Scrabble is war

Scrabble is war. Almost.

 

Scrabble is a series of battles, waged across a landscape, where pieces of a whole are manoeuvered into position. Various provocations can and will inevitably occur. Calculations have to be made as to how and when to escalate the conflict. To strike into the double word scores and deal a grievous blow upon the enemy, knowing full well such an action would demand-no, necessitate a response? To combine high value letter with triple word score in an almost grotesque show of contempt for any sense of fair play?

 

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There is a bit of a joy with playing music out loud in a room. I've only just discovered the full novelty of it. The funny thing is, the quality is worse than that of my regular Ipod Shuffle to headphones due to the medium of sound delivery (enthusiatic but poor quality television speakers), but somehow it doesn't matter. Selecting a disc, and immersing oneself in the music, of however questionable quality, is quite marvellous. The music becomes a part of the room, rather than as with headphones it seeming just a soundtrack to reality.

 

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I have not had a monday morning feeling since I can remember. Monday is like Tuesday, Tuesday like Wednesday, and Wednesday like all the rest. I cant decide whether overall, I prefer the week to the weekend. During the week, for the most part, I have a clear focus on doing something productive (college), and I am constantly reminded that I am doing something productive, because its in front of my face all day.

 

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When the eff did I start becoming a bit cack at saying stuff? When I'm writing, as here, thoughts formed are so much more easily communicated than with the whole "saying stuff" thing. Take the phrase "thoughts formed". I dont think I'd even be able to think of such a way of phrasing my sentence. I would say something along the lines of "fings that I fink of".

 

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As it happens, writing is a bloody good way of not thinking. Avoiding the tetris stack up of thoughts. Hence this post dragging on as it did with such sparse material. 

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will

The Epic skate video list

Done far too many heavy posts recently, and havent made it out to a hill for ages (and wont for a while longer). That and boredom means- heres a list i've compiled of the savagest skate videos I know of. These videos get me stoked to skate.

In no paticular order, a far from definitive list.

Dominik Kowalski

This video is simply titled with his name, but it should be called "skate all the things" or something similar. Dominik shreds it all, hills, cones, ramps. FREEride, not just soft wheel standup slides.

https://vimeo.com/21114579

I'll do a load from youtube so I can link them properly.

CULT KOP

Anyone that knows me would be able to tell it wouldn't be long before this turned up. Cult fucking Kop. Mr Connolly and Mr River, at warp speed +1. It's not often you watch a video with people skateboarding about doubly as fast as you have ever been. I'd shit myself, cry AND fall off my skateboard at the first roller.

Faltown-No Contribution

I would say it's the music, but it's not just that. I would say it's the flip tricks by the sea, but it's not just that. I would say it's people killing it, everywhere, on everything but... oh it is that actually. Turn it up, and look out for the run at 3.13.

 

 

 

Gravity Skateboards - All Terrains, No Limits

 

More people skating "all the things". Theres a theme going here. Fantastic terrain, cool music, cool filming. Wish you were there?

 



 

Gravity Skateboards- Sergio Yuppie's part in "Flow"

Another from Gravity, this time one man. Sergio Yuppie. The energy and speed of his sliding is mind blowing. His rotations are snappy, his laybacks go on for ever. And through fire. Watch it and want to go and buy some hard wheels.

 

The Matt Pearce, Nick Channon slide videos

These dudes know how to slide. Speedy rotations, nosey stuff, laybacks and much more. Some of the U.K's best technical sliding is below, with two very different, equally sick styles. Music and editing puts it all together nicely, although it could have been filmed with a calculator and uploaded with a paperclip and it would still kick ass.

 

 

Thanet Dogtown - Greenwich Park

People going to a hill in England and having a laugh. The video captures it perfectly, a brand of stoke that is like no other. Yet again the music completes this video. Highlights include Gavgnars beastly run on the classics and Jamie's bosh, bosh BOSH style of hard wheel killing.

 

 

River going fast.

 

I wanted to get into skating hills from watching amongst others, this dude. My first speedboard was an old Spooky I bought from him on the now deceased Lush Forums. Here is The peyragudes run, with most excellent commentary and most excellent (and fast) skateboarding. You should have seen it by now, and if you havent, watch it.

