August 2013

August 2013
I don't have any videos from the last two weeks of August.  I'd just gotten hired at my first teaching job, so I guess I was a little distracted.  We were still skating every day, mostly at DoS, and sometimes outside at THPRD.  By the end of August, I could drop in to the shallow end of DoS but still had to climb out.

August 16, 2013
We got a membership to the indoor bowl that used to be the Department of Skateboarding.  It's private, and keyless entry so we could go whenever we wanted.  This is a video after we'd been going for probably two weeks.  It fails to capture all the times I climbed in and pumped back and forth, and then all the times I climbed in and tried to pump around the bowl.  It skips straight to being able to drop in to the 6 foot shallow end and carve all around, albeit very low and slow

August 14, 2013
THPRD
New board, upgraded from 7.65 to 8.5 inches wide.  Increased stability = good.  Rolling in to the bowl, pumping around, going higher in the deep end, pumping and kick turning on the way back.

August 9, 2013
Gabriel Park
The shallow end of this park has a hip you can roll down from (which is itself a challenge for a newbie).  This day I worked on rolling down and front side carving the pocket well enough to make it back up hump to roll down the other side and go into the deep end.

August 6, 2013 evening
The school yard by our house has a big sloped paved area.  We'd go there to kick around.  Here, you can see the impressive move where I grab my board and hop an inch into the air.

August 6, 2013 morning
Tiny bowl at Pier Park
Here's a selfie of me dropping in (yes, it took that long to set up), front side carving, and pumping ALL the way back before climbing out of the tiny bowl

August 1, 2013
THPRD in Beaverton
Rolling in and pumping the deep end.  The video starts and ends with the cover on, but it's there, I swear.

Skate Videos, July 2013

Pier Park, July 31st, 2013

Drop in at the shallowest end of the tiny bowl, and a tiny front side carve, and pumping out of the "deep" end almost all the way back

Pier Park, July 30th, 2013

Pumping practice at the small bowl at Pier Park.  Hard work, and plenty wobbly.

TRON, July 16th, 2013
Dropping in at 3 feet.  Watch out, it's getting serious here!  I actually remember that I filmed this video so that I could work on getting smoother with my drop ins.  I wish I had the very first drop in videos from the end of summer 2012.  Those were epically terrifying.

September 2012, practicing staying on my skateboard in the schoolyard.  During this time, we were going here almost every night just to skate around, practice kick turning, real basic stuff.  This was the highlight of 2012, after having been skating for 4 months

I've just looked through all our video-taking devices, and it seems that we've lost our early footage of skating!  We were too embarrassed to share them, and now they're gone.  The phone they were on has a gap from winter before we started skating, to September after we had been going for 5 whole months!  Grr.

Oh, well.  Here's some shots of us from 2 months after starting.  Stills fail to communicate the wobbliness of our early rides.  Summer 2012, longboarding in Sweden

Skating up the hills, and walking down, because speed is scary

First time messing around with my new actual skateboard, instead of the cruiser.  Full pads, damn straight.

Feeling pretty epic in Pendleton, Oregon

Trying to bond with my nephews and niece, Christmas 2012.  They all shred way more than I ever will

A cold visit with Mr. E, March 2013

My new mini cruiser, which straps so easily and lightly to my backpack.  May 2013

I will pause here, and revisit Summer of 2013 at another time.

If you google "girl skateboarder" what you get is a bunch of sexy/artsy photos of women with boards (plus a smattering of actually awesome skaters).  If you google "boy skateboarder," you get this:

A New Obsession

Skating

I've decided that it would be a good idea to write about skateboarding.  I started skateboarding when I was 29.5 years old.  In the past two years, I've skated nearly every day, and improved quite a bit.  While I haven't recorded my progression in an organized way, I have some pretty epic early videos.

