Push for the Cure 2011, Part 1

       I’d only been riding a longboard for about a week when I had to shelf it for a couple weeks to make a trip back to my hometown of Williams Lake to help my mom give her house a much needed coat of paint. During this time, I ended up having a fair many hours of watching paint dry which I filled with watching longboarding videos on youtube. One of these videos turned out to be a full series of them presented by Loaded and Rayne Longboards (can you guess what it was yet?) about three gents who made a 2500km journey through Bolivia and Peru. This was, of course, was Long Treks on Skate Decks South America. It was my first taste of anything to do with long distance longboarding and it had me glued to the computer. Even after all the intense videos I’d watched for advertising different freeride boards, all the carving videos, slide sessions on some incredible downhills, Paul, Adam, and Aaron, slowly pushing their way along the open highways in South America was the coolest thing I’d ever found in regards to longboarding. I started thinking about trips that would be cool to do on a board, about every trip I’d tried to conceive doing on a bike and how great it would be to try it on a longboard instead. It was novel to muse about, but unrealistic for myself, but then sometimes life comes along and kisses you right on the lips.

      Fast forward two months. I’m back in school, midterms are flying at me thick as flies, and I have one weekend, thanksgiving weekend, to get on top of studying for them when a distance skating opportunity walks up and jabs me in the ribs. I’m not sure how I found out about it, but somewhere in those days leading up to Push for the Cure 6, I happened upon it's webpage and started entertaining the idea of going down and participating. A few text messages later, I’d ironed out the logistics of how it could be done and would be bound for Hope BC the coming Friday. How awesome was that going to be? Pretty awesome! But I didn’t want to be a freeloader when I joined the longboarding troop for the 173km trek from Hope to Stanley Park; I wanted to raise some funds for cause (Breast Cancer) and not show up with just my admission fee so I did what anyone would do with a week’s notice and started preying on friends and family for small donations. I scared up a little over 100$ which wasn’t terrible for my one week’s notice of the event.

       When the Friday to leave Kamloops arrived, I got off to a rocky start. For most of the day I was a jittery mess, excited about the push, barely able to pay attention to anything going on in class. I got home and packed my backpack inside my suit case to save room on the bus. Then, realizing I was going to need some more room, I took it out. I left the apartment and realized once I’d boarded the bus that I’d left the backpack at home which had clothes in it, toiletries, a hydration bladder, and a netbook for studying in it. Great start! Getting on the bus was a whole ‘nother frustrating episode as well. I’d intended for my board to be my only piece of carry-on I had with me but the driver was quite insistent that it wouldn’t fit on the bus, citing overcrowding as the reason. He assured me it could not be propped between my legs or placed in an overhead compartment, both options which it certainly could have done, and that I must purchase an additional baggage tag. Upon boarding the bus I could see that it was quite empty. Thanks dude.

       The trip was a quiet one aside from my fuming about the thick bus driver and my own forgetting of all my clothes etc. I arrived in Hope, my dad was there, he had agreed to meet me and lend me an all weather jacket for the trip and camp out the night before, as well as the next night. We ate pizza at a local pub, camped, he snored loudly in the camper, it was a typical visit with dad.

       The next morning was quite a-typical. We disembarked from the camp ground, devoured some breakfast, and headed over to the Hope skate park, which I gotta say, is pretty nice for a small town skate park. I step out of the vehicle to go pay my registration fees and sign up and promptly get stung by a wasp. Thanks dude. I’d showed up alone, without a big troop of people and felt a little awkward trying to converse with the mass of new south coast longboarders in front of me, I did my best, and by the end of the day I’d end up finding myself hanging out with a crew of five people from Salmon Arm, and one Asian gentleman by the name of Mike.