 

John Cardiel

I'd vaguely heard of this person. And then one day, I stumbled upon this video. "Oh my", thought I, as I watched the dude FLY.

Broadway Bomb 2011 Tech Slide Jam 

The bomb will "never be the same again". Apparently. Therefore, enjoy this celebration of going sideways on skateboards. Loads of people killing it, all in their own way.

SEBASTIAN HERTLER

This man came to Bopeep, and shredded it. Nobody does that. Lots of people can make it down, some can make it down fast, a few very fast. But nobody properly shreds it, apart from Seb Hertler. Watch as he effortlessly slices his way down a very long, very fast hill. He knows what he's doing, he saves pushing it to the max for a closed hill. But him "not pushing it too much" is most peoples idea of what they dream they could skate like.

Will Edgecombe-Scrumping

Killer music. Killer skating. Tech, hugeness, speed, style. This video came out, and everybody fell off their chairs.

So yeah, theres some of my favourites. Helps me not to implode whilst away from hills. Like I said, by NO MEANS a definitive list. Just some cool things to watch in the middle of the week.

Skate erryyfing.

Will

Racing skateboards (or not)

I like writing about skateboarding, but not as much as I like actually skateboarding.

So why do some of us not care about going racing on skateboards? Erm well...

So to try and explain, lets murder fun down in a really cold manner into an equation.

Fun on a skateboard= Time spent having fun on a skateboard * How fun it actually is

Ish. There are so many other things that weigh in but that sums most of it up.

And then racing. I've done some racing at Hog Hill up in london. It can be quite cool being in a pack and trying to overtake people, I get it. But it's the extras that come with racing that, certainly for me, puts me off the idea.

Such as you don't magic into your heats. Somebody has to be super organised and sort people out. Even if they are really good, it still means everybody who isn't racing at that time gets to sit around and watch. To me, sitting around and watching skateboarding is for when you hurt yourself at a session, or when it's the middle of the week and somebody has released a cool edit.

Also, the IGSA racing system is not for me. Not being fast enough is NOT reason to have to sit around doing nothing because you dont make the qualy cut, or get rinsed in a heat, or whatever. Moving forward, with the IDF or whoever, racing inevitably means that eventually, you have to sit around and let the faster people skate the hill. I want to be skating the hill as much as possible, as much as everybody else. You dont buy a book and have it slam shut halfway through because somebody else grasps the concepts of it better. If you buy a day of freeride, you get a day of freeride. If you buy a day of racing, you might get a day of racing, if you are fast.

For me, racing goes against how I like to skate. I like to get as many runs as I can. Thats why even though I get out to a hill so little due to various factors, when I do, I get as many runs as I can manage. When you die you want to be able to say you lived, when I'm done skating I want to say that I skated as much as I could and got maximum fun from it.

But then it comes back to that really crude equation I made right?

Fun on a skateboard= Time spent having fun on a skateboard * How fun it actually is

For some people that race, they get more fun from racing than not racing. So the less time spent having fun is offset by having more fun with the time they get.

A long while ago now, I spoke to a very fast dude who likes his racing. Whilst conveying how much fun a race heat is for him, he explained that the qualifying is also fun for him, because even though there is time sitting around before and after your go, you have the hill to yourself, and you can just go for it and push things.

At the moment I don't get the fun from the same things, but I respect the pursuit of fun in downhill skateboarding that we share.

And I suppose theres a bit of a conclusion. We're all able to respect each others different approaches to fun on a skateboard, right? Being able to say "I have a different opinion to you", before hooning down a hill with somebody and laughing the same when you get to the bottom and crashing the same when you mess up and sharing the same amazing, absurd, ridiculous moments of life spent travelling fast (or slow, or sideways, or on your face), down hills, on skateboards.

Cheers for reading.


Will

..

I wonder whether I am indeed too honest with how I'm feeling when I write about it here but since nobody will be reading this anyway heres some more.

