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.