       Registration was followed by photos, which was followed by a rapid dash on our boards to Cooper’s Foods two blocks away for a free barbeque lunch. We bid a quick thankyou to all those helping out at Cooper’s Foods and jumped back on the boards to head through, and then out of Hope toward Agassiz. We’d been told to be cautious on our way out of town as the high energy on day one had a tendency to cause someone to get injured in the first few kilometres. One year the casualty had been Rob Lewis, one of the original four to make the trip across Canada 6 years ago. I was worried it was going to be me this year when my wheels bit those of anorther boarder beside me, I bailed, and my board was sent across a few lanes of traffic. Luckily, neither myself nor the board sustained damage and 1500 metres into the trip, we came to the first of three hills we would be encountering on the first day. The pavement through Hope had been gorgeous, but his first hill, which was a ramp onto a bridge, the bridge itself, and some asphalt on the other side as well, was rough business. It was eye-rattling pushing along that strip, and you couldn’t build up enough momentum to bother putting your push leg on the board after getting yourself up to speed. It just slowed you down that much. I was wondering if I was cut out for the task at this point, doubly so because I’d had the genius idea of wearing a Bell Drop helmet for the trip, which for those who don’t know, is quite a warm full face helmet for downhill mountain biking. Don’t ever wear one of those for something like this, trust me, you'll cook your brain in five minutes easy.

       Sweating, gasping, panting for air after only two klicks, we came to our first break at the end of the bridge out of Hope. I was regretting my full face helmet very much, guzzling water, and hoping the rest of the trip wasn’t going be as rough as hill number one was and the troop was informed that the first downhill of the trip was right ahead after our break. This was both exciting news, as well as disconcerting since I’d actually never done a downhill section like what I figured was coming up, and being surrounded by other people on longboards, many of whom more experienced that myself was giving me some… performance anxiety… Remember, at this point in my life I’d been longboarding for only two months. But the downhill ended up being alright, we went down in two groups of people, and I quickly realized I could avoid wobbles if I didn’t tense up at all, but this was no reason to celebrate yet, there was a lot more ups and downs to conquer on the way to Stanley Park.

       After this, the road became much nicer to push along. There was a generous shoulder running the length of the highway, it was well paved, and it was flat for as far as the eye could see. We pushed for about another 7km and coasted down another very mellow downhill section before coming to rest stop number two. I think the rest stops were my only complaint about the trip, there were just enough of them, but they were all too long, just enough time to feel the cramping setting in, especially on day two and three. We continued down the road after this break and it was quite a gentle push along the lowlands along the river between Hope and Agassiz, the sun started to peak out from behind the clouds, and every car that passed by honked enthusiastically. We were keeping a good pace and spirits were high when we approached uphill number two for the day which we took another break at the bottom of. Uphill number two was much more manageable than the first as the road surface was much better for the most part; there was some kind of gravel excavation at one point which had left some debris on the road. This caused a pile up of people who it had caught off guard and prompted the rest of us to jump off our boards, jog around, and remount quickly to keep pace. There was another mellow downhill at the top of this peak, smoother than the first one, but still nothing to get excited about. It was fun, and the kilometre long downhill was all the payoff a guy could need to keep pushing along the flats on the other side.

       We didn’t take another break along the next stretch, and opted to power through to the next hill, climb it, and bomb the other side. Going up the third and final hill for the day was tricky, it was steep, and I was not a very quick pusher. Folks were passing me and a few other gentleman in front of me who were in seemingly better shape than myself. They were ‘those guys’ who people ran the risk of bumping into when they slowed up and breaking momentum, and I seemed to be one of them in this instance. The two immediately in front of me jumped off their boards and started to jog to keep up. I thought this was a brilliant plan and opted to join them for a jog up the hill but the three of us were quickly teased into pushing again by folks crying “Hey! This is PUSH for the Cure, not JOG!!” Ok, ok. We kept pushing on and a few cars blasted by, honking all the while. One of them terrified the lot of us as it went by, nearly to the point of wetting ourselves, since it was a semi which the driver appeared to have outfitted with a horn meant for freight trains. It was a shocker, but bad ass at the same time and spurred us onward. The top of this hill had what I think was the most exceptional downhill of the trip. It may not have been the best, but it was the smoothest for me, and most memorable since it was the first thing I could say I really, truly bombed down, smooth carving at the top and when it got too steep for that, just a smooth straight run to the bottom of the hill. WOW.