I'm impatient for good things to happen and yet I don't possess the initiative and drive to make them happen. These things include getting a small job and supporting my skateboarding. If I got a job, any job, I could get to more hills and events, and I would almost certainly be happier. If I woke up tomorrow and had a job I would, surely, be fine with it and do ok. But the bit where you have to go out and make things happen is what I do not have. I've written a CV, and printed it. Thats it. Printing it took ages. Should I be happy for doing that? It's an achievement for me.

It's about setting goals but I don't really know what to set. I definately need more than college life and skateboarding.

I put things in the way to stop myself thinking. Maybe thats the skateboarding. Only a few times have I gone out and not been able to skate because of not feeling very pleased with that moment, or me. When I'm not skating, or at college, it's a lot more difficult, so I listen to music or read loads of pointless articles on the internet. I've recently started deciding to watch some things on TV rather than just looking over and seeing something on. But all of it is just stuff to put in front of my face so I don't stop and think. When I do accidently stop and think about my life in general it never results in me feeling positive.

Another day has passed where I've done barely anything useful. I havent done any work, or got a job, or created anything. I went cycling and that was quite good, but then I was home, and now I am home, and I spend far too much time here on my own, feeling like this. Going to bed loses the feeling, once I fall asleep, but it's 4pm now. Better go for a skate. I wonder if i'll regret bothering to write this.

IDF, IGSA, Skateboarding

 

IDF has been launched, and this is the International Downhill Federation.

Ye olde IGSA is still going, and that is the International Gravity Sports Association.

 

The main point of concern with the IDF is the lack of letters for making amusing acronyms out of, but we're a creative bunch and we'll think of something.

 

People are well excited for the IDF, I'm stoked for people being stoked on something new, even if this doesn't really affect me much... at all. I don't think I need racing at the moment, but I might do and then I suppose things will matter.

 

Anyway, the funny thing I find is skateboarders obsession with nobody making a profit. I mean, skaters go out to work, to make a profit, so they can go skateboarding (well most do ;)), skater owned shops have to make a profit to you know, exist. But when it comes to the conductors of making shit happen, people think they are being out of order if they make something. If an association was launched tomorrow, saying heres some sick races, we're going to be making a profit, it would be unfairly torpedoed by the skating community.

 

Money is awesome! Wouldn't it be ideal if race organisers and associations could make it their full time job? Skaters would love to make skating their full time job. The organisers could dedicate so much time and energy to making the community better. If organisers and associations are working together to do good work, objecting to them making a profit out of it isnt fair.

 

So in summary

 

Yeah IDF! Yeah a future where people can make a living out of this amazing skateboarding down hills thing.

 

 

This year of skateboarding down hills

Seems a bit weird reviewing the year before its even over but having not been on a hill for 2 weeks (and not having a proper run because the conditions were god awful) for what... 4 weeks? Well I have nothing better to do at the present time. So what stuff has happened to me this year?

 

In January I wrote about the year before (my first year of skating hills.) That year was immense. Sessions were skating Peep with a close family a hell of a lot. Everything was a novelty and that was a cool feeling. This year the skating is a lot more diverse and theres a lot more people. I have got to know some absolute shredders and seen some crazy things done on a skateboard. Theres less novelty to skating hills now but I suppose thats just something that happens. I still love downhill as much as when I first stepped on a board at Peep, but not everything is new anymore.

 

I was really psyched on the year a little after february. I was gonna have it.

 

Ah April, April was an interesting one. The Mark Short All Around Skate interview came out that I'd been very excited for. I can't remember if it was announced beforehand or if I just knew it was going to come out eventually, but I dived into it. And it made me feel a bit sad and I wrote about it HERE. The thing was, I wasn't trying to lay into Mark Short.

 

In that interview, Mark talks about getting into downhill and watching Sergio Yuppie's video parts over and over again. Well I got into downhill watching Mark Short's video parts over and over again. Everybody has role models in their skating and when a big inspiration seems to be so not stoked on the scene that you are in, it's not a great feeling. I was clear that the only thing I was judging was the words in that interview, and I maintain that. He absolutely shreds and to be able to slide anything like that is a dream for me.

 

What else happened? Oh yeah, I went to Houyet.

