Notch Up A Couple More Skate Sessions...

Saturday morning was just a quickie :) I wanted some fresh air and decided it would be an opportunity to try filming some frontside boardslides. I don't have a tripod yet, but it's still possible to get by solo if you're willing to put up with limited angles and flexibility!

I wasn't really feeling it, but the session did the trick. 50 minutes or so, and something to show you guys.

Today I've been reminded of my frustration when dealing with the combination of my camera, Movie Maker and YouYube/Vimeo. Only it's worse this time.

I'm running on a beta of Windows 7 (after the hard drive failure) so I had to download Movie Maker. I exported the sequence twice, both widescreen and 4:3. I uploaded them both to Vimeo. I'm taller than I should be in both. I don't get it. I remember dealing with this rigmarole last time, but at least one of them ended up being right. Maybe I've got a different version of MM? When am I gonna stop messing around with a crap solution?

Anyhow, here it is. I look tall and skinny, which maybe isn't a bad thing as I'm a little out of shape :) Hopefully I'll fix the aspect soon...

Learning Frontside Boardslides from Gavin Hope on Vimeo.

7 Bails and 7 Makes... Just started to do front-boards on a skateboard. Wanted to get early makes on film. Five Bridges skatepark, Gateshead, UK.

Sunday, this morning, was an awesome session. Went to silksworth with Dave and Dan, they were keen to hit that bowl again... I knew they'd like it :)

A bit windy but no biggy. The bowl there is awesome. I didn't really learn anything new, rather I'm getting back to where I was last year, which isn't all that far. This seems to happen each year; I skate just enough to maintain where I was. Perhaps this year will be different. I'm pretty set on taking a step forward.

The park got real quiet at one point so we messed around in the large bowl trying some early grabs. That was fun.

Here are some pics. The first is just to show the bowl, the second two fall in the category of me trying things out. Nothing good mind, I just feel like I should post at least something when I've snapped with the camera...

Late Season Powder

It's hard going when you're at work and friends are sending you photos of awesome powder! Check out these bluebird shots from the Jason and crew at Snowmotions - photos taken by Steve Dowle from the World Snowboard Guide!

There's a small chance that I still may be able to make a late season trip out to Switzerland and ride with these guys. It's slim, but there non the less. Jason reckons there's gonna be snow 'till June :) So if anyone out there fancies some late season pow, you should check out the snowmotions site... they've got last minute deals on a 5* chalet in Arosa, and some last minute availability at their Lodge in Churwalden, Lenzerheide, between 28 March - April 18.

If you're interested, you can read about my trip a couple of seasons ago, 2007.

Cuts And Bruises

Yesterday morning was another skate session, four of us, it was good.

We started at five bridges. No kick-flip yet, but, I did nail four or five smooth frontside boardslides; stoked! They were nice, I'm definitely getting them now... I just need to get one or two on film.

We spent some time trying to skate the mini-ramp there. After we all agreed that it sucked, we decided to head to the skate park at Silksworth, sk8 city, or something; I just call it Silksworth. Anyhow, as none of the others had been before, I was waxing lyrical about the small bowl - it's loads better than this sucky mini-ramp.

It was a fairly short session, but good non the less, with all agreeing that the bowl is good. I've been out on my skateboard a few times lately, but this was the first time I've been near a transition that I can ride. Cue a few cuts and bruises.

For the first time, I was trying to get over the spine by tail-stalling on the coping. There were some errors. Add that to a hang-up on the coping and a few slams on the rail back at bridges, one of which had me landing on the rail, and I'm a little banged up. Nothing major, just paying the cost. I guess I should get used to it.

Friday Night Skate

After a spot of the all too familiar d.i.y, last night, I went for an hour's skate. It was perfect.

The park was empty, all mine, clear night, and there must have been someone with a brush prior, as the surface was nicely swept. No one around, plug in the iPod, and skate.

I'm looking forward to getting better. With just a few features, it's still possible to put together a sequence that flows. It feels good. And the reason that I say I'm looking forward to getting better is that some variety would be better still. Right now I'm ollie'ing onto the box, dropping/ollie'ing off, with some momentum, one push and line up to the first rail, boardslide, and if I make it, try a (tiny) front board on the next rail.

With more moves at my disposal I could use more of the park and get a better run by landing more tricks. The ollie is still a little inconsistent, but when it comes back, I'm gonna try adding the manual to my line. I used to be close to getting this. [oh my, I can't believe that was June 2006!]

So the front boardslide is coming along. When I go for the rail with a bit of speed, which is now becoming more comfortable, I'm starting to lock into a good position, where I'm looking over my left shoulder, like I would on a snowboard. Up until last night I'd just been keeping my back facing forwards, looking over my right shoulder, and hoping that I'd drop off switch. Now, I'm hitting the rail how I want to, and I've been close to landing a few half-decent attempts. It's coming. Tripod = some film, so I can show how it's going.

And the kick-flip is so close.

Skating Is All...

Wow, it's been quiet around here. To be honest, the only thing I've done standing sideways over the last couple of weeks is some skating. I did a couple of short, evening sessions last week, and I think I'll head out a little later tonight.

The last time I was at the skate park there was a small crew there; 4 good skaters and one of the guys had a nice bag of camera gear, video and still. I took some photos too. It was fairly late so I was literally in the dark, but seems as though they had a couple of remote flash guns, I had some chance of getting an image.

Here are some photos. The first two are mostly too dark, but the timing was ok. I included the second two to show how the lighting might have worked, and me fumbling with a slower shutter speed :)

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Oh, I bought some wax from the local skateboard shop too, because the rails get kinda sticky. I was using regular snowboard wax before, that worked just fine, but I've spent that waxing snowboards. The front-board is progressing.

I'd definitely like to buy some basic camera gear. A tripod for sure. I'm skating by myself at the moment, and with a tripod I could at least video some stuff. A better flash too. I'm gonna check if the d60 has a remote control... I wonder what it would be like trying to take a photo of myself? That probably wouldn't work out too well - although Mike Basich does a good enough job :)

Part of reason for these pages being dead lately is that I've had some laptop trouble. I'm sure my electronics are cursed. Last week the hard-disk became corrupt and I had to spend some time recovering the data and then wiping the whole lot. I nearly lost some important data - all my wsg photos from Morzine.

Up until now I've been backing my stuff up once a month - to a usb drive. The hard disk went a couple of days before the end of the month, which sucked. Still, I shouldn't have left all those photos and words to chance.

So, I've signed up with backblaze, for online backups. I'd like to say how good it is, but right now the initial backup is still running... it's taking ages, probably gonna end up being 2 - 3 weeks, and that's only about 75gb. Wireless, but still slow.