     We were at the final short flat stretch to Agassiz now, but the town was still 15km away and one final rest stop was due a few kilometres down the road. I grabbed some salty Old Dutch chips, some jerky, and Red Bulls were passed all around as they were a sponsor for the event and had sent a gentleman with a pickup truck full of the stuff to keep us all well fuelled. Once again, too many minutes passed during this rest before we departed for Agassiz. The final push of our 40km day was a smooth one. The shoulder of the road was in great condition and I was close to the back of the pack, everyone else’s wheels in front of me blasting away the pebbles that were there since the previous winter’s road sanding. One more slight upward incline and we were coasting down toward the streets into Agassiz, the setting sun making the entire valley look nothing short of gorgeous.

       The troop set record time covering the 40km that they covered on day one, and it was a wicked experience all on its own. Having a chance to go down the hills that we did in as controlled manner as we did was epic, being able to find out what covering that sort of distance in a day felt like, feeling all of the good vibes from the enthusiastic boarders there was all a really great thing and I knew after day one that I’d be coming back for Push 7 next year. Some of the boarders there still had a pile of energy left over, so a closed figure 8 race course was set up inside the fairgrounds building and we held a full contact “death race” to win a new kicktail skate deck. I was much too tired to partake in that and so loaded up on spaghetti and burgers before retiring early in preparation for the 73km push that was waiting for us the next day.

       I shall post the synopsis of days two and three shortly...

Day 2: http://l2lb.blogspot.com/2012/01/push-for-cure-2011-part-2.html
Day 3: http://l2lb.blogspot.com/2012/01/push-for-cure-2011-day-3-finale.html

September 21, 2011, Boundary Road Slide Session

       Oh yes, Christmas is here and I'm catching up on posts that should have been thrown up about 3 months ago. These are a few of the results from a shoot I did while some of the talented fellows from the Kamloops Longboarding Club. I wasn't able to join in for the slide session that day, and since I still can't slide, I probably would only make a fool of myself if I joined at the time of posting this! Since I wasn't feeling up to the task, I busted out the camera and started shooting away. It was a tricky business with all these people flying toward me, in and out of focus the whole time. I'd never shot anything quite like this and I look forward to doing it again!

Unboxing a LandYachtz Bamboo Pinner Longboard

       Again, another one of those posts which I should have thrown up a day or two after the event happened. Buuut, time isn't always so permitting, and I'm only just having the time I wanted back in August right now. The post regarding the unboxing of the Land Yachtz Switch has turned out to be the most popular post on here to date, most likely on account of how many people probably look for unboxings of things. I'm throwing another one of those posts up after the fact so everyone can see what you get in a box from LandYachtz, how it all comes packaged, and I can attest that the Switch came in the exact same sort of packaging as the Bamboo Pinner.
       Before I send you all headlong into the pictures, I guess I should explain why I was opening a second longboard box from LandYachtz at the end of August. It took me about 2 months (one where I wasn't boarding at all) and about 24 hours of practice to make me decide that longboarding was something I was going to be able to pick and stick with. I liked it a lot, but didn't have any friends to go boarding with. I opted to pick up a second, less expensive board so I could take friends out with me so I wouldn't be skating alone, and decided to get the flexy top-mount pintail since it would compliment the stiff dropped-deck board I was already riding on. Here it is, with some impressions at the end...

 All wrapped in foam and paper.

 Nice and secure so those trucks don't get jostled around more than necessary.

 I like the magazine, always thought it was a nice touch, Switchback and Royal Boardshop do it too.

