bit rusty in general. Was good to be back on my board and I’m looking forward to a good year of skating.
Anyway, I was a little slow today, a little afraid of little rocks, and just generally getting the feel for my board again.
Throw Away Footage
Just some footage of a couple of simple little lines I do all the time, from warm-up a couple of months ago.
I like it when things look loose and relaxed.
If this was the only “kind” of skating I could ever do again I’d be fine with that.