Jason things

With a week chalked full of depressing, stressful, and really heavy stuff, I was granted a huge break of sunshine yesterday.

I found out that the kids didn't have school, and that my wife didn't have to do any work. Her only plan was to get Logan in to have his picture taken.

Well, while she was doing that, I took Noah and Gracie over to Gabriel skatepark.

Noah was rolling into the ramps and doing long turns on the other side of the snake run.  He finally felt that 'carve' you feel when you hit a wall just right.

He was hooked.

Gracie rolled all around the park on her scooter, going super fast and up and over bumps.  She jumped into the big bowl and rode around for a while too, having a blast.

Eventually she decided to climb this huge grassy hill and pick little daisy flowers and packed my backpack full of them. She then realized it'd be more fun to roll down the hill over and over again.  Then she played in the giant sand box (aka beach vollyball area).

I had my eyes on the big wall at the park.  A giant 9' tall half-pipe that I threw myself at as hard as I could.  Almost got a grind too.  Almost... 

I've never been up that high on a ramp before. It was probably the biggest and fastest I've ever gone.  It was such a rush.

We went home and got some lunch and then went to the zoo as a whole family.  I gave Noah my camera and Gracie has her own little one and I also gave them a list of things to photograph as a mission (Fire Hydrant.  Monkey.  Logan making a funny face.  Lion.   Etc).  They had a blast.

If you want to keep kids in line and busy, just give them cameras. It worked great!

After that we dropped Gracie off at ballet lessons and the rest of us went to Old Navy to get some clothes.

I bought my first pair of 34" waist pants ever.  I've been at 36" for a while now, but they've gotten baggy on me.  I was pretty surprised at this.

Jaqui tried on pants and was SO close to dropping down to the next size. Not much more and she'll be there.  She was so excited to be buying clothes right off the rack at Old Navy and not having to go to Torrid or something.  She's worked so hard to get to this point and I was so excited for her.

We went home, had a dinner that everyone loved (which is a rarity!), dropped Noah off at his baseball practice, went to the gym, came home and put kids to bed.

I then did ironing and watched "Biggest Loser" with Jaqui.

I went to bed with thoughts and visions of me carving 9' up on a huge concrete wall.

That is how you live a day.

While I wasn't really a huge fan of Mike Valley back in the day, I've found his longevity in skateboarding very inspiring.

He's still keeping it alive old-school style.

Well, on his website, he's started a new segment called "Monday's with Mike V."

Pretty cool to watch. enjoy.

Mondays With Mike V

Perhaps I shall enter.  This years contest

Here's some photos from Last Years Contest

This last weekend Noah and I went down to the Aumsville skatepark, just south of Salem.

It was a bowl type park, built by Dreamland Skateparks (the guys who build Burnside).

There wasn't a lot of street terrain (stairs/rails/ledges/etc).  It was basically a giant U shaped bowl of half pipes.

But one spot in particular was really fun for me.  There was a huge roll in across from the vert bowl. This meant that I could do an easy roll in and fly up to the vert wall as fast as I wanted to.

This allowed me to start doing kickturns (180's) up in the vertical part of the ramp.

It was really freaky at first as I hit a point of total weightlessness.  But instead of jumping off like I have in the past (which ended up in massive foot injuries), I stuck to my board and trusted that I'm come out of the turn.

Which I did.

I kept bombing at the wall time and time again, trying to see just how high up I could get myself.

I can't explain the feeling of that rush.  It's indescribable.

Flying up a ramp with lots of speed, pumping and pushing from the bottom in order to get as high up as possible, sitting and looking down at a 90 degree angle with the ground, then rolling back in and feeling my stomach drop as I do.

It's so addictive.


Here's a picture, but realize that anytime you see a skateboarding photo, size and scale is lost.

This is an 8' tall wall.  You look up at it and it's at least 2' above your head.


Need some relative scale?


If you were standing in front of the wall, I'd be skating in an arc about a foot above your head.

I could have skated over top of a person in a top hat.



This is like heroin, only far cheaper.


Now that I'm used to this feeling, I'm one step closer to dropping in on vert.  Now that I know what the weightless feeling is like, I'm going to be ready to take the plunge.


Another super fun part of the day was watching Noah skate in the bowls. He's been working hard to get some confidence on his skateboard and when we were at the park he was rolling up the ramps about 1/2 way.  It was actually pretty impressive.


It's good to see his confidence increase. See him conquering his fears.

So often he is controlled by fear and doesn't try things that he really wants to.

I've seen him defeat his fear time and time again at the skateparks.

I don't care if he skateboards or not. It's simply a tool we're using to help him master his fear, and it seems to be working.

Also, another guy there had a long board and Noah was skating around and down hills on it. He really like it.


So, fun day, good times had by all.

And spring has just started.

You know, I enjoyed Summer camp as much as the next kid.

Going to Tadmor was definitely an experience, but all I wanted to do when I was there was go back home and skateboard.

Tadmor was also the place where I saw my skater friends slowly fade away into other activities, leaving me alone.

This last Saturday me and a couple guys I know went up to a place called "Windell's" that's outside of Sandy, but before Rhododendron.

Just take a look at this place.

There was a place where you had all the cabins on opposite sides of a grove of trees.   But there were sidewalks with skateable objects all over the place.  Ramps banking from one cabin to the next.  Two trees that were too close together had a curved ramp going through the middle of them.

This is what you do when you walk out of your cabin at Windell's.

Not to mention the fact that they also have a full sized outdoor skate park that they're still adding onto.

Oh, but that's not all.

They also had a full 15,000 square foot indoor skatepark as well.

It even had a foam pit so you could practice your airs without slamming into the ground.


So that pretty much cinched it for me.  I need to either get my time machine working, or I need to fake my age and try to get enrolled into summer camp.

The new Gorillaz album Plastic Beach is awesome.

I've been digging these guys ever since my sister came back from England and wouldn't shut up about them until I listened.

Plastic Beach might just be their best one yet.  I can't stop listening.

You've got that good Blur euro-trash sound, you've got electronic synth going on, and you've got hip-hop.  That's my tri-fecta right there.

One of the best parts of Plastic Beach?  You've got a song they do with De La Soul.  I love De La Soul.

Anyway, check it out. It's fun and will be my soundtrack this summer.

Here's a little something to keep you happy in the meantime. Stylo Video

Guest vocals: Mos Def.

Are there discussions regarding a short film version of Rise?

Maybe.

And if you're not in the know, it's a comic my friend Matt and I created, check it out:
www.risecomic.com

Time to start afresh with a blog.

My last one had too many political posts back when I used to care about politics.

This one will be much happier and more fun.