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Alt.Skate-Board Post
Newsgroups: alt.skate-board
"Captain S"
Well, I was never really inspired, per se.
When I was a young fella, my parents bought me some cheap 1976 type
board. I think it was red, hard plastic, thin, and very hard to
control. Actually, maybe they got that for my sister. I forget.
Later, but not much, maybe a year later, the parents get me a Makaha
Pro 4, a giant black plastic skateboard. Oh, it rocked. I think you
could roll over a car in that thing. I skated, but wasn't really
aware of tricks. I fortunately lived on a long gradual hill, so that
was fun, and also lived across the street from a school (Mountain Gap
on Versailles here in Huntsville). We could jump off curbs with our
boards, but not up. I'd never heard of an ollie until I was an adult.
The skateboard coexisted with my bmx bike for a few years, but when my
new Schwinn Mag Scrambler SX2000 was stolen from my garage after only
two weeks. The insurance money wouldn't get anything over $100 so I
bought a Murray 12 speed.
I'm not sure I ever skated on that again, but I do remember when we
moved when I was in 9th grade that I packed it. I'll have to ask my
parents what happened to it. They won't remember, but there's always
the off chance.
So, THPS is a game, yeah, and I've played it. but that's not what
brought me back. My nephew had a birthday about a month ago. He
loves THPS2 and his friends have skateboards but he didn't. So I got
him one. A cheap one, sure, but with a bearing change it'll be
completely acceptable.
That cheap board sat in my front room for nearly a month after I
ordered it off the internet. I stared at that thing and would examine
the no-name trucks. Heck, I even made a mix CD for my car called
Skateboard Envy. My stateboard envy also led me to record Tony Hawk's
Gigantic Skateboard Tour, where i realized that, while THPS is a cool
game, it's skaters like Chalmers who really rock. Transitions, man.
That and finding a good long line of tricks. That's what I want to
do.
But, hey, I suck. Now, I've bought the best cheap board I could find.
A kryptonics board made in China. I've ridden it some, and I'm
currently just working on the basics. For example, last night I cured
myself of pushing mongo. That changed me from Goofy to regular, and
now I turn left very badly.
I'm months or years from ollies. My first "trick" I want is to be
able do pop down curbs again. Currently I'm just slaloming parking
spots working on my turns and getting my ankles stronger.
I mostly read alt.skate-board for some reassurance that as a medium
old guy that I'm not just totally foolish in my playing with
skateboards again, especially with my current lack of talent. When I
get better, I'll probably start hanging out with some locals who can
teach me. But now, I've got issues with the basics.
Plus, I needed to add some cardio. :)
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