After seeing a conversation on Mastodon about Sony eliminating the ability to buy the actual game discs for Playstations, my wife and I had a pretty intesting conversation about the value of physical artifacts to human beings. Albums, CDs, cassettes, books, stuff you collect, etc. Buying lots of stuff can of course become compulsive consumerism and possibly even HOARDING! However, as my wife…
Yesterday after a hard 2-hour aikido practice I went to a skatepark fundraiser and skated in the Texas heat for an hour. I took my “street freestyle” board - 8.25" wide pops with Indy 149s and some 53mm Bones wheels. I’ve been riding a 9" wide board with 169s or Ace 55 for so long now I was kind of shocked at how much quickly handling the narrower trucks are. Today I am pretty…
I started brainstorming my part for the upcoming Neverwas 10 video. This year I am not worrying about filming new things. I just ant to film a part with flow, that shows the way I skate at this point in my life. I want to make something beautiful - or at least a beautiful as something with me in it can be.
Pursue the Flow in all endeavors. That is all.
I grabbed a couple of shots from an old video and put them on Instagram. Apparently people liked it. Am I an influencer now?
In this episode I talk about some recent skateboarding experiences and videos that have touched me.
Been thinking about skating a lot more than actually skating of late, but at least it’s on my mind. Currently enjoying two main riders. I am settling into my Big Board Years I suppose. Big by today’s standards. Right now my mission is to enjoy the flow. I want to improve my skills on transition a bit, and maybe even on coping, but don’t hold your breath. If anything I’m…
Fair warning. I’m about to go on about Tony Alva again… Every few weeks I do a YouTube search for new Tony Alva footage. From what I can see, Tony doesn’t go out “to film.” He goes out and skates, and maybe someone shoots some video, and maybe some of it is pretty good, and maybe it ends up on YouTube. Such is the case with this video below. After watching this video…
March 1980 Skateboarder Magazine. Steve Olson street skating article. Photo by Ted Terrebone.
This is how a 2-footed Nose Wheelie should look. Tail high. Body centered and relaxed. Photo from Independent Trucks ad. Thrasher Magazine, August 1981.
Skateboarding goal… Never do an ollie again. Easy goal. I was unlikely to do any ollie tricks anyway.
It has been almost 2 years since my normal practice spots were demolished as the city rebuilds the municipal complex. Sitting here at work today, it struck me that the death of those spots really killed a lot of my skating. They were so convenient. Driving past the location every day it looks like at least another year until the construction wraps up, and then who knows what will be skateable, if…
There are a few skateboarding videos I go back to over and over. This is one of them. I like the message. I like the clips of Alva just skating down the street. Skating down the street is what it’s all about.
As a kid starting skateboarding in 1976 my parent didn’t know anything about it, didn’t understand anything about it, and didn’t care too. They tolerated it. That was the best I could expect. It was enough. I remember wishing that they did get it, like some of the parents of my skater friends. Now, as young senior citizen, I’m glad they didn’t get it. It was mine. No…
A Texas skateboarding legend died yesterday. A lot of people are thinking about him. We’re on this planet such a short time. Things are rough in this country right now, but I’m not going to let the orange dickhead steal another day from me. I can do that without closing my eyes. We have to face the future with bravery and resolve.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote this post ( Death ) about the impending death of Texas skateboarding legend Jimmy Gonzales. Well, he died yesterday. Appropriately, the tributes and memories are flowing from skateboarders all over the place. This all has me thinking about how these things we do – skateboarding, gaming, music, whatever – the things we share a lifelong passion for with…
Gang of Four
Never gets old.
This article, SUBCULTURE IS DEAD: THE ALGORITHM ATE THE UNDERGROUND came across our radar at Neverwas Skateboarding today, on our Discord server. I checked out the rest of the site, and honestly it’s not my thing. I found it kind of douchey, but I did think this article was really good. So maybe I’m to quick to say “douchey” for the rest of the site. Just not my thing, and…
I ordered these wheels a few weeks ago. I’ve had the smaller versions of them and the slightly larger versions. They’ve all been pretty good. These are the 56 mm ones. I’m thinking about bumping up my wheel size to 56 mm from 54 mm on my ditch board. 2 mm might not seem like that much to a non-skater, but it makes a difference. Significantly smoother roll. A little bit more inertia. A little bit…
When I was 18 and about to graduate from high school, one of my mom’s friends asked her if I was excited about going to college. My mom’s response… “Bob doesn’t really get excited about things.” She was almost correct. Not quite. And she knew that. When I was a little boy I’d get so excited about Halloween I couldn’t sleep and she’d have to…
In this episode I talk about some skateboarding stuff that I’ve already talked a little bit about unblock posts. But you should listen anyway.
Same clips in slo-mo
My friend Carter got a few good shots of me and Dale skating the ditch in Fort Worth yesterday. I’m the guy wearing the wool flat cap that was way too warm for the day.
In March 2021 we’d been through some rough times. First of course we were still in the pandemic. I’d been working at home for months. My wife had been through chemo and surgery. A couple of weeks after her surgery we had the coldest days I have ever experienced here in Dallas. About 5 days of temps 5 degrees F and below. Total stress helping my wife post-surgery and worrying about the…