Author: crazyskatelady

Hello fear my old friend, I’ve come to talk about that again

~ crazyskatelady ~ 2 Comments

Pretty active skateboarding week behind. Still struggling with fear issues. A week ago, on Friday night had a very nice skate session in a small pool near to where I live. It is a bit too difficult for my skills, but I still did quite well.  I started this week going there on Monday evening, but it just didn’t feel good – and left the place pretty soon.

On Tuesday evening dude and I drove to Antwerpen to my ‘comfort zone’ skatepark Antwerpen Spoor Noord. Again, it just didn’t feel good. Felt nervous, and needed a lot of courage even in my comfort zone small bowl, that I usually enjoy riding. Didn’t even feel going to bigger bowl, even thought been pretty okay there some other times. Dude suggested some other park that was new for me, and luckily we went there. First, it was a struggle, and didn’t feel comfortable, but bit by bit felt better, and it in the end it was okay, and could have stayed longer, but it was too late. (This usually happens, it takes time to warm up, but then I am reluctant to leave and go on loooong.)

I decided will not give up nor let the less-nice sessions to get on my way. Thought to have a change for my routines – which has mostly been riding on the corners in a bowl / pool – by focusing on other stuff: mostly on kick-turns, pushing & balance, as well as being more comfortable with speed. There’s a nice not too steep hill near Antwerpen Noord park, and have now couple of times tried down hill there. This Monday too. Still too scared to go all the way down. I know I can, it is  just that old friend fear kicking in, and preventing the full ride. I’ll promise by the end of the summer, I will ride that hill down like a pro!

Twice this week I started my days going on a mini ramp to work on kick-turns. I went back and forth pretty high and turned okay on the low part of the ramp. Still a lot of work to do with kick-turns and pump the speed up –  and of course to have courage to ‘swing’ higher and faster.

(here’s a clip for this week’s morning session https://wordpress.com/post/crazyskatelady.com/456)

By the end of the week, the weather got wet again, so there were couple of days no skateboarding. I was still busy on my free time with it by creating own Facebook page for Crazy Skate Lady (please like and follow me on Facebook too!) and watching some skate videos. On Monday I already sworn I will stop watching them all together, as my skating doesn’t relate to any of them, and makes me just more annoyed by how crap I am. Yes I know, not mature attitude. I am sure though all of you who skateboard, do know that frustrating feeling when you just want to throw your board as far as you can…for Finnish readers I can say it feels like wanting to put the board ‘tuhannen p*****n päreiksi’… Anyway, there were a skate video that did motivate me. Look here how this 40 years old beginner have learned to nail many tricks by training hard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14-sOzwJgD  

That video made me want to try ollie. Something I have not really done before, expect of some odd tries once in a while. I think last time was last summer.

So this morning (Sunday) I woke up thinking of ollies. Dude too wanted to skate, and despite of drizzling rain, we tried to find a dry spot to skate. First try was a mini ramp on Vilvoorde under the bridge. It was damp. I learned now first time in practise what it means when surface is wet: dude fell and I slipped, so it was time to continue the hunt of the dry spot. I must say before slipping, I did pretty okay kick-turns, so something is happening – and I am motivated to practice to get better with that.

We didn’t have luck with a car park, where we managed to skate few weeks ago, when the weather was wet. It was full of cars today.

Finally, on the way back home there was a dry spot under some bridge. Rough surface with pebbles and garbage, still possible to do something. And I did: ollies! Few of them were like almost okay 🙂  Dude was holding hands, and balance sucks – still did something new. In your face, fear!

You must believe my words with the ollies. For some reason, the camera didn’t work. As they say: you can’t have everything.

The video above is filmed on mid February when I am first time on new cat board. Feeling good and comfy on that day.

Below Skatepark Stadspark after I had started to warm up – finally. (warning includes not happy being filmed comments 😀 )

 

And here some tic tac attempts from couple of weeks ago on rainy day in car park.

Come on, you can do it!

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If you think you’re too old, not good enough, too different than others on your skate spot, or whatever might be stopping you doing what you’d like to do -only thing, that is time to stop are excuses.