 

Or more accurately- I WENT TO HOUYET WITH THE VANDEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I will freely admit that I am just a big kid, and I can still feel the stupid smiles that would rock up on my face every time I remembered that I was travelling in convoy with the Vandem dudes and the metal was turned up to 11. The weather was awful, the company was immense. The ferry was nasty but the Vandem was... well, there are no words to describe it's majestic beauty. I didn't skate so well due to limited dry runs but one of those was the most stoked i've ever been on a skateboard. And then it was over. I wanted more but I know how lucky I was to have got that opportunity. Cheers dudes.

 

In May I reviewed my Sabre trucks that I'm still skating. Cool to have people from various corners of the world enjoying something I wrote. I really bloody like these things!

 

And then Crash and Burn.... ah... so... I don't use this word very often at all, but it seems appropriate.

 

At Crash and Burn weekend, I was a bit of a cunt. I realise that now. I mean the weekend went badly for me but there was a lot that I could have done to have made things better. An example? I missed the day where ALL of the runs happened. I missed it because I hadn't gone out and got a proper sleeping bag and manned up and camped. There were some silly crashes also, I really don't like having crashes with people. The inliner was my fault for not being able to stand up and footbrake into the corner to avoid him (still don't know who it was.) Adam Persson was just one of those things. I didn't know he was there, he didn't have time to let me know because of the speed difference and we crashed on a narrow road coming out of a horrendous corner. Thats it.

 

After that I really started enjoying my techsliding. Hard wheels are amazing fun. Currently trying to decide whether to downsize on my slide board or start combining a longboard with hard wheels. The future will be fun in any case.

 

THE BLOODY CATS!

 

Oh, when did that even start!?!?! I can't remember. But when I'm bored I will quite often find wherever my cat is, take a picture of him and photoshop some Cult Goodness around/on him. Risch helmets, boards and gloves also now. I don't think anybody minds. And some people have liked the stuff im doing! I don't know why but if the stuff I make when I'm trying to avoid feeling a bit down ends up making somebody laugh, well thats really cool.

 

Myself, I am not that happy with things at the moment with regards to life and skating. But things can only get better, and i'm determined to get to a place where I can get out to hills a lot more and am happy when not skating. Most of this involves learning how to do things for myself.

 

On it.

 

I've learnt a lot this year, and I know how to make next year the best yet.

Will

Longboardism and jumping to conclusions

This cropped up http://longboardism.com/2012/10/igsa-bonelli-chance-gaul.html

At some race, some dudes crashed, some dude called Chance in the heat took the opportunity to give em both the finger.

The Longboardism article is a bit sad.

You can only comment on what you know. Seeing a picture is not always "worth a thousand words" as the article states. Those pictures that get shared around on facebook, with messages on them. Yeah, you know the ones. People seize on them without looking into the details because it suits their opinions on something. You often find out theres more to the picture than is immediately obvious.

A picture you could completely judge would be something like a dude kicking a child off a skateboard. Any person would know that there could be no reasonable justification for that action. Case closed. But what about this picture of Chance? Heres just some justifications for his actions.

• He's having FUN and enjoying himself.
• He may know the dudes crashing really well.
• The crash may not have been that fast.
• It may have been worthy of a little bit of mocking if it was paticularly "failsome"
• The dudes may have been out of order to him before (not suggesting they were)

See, that took such a small space of time to create loads of things that should prevent you reaching a judgement on the photo. Unless you have the answers, jumping to a conclusion is wrong. Jumping to a conclusion that suits your agenda, and then publishing it on the internet and potentially damaging somebodies reputation is not cool.

But then, you can bet on some of the responses to the article being as shit as the article itself. The people who are scared of words like "serious" and "professional" and "organised".

What is needed is for people who are more on the side of seriousness to respect those who arn't, and for those who are more on the side of not being serious to respect those who are. 

To simplify things.

GO SKATEBOARDING HOW YOU WANT (UNLESS YOU ARE BEING A TWAT)

LET OTHERS SKATEBOARD HOW THEY WANT (UNLESS THEY ARE BEING TWATS)

Easy.

Will