The diary of an idiot.

[Rio Ohki]

Forum skate meet up?

[m0nkeymafia]

Originally Posted by Rio Ohki

I did worry that the nice police officers on their bikes would stop me for operating a moving vehicle whilst using a phone without the aid of a handsfree kit, but I seem to have beat the ban this time around.

FYI the only place in the UK that its illegal to skateboard or inline skate is on the pavements of the City of London (they have the City of London Police rather than the Met). Everywhere else whether on the road or pavement is totally legal and there are no laws at all that would stop you using a mobile. Skaters of all kinds are in a unique position where they can claim the same rights as cyclists to use the road and can also claim to be pedestrians when it suits them.

[Fenntastic]

Originally Posted by Vonnie

It's a wee bit tl;dr for me (sorry) but I think it's pretty cool as long as you're at peace with potentially being outdone by 9 year olds



Do you remember me and Ruth Zenith bought roller skates then I broke my ankle and never used them again? I think Laura Nemesis has those now. Good times.

i remember you breaking your ankle, aye.....i dont want that

[fallen_nemesis]

Originally Posted by Vonnie

It's a wee bit tl;dr for me (sorry) but I think it's pretty cool as long as you're at peace with potentially being outdone by 9 year olds



Do you remember me and Ruth Zenith bought roller skates then I broke my ankle and never used them again? I think Laura Nemesis has those now. Good times.

i think I left them in the flat in dennistab

So I'd assumed either Rikki or you had them now.

I hope they didn't get left!

[sixdaysinmay]

[Ethel Small]

Originally Posted by Rio Ohki

Shirley Manson is and will always be the one woman for me

There ya go Scottpie. You might just have a chance...

[Rio Ohki]

Scott Learns to Skateboard: Day 4 (May. 12th, 2008)
This blog could be incredibly easy if I allowed it to be. The amount of effort it would take to simply update everybody on my progress in regards to learning to skateboard would be absolutely minimal. It would look like this.

Day 4:
Learned to go faster.
Managed to carve the entire bowl.
Can do a tiny ollie, while standing still.

It’s not very impressive is it? You couldn’t call that a blog, you would call it a list. The point I’m trying to make, is that without context, without meaning, and experience behind the words and progress, this blog would be nothing. Thankfully, I have context, I’ve got a whole fuckin’ bucketload of context. Just you wait.

The night before Day 4 of learning to skate, was in a lot of ways horrific. This is nobody’s fault but mine and the little gremlins in my head. I won’t go into detail, it involves ex girlfriends, new boyfriends, ex best friends, and some BBQ that I didn’t cook right. The point is, it shook me, and Day 4 was spent in work, in a very, very nasty mood.

(At this point I should thank Suzi for allowing me to have my Emo moment on the phone that night. It was much appreciated.)

Being that Saturday is a work day, again, I couldn’t get much skating done. Managed again to Skate most of the way to work, making allowances for bumpy ground with bastard stones in it, and resolved to get some done in my lunch hour.

Upon heading to Kelvingrove Park for some lunchtime skating, I rediscovered one very simple fact, not just about skating, but about life in general. How you’re feeling affects the things that you do. To put it another way, don’t skate while you’re pissed off, or at least don’t try and do things you find difficult. If I’m honest, with the benefit of hindsight, my overall progress was good. As mentioned earlier, I’m skating faster, and carving better, with a better overall sense of balance.

The flip side of progress is that you have to make mistakes to get forward. Skating is full of contradictions, best explained in the movie ‘Billion Dollar Baby’. In boxing, if you want to go left, you move your feet right, against the body’s natural impulses. In Skating, the faster you make yourself go, the easier a time you and your board will have. Sadly, this goes against my natural impulse to shit myself out of terror at high speed on a wooden board.

In order to progress, you will fall over, and it will hurt. If you progress while angry or upset, then every bail feels like a personal failure, and hurts twice as much. It leaves a sour taste in your mouth, and bruises on your soul.

Despite this, I decided to return to the park after work, even just to mosey about on my board, and clear my head. Alas, it began to pour down. This did nothing for my mood. What did clear my head, apart from a good night out in the Cathouse, was the realisation that despite all the things that made me uncomfortable that night, I’m still here, still alive, still have my limbs attached, and still becoming a better skater. The faster and harder you push yourself, the easier things will eventually become.

Happy skating.

Scott.

[Evapilotone]

And with that, Scott transformed into the Skating version of Yoda. Hence forth, no one was misguided in the world of skating :P

[poprock]

Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to faceplants. Suffering will your face be, hmmm?

[Rio Ohki]

actually the right hand side of my ass hurts....

[poprock]

Assplants?

[m0nkeymafia]

Originally Posted by Rio Ohki

actually the right hand side of my ass hurts....

Get some padded shorts

[Evapilotone]

Originally Posted by m0nkeymafia

Get some padded shorts

Combine with some big jeans and no one will know. Good advice. It'll save some painful "mornings after".

[Rio Ohki]

Originally Posted by poprock

Assplants?

I had no idea my ass was that fertile

[Rio Ohki]

Scott Learns to Skateboard: 5

Does anyone remember the second ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ film? Can you even remember the title, off the top of your head?

Didn’t think so. We all loved ‘Curse of the Black Pearl’, and ‘World’s End’ was amazing, but the second one? It was a lull, it was filler, it was a drawn out plot progression with few treasured moments. Nobody got married in the middle of a swordfight, nobody turned into a zombie. Not a line of dialogue was spoken that could be quoted in the pub. This is what is happening to my skating, and it’s making it bloody hard to write about.

In truth, I’ve not had much time skate this week. Given the long hours I work, I only get a chance to skate on my days off. This week, they were eaten by a funeral and a job interview. While I do like the image of a suited skateboarder, the aforementioned events are not ones that you can skateboard to. Also, I only have one suit, and I’m in no position financially to buy another if I ruin it.

In the limited time I’ve been able to visit the skate-park, usually after work if it’s still dry, I’ve found that, like that second Pirates’ film, it’s been a slow and steady progression. Every failed trick is getting inches closer to completion. The complex mechanics of throwing my weight forward, backwards, up and down, are slowly starting to break past the barriers placed there by Higher Physics. I might not be looking good yet, but at least I’m starting to stop looking so out of place.

I wish I could say the same for the guy who was practicing his ‘free running’ in the skate-park. While this is in no way a bad idea, I would politely ask that the guy wear underwear next time, or wax, his choice obviously.

This aside, the only other observation of note is the way in which the skate-park differs depending on the day you visit. Most days, it’s people old enough to skip high school. Try a Sunday, and you’ll see 4 year olds in the bowl on scooters. This brings up a moral dilemma. Yes, it’s their skate-park too. Yes everyone has to learn sometime. Yes it must be difficult to co-ordinate at that age oh for GOD’S SAKE WILL YOU JUST GET OUT OF THE FUCKING BOWL!

Ahem. Yes. It can be quite a sight to see a line of pissed off skaters who want to use the park, but can’t as there’s someone’s child in the way. I wouldn’t say the child itself can be blamed (and I say this as someone who despises children). It would be quite unreasonable to expect someone barely in primary school to be entirely aware of the fact they’re in the potential path (or line if you want to use the proper terminology) of other skaters, but it’s a pain in the arse, or more in the back of your mind, as you can’t help but feel guilty for it.

Happy Skating.
Scott.