Here’s an example:

Today in Brussels weather has been like a bride (as we say in Finland, sayings usually don’t translate, but I assume this Finglish makes sense), and I wanted to start it by a short mini ramp session. So first thing in the morning, I headed to mini ramp in my neighbourhood being sure it will be empty, as kids should be at school on Thursdays. Well, they weren’t. After seeing there were three teenage boys already on the mini (what time does kids wake up these days!) I almost turned my bike and headed back home. It might have been the sunny, warm morning, or me being persuaded to learn kick-turns, I still went on a mini. Politely (or more like stupidly making myself lesser) asking would there be space for me  to skate too. Bien sûr those kids said yes. They’re skaters, and during my 1,5 years skating career, I have not met many skaters who do not give me respect and support for trying, even though my skateboarding attempts are not perfect. This happened today too. As you can hear watching the video above with sounds.

The first Friday of March

~ crazyskatelady ~ 1 Comment

 

Whilst was busy with this, there was a conversation going on.

” Is that your wife?”

“No, my girlfriend.”

“She is quite good for a beginner of her age.”

**

Crazy Skate Lady is on Vimeo now. Stay tooned – skateboarding videos like you never seen before 😀

I will probably publish some older videos too. To show where my skills are, and for helping to see the development.

Screaming and skateboarding

~ crazyskatelady ~ 1 Comment

Weather in last week, as well as the weather forecast for this upcoming week, has not allowed skateboarding, neither have I had a chance to go to any indoor skate park.

Whilst waiting weather to be more suitable for skateboarding, and to have fresh skate stories to tell, here’s one I published about one month ago on my Facebook wall:

“There has been a couple of months break since I’ve been in one of my favourite skateboarding spots (Antwerpen Park Spoor Noord). It all started well. I was able to do all I had learned to do there. Even better, was faster in corners than ever before. All was perfect until  I needed to do a pee (I do not want to give too much information, just saying there’s toilet facilities for boys, but not for girls). After a break I tried another corner, which I have tried before, not very well, but at least somehow. Now I couldn’t do nothing there, it felt too scary.

Unfortunately, that fear stayed with me. I was not able to do what I had done 10 minutes before thinking :”Superfun, this is my favourite place in Belgium.” I was too scared to go down from the bank. Some primary fear hit the brains again and again, forcing me to jump off from the board. I felt like crying, was p****d off, felt like a looser whilst slowly pushing on flat outside of the bowl. Finally sisu (a Finnish term meaning something like stamina. You should google it, veru useful when skateboarding) grew big enough,  and I went back to the smaller bowl, which is in my comfort zone – if that’s a term I can use about me and skateboarding. All went well there, and got courage to go back to the scary bank where the fear had hit me.  And it still did; the primary fear just came back immediately when speed got faster and I jumped off. Untill I discoverd: when fear hits, instead of jumping off from the board, I will scream. After a while screaming and skating, the fear went off, and all was fine again.

Now being safely in my bed,  I am thinking why am I, who has always been a wuss & scared of everything in my 40’s, still want to skateboard…

It is good to face your fear and even better to win it. Tomorrow again if weather allows.”

 

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Some days after the above text was published enjoying much less scary wooden bowl.

 

 

 

This is why skatelady is crazy aka glimpse to my Monday

~ crazyskatelady ~ 1 Comment

I work as a freelancer, and to a certain limit, I can fix my own schedules. I worked on Saturday, Sunday was too wet to skate, so I decided Monday morning would be my perfect skating time – miniramp would likely to be empty at that time, and skateboarding would give an energetic start for the new week.

A day started grey, pavements were wet, but the weather forecast said cloudy, not rain. Optimistically, I put the skateboard on the back of my bicycle, and headed off to Vilvoorde. It is a small city just next to Brussels, only about 11 kilometres from where I live. There’s a miniramp under the bridge – that I thought would be wide enough to have kept the miniramp dry. So had I seen it before. Raining, but still nice clean and dry miniramp.

Just when left home, it started to drizzle. Ignored it, and just kept going. After all, there’s a big bridge covering the ramp. Had a tiny worry will the rain be bad for my lovely new cat board. Of course had not covered it, cause it did not rain when left the house…

Got to Vilvoorde. Took even a happy selfie and sent it to dude, to show off how brisk I am: out and about on Monday morning. Then the reality hit: wind blew drizzling rain to every direction and to everywhere, and the miniramp was all wet. Not on selfie mood anymore. Also, cat skateboard was bit damp!

