Mason Skate Park- first stop of the Kalamazoo Church of Skatin

Sunday

 6am- Meet in abandoned Burger King Parking Lot

 Drive to Mason, Michigan

 7:40 am Arrive in Mason. Before park opens

 8:00am  Skate park given a "peoples opening"...no one from Mason Parks showed up so we jumped the fence.

9:40 am  Drive to Charlotte

10:15 am Arrive in Charlotte with all the Frisbee golfers

11:00 Leave Charlotte and drive  back to Kalamazoo

noon- back in kalamazoo.

Two sesh day.

 

 It is not very often, but ever once in a while I get in a two sesh day.  One at the skate park and one on the long board. This was one of the quickest two sesh days on record- getting both in in little under a hour and a half.  I am continuing to work on my Coleman slides...as the video shows- i can use them to stop..but i would like to be able to roll out of them.  I guess being able to stop on a skateboard going fast down a hill is a serious step forward though.

learned to drop in and Coleman slide.

Good Day. After riding the Honda CB450 out to Glendale I figured out how to drop in. I am unsure if i will be able to translate that to stuff that is much bigger, but it seems that i should be able to. The rector of this blessed temple of the church of skating is Todd. Below are some pics of him caressing the alter.

And then....I learned to drop in.Below is some video of it, and frankly it is pretty lame. That said, while skating it, it felt completely rad. 

And then....i went home and finished up my DIY slide gloves. They are as simple as could be. I hope that my wife likes the new cutting board..because i just cut up the old one to make these beauties. To qualify as fun til death,  there has to be some element of danger. This quality and events in which this element comes to life is called " the price of radness."   The Cost of learning to Coleman slide was significantly higher than dropping in.  Thankfully i was learning on smooth pavement and only got burns rather than cheeze grater.
Also managed to rip the butt out of my pants.
Below is my knee. Similar marks on both elbows too. 

Upjohn Skatepark : frontside practice

OOOF! The price of radness is paid.

The Set up

The Bail

 All taken with the timed shutter of my cell phone camera so the scenes captured are kinda random. Unfortunately I didn't catch a single successful frontside carve or....attempt at frontside slasher grinds. 

For those of you who are interested:  Limited Edition Fun Til Death stickers are available.  Send me your address and i will mail out a few. Excellent addition to helmets, skis, poles, skateboards, etc. 

Lansing, Michigan Skate Park

Fun Til Death!

 - I have been having so much fun as of late that i haven't had much time to document it here.  Fun has included: family camping trip to Lake Michigan,  construction of the Glendale mini-half, and trip to Ranney Skate park in Lansing, Michigan.  

most of the pictures of the park in Lansing turned out horrible. The spot is worth a visit- lots of fun lines banks, transition and some spot where kids can flip their boards around.  Especially liked the banks here.

Todd drops in the pool.

preparation of the grounds

Cutting Tranny

the two dimensional view

does this carve make me look fat?

The Bert Slide is certainly Fun Til Death.  Being a skateboard trick that is low to the ground - falls or crashes from attempting this extremely stylish move are relatively mild. These pics are a compilation, that looks like a series. I pulled out of a couple of these....but i also lost control and fell out of many of these.

This is all a little later than usual dawn patrol church of skaten at Upjohn park.  The park had some wet spots, but you know....wet spots are always the result of fun.  West Michigan had a ton of fun storms, which over the week proceeding and during the Memorial Day weekend of 2011 i had opportunity to camp in. Upjohn park as well as a lot of other spots in West Michigan were flooded.

The 'thane lines on the bank remind me of ski tracks.

On the Old Man Army forum, some one mentioned looking into your arm pit as a method for getting the frontside crave down. They were right, and it has started to open lots of lines for me.

I am wondering if it is too early to start thinking about Ski Boots.  I am financially committed to the binding system i am running- just thinking about an upgrade on boots.

Often fun til death must be planned out months in advance.

Ok- so I am really happy about getting this high frontside on our local bowl. This is real progress. However,  when i am really invested in balance and some one takes a picture- looks like my gut is huge... I think that this may be a result of the Chi Gong- sinking my chi into my tan tien......or maybe the beer that i sink into my gut.

Church of Skatin goes to Charlotte

 Early Sunday morning Todd and I went up to Charlotte, Mi. None of the pictures are super sweet or anything- but they do show the impressive little park that they have.  The Park department from Kalamazoo needs to get up here and see what a public skate park could be.  I am thankful for our little ramp thing here, but damn this was way better.    Pics and Videos...

Sweeping the Temple

Dusting the alter