completely forgot about that
deffo up for a new edit!
The Gmail auto-fill text is pretty good. I’m sure it’s ultimately A Bad Thing but it does work well now.
Just IM’d some instructions to a work colleague and almost ended with “ride away clean”.
It would have been so lost on him. Glad I noticed what I was about to do before hitting the Enter key.
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Just liked someones post, I guess it was a first because now it feels like i’m in the cub scouts earning badges for forum ettiquette. Weird!
Went for a POETS skate after work and managed to find that little pebble that stops a board rolling. Sore ribs for the weekend! 
Last summer I noticed that some kids across the street were out and about skating.
Not to any great level but on a daily basis during the school holiday, they would be out there putting in the time.
Living across the street they are my neighbours although we have never had any real kind of exchange, not so much as a hello.
I happened to notice that one of them was more persistent than the others, he is the kid who lives in the house across the road.
I saw that his board was all kind of shabby and knackered so one afternoon I fetched a board that I had only skated maybe 3 times out of the shed and took it across to him.
He barely said a word, not even much in the way of a thanks, just took it and disappeared into his house with it. I reckon he must be about 14.
After that I would see his folks on the street, nothing, still no exchange, not even a “hi”, nothing.
I walk my son to the same school as they take one of theirs at the end of the street and asked if he was, and they actually, OK with my gift, telling them that I encourage skateboarding and how it could keep their son occupied instead of getting into mischief , the same way that it helped me.
Never spoken again but I do hear the clatter of boards again recently as the weather is improving again.
What has happened to society that makes people so introverted?
I still don’t get a hello when I see them across the street, nothing like a typically neighbourly gesture.
So fucking sad.
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Probs think you’re grooming their child, haha. Adults are not allowed to be nice to children these days, that are not their own. The media doesn’t allow it.
The fact that I was wearing only a pair of briefs might not have helped the situation.
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I do think you have jokingly hit upon something though: the fact that everyone is so cautious/paranoid now when it comes to adult-child interaction, something as simple as a friendly gesture renders people incapable of responding appropriately because they don’t have the life experience to draw on.
I’ve gotten into snowboarding a bit the past few years. The well-trodden path of formal tuition in snowboarding has often made me dwell on skateboarding: does the lack of technique training in skateboarding hinder progression? Are we doing our selves a disservice by all skating around with hunched backs and straight legs? Or are they fundamentally different pursuits and lessons aren’t necessary in skating?
These days, it’s easy to find out the proper way of doing tricks on YouTube, hence why everyone is so good. But if I’d have had access to proper video tutorials when I was 14, instead of pop, turn your shoulders, slide, ride away clean, I would definitely have become a better skateborder.
I saw an insta clip the other day of Ryan Gallant doing a kickflip and it made me realise that I’ve been doing kickflips wrong for 18 years
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I think snowboarding is a lot more achievable to a relatively low standard than skateboarding. I’ve been on snowboarding trips a few times and absolutely loved it - you don’t need to be that good to have fun going fast and falling at walking speed doesn’t usually hurt that much. Even though I skate, I still suck at snowboarding, but yeah, picking up and relearning the basics was easy - last time I went in December, it had been 16 years since the previous trip and it came back to me within 5 minutes.
BvS, spot on about YT tutorials. I recall asking somebody years back how to do whatever trick it was and was cool guyed away, getting the answer that to ask is just uncool and you have to work it for yourself. This stuck with me for ages and didn’t help. Main thing though is the fear - once you’ve got it, it’s a bastard to shake off and progress.
Learning from YT is all good and that but figuring it out for yourself is half of the appeal while the other half is that satisfaction you get once you know what to do and then perfect it, a bit like a Rubik’s cube.
Been taking my kids the skate park on a Sunday, kids session, never really been that arsed about them learning ‘tricks’… it was more of a confidence and balance thing to me. My son said to me that he wanted to learn how to ollie ‘jump’ today, I was happy he wanted to learn, because he wanted too, so I took him out side and broke it down. How you do one. I explained you don’t learn it in a day, blah, blah… it takes time. He almost did one’ish. I was stoked on his stoke.
/true story
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I had 411 the next step when i was 16. In this Chet Thomas taught you how to front side flip into tail slide and Jason Dill showed how to nollie into nose grinds.
19 years later and I’n nowhere near.
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It was an illusion. All smoke and mirrors, no wonder you never learnt one.
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To be honest, when I could do (not to tail) they did wizz between my legs like a ghostly apparition.
Your Frontside flips should be called The Maypole.
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I didn’t know there was a pub there. Rad.
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