Welcome Back to Skateboarding

Welcome Back to Skateboarding

This article was written by Daniel M. Ting (af830@FreeNet.Carleton.CA)
and submitted to alt.skate-board.

To those returning to skateboarding after an extended `absence', Be careful and take it easy, slow at the start, perhaps even doing some warm up stretches and stuff if you intend to have a heavy duty shredding session. If you've bought a new board look out for the longer nose (or double kick) your usual foot placement (if you're from the early 80's scene) now should be a bit further back on the board. Painful ankle twisting bails will occur if you nose-dive. Be careful if you intend to slow down using `powerslides' the new wheels are a lot harder and (a) wear out much quicker (b) are lot more slippery, you might find yourself with a buttfull of gravel and asphalt. (of couse these speeds can only be achieved going downhill) . The boards today are only 6ply and are not as strong as they used to be (due to thinner shape, I won't get involved with the quality issue) so be careful if you intend to do any boneless-es or big acid drops. Ollies will also be difficult at first, as the board feels and reacts very much like an oversized freestyle board, (good if you were a freestyler) so be careful at those curbs, don't let an injury add to your embarassment of wiping out at a crosswalk.

Once you get used to the new board it turns out to be a very excellent stick , ollies pop higher and easier, flips happen by themselves, it's lighter (a lot) and much more responsive. my only beef with them is the small wheel, they don't roll as easily as a pair of 92 rat bones, and tend to get stuck in sidewalk cracks.

While it may seem to be a sort of culture shock, much has remained the same. i've noticed a general `return-to-friendliness' amoung the new school, and fortunately (at least in my skating area) the `little snotty skate-shit' attitude is hard to come by.

So enjoy yourselves, enjoy your new (or old) deck and have a good time. But remember guys that the age of consent is 18, so leave those skate betties alone ;) (but i'm sure our wive's , pot-bellies and the fact that these new skaters pull off tricks we never dreamed of, will leave us with not much to worry about in this dept.)

Daniel

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DansWORLD Skateboarding / dan@cps.msu.edu