It goes like this: I grew up in the country, with no pavement for miles around.  I rode horses, ran through the woods, and climbed trees.  I did not skate.  When I was 14, my family moved to a house in town, on an actual block, with neighbors.  I thought I was too old to start skating.  Plus, I'm a girl.  That's a whole other issue.  Over the years, I would occasionally give it a go.  Someone gave me a dumpstered board with no grip tape and super hard, super tiny wheels.  I'd stand on it from time to time.  The first place my husband and I lived in on our own was in an industrial district, surrounded by parking lots.  It was so open that it felt private. While not having any idea what I was trying to do, I would mess around on my board in the lot next door.  Nothing came of it.  During those years, though, I did learn that I could start something new, and that being a beginner did not mean being embarrassed all the time.  It's quite the opposite, in fact.  People cheer on the gleeful, humble learner.  As I saw my 20s winding to a close, I decided that I should finally give skateboarding an honest to goodness try, in a dedicated, organized systematic way.  My awesome husband, who was preparing to turn 40, got on board, and together, we skated off into the sunset, or something like that.

Who bears the burden of proof: the creator of a statement, or the one who negates?  No one bothers to ask what is true in the first place, but, in a world of inquisitors, who's responsibility is it to provide evidence?

I read today that anteaters can consume thousands of ants in a moment.  Have humans evolved to be a mutualistic species like the ants, where the survival of the species is more important than the survival of one?  Or are we really out to only propagate our own personal set of genes?  I am pretty sure that it isn't so important for me to reproduce, but I feel an ingrained drive to support the success of those around me.  Could be upbringing, though.  I'm not sure.

Spring Break 2014!  A little bit like every other spring break.  Like a screw, a spiral, a spring, each revolution puts you back in roughly the same place, just a little bit older and a little bit better, we hope.
Every summer is spent at the bluffs.  Every summer for the past ten years picnics are had, friends are connected with, drinks are had.  Every season has the First Bluffs Visit of the Year.  Biking, walking, skating with our supplies, we funnel in from our other lives, and new memories are made.

Slacker

I was stuck in traffic today behind a car who's bumper sticker read "Be The Change."   I felt this was a little hypocritical and should rather read "Be The Shame" if they're going to insist on putting it on a car.  It applies to blogging, too.  I'd apologize for the sporadic blog posts, but that's both self-centered and implied.  So I'll skip that part, and move ahead.

Happy belated holidays, everyone.  I have loads of pictures, but instead of continuing to procrastinate until I get around to uploading, I'm going to give verbal descriptions.

We were in Sweden for Christmas.  It was beautiful and cold.  With so many people to see in different parts of the country, we attempted to pack light.  I'm not that good at paring down with a three week long trip, but I tried.  I had the rockabilly theme to keep up of course.  My staple outfit was turned up jeans paired with button-ups and cardigans.  When I knew I wouldn't be outside quite as much, or when it warmed up to 14 degrees Fahrenheit,.I would wear long johns under my cycling tights and flirt a mini skirt.  Before we left, I had shopped a few new items for the trip, all of which turned out to be lifesavers.  I got new long johns, top and bottom, from Icebreaker, and a pair of North Face super warm boots..  Stylish, sleek, and snuggly.  My hair styling was minimal, mostly because I was wearing two hats all the time, so I stuck with a ponytail.  Before we left I had some bangs cut in, and that helped my hair look better, but not particularly rockabilly.  My attention to detail with the make-up slipped quite a bit, it being vacation and all.  I stayed consistent with the eye-liner.  I'm not sure that I totally conveyed the message all the time, so I decided to extend the six months out to seven, just to be sure.

Usually when we go to Sweden I feel giant and unstylish, but this time I only felt giant!  Everyone was in black tights and mini skirts, so at least I got that one outfit correct.  It's nice not to feel like I stick out like a sore thumb.  I blame it on living in the Northwest.  I look fine here, but against the lanky, fashion-conscious Swedes... not so much.  But this year was better than years past, and that felt good.  I shopped a few items when we were there, as usual.  I found a stretchy black mini skirt (can't have too many of those).  This one rocked because it was about $7 and it has pockets!

I have a car.