I got obsessed to keep it dry, so started the hunt for a plastic bag, which turned out to be a mission. I was in an industrial area, no usual supermarkets around. First stop was some kind of electrical equipment shop. I can assure you, I looked very different that all the other customers. They were all workmen in their work clothes, and well, I was me: wet hoodie and leggings, wearing helmet, carrying the cat skate board, nose dripping (after all, I had been cycling in the rain quite a while already). Queue were too long,  lost patience, so it was time for stop two: shop for tiles and likes. Very nicely dressed and nice lady advised: “We are not actually a shop for plastic bags.” I got lucky on a third shop (for office supplies) after the language barrier – Dutch/French/English – was sorted out.

Then only needed to head back to Brussels, and for that direction wind was against me.

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It didn’t go much better on Sunday. On my way to see if miniramp in my neighbourhood would have been dry, happened this scandalious incident: dog poop on cat board.

Learning & skateboarding

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I missed skating today, as spent most of this  ‘sunny would have been perfect weather to skate’ Saturday indoors teaching kids Finnish language and culture. Happy now to have a blog – a perfect place to do something skateboard related even couldn’t hop on board today. The theme of the day was educational, so will post a list what is my goal in 2017 to achieve with skateboarding.

First something about what I already can do. I mostly skate in skateparks and have developed an obsession on pool / bowl skating. Actually, I am dreaming to become a female Pedro Barros; or at least it helps me sometimes when skating that I imagine I am Pedro Barros, as cool, fast and fearless. All is allowed in love and skateboarding 🙂 I am pretty good with backside carves (that’s when one rides a ‘corner’ of bowl back facing the wall side), but it depends on the bowl, and the new place is always a struggle. Me saying I am pretty good means I feel good, but it looks slow and not very cool.  I can not drop, so it has to be a pool / bowl where I am able to have a speed some other way. I love backside carving, so mostly I am just repeating doing that. I am in the process of learning the frontside carving – that I call pedro or pedroing (it’s just my habit to give own names to things), and can do it somehow if the bowl is easy.

My tick-tacking is poor, but I manage it somehow. Should practice more.

I am okay with fakie turn (on flat). I am ashamed that after this time I still suck with kick-turns. That is something I am determined to practise now everytime when on wheels. After a long-ish pause, I am doing it on miniramp. Yes on miniramp I can ‘swing’ back and forth, but still afraid going to the highest.

I ride things down and up. Pyramids, banks, pumps – it depends on a day how high or fast. Sometimes I am scared of the smallest ones, sometimes I can go SCARY ones with no problem. I know I can do it, my balance is okay. It is just fear that makes me jump off. Annoying.

Another shame is my pushing, the basic skill I am not that great. Well, I’ve been focusing more on taking speed in the bowl, but now with different wheels pushing, as well pumping speed on corners, will be on my list.

Here’s the list dude and me made after new year’s eve. The pink scribble say what I will try to master by the end of 2017.

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Pink is mine obvs, blue dude’s.

After making this list, I discovered old school 1970’s skateboard surfing tricks, and I am so adding those to this list. Not too techincal, not too high or fast – so it is something I should be able to learn. I am dreaming that one day it will be my skateboard style to show off 🙂 Surely will at least write more about that soon.

Speaking about education and showing off, allow me to share this pic from last summer. My PhD graduation took place in Queen Elizabeth Hall (London) just above the famous Southbank skatepark, and I just couldn’t resist sneaking out and asking some skateboarder to borrow his board and to take this snapshot (thank you so much anonymous London skater).

One day I will add videos here, so you’ll see not only read or see still pics of what’s going on. I just need to learn more about blogging and all settings here. Hmm, seems like learning really is a lifelong process.

Also, if you’ll wish me to explain more what the skateboarding terms means, I am happy to. I promise will use the proper names of them.