      So.... no pictures of the board in all of it's unboxed glory, but visit the LandYachtz website and you'll see it for sure. I didn't end up riding this one very much, and didn't get particularly amazing on the LY Switch while I owned the Pinner to be able to dole out a good comparison review. What I can say about this board is that it felt a lot more like what I expected a longboard to feel like than the Switch. The Switch felt like I was swinging in a cradle when I first got it and tried leaning back and forth. This one definitely felt more like it leaned with me when I was going to make a turn. It obviously felt a lot higher than the Switch which made me feel a bit like an elephant on a Dixie cup, and it was waaaay more responsive. It was quite shocking actually, the first time I took it for a spin was both terrifying and thrilling. I'd never known such responsiveness with the Switch, and didn't for another month after that since I'd never tried loosening the nut on the kingpin. I gotta say, loose trucks are a lot of fun! I have opted to sell this board though, and it will be leaving my loving arms for those of someone new in three days. I now know that I favor the dropped decks, drop throughs, and double drops, but I wholly intend to pick up another pintail again some day since they are a whole lot of fun, perhaps then I'll look into something from the Original line-up. Money is an issue right now, though, so I need to be riding things that work best for me!

A General Review of Urban XT Footwear

       I've decided it's high time I get around to giving this blog the life saving defibrillation it needs to keep afloat and have chosen a short but sweet review as my means of doing so.

       This experience with a pair of Urban XT Shoes from Shoe Warehouse dates back to August 20th. It was a very beautiful morning, and I think I remember it as well as I do because the 20th was my birthday. I was going to be spending a sizable chunk of the day watching a friend play a couple rounds of Warhammer 40K and opted to head downtown early and grab a super healthy birthday breakfast from McDonald's. I hopped on the Switch and made it downtown very quickly since by this point I was getting "pretty boss at footbreaking." Sounds quite funny, even to myself. Moving along though, I chowed down on some Sausage McMuffins and set away blogging in Micky D's when I saw my friend round the corner of the street and decided I should probably join him. Walking along the sidewalk with my buddy now, I noticed my left foot felt a little slippery. I should mention this was a brand new set of Urban XT skate shoes I was wearing at the time. I chose not to think much of the slippery feeling under my left foot and only opted to check it out when we made it to our final destination. I lifted my left foot onto my right knee and the picture to the left is what I saw.
       Brand new Urban XT shoe sole, disappearing before my eyes after one trip downtown. One. Trip.
       I know a lot of people wear these shoes longboarding and skateboarding, and I assume that maybe they either don't go down hills, or are slick enough on a board to not require footbreaking to make it down a hill. I also see a lot of folks wearing them as general purpose footwear but I can't make a comment on general fit and feel of the shoe since I never made it past the break in period with them.
       This shoe goes on the newly started "Learning to Longboard does not recommend" list. Go with Vans or Etnies or DC shoes, any other brand with a reputation for making quality skate footwear!
       Posts as to why I haven't been regularly posting will be arriving in December (school, shocking, I know), along with an update with my progress on learning to longboard on a Landyacht (isn't alliteration adorable?). Let me just say that I have not given up on learning to ride a board and have made a few good leaps and bounds in the last few months which I very much look forward to sharing with the internet. I have a more refined direction I'll be taking with the blog in in 2012, which unfortunately for me, will likely end up catering to a very small, niche group of longboarders. It's still going to be hella epic.

How I Scored Two Hours of Practice on a Vacant University Campus

       Man alive, I really need to get better at posting stories and stuff I've learned about longboarding on here. Now that I'm competent at riding the board, I'm literally getting better every day I'm on it and have no idea what I ought to share and what I ought to not bother writing about. This here is a short story, which I should have posted on Monday the 15^th of August, so of course I'm going to fall behind on the times and only get around to posting it now.

       Some may recall from the earliest posts that I worked at a paintball field, and 'worked' is the key word there, it being past tense and all. I left that job, and so the commute down Columbia Street I'd alluded to so much was no longer an issue for me, which was probably one of the reasons I became so lousy at keeping up on practising and posting about it here for awhile. Anyhow, a new job came along: removing windows from the university campus across the way and I found myself with a better job than I had before. This new job also presented a short and easy longboard commute and so I quickly started riding to campus early every morning instead of walking over which meant about 20 or more extra minutes per day to practice on it. 

