I only wear them in the streets if I'm gonna be going a certain speed and needing to put more weight on the hands as a result. This time of year there are more rocks and granules of everything by the day, not to mention that MA roads are as smooth as a Tahitian reef. I like rubbing sandpaper hands on wahine's face but the dude with the avulsion on the hands with the fat cells falling out of the flesh is not so sexy. The gloves help too in the sub-freezing cold but I was just out for about 45 minutes without them, just rubbed them together here and there. I wouldn't think you need them in a bowl or pool if the finish is smooth, definitely not at better indoor parks. Then again, there's a lot of wood in a park and splinters suck. There are parks everywhere in this beautiful society although a wide spectrum exists of how extensive they are and to what repair they're kept. Indoor parks are badazz too. I've been hitting up all the above lately but my stand-by is just finding good faces around any town I'm driving through. After a while, you get a pretty long list of "breaks" to hit and barring snow or pothole, or some kook parking in it, that wave is always breaking. Different towns will have varying topography, but in these old northeastern cities and towns that were built square foot by square foot over years, the end result amounts to an unlimited quantity of synergistic surfaces and junctions of sidewalk to road, driveway to street, street to street, etc. All of a sudden, you've got ramps everywhere and even pooly bowls of great height if you keep your eyes open. The addition of cracks in the pavement on those surfaces throws a catalyst in the mix that pools and parks don't have - a dynamic obstacle course of surface and limitation to work around much like a wave presents us with. Remember, I'm skating to surf, not skating to skate, although I'm sweating skating itself the more I learn and appreciate. I use the Carvers every time I'm on a "skateboard". I have no interest or use for a conventional skate (anything other than a Carver truck..."custom" skate to me is still a "skate") although Carver does make a double-kick pool model with a tighter truck. The Pintail is great for speed and mileage but I've managed to get some velocity from my wider and shorter decks, all of which technique will vary greatly with but still fall under the same transferability to surfing. Been really messing around with wheels and varying durometer, size and shape. So my preferred deck is fat at both nose and tail with a single kick, much like what Tony Hawk and the others were riding in the 80s revolution. I like the feel of something under most of my size 12 shoe, especially on the back foot. I like the lead foot hanging off the end an equal length at both heel and toe rails. The more I ride and hack with these boards the less I am stoked to get on the Pintail where both feet are on a narrow deck. I like to almost push downward through most of my riding to where it feels like my feet are in bindings. That's not to say I don't move my feet slightly and constantly through an entire set of maneuvers and I know that will help me greatly on the water. Been watching a lot of the forefathers' riding and modeling mine after that. Way, Hawk, Mullen, etc. Guys that had to innovate their game and adapt to a skill set spanning multiple venues of bowl, vert, street, and transition. For if they didn't, their sport would've ceased to survive the mid 80s challenges. Wait...can we call skating a "sport"? Whatever. Skating is starting to cease being the next best thing to surfing when I can't and now taking on a life of its own within me, yet still all feeding into each other. God Bless stoke.
Yes, brah. That's the one. There are a couple more kicking around if you look hard enough. Not sure he was ever looking for them, but this guy doesn't get enough props compared to the other household names of legends. I mean, if you were to tell me I couldn't sample any other surf styles or tech other than this guy's I'd be good with that.
I kinda skipped around a bit, wasnt quite clear what you meant by words like `manuever` and you said something about a hawk.
Alright, you Kooky KookieMonster. You called me a kook for deliberately trying to derail the thread with a story about a fall when I was a certified kook, then you derail the thread with a fall joke. Good Work. Seriously, worst fall on a Skateboard? Blew my knee out on a half pipe riding a JFA (Jody Foster's Army for the young or uneducated) board with Tracker 6 Track Ultra Light trucks and some hard a$$ Bones wheels, resulting in surgery. 25 years ago. Reasons for the fall are hazy for a myriad of reasons. Switched to snowboarding because snow is softer than pavement or plywood, then switched to surfing because water is softer than ice. It's all science stuff... I still long board skate some but not as agro as I used to. What are some of your worst wipe outs; surf, skate, ski snowboard, bikes... what have you..
A thousand monkeys typing (7072 characters in this thread alone) for long enough will inevitably come up with at least one nugget of info worth reading. Emass start your carpal tunnel exercises now. You'll eventually need them.
Brah, the bulk of my posts have had the gift of brevity for some time now. The manifestos are seldom seen unless I'm speaking on stoke then it just flows. You know you liked that 7k post. Thanks for copying and pasting it to Word to get the character count or that was a sick estimate. Yes, I'm preventing the carpe from seizing. FREE BERT
PJB.... you certainly should have no problem knowing that I am absolutely shocked that you, king of the shredding ankle high waves, is finally admitting that the east coast has been bad this past year....
Alright doods, I wasn't gonna say anything and let you all be surprised, but f**k it, but I'm gonna put you onto something. Under one condition: I don't want this showing up on some hype thread and jinxing it all to sh!t. And there's another member out there who foresaw the same prophecy, you know who you are. Here it is- 2014 is going to be EPIC. I'm talking like one for the record books type epic. There will be size, there will be consistency, and there will be favorable conditions. And there will be a swell of all swells that will be forever known as 'The Swell of 2014'. Remember where you heard it first.
I didnt get a chance to read about your boo boo but I just wanted to respond to that first part by saying.. wahhh?
Ok thanks for posting the unspeakable on the biggest broadcast network there is. Ill make sure your seldom seen. Watch your back kook.
My worst fall ever was in the early 80s on a twin fin. I tried to do an el rollo inside a 8 foot barrel ( I don't know what I was thinking, probably reading Surfer magazine too much), and when I got upside down at the top of the tube, it pile drove me head first to the bottom. It was a reef spot, but luckily I hit sand. I felt like the cartoon character who has a big lump on the top of his head, and my neck hurt real bad. I think I am about an inch shorter due to that one. I have never tried that again. Happy Fall to All!
Ya, maybe I shouldn't say the summer sucked. Memorial Day swell and the first or second weekend in June were great. But July sucked, for me anyways. There were a few waist-stomach clean days in August but nothing great. And I don't doubt you got some good days this summer as others may, but really it comes down to I don't expect much for summer to begin with. As for fall, maybe I should expect more, but I've been pretty stoked all week from an afternoon of quality surf on Monday. And I agree that the whole hurricane thing is overblown, half of them are hype, and the other half send swell that is too big for our shallow beach breaks to handle. I'm all about the noreasters. I guess the glass is still half full cause we still have a month to go of fall and I think we usuallly get a nice system right around turkey day. But now I jinxed it. Anyway, you guys should do something about it. Have your debate at the Pic, just make sure you go on a Tuesday night cause that is wing night, and they have wings that cut across party lines.
Hey you list your location as The Pinelands........... So are you a "Piney?" Like, how piney do live. Like Galloway-pines or like Chatsworth-pines? Have you ever been to Buzby's General Store? Do you have any good Jersey Devil stories? The pinelands are a magical place. I dig 'em. Hot Diggity Dog. They used to make friggin glass out there. Totally. Anyways, SURFRR, stay away from staph infections, bleach, and I hope you get two chest-high days per week. Ah man, I gotta check to see if there will be any knee-high peaks out there early tomorrow(that's for you MFitz). I should have went today while I had the chance, but I'm still running off the high that was yesterday. Yesterday makes me question why I'm still bothering with this whole thing, living where I do. Just magical yesterday. I feel sorry for people in Australia..................