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Was wearing high heels on that day, and would have been too bad idea to jump on skateboard with those…

 

Transformation of Chris Cole Zero P2 to be Crazy Skate Lady’s dream drive

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p2
After hard work of removing the old griptape…
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…to make space for this.
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It all started with these trucks…
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…and here I am ready to have a first ride on my ‘over the top cat board’ in Antwerpen Skatepark Park Spoor Noord.

I got my first skateboard when was totally new in skateboarding.  I just walked into to the skateshop in Paris where was staying at the time and explained I would like to buy  a board. My first try of skateboarding took place in Helsinki, Finland (that’s where I come from)  with the board that was nicknamed as a ‘shopping bag’ of the skateboarder who owned it, cause it had soft wide wheels, and was meant more for cruising  (or going to grocery shop) than for doing tricks. As a beginner that felt safer for me than a ‘proper’ skateboard, so in skateshop I explained, I’d like to have a skateboard with cruiser set-up, and that’s what I got. You can see it in my header image – the Girl-board with Skid Row sticker.

Of course I fell love with it, because I fell in love with skateboarding. Soft wheels indeed made me feel safer whilst doing my first skate attempts on my own at a parking lot near of my flat in Brussels (that’s where I moved and at the moment am). The minus side of those wheels is that they don’t encourage me to learn to push or pump speed, as they wheel so easily anyway. I am also convinced I would learn better to do kick-turns and other things with the harder wheels, but I am aware that is just an excuse 🙂

No space for those excuses anymore, as you saw already: I have a lovely unique cat skateboard now. It started when I got kitten trucks (I wanted to have them for long!) as a present. Then the dude, who’s anyway helping me a LOT with skating (heh you didn’t think it was me doing the hard work of getting rid of the old griptape), gave one of his old boards, as well as wheels, to get pimped (as cheaply as possible) to be my new board. The board is (well, was) very masculine Chris Cole Zero P2 board with pic of gun and blood and something stupid – if you’ll ask me. After sandpapering, spraycanning, getting and gluing some stickers & griptape on it, I got the perfect board for me. So terrible it is terrific!

I made a first try with it on the other evening and despite of my fear of ‘it will take ages to learn to skate with different board’, it went well. I do need to adapt to it, as it always is with new things, but I already was more aware of how to use my body – that I need to use it more to get things done. Skateboarding definitely isn’t just wheels taking you somewhere.

And yes skateboarding also is not about the graphics on your board. Still I am sure it psychologically helps to have a board that just generally makes you feel good. It’s good to be silly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello world of blogging

~ crazyskatelady ~ 5 Comments

 

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New skateboard* and time for this crazy cat lady to transform herself into the crazy skate lady, and to move my skate stories from skate parks and streets also into the world of blogging.

I have been skating now bit more than 1,5 years. Starting when 40, being afraid of heights and speed keeps me probably always on a level of a beginner. At least for the outside world (and for me too if I happen to watch a video of my skate sessions!). Still I feel I have learned so much, not only about skating, but also how to face my fears, to be comfortable outside of my usual comfort zone. I have met wonderful new people I would unlikely have never met otherwise (including my boyfriend, who’s known as a dude in my writings). I have visited tons of new places in a search of good skate spot. With skateboarder’s eyes I have seen familiar spaces in a new light.

All those mentioned above will be the content of Crazy Skate Lady blog. Surely I will write about other things too. The style of my writing is very personal, so it is inevitably this blog will gather bits and pieces from other parts of my life as well. Actually I am already looking forward to write about how I think dance, running and skateboarding (all three being my passions) have a lot in common. And if skateboarding is a lifestyle, so can be said about  my job (I am a visual artist). And I lead pretty nomad life carrying a skate along, so…

It comes without saying a woman in her 40’s  on a skateboard is quite rare creature. My point of view for many of my posts will come from that fact. It is not that I necessarily like it to be so, on the contrary: I wish this blog reveals some of the presumptions such as  ‘who can skate’ or  ‘what skateboarding is’ or ‘what is suitable for a grown up (woman) to do’.

I have learned that most of the skateboarders give you respect, if you just keep trying &  doing something you enjoy – no matter of your skills or age. I think that is something to respect of.

* new for me, pimped from dude’s old one, more about that in next post.