       Anyhow, I received a text message from the boss man saying that we were going to try starting work a little earlier for awhile, to get more work in while they day was still cool. Kamloops is a desert, it gets super hot, and because there was just the tiniest chance of being exposed to asbestos when removing these windows, we had to wear white, air tight suits in the sun. We normally began work at 7am, but now we were supposed to try starting at 5am, which meant a 3:40am wake up call for me because I'm sluggish in the morning and like to take my time with a cup or two of coffee before I get going. My morning routine aside, I missed a follow up text message from the boss: due to a sluggish start on the rest of their parts, he and my co workers would not be showing up until 7am. I made it there at 5 and was none too pleased with them showing up what I thought was 2 hours late. On the bright side, I had the entire university campus to myself for 2 hours that morning to push around and practice in and I have to admit, it was a pretty stellar way to start the day. There was not another soul to be seen and the security guards didn't have any problem with my being there on the Switch at all. All that, coupled with one the top 5 greatest sun rises I've ever seen made for a pretty fun morning. I have a map of the campus so you can see what I was skating around all morning, but it does not do it justice. My attempting to become a more professional-like photographer should mean sharing more photos on this blog, but I seem to be failing at that miserably.

       By the way, after this story, I'd probably had 8 hours of practice in total on the board.

It isnt' anywhere near as flat as it looks in this picture,
 Dalhousie Drive is actually scream your lungs out steep!

       Also worth mentioning: the previous day to this story, which happened to be a Friday, I was pushing home that afternoon and came to the ugly, steep parking lot which leads to my apartment's door. Rather than walking down like I usually do, I decided to plant one foot firmly on the ground beside the board and let myself begin to roll forward, keeping that foot on the ground the whole way. This was probably my first serious attempt to foot break down a hill, and it was an ugly hill indeed, with gravely patches which at some point destroyed any hope I had at gaining some traction, but I didn't end up having to make any bails. Since this foot dragging adventure to my apartment door, I've never had an issue with footbreaking again. I've also come a pretty long way since that tentative and slow trip down the hill. I can pretty much put my foot down at any time I please to slow myself now, and don't feel like I need to line up and get the board just stable enough to deploy my foot to break, it's all becoming second nature to me very quickly now.

Eighteen Klick Round Trip

       It's been two or three weeks since last posting and once again I feel like a guilty blogger. I don't, however, feel like a guilty longboarder. I've come a long way in that time but I'm not going to share the whole story with you all at once. Instead, I'll break it up into a handful of stories. The first once involving a very long trek from my home in Sahali, to First Response Duty Gear on the far side of the North Shore.

The approximate path traveled. Obviously not sharing my home address!

       I received an email from them two Fridays back about a pair of combat boots I'd ordered having come in. I was too cheap to buy bus fair or pay a taxi and had no friends making the trek over in that direction so I quickly decided to go on the 18km (round trip) trek on my longboard, I had other business to discuss with them in any case so might as well take my time on the trip too. I suited up, my suit being old jean shorts, a t-shirt I don't care much for, Proto paintball knee pads (they really work!!!) my bike helmet, and some very underwhelming Urban XT skate shoes from Shoe Warehouse, then headed out the door.

       The trip from my apartment, down the hill to downtown was predicatably tragic; there was lots of going a little too fast and kicking the board behind me so I could catch it as it caught up me after bailing. There was also a fair bit of walking down some of the hills whose pavement was puke-your-guts-out rough and uneven. Then there was First Ave which I'd imagine is every longboarders dream hill to carve the hell out of, slide, or bomb down. The only problem with First is it's one way traffic and that traffic is all going UP the hill. I chose to walk down the sidewalk on that one. This put me on the flat ground on the flood plain of down town and the adjacent North Shore. The rest of the trip was looking like a whole lot of gentle pushing to my destination and it was indeed good times.

