25th August 2005
Bam Margera Good?
Apparently the most popular search at the skateboard directory
is for "Bam Margera". I don't get that. I think his video clip in Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 is good for one reason -
the grayscale intro with the red field is damn cool. But his skating is... smooth, but nothing spectacular.
I've also seen people on various forums claiming he's the best skateboarder ever. Huh? Is it just the fact that he's different?
Answers on a postcard to adam@board-crazy.co.uk...
New Tricktionary Entries
Disclaimer : The source of that last one is somewhat dubious. But at least it makes sense.
21st August 2005
Skateboarding For Beginners, Part 1
Over the last couple of weeks I've been trying to do at least an hour of skateboarding after work each day. The road outside is smooth and flat, very good for practicing flatland stuff. The kid two doors down from me, Jake, joins in sometimes too, and as he's about the same level we get on well and push each other to do better.
All this regular skateboarding has started to attract the interest of several kids that want to begin skateboarding. Jake, being a fairly typical teenager, doesn't have the time of day for them, but I find it quite interesting trying to teach them.
That got me thinking about the absolute basics and how to go about learning them. The problem with these kids is they want to run before they can walk. They haven't yet got the dedication to learn how to ride properly, because they always want to learn what I'm doing instead (which at the moment is a kind of 360° railstand).
Even though skateboarding is a very individual sport, or art, if you're an absolute beginner and you've never set foot on a skateboard before then there is probably a certain way you should go about doing things, and that is not to think ollying is what you have to learn first. Instead, over the coming weeks I will be writing a series of 'lessons' starting today with the most basic thing you can do - ride your skateboard.
14th August 2005
The Importance Of Trick Names
Have been meaning to link to this article on trick names for a while. It's
written by Tony Gale, a guy at the forefront of the UK freestyle skateboarding 'scene' and regular ranter
about trick names on various message boards around the 'net.
"...However, short of making a "tricktionary" (an idea many people have wanted to do, but would take a lot of effort) the only way for people to learn the real name for a trick is to learn their history..."
Oh I'll get there Tony, one day...
13th August 2005
Rodney Mullen Book Review
As it happened I couldn't really wait to finish my current book before starting on 'How To Skateboard And Not Kill Yourself', so I put it on hold and dived straight in to the new book with feverish excitement. So here is my review.
"... The main reason I bought this book was to learn more about Mullens actual skateboarding, and in this respect I wasn't let down. There is plenty to inspire here. He would obsessively practice every day, using a stopwatch to time his sessions, and constantly theorise about skateboarding whenever he wasn't actually doing it. He built a fingerboard and miniature ramp setup so he could work out new ways to flip his skateboards at night when he was supposed to be sleeping, and would keep detailed journals chronicalling his thoughts so he could put them into action in his next sessions. Part of every daily session was set aside to concentrate entirely on inventing new tricks. Knowing all this, it's clear to see why he became such a powerful creative force in skateboarding and eventually was crowned 'the godfather of street skating' after inventing pretty much every trick that forms the basis of modern street skateboarding..."
Continue Reading 'Rodney Mullen Book Review'
New Tricktionary Entries
It's really starting to hit me now how many tricks there actually are out there to be defined, I'm now pretty sure that I'll never have every trick covered, as the tricktionary is growing at a fair old rate of knots and still looks decidedly empty in places. Oh well, at least I'm adding new entries faster than other people invent tricks... right? Check out the tricktionary here.
Rail crazy this week...
New Skateboard Setup
After literally years of service I've decided to finally retire my skateboard. It's in dire need of an upgrade - the tail is shaved down to about half it's original size and chipped and cracking. I have no graphics left, the trucks are ground to the nuts and I don't even want to start on the wheels and bearings. I've got most of my new setup already - blank deck, Blind 50mm wheels with shiny new Abec 7's and the Tensor Low trucks are currently in the post. Need to think up something to paint on this one... I'll keep you posted.
7th August 2005
Rodney Mullen Book Arrived
My book, How To Skateboard And Not Kill Yourself by Rodney Mullen arrived today. I've had a brief flick through and it looks good. I'm currently reading The Agony And The Ecstasy (a story about Michaelangelo, the sculptor) but will be done with that soon and will jump straight into the new book. Expect my review within the next couple of weeks.
Take Back The Web
Are you using Internet Explorer? If so, the chances are high that you've probably never even questioned
which internet browser to use. Well, take a look at Mozilla Firefox and start questioning.
This has nothing to do with Skateboarding, and I'm not being paid to advertise Firefox, so why do I care? Firefox complies with various boring web standards which means it displays web pages like the designer of those pages intended. Microsoft choose to ignore these standards, forcing webmasters to build in various workarounds to get their pages to display as intended in Internet Explorer, which rarely work properly anyway. By using Firefox, you experience the web as it's meant to be seen, and benefit from better features and tighter security.
Firefox is open source software - it's free, it's a tiny download, you can import all your bookmarks and
passwords from Internet Explorer, it has superior spyware and pop up protection and all in all provides a better
browsing experience. The very fact that I gain nothing by advertising Firefox here should tell you how good it
is. You've literally got nothing to lose and everything to gain by making the switch.
Get Firefox now!