       There was one last hurtle in my way before I was really in the clear though, this was the bridge connecting the North Shore to Downtown. The bridge has a guard rail where pedestrians walk, but no concrete lip along the sidewalk so things can go rolling right off the edge of the bridge if they were so inclined. I dismounted and took my board to the edge of the walkway, laid it down, and pushed it against the edge of the sidewalk. The Switch sat just high enough to not have to worry about it going off the bridge if I lost it. Traffic was still an issue though, since there was also no lip preventing the board from playing an impromptu game of Frogger if it slipped out from under me and went the other way off the sidewalk. Fortunately, I didn't lose it while crossing the bridge, and possibly started to make a very important jump in my longboarding skill level. There was a lot of putting my pushing foot in front of me and clomping it down to jerkily slow myself, but slowly, I started to drag it and even apply pressure as it dragged along the base of the bridge. The result? A small but significant burst in confidence with foot breaking. Foot breaking looks so easy in all those Youtube videos but it had been proving to be the bane of my existence till just recently. Anyhow, I made it to the other end of the long and slightly inclined bridge with no bails.

       I made another breakthrough while pushing across the North Shore to my destination, and this was intentionally tackling difficult surfaces and making quick last minute trajectory adjustments, albeit only at pushing speed. The difficult surfaces involved in this were curbs and all those spots at intersections where a guy needs to mount and dismount the sidewalk all while having to adjust his angle of travel so as not to proceed into the middle of the intersection and join traffic. Usually I pick up my board and walk across, which is still probably the most intelligent thing to do, but it did my confidence on the board some good knowing that I could do this without bailing into a stop light.

       I arrived at my destination without any injuries, and purchased my boots. I then continued to shoot the breeze with the counter help as this local mom and pop tactical shop was a business I wanted to obtain sponsorship for my paintball team from. The plan was to exchange pictures for discounts on specific in stock items, but setting up a chance to do some photos for them was proving dfficult. This day proved to be my lucky day though, and myself and a team mate were permitted to take a hefty aum of their gear to a parking garage to do a shoot with it. You can see those fun pictures by clicking here (link).

       The trip home was slightly more exciting than the trip to the North Shore in two important ways. The first was in my decision to longboard past the beach at Riverside Park, which on a hot midsummer's day was a genius idea, remind me to do that again some time. The second was a wicked bad case of dehydration, and possibly mild heat stroke on the trip back home. Karma for oggling all those members of the fairer sex at the beach? Most probably. I was very fortunate to have that buddy's house I often hang out at to grab some water at before proceeding home, it was getting quite dire for me!

       Until this journey, I'd probably put in 3 hours at most on the LandYachtz Switch, or any longboard for that matter. After making it home, I'd likely put in a grand total of five and a half. All in all, I think a modest increase in my manoeuvrability, ability to travel long distances, tackle a few ugly surfaces, and begin effectively slowing myself isn't too bad for that time frame. This trek also marked the first time going out in public on a bright sunny day with the board in plain view for all to laugh at if I ate it! I'm not feeling like such a noob anymore!

My First Week on a LandYachtz Switch

       Oops- I am a bad blogger, 2 weeks since the last post after just getting the Switch and no new updates? I'm such a slacker. In any case, there wouldn't have been any updates in this last week on account of my making a return to my home town to do some painting for my mom and I had to travel light. The week before that I really don't have any excuse for my laziness in regards to posting. I'm starting to think weekly updates on progress with the board is probably the best way for me to go about writing on here, with the occasional extra one interspersed now and again.

       My first night with the Switch, the one after shoving back and forth in the kitchen, I was invited down to a buddies house to do some gaming. I figured that with him living about half a block away would make for a good excuse to jump on the board outside and make the trip down a little more interesting. In this case a lot more interesting. I tensed up a lot on the board the first time I stepped on it outside, which probably didn't help me, nor did starting on a incline instead of practising in a parkade somewhere for a few hours. My first thought was that riding around on pavement was not very pleasant at all, and I was getting so much turbulence that I couldn't focus my eyes right, the scenery was all blurry. I'm not totally sure what it was on the board that I tweaked since then, but the second time I stood on it I did not have that issue. I had no fun trying to turn on that incline down to his house, and jumped off several times since I was not yet super confident in my foot breaking. There was a fair bit of chasing the board down the hill involved as well. Going back up was Ok, however, as I had no reason to worry about gaining out of control speed on the way home.

       The second night out was kind of epic. I took the same path down to my friend's house on the board but didn't have to jump off or poorly footbreak nearly as much as the previous evening (effective footbreaking is proving to be a lot more tricky than I thought it would be). I got fairly skilled at doing some controlled bailing if I started to get a little unsure by kicking back and sending myself ahead of the board to catch it when it caught up to me. He and I decided to go to a very nice, smooth tennis court after the sun went down to mess around on the board. We took turns, eventually he fell, and has convinced himself he's cracked a rib without the assistance of a medical professional mind you. After hitting the pavement hard, he left, leaving me to weave around the court's nets on my own and that evening something clicked for me. I started to get a lot more confident in shifting my weight back and forth on the board quite quickly, and also moving my feet around to different positions. Feeling just a little cocky, I decided to try one of the bigger inclines in my apartment complex's parking lot. It was terribly rough with a lot of uneven pavement and gravel bits everywhere but I made it from the top to the bottom on the my first go doing enormous S curves all the way down at a manageable speed. I did it again a few more times and an hour quickly passed by. That was a very good night though I haven't improved very much since then, my only way of stopping still being bailing off.

       Night three on the board rolled in and it was looking to be a fairly short one, just another trip to the buddy's house, even less bails this time than the previous two nights, and naturally, I'm getting a little cocky. I get very close to his place and am gaining more speed than I'd like. I jump off the board, look behind me and don't see the it anywhere. Hmm, most peculiar. I look beside myself and see it rolling along right there, starting to move faster than me. OH CRAP! I give it a sideways kick to turn it off it's downhill course. First kick wasn't enough so I give it another and oops! I stepped on the wheel. Did I mention this was the one night I thought “eh, I'm not going far, I'll leave the knee pads at home”? The board rolled to a stop beside the curb but I hit the pavement hard. My knees were actually Ok after this fall, but my one elbow was pretty bashed up, more from sliding along the pavement than actually connecting with it. I didn't have elbow pads in any case so this particular wound was unavoidable. I also had an audience of pedestrians for this bail, so that rubbed in some extra embarassment.

       Night four was a lot like night three. I went to some flat terraces below the buddy's house and was pushing around there. One had a slight incline to it, was smooth, wide, and I thought would be fun to go down. It's called Strathcona Terrace, and for someone who still has no idea how to control his speed effectively, it proved too much for me. I jumped off as I usually would but something happened which I was not counting on: I was travelling close to car speed, a speed which my running legs can't keep up with and I went down hard again, on the other elbow this time leaving another nice wound. I slowly did the walk of shame back up the hill to use my buddy's sink to clean myself. That weekend I got shot with a paintball in that elbow too.

       I'm back from a week of painting and letting my elbows heal and I'm going to wait an extra day or two for some elbow pads I ordered to show up in the mail since that seems to be the part of my body taking the most punishment right now. My previous wounds have only just healed up and the scabbing is so close to gone that I don't want to go and rip my arms open again. I really should have taken pictures of the wounds when they were fresh! The more I get out on the board, the more I want to get out when I'm not on it though and I'm chomping at the bit to go see some roads I've previously walked along in a new light.

       P.S. Speak of the devil, moments before posting this the pads came in, and wouldn't ya know it, one size to small. I might have to get out and do some slow pushing and stuff because I'm very eager to